Festy fun...
Sooo, I return from festival madness...
Three gigs, three festivals, one long weekend.
Free fukin everthing. Free food, free beer, free drugs, free other free stuff!
The band fukin rocked both the V festivals, and I got to see Radiohead play from the pit (between the stage and the crowd) well I got to see half the gig as the security where being a militant pain in the fukin arse.. It was like, everytime we seemed to be having a bit of fun they'd do something to ruin it by moving us, or standing in a wall in front of us to make sure nobody got a good view, they wouldn't even let me use my fukin camera?? So no sodding pictures! Sorry Mr V festival people, but your security people are a bunch of wankers! Sort it out.
I nearly missed Radiohead, as I was standing waiting for them to come on and I say's to this guy " What time Radiohead on mate?" and he's like "Err ten minutes mate, but you want stage one, this is stage two!"
Fuuuccckkk!
It looked like stage one?
Anyway, we all ran backstage and managed to commandeer one of those golf cart like festival buggies driven by the lovely Helen, who then zoomed us all up to stage one at a mind blowing ten miles per hour.... Still though, better than walking. You gotta love those production passes!
Anyway, half way through the gig we got so sick of the tosser security wankers, that we just gave in and went to find the beer tent instead.
Can't remember much after that, but I know we managed to (somehow?) Get back to the tour bus, as I woke up the next morning at the next V Festival?
Oh I do remember that we were all watching the guitarist JR trying to take his tent down and getting really flustered at it coz he was too pissed to even walk, never mind take his tent down. We were all watching this hillarious tent dismantling nonsence from the tour bus window accompanied by a soundtrack of Stevie Wonders "You are the sunshine of my life" I was in fits! We have it all recorded on R's phone, so I'm gonna upload it to youtube when I get the chance and post it on this blog. You gotta see this shit, it's well funny, especially the bit where he gives in, jumps on the tent and then it all collapses around him...Funny as!
Sooo, morning number two, festival number two.
"Right, everyone awake? Ok...here we go again!"
The second gig was easily the best and coz it was exactly the same set-up as the first gig and because I was using exactly the same digital mixing desk (which I usually hate), I just plugged my USB key into the side of the desk and it recalled yesterdays stage set-up and FOH mix!
Easy peezy, lemon squeezy!!
You gotta love technology!
That's not me mixing by the way!
Yeah, gig two rocked, the band kicked ass and the MC's did us all proud by managing to do a couple of tunes right out in the middle of the crowd. The place went off!!
Soo, gig over, back on the bus (complete with various new people we picked up on the way) and off to the Secret Garden Festival for another gig..
Secret Garden was chucking it down with fukin rain and resembled a bit of a mudfest!
But it cleared up by the time the band were on-stage.
Bit of a hippyfest Secret Garden really.
Also, the local council had put noise restrictions on all the main stages causing major headaches for anyone like me trying to engineer a band? I wish these local do-gooder council people would just like, fuck off sometimes!
Sooo. I'm mixing the band and this council tosser's stood there with his fukin sound level meter and he's like " You gotta turn it down son!" And I'm like "Fuck off mate, my clock radio's louder than that?" Then the bands manager comes over and he starts kicking off with the council bloke, and then all hell breaks loose in the mixing tower? Anyway, the council bloke leaves his sound level meter on top the mixing desk as he's being verbally laid into by the bands manager, soooo, I (of course) accidentally on purpose knock it off into a conveniently large, extra muddy puddle of rain water (with several people dancing in it) in front of the desk... Woops!
End of sound meter!
"Oh shit, errr sorry mate!"
All the time I'm nudging up the master volume of the mix for the band.
So, anyway the council bloke threatens to shut us down, then looks at the crowd rocking to the band and then decides it's probably not a good idea (coz he'd probably get linched by the angry mob) and just fucks off, tail between his legs..
So, as he's walking away, I slam the system full blast and the whole place goes off!!
Top! You gotta love that level of control.
This guy was funny, V festival security bloke after a long night.
Anyway, that was a mad couple of days, you just gotta love the festival season.
I have a few days off till Thursday and the beautiful Sweedy girl's coming to stay for a couple of days. She arrives tonight and we're gonna kick back and have some fun..
Gawd, I feel knackered though.
Ok, I need some real food.
Laters
Three gigs, three festivals, one long weekend.
Free fukin everthing. Free food, free beer, free drugs, free other free stuff!
The band fukin rocked both the V festivals, and I got to see Radiohead play from the pit (between the stage and the crowd) well I got to see half the gig as the security where being a militant pain in the fukin arse.. It was like, everytime we seemed to be having a bit of fun they'd do something to ruin it by moving us, or standing in a wall in front of us to make sure nobody got a good view, they wouldn't even let me use my fukin camera?? So no sodding pictures! Sorry Mr V festival people, but your security people are a bunch of wankers! Sort it out.
I nearly missed Radiohead, as I was standing waiting for them to come on and I say's to this guy " What time Radiohead on mate?" and he's like "Err ten minutes mate, but you want stage one, this is stage two!"
Fuuuccckkk!
It looked like stage one?
Anyway, we all ran backstage and managed to commandeer one of those golf cart like festival buggies driven by the lovely Helen, who then zoomed us all up to stage one at a mind blowing ten miles per hour.... Still though, better than walking. You gotta love those production passes!
Anyway, half way through the gig we got so sick of the tosser security wankers, that we just gave in and went to find the beer tent instead.
Can't remember much after that, but I know we managed to (somehow?) Get back to the tour bus, as I woke up the next morning at the next V Festival?
Oh I do remember that we were all watching the guitarist JR trying to take his tent down and getting really flustered at it coz he was too pissed to even walk, never mind take his tent down. We were all watching this hillarious tent dismantling nonsence from the tour bus window accompanied by a soundtrack of Stevie Wonders "You are the sunshine of my life" I was in fits! We have it all recorded on R's phone, so I'm gonna upload it to youtube when I get the chance and post it on this blog. You gotta see this shit, it's well funny, especially the bit where he gives in, jumps on the tent and then it all collapses around him...Funny as!
Sooo, morning number two, festival number two.
"Right, everyone awake? Ok...here we go again!"
The second gig was easily the best and coz it was exactly the same set-up as the first gig and because I was using exactly the same digital mixing desk (which I usually hate), I just plugged my USB key into the side of the desk and it recalled yesterdays stage set-up and FOH mix!
Easy peezy, lemon squeezy!!
You gotta love technology!
That's not me mixing by the way!Yeah, gig two rocked, the band kicked ass and the MC's did us all proud by managing to do a couple of tunes right out in the middle of the crowd. The place went off!!
Soo, gig over, back on the bus (complete with various new people we picked up on the way) and off to the Secret Garden Festival for another gig..
Secret Garden was chucking it down with fukin rain and resembled a bit of a mudfest!
But it cleared up by the time the band were on-stage.
Bit of a hippyfest Secret Garden really.Also, the local council had put noise restrictions on all the main stages causing major headaches for anyone like me trying to engineer a band? I wish these local do-gooder council people would just like, fuck off sometimes!
Sooo. I'm mixing the band and this council tosser's stood there with his fukin sound level meter and he's like " You gotta turn it down son!" And I'm like "Fuck off mate, my clock radio's louder than that?" Then the bands manager comes over and he starts kicking off with the council bloke, and then all hell breaks loose in the mixing tower? Anyway, the council bloke leaves his sound level meter on top the mixing desk as he's being verbally laid into by the bands manager, soooo, I (of course) accidentally on purpose knock it off into a conveniently large, extra muddy puddle of rain water (with several people dancing in it) in front of the desk... Woops!
End of sound meter!
"Oh shit, errr sorry mate!"
All the time I'm nudging up the master volume of the mix for the band.
So, anyway the council bloke threatens to shut us down, then looks at the crowd rocking to the band and then decides it's probably not a good idea (coz he'd probably get linched by the angry mob) and just fucks off, tail between his legs..
So, as he's walking away, I slam the system full blast and the whole place goes off!!
Top! You gotta love that level of control.
This guy was funny, V festival security bloke after a long night.
Anyway, that was a mad couple of days, you just gotta love the festival season.
I have a few days off till Thursday and the beautiful Sweedy girl's coming to stay for a couple of days. She arrives tonight and we're gonna kick back and have some fun..
Gawd, I feel knackered though.
Ok, I need some real food.
Laters
posted by london cokehead at 3:15 pm
4 Comments:
Shame you didn't get to see all of Radiohead's set, I think it was one of the best i've ever seen from them. And they had to follow Beck who was fuckin' awesome!!
Enjoy the rest of your week ;-)
Yeah, never mind eh!
now that sounds like my kinda weekend ;)
fhgwqrq
hippies smell...you know how many hippies it takes to change a lightbulb? none. they just wait for it to burn out and follow it around for twenty years. festivals are still fun!
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