And onto the final day. Despite an early first act, I decided to scarper into Stevenage on the free bus for a McDonalds‘ breakfast. I got back in plenty of time for Henry Rollins “stand up” routine which was simply staggering. From a metal/punk singer to a one-man troublemaking human rights machine, the guy has [...]

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Saturday promised many goodies and was definitely the busiest day in terms of bands I wanted to see. Thankfully across the three main stages, the times had been choreographed so that there – theoretically at least – would be no clashes. Only one stage at a time was “live” and with five minutes to get [...]

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I couldn’t manage to get to Graspop or Download due to spending my extra couple of months holiday in Vietnam. I’m somewhat gutted as it meant I missed some class acts like Lawnmower Deth, Steel Panther, Carcass, Deicide and – of course – AC/DC. Still, I can’t deny that my 2 months abroad were, on [...]

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Hans left first from the festival as he had to get down to Charleroi for a flight to Dublin, and wanted to stop in Brussels on his way there. It was great to see him again after so long. I think we should set a rule that we never meet in the same country again! [...]

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The final day. We rose at a reasonable time and realised we were all out of beer. Hans walked off to see early bands while we kept on going on into down to find out that the small supermarket was closed on a Sunday. Argh. Fortunately, there’s another supermarket around a corner which we hadn’t [...]

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Today was more of a festival day. The sleep overnight wasn’t too bed all things considering – like the number of us in a tent and the lack of mattresses or padding of any sort. The earth underneath kind of fit round the way I sleep so it wasn’t as bad as it could have [...]

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Currently in a tent provided by Belgacom at the Graspop festival in Belgium. Bad typing is due to French keyboard and 10 minute time limit! Mixed weather, great band and only a few panics… More next week when I’m back in the UK!

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We’d arranged to meet Marina outside the festival campsite around 11:30, so we had plenty of time to grab some food and get packed. The train station is only a short walk up the road from the hostel and within 20 minutes we were sat on a train (filled with long-haired people in black clothes) [...]

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When I woke I felt like my right elbow had been cramped for a week, but at least the swelling on my left one had gone down. Anni looked like I felt (with less bruising) but we gathered our thoughts and packed up before emptying the breakfast buffet of pig parts again. We checked out [...]

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And Saturday rolled around. Despite the fairly early night and comfy bed, both of us were exhausted in the morning. I demolished the buffet breakfast (have you ever seen a plate literally piled around 6″ high with bacon, beans and HP Sauce? It doesn’t last as long as you’d think) and we got to the [...]

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