Reading Festival 2007

Friday night: head to the K West with Alex, Ryland and Nate as their bus leaves at midnight. Having an earnest political discussion with William (TAI) at the bar over vodkas and whiskeys, Suarez palms me a guest ticket and all-access pass for Reading Festival the next day. Genius.

Saturday: oversleep. Debate taking wellies after reports of mud, decide against it (end up wearing sneakers that give me blisters. Ouch). Hop on the train to Reading, once there follow the crowds to the festival grounds. Get sent to about five different gates and access points, doing almost a complete circle of the perimeter before someone notices the AA pass and says 'Well, you could have got in anywhere with that.' Now they tell me.

Miraculously find CS quite quickly once inside. Hotter than a - well, it's very hot out so I welcome sitting down in the (relative) cool and shade of their portakabin dressing room (which is about as luxurious as it sounds). Steal a bottle of water from their fridge, say hi to Gabe and Ryland when they show up. Ryland tells us about some journalist, Guy Ripley, who's around somewhere...

The day basically progresses as such: sit in the shade drinking and hanging out with peoples, walk around to the main stage to watch The Shins/Bloc Party/Arcade Fire, walk back to the dressing room area for more shade-sitting and drinking...



At one point we're all sitting in the yard between the dressing rooms when someone approaches us and asks the kids in the bands (two of Victoria's friends are here too) to do a drawing for charity (or something), which everyone gets way in to:



When Cobra goes on stage I venture out into the masses to meet up with two girls from work who are at the Festival all weekend. We're at the back of the tent where the boys are playing and still everyone around us seems to know all the words, which is cool.

With my AA pass I'm allowed on to the viewing platforms sidestage of the main stage so got some pretty killer views of the acts and the crowds (Suarez, I don't think I said thank you enough!)


Bloc Party




Arcade Fire

Probably should have made more effort to see bands whilst there but the heat and crowds cause major apathy - and I get to see the main bands I'm interested in anyway. I split after Arcade Fire as it's now dark and I have to walk back to the station and shit, and to be honest, by that stage I'm pretty festivalled-out.

On the train on the way back I get a text: "I'm at Reading Festival too! Am working in the Carling bar next to main stage, come find me for free drinks." Alas, too late! I get home and blissfully take of my slightly muddy sneakers and sit down to watch the highlights on BBC from the comfort of my sofa...

Full Decaydance photoset

The Decaydance Invasion

The Decaydance Invasion - photo set

Post-dim sum wanderings in Soho with Maria and Tayo, in Sister Ray on Berwick Street, browsing vinyl neither of us can really afford, my phone rings.

"Auntie Hannah!"

That name again. Can only be one person on the other end of that phone: the one and only Alex Suarez.

The Decaydance tour is in town: Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, Gym Class Heroes, The Academy Is and Cobra Starship all in London to play the Hammersmith Apollo, to the delight of emo-teens everywhere.

We arrange to meet by the tour bus entrance later on, as we did last time. Only unlike last time, when I get there, there are hordes of teens waiting there too and when Alex comes down to meet me and give me my pass, they all start screaming his name. Which weirds me out a little. He agrees to pose for a couple of quick photos then we make our escape. He has to head back in as Cobra are line-checking, I say hi to Ryland and Gabe, then once line-check is over it's back upstairs to the dressing room. Theirs is on the top floor: "We like to call it the executive suite, but really it's just the furthest from the stage..." Victoria is in there with her friends who've come for the show too, Carly and Will, and vodka tonics are poured though it's not even 6pm.

Carly, Will and I nervously stand sidestage as final preps are made for Cobra's set, careful we're not getting in the way or to accidentally pull out any wires. Although they're the first band on and the audience is still being let in to the Apollo, Cobra gets a good reaction; a lot of cheering and yelling and singing along and snakes - and bras(!) - thrown on stage.

Back upstairs, more drinks, Suarez heads to shower and I go for a wander round the Apollo. Pretty much same old, same old, so I give up and wait for Alex then we go to catering. I'm still full from dim sum but he gets food and others trickle in: Ryland, Bob McLynn, Nate, William Beckett.

There's more drink, more chat, some myspace checking, more drink, missing all of TAI's and GCH's sets, checking out Panic!'s set for like a song then hunting down more beers, more talking, sitting in the tour bus, hearing that Plain White Ts had gone on randomly to do 'Hey There Delilah', then a lot of people heading in for the remainder of FOB's set. We get in as they're in the middle of covering 'Beat It' (the MJ classic). I edge a little further out on side stage so I can see beyond the guitars and crates littering the area and find myself next to a tiny girl in a red hoodie and black hat, which makes me think 'I need to wear hats more'; the girl then turns around and I realise it's Ashlee Simpson. She is ridiculously small. I mean, most of FOB are pretty pint-sized, but she's adorably little.

After FOB finish up everyone heads out - we've lost Suarez at this point and I'm with Ryland who's clutching a bottle of Jameson that I keep eyeing and talking to Ryan (P!ATD) about the similarity of their names (of all things). A Decaydance group photo is called for.

Someone mentions the in-venue afterparty so I head up to the upstairs bar with Will where we find it's open bar on wine and beer. Somehow it gets to 12:20ish; most people I'm with have already decided to boycott the official afterparty at China Whites that Travis is DJing, and I decide, before anymore alcohol clouds my judgement, to call it a night (laaaaaame-o) so say my goodbyes and head on out, because I'm getting - ssh, say it quietly, old - and I'm just not quite rock'n'roll enough...

Pop - Punk Is Sooooo '05, part 1

I've been up since 5am as we're doing a car boot sale. Deciding that getting up that early has to be worth something, I have a 99 Flake for breakfast (highly nutritious). I get home about 1:45pm, fall into bed, don't quite even manage to doze off before my mobile rings. A familiar American accent at the other end:

"Auntie Hannah!"

Ahh, I'd forgotten that nickname. So Cobra Starship (two fifths of whom are good friends from my time in NY) have landed. On tour with Fall Out Boy (no link necessary; unless you've been living under a rock you must know who they are) and in the UK to play some shows with them. Which I may have mentioned before in previous posts...

I force myself straight out of bed and into the shower so I have no chance of falling asleep, and head over to Brixton Academy where they're finishing up sound check. I arrive about twenty past five. The line to get in starts at the main Academy doors and stretches down most of one side of the building, which surprises me that early (doors don't open till 7). I hang outside reading until sound check is over and Alex Suarez comes out and gives me a huge hug. We go to find a phonebox so he can call home, and I'm more shocked to see the line has actually started stretching round the second side of the Academy. Phone booth No.1 doesn't seem to work. We go for a walk, I point out the highlights of Brixton on a Sunday evening ("That's the tube station... off licence... Sainsburys....") We get back to the Academy and the line has now gone round all four sides of the block and has started on past the entrance. We consider going for a drink, find another phonebox first that actually works this time. While I'm waiting for him to finish his phone call, the line slowly snakes past us.... it's spiralling outwards from the Academy entrance round the block then round another block. I can't quite get my mind around this, it's INSANE. I've never seen anything like it. I've also never seen so many teenagers in hoodies and too much eyeliner...

We head back and go in to the Academy - Suarez wants his dinner. I go to the VIP bar, get a drink, halfheartedly watch Shiny Toy Guns. Head down into the fray to watch Cobra. Suddenly feel horrendously old as realise that I am totally surrounded by aforementioned teenagers that were in line. Hoodies, eyeliner (girls and boys) and braces (metal ones on teeth) abound. And they all seem to be making out with each other. GROSS.

Cobra play a good set - there seem to be a few technical issues, strings breaking and so on, and Gabe stumbles on stage fucking up his ankle at one point - but he's a good front man, and Ryland is great at the banter and they keep the show going and everyone around me seems to be getting into it, which makes me happy.

There's a Cobra Starship tradition of getting a kid up on stage during 'Bring It (Snakes On A Plane)' to do the rap that Travis from Gym Class Heroes usually does, so after much combing the crowd, he pulls some girl up on stage.... who turns out to not even remotely know the rap at all. Laaaaame.

I snake (haha) my way through the crowd back up to the vip bar where I run into the lovely Em. She introduces me to a couple of other people and we play 6 Degrees of Gurj, who we all have in common. Suarez comes out, I send him back to fetch Ryland who I haven't yet seen (and bring me back a vodka tonic from the bottle they have in their room...)

The evening starts to blur as the bar fills up... I talk to some guy who was interviewing Cobra pre-show and who is a little starstruck by Pete Wentz's mom. Later on he and his girlfriend start having little domestics in front of me and it gets a tad uncomfortable. I totally miss the FOB set - and the sound in the bar is terrible so I barely even notice they're playing. Much discussion occurs later about where to go... I end up jumping in the van with them (but it's so much more than a van!) and catching a ride back to West London. Half the band jump out in Knightsbridge to go to a restaurant that's open late where some friends are - my eyes are barely staying open so I pass on it and head home for some immediate and serious shut eye...