After a brilliant two months travelling I’m back home in not-so-sunny South Africa. I was a little slack with the updates so here’s what I was up to since the last report:

On Tuesday 23rd I went to the Shepard’s Bush Empire with Terry & Tammy (Cousin & his girlfriend). We were supposed to meet Ruby (Even Flow) but he had standing tickets while we were up in the gallery. We were at the Empire to watch a group called Fort Minor , we didn’t know any of their music but Ruby had informed us that The Fort Minor is Mike Shinoda’s new side project. Mike Shinoda being the MC from Linkin Park . So TnT are huge LP fans and I was curious and always up for a concert. They played some awesome hip-hop, that was pretty hard thanks to the insane drummer. We were even treated to ” It’s Going Down “, the song Mike did with The Executioners and ” Enth E Nd ” (The remix of Linkin Park’s ” In The End “). Once The Fort Minor was done we were happy and ready to go home, but they were actually just the support act. The Roots were about to take the stage. Now I don’t know much about The Roots but I have heard that they put on a phenomenal live show…too right! This was the best Hip-Hop performance I’ve ever seen. Each member of the band is a master of his instrument. I got excited when I started recognizing songs but then realized they were doing the ultimate Hip-Hop cover; they meshed a pile of popular tracks together and seamlessly flowed from one into the other, amazing!

The next night would involve more live music. I got to The Brixton Academy at 6:30pm so that I’d be able to get in as soon as the doors open. I wasn’t the only one thinking that and the queue went around the block in the rain! The wait wasn’t too bad (besides the irritating kids behind me), I spent most of the time trying to figure out if Ruby, Mark & co were further ahead or behind in the line. Once inside I established that again we had different tickets; only this time I was standing and they were seated.The opening act was crap, although they did a great metal cover of Blur’s “Song 2”. Then a huge banner covered the stage while KoRn set up. They kicked it off and the place erupted. I was could only handle having my face in someone’s sweaty armpit for so long before I watched the rest of the show slightly to the side (where I only got taken out by the occasional sweaty mosher! I had my reservations about this gig, because I haven’t really listened to KoRn in years, but it was brilliant, they busted out all the classics, and I loved it. Mid-set the power blew so they had to throw stuff at the crowd, I picked up one of Munky’s plectrums

As if the last 2 nights of concert going wasn’t enough, on Thursday morning I enjoyed my last shower and stuffed my backpack for Reading Festival . Paddington station was packed with like-minded festival goers, we all stood out and we weren’t even dirty yet! While I managed to catch an earlier train, Michael (my mate that I was meeting up with) had a stack of issues coming from Northern England. His train was delayed and then cancelled altogether, so I had to occupy myself until he got to Reading. I wandered around the grounds and got chatting to two interesting English fellows, they gave me some tips for the fest and were very interested in South African drug culture. Michael called me to meet him outside as the paramedics arrived to help a drunk kid that just fell face first in his own piss and vomit. As happy as I was to leave that scene, the heavens opened as I left the shelter I was under. Michael arrived drenched to the core. Off we went in our wellies to find a camping spot. We managed to find a spot and were nearly chased away but our neighbours decided to let us stay. They were Welsh blokes that had been to the festival up to 11 times, so at least we knew we were in a good camping spot. We wandered around a bit but had a fairly quiet night. We discovered the Reading tradition to scream BOLLOCKS at the top of your lungs. It works like a Mexican wave where someone starts it in the distance and as it gets closer it gets louder until you’re also screaming bollocks!

Friday morning we woke up in a boiling tent, had a wet-wipes bath and found some over-priced breakfast. We started watching bands we’d never heard of from 12:00.

Goldie Lookin Chain provided great rap comic relief with songs like “Shit to Me”, “Your Mother’s Got a Penis” and some song about wanting to nail a girlfriend’s sister.

The Dropkick Murphys provided some great Celtic ska/punk.

Graham Coxon (Blur) had lots of technical issues and didn’t impress me beyond “Freak”.

Elbow were very chilled out but quite enjoyable. We left halfway through the set to get a good spot at the NME/Radio1 Tent for My Chemical Romance.

Fightstar was up before MCR so we caught some of their set, but that was cut short when they got bottled off stage. You see the singer in Fightstar used to be in Busted, so their was a bit of animosity their. Although I don’t think they were a bad band (Fightstar not Busted).

By the time My Chemical Romance came on stage we were getting squished and there was an intelligent girl next to us who has panic attacks when she’s feeling claustrophobic (so she gets close to the stage at a rock fest!) MCR opened the set with “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and the place erupted, absolutely brilliant. Eventually we moved further back and had a decent mosh where we could actually move.

We had to leave just before the end of the set to catch Queens of the Stone Age. The Queens were good but they not the kind of band that people get overly excited about, so the crowd was rather dead.

Now I’ve never been a big fan of The Killers but I wanted a good spot for The Pixies so we decided to get closer during The Killers. I was very impressed by their live performance, “Indie Rock ‘n Roll” encapsulated the festival vibe up to that point.

While waiting for The Pixies we met Natasha and Rosie from Brighton and Ellie (don’t know where she’s from) they became our Pixies buddies. The Pixies were absolutely superb, I didn’t realize how much I love this band until then. I lost my voice screaming along to “Tame”, “Debaser”, “Monkey Gone to Heaven”, “Here Comes Your Man”, “Nimrod’s Son” and of course “Where is my Mind?”. I was a tad concerned that they hadn’t played “Gigantic” but despite Kim’s cold they closed with “Hey Paul, Hey Paul, Hey Paul, let’s have a ball!” You could tell the band’s age by the way Kim Deal was dressed, she looked like someone’s mum (with a bass guitar and a cig).
We lost Rosie & Tasha, said goodbye to Ellie and wandered around a bit before going to bed.

I didn’t recognize many names on the daytime bill for Saturday, but I knew Ruby & Mark had day tickets. So we met up with the boys and they had a large crew of cool people with them. We watched the All American Rejects and somehow we ended up in the Bacardi tent, which was playing dance music (although it was some pretty good D&B most of the time). Ruby knew a barman so it wasn’t long till he was wired on free Bacardi & Red Bull.

Michael and I eventually decided to go watch some bands. As we were leaving we saw some women waving at the crowd, it took us ages to realize that it was Tasha & Rosie, although we didn’t know their names at this stage. The 4 of us found a spot to sit down near the main stage and they gave us some info on which bands we should see. Although they were part of the “Say no to emo” camp and more like Indie rockers. It’s amazing how on this side of the world people listen to sub-genres. While most people I know are happy listening to rock in general, here they are only into indie or emo or metal, I guess they have enough bands and media to satisfy that taste with variety within the sub-genres. While we were sitting on our grass patch we saw a bit of Roots Manuva (Brit Hip-Hop).

I was keen to see Juliette and the Licks so I convinced the others to join me in the NME Tent. Juliette Lewis was wearing very little and rocking out. We only caught the end of the show, which culminated in her guitarist singing while she went crowd surfing! Try doing that as an actor. The rest of the bands that afternoon didn’t blow me away.

When Razorlight came on the main stage we decided to get closer for the following bands. They were okay, I didn’t realize that I know a couple of their tunes. We also had a super-fan right next to us. They did have some pretty cool gospel singers on stage. Tasha was adamant that the vocalist can’t play a show without taking his shirt off. At the end of the set I was eager to point out that it was still on when he proved her theory correct.

Kings of Leon went and opened with the only song I know well, “Molly’s Chambers”, so that was a bummer. The rest of the songs were cool but did tend to sound the same. They don’t do much in terms of crowd interaction either, but it was still a cool show.

At 10 ‘o clock Uncle Dave took to the stage with the Foo Fighters. This was the 6th Reading that Dave Grohl has played at, and you could see how much he loves the fest. He also did a great speech about how Glastonbury is for Hippies, VFest is for rich-kids but Reading is for Dirty F*cking Rockers! They busted out an awesome range from the best of catalogue, including “This is a Call”, “Monkey Wrench”, “Up in Arms”, “Learn to Fly”, “One by One”, “Stacked Actors”, “Breakout”, “Times Like These” and a beautiful version of “Everlong” with just Dave, his guitar and the crowd. Michael and I were showing our age a bit when we sang along to “All the Cows” and no-one else knew that “old-school Foos”. If my voice wasn’t bad enough after The Pixies, it was now officially gone. We hung out with our new friends and their friends for a while, I got to bed at 4am.

Sunday was always set to be my big day at Reading. We took a while to get going but met up with Ruby, Mark, Wayne etc. and hung out in the NME tent for a bit (It was too hot to do the main stage). I think we were watching Art Brut at the time, but they didn’t make much of an impression on me.

The main stage line-up was top-quality so we got there at 13:50 for Alkaline Trio . Didn’t know much of their stuff and I wasn’t blown away. Their image didn’t match their style much but it was good enough.

I was really looking forward to watching Funeral for a Friend , I bought their new album a few days before and I was loving it. They put on a great show. The highlight was definitely “Streetcar” when the vocalist told us that the next song starts with a telephone ringing, and he got the whole crowd chanting a ringing sound, like “brrrr brrrr, brrr brrr”.

I was surprised that NoFX had such an early slot but that didn’t deter the crowds. The fans packed the place out. We were watching quietly until they busted out “Don’t Call Me White”, then we got closer and joined in the mayhem. Some drunkard lit a fire in the middle of the crowd, I joined him skanking around it until he decided to put it out by pissing on it. The band also got the crowd to burn someone’s American flag. Some crazy dude with a bugle was making a noise in the audience so they pulled him on stage and made him play to everyone. With all the goings on NoFX were mainly an entertaining comedy act, they cracked jokes between each song and kept the day in good spirits.

We took a break to find some shade and returned sometime into Iggy & the Stooges’ set. As entertaining as they were I don’t think they needed such a good time-slot. Iggy is still a crazy bugger who’s done too many drugs. I did enjoy “Now I wanna be your dog”, otherwise I could have passed on this one.

Before I even got to Reading I had decided that Incubus was going to be my favourite band of the weekend. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was so disappointed by their show. They didn’t interact with the crowd at all. The set-list was great until I realized they were done. They only played tracks from A Crow left of the Murder and Morning View, the only older song they played was “Nowhere Fast”. Now I loved the songs they played, but where was “A Certain Shade of Green”, “Pardon Me”, “Make Yourself”, “Privilege”, “Stellar”, “New Skin” or even “Drive”? Yup! They didn’t even play Drive! Sure people that have seen them often may be sick of those songs, but this was probably one of the only chances I’ll ever have to see Incubus. So I was gutted when they left the stage and that was it.

With Incubus giving up band of the weekend slot, Marilyn Manson stepped up to take the prize. I was initially just curious, but the show was the best thing I’ve ever seen. I’d forgotten that I was once a huge Manson fan, and I loved every song. He really busted out the greatest hits, which was perfect for me. The stage show was unbelievable too, he put on massive stilts that made him look like a horror-film creature during “Tourniquet”. The crowd was chanting throughout “mObscene”, “Disposable Teens” and “The Fight Song”. Of course “The Beautiful People”, “Dope Show”, “Sweet Dreams” and “Tainted Love” were quality.

Iron Maiden were the final headline act, and we felt obliged to watch them. After a few songs and not enough fireworks we chose to rather check out Bloc Party . I didn’t know any of their music and I couldn’t even see the band, we couldn’t get into the NME Tent. But Bloc Party were brilliant (I bought the CD 2 days later). During the performance they had to stop and couldn’t continue until some nutter climbed down from the lank high tent pole. They pleaded with him, “Please come down, this is the greatest show of our career!” I’m sure they’ll have bigger shows.

The rest of Sunday night involved finishing a crate of beers, lighting a fire and watching the mayhem in the campsites. There were people blowing shit up, mobile raves, burning tents, trolley-chicken challenges, gauntlet runs and general bollocks! The next day the campsite looked like the set of Apocalypse Now.

I got back to London and was thrilled to have a hot shower and a long nap. I spent my last day in London spending the few pounds I had left on CDs and DVDs.

The flight back was good, despite the entertainment not working I just passed out and slept the whole way home. I nearly missed my connecting flight in Jozi when my bag took forever to arrive and then customs decided to question me like a convict.

That night I watched Senta (my sister) bellydancing in Shall We Dance, the show was great. Then I was off to Southbroom to spend some time with Mum, Dad, Barbie & Chris (Aunt & Uncle I stayed with in London). It was amazing to sit on the beach and be the only person there, what a contrast from the crowds in Cinque Terre.

Now I’m back home. Job-hunting and sorting out all the photographs from my trip. After cleaning up the collection I only have 1800 pictures! I’ll put some of the best one’s online soon.