It's funny because I live about half an hour away from Skipton but it's bloody beautiful. Unfortunately the weather didn't quite hold out all weekend but amongst puddle-jumping and getting stuck in the mud we managed to catch some awesome bands, as well as dressing up in fairground-themed fancy dress and getting our eyebrows done in glitter, making DIY vodka cocktails and eating the worlds best mashed potato. Musical highlights included the obscenely talented Willy Mason whose beautiful set had me sobbing my way through my Sunday hangover, Japandroids who I'd really really been looking forward to and who didn't disappoint, and Star Slinger, a DJ I'd never heard of before who played the Sunday afternoon and had us all dancing in Barbour jackets outside the tent at Sunset to Nicki Minaj and 'Crossroads'. Non-musical highlights include the man with one leg who went around spiking people with LSD (you literally could not make it up) selling fake laughing gas to unsuspecting camp-neighbours and The Impossible Lecture, a 72 hour performance piece by Leeds-based collective Indivisible featuring Carianne the Merman (or a lad writhing around on the floor wrapped in tin foil), The Jeremy Kyle Show Live & an hour long dance to Proud Mary. Surreal doesn't quite cover it.
After saying goodbye to the lovely Funkirk Estate I went home for a couple of days to recuperate before my fourth visit to the Leeds Festival. As much as Leeds has the rep for being 'a bit shite', it always feels to me like a sort of homecoming, partly because it's basically in my back garden but also because it's full of all my friends, new and old, getting together to party hard. This year was a bit different as we were camping in the Guest area thanks to a friend of Beth's pulling some strings, but this brought with it coffee cocktails (flat white White Russian anyone?) clean toilets and star-spotting in the bar whose clientele included the Cure's Simon Gallup (unfortunately I wasn't in the bar at this point or I'd have fangirled the fuck out of the world) a couple of members of Los Campesinos! and the Mystery Jets who were totally lovely to Tom's little brothers. Leeds looked a bit like THIS (or the sky did, unfortunately the rest are generally unflattering shots of yours truly and/or friends drinking too much)
I saw about half the bands I was planning on as we spent a bit too much
time back at camp drinking Merlot straight from the box but we did still
see a good few, personal highlights were Future of the Left, At The
Drive In, The Cure, Blood Red Shoes and Los Campesinos! (And most of all
seeing BRS drummer/vocalist Steven absolutely losing his shit during
ATDI, I love it when bands love other bands). Returning home on the
Monday morning to a rainy Harrogate, I spent most of the day moping and
drinking blueberry tea before preparing myself for a week of being sat
in the office, moping and drinking blueberry tea (I like routine,
okay?!) before packing my leopard-print bags and heading off to South
Wales to hang out with some fellow obsessive-compulsive Manics Fans. I
was, to be frank, absolutely shitting it as although I knew everyone
from 'the internet', this was to be the first time we'd met in real life
and being a pretty paranoid person I was really afraid that it'd be
dead awkward, so I bought a litre of vodka and sat on the train in my
leopard fur & eyeliner reading American Psycho, feeling like Richey
Edwards and getting slowly more wasted as I neared Cardiff. Upon arrival
I got totally lost trying to find the exit to the station, but
eventually made it to the lovely Amy's house. Rachel and I were the last
to arrive and everyone was a bit drunk which made me feel a lot better
about the state I was in. To my absolute relief everyone was COMPLETELY BEYOND LOVELY and not at all awkward, vodka and cranberry ensued (it's a Manics
thing..) as well as a candlelit Richey Appreciation Moment, burnt garlic
bread and hours of Top Bants (tm) courtesy of Rob and Edmund featuring
Banthony Costa, Bant & Dec and Blink 182's Take Off Your Bants &
Jacket. The next day we went into Cardiff and spent far too long record
shopping before taking a trip to Cardiff Bay which was pretty and
looked like this:
After smoothies at the bay and a glance at the rather disturbing
Torchwood memorial thingy, we went back to Amy's for the Big Manics Haus
Party, via Lidl where an alarmingly large bottle of red wine and
several kiwis were purchased. To be completely honest I don't remember
an awful lot of the night but there are few moments worthy of an
honourable mention: Ed and I giving each other dodgy Judge Yr'self
tattoos, everyone getting 4realed, Rob 'bonging a fag' and just about
everyone turning into a hardcore chain smoker (big up to Amy for
clearing up all the ends...), Roisin documenting the evening for the
forthcoming pastel grunge blog, mine and Nicky's scary knees, deep
emotional chats with Rachel during which Ed passed out on a wall, and
waking up at 6am to David Mitchell dressed as a woman to find myself an
hour later nearly falling asleep with my head in the toilet bowl. I
don't even want to talk about the hungover train journey, made worse by
the fact that I had pretty much the greatest time ever and desperately
did not want to leave, but alas I made it back to Manchester in one
piece in time to spend a morbid hour on the M62 (Myra Hindley represent)
back to miserable Yorkshire. Here is some highly unflattering
photographic evidence of the bants in action:
/\ I proper love and miss this lot, peak :(
After a week of hangover & wanting to be anywhere else in the world
than in the office, it rolled round to Friday, my birthday weekend had
begun and I could no longer hide from the big bottle of Absolut with my
name on it. I had a wonderful and slightly emotional night with my
nearest and dearest, my 'speech' was pretty peak (basically I was
ordered to do a speech which basically consisted of me saying 'I'm going
to miss you all so much' and then sobbing into my White Russian). It
was probably the last time I'm going to be together with all my
favourite people before I move away for university next Saturday but I
reckon the most of it was certainly made. Especially big love for my
best friend Bethany for turning up with a bottle of Spanish vodka, Tom
for looking after my house and the lovely Leah
for staying up to watch the sunset with me and smoking my bus ticket
cigarettes without complaining. Also to Hannah for vomming violently but
neatly and photographing the evening, Sally for the epic jams and Matt
for being the King of Ring of Fire.