helen-louise's journal

It's Richard's birthday on Friday. We aren't having a party due to a general lack of spoons. However, if you want to have a drink with Richard, and like hard rock/heavy metal, you could come to see his band Amps at Eleven!

They will be playing on Wednesday 7th November at The Cavern in Raynes Park. It's 5 minutes walk from Raynes Park rail station which has direct trains to Wimbledon, Clapham Junction and Waterloo. They will likely play for an hour from 9-10pm and then again from 10.15-11.30pm.

They will also be playing on Saturday 30th November at The Nightingale in Sutton. According to the pub's website (so I don't know how true it is) it is 5 minutes walk from Sutton station, which is served by Southern to West Croydon, Streatham Common, Clapham Junction, London Victoria, and Thameslink to Wimbledon, Streatham, London Blackfriars, London St Pancras and north to Luton.

(They also have a gig in January somewhere in Addlestone, but Richard doesn't have the details yet and I doubt Addlestone is terribly easy for any of you to get to.)

I have been exhausted lately between CFS and SAD, and my brain has been like that thing you drain rice in. This information is probably far too late to be of any use to most of you, but just in case:

Richard's band, Amps at Eleven, is playing at:

Wed 8 Nov: The Cavern Free House, Raynes Park. 9pm start. Venue is very close to Raynes Park railway station. No food on sale except for crisps and nuts.

Sat 18 Nov: The Grove, Battersea. Walking distance from Battersea Park or Queenstown Road railway stations, a short bus ride from Clapham Junction station. This pub is great - it has all sorts of nerdy paraphenalia stuck to the walls and ceiling. It also does good food including lots of veggie options until 9pm. Richard did not inform me of the gig time, but if you go you'll want to get there in time for food anyway.

I am back from the Download Festival a.k.a. the Downpour Festival a.k.a. Drownload. It rained. A lot.

Nonetheless, we survived four nights of camping, including sharing a tent with my mother, who has literally never camped before due to a general phobia of everything it entails (e.g. spiders, chemical toilets, dirt under her fingernails, not being able to get properly dry, etc.)

However, due to having been rained on for three days, I now have a terrible cold. Yes, I know you can't catch a cold from being cold - but you can catch a cold from having your immune system lowered and being in close proximity of 85,000 other people, some of whom are carriers of viruses. I have pretty much every symptom known to be associated with colds, including a sore throat, high temperature, coughing, sneezing, blocked ears, all-over muscle aches, and puking. I feel like death warmed up.

Of course, this is a temporary situation and I should be better within a week or so. And I'm not trying to make everyone Give Me Attention considering the terrible news from Orlando over the weekend. But I suppose I feel that if there's one thing worse than living in a world where horrible things happen, it's living in a world where horrible things happen and being unwell. Does that make sense?

Download review will follow when spoons exist. I really do want to type it up because I haven't managed to for the past couple of music festivals I've been to, and I can barely remember Sonisphere 2014 now!

Holy crap, October's looking busy!

Saturday 3rd - Bullet For My Valentine at GLive, Guildford. BOOKED

Sunday 4th - Paradise Lost at Koko, Camden, London.

Thursday 15th - Wolfsbane at The Dome, Tufnell Park, London. (Not actually sure if this venue is at all accessible, might need to go elsewhere).

Wednesday 21st - Maybe Bullet again at Southampton Guildhall? Depends on trains.

Friday 30th & Saturday 31st - Ginger Wildheart 2nd annual Halloween Hootenany. Hey! Hello! and the Ginger Wildheart Band playing with the likes of Wolfsbane and Eureka Machines... BOOKED.

Between now and then we have the likes of Eureka Machines in Sheffield (tomorrow!), the Download Festival from 11th-15th June, Bloodstock in August (still need to book it, but we have to go - Trivium are headlining and the mighty Jettblack are playing one of the smaller stages!), The Wildhearts in September... So much metal!

If you wish to accompany us to any of these events, you need only ask...

So I was planning to go and see Jettblack* on Saturday. Except I hadn't quite got around to buying tickets, because that would have involved having spoons. I tried to buy tickets today and found that the gig's been moved from the totally accessible Islington Academy to the entirely inaccessible Camden Underworld. Godsfreakingdamnit.

So now, at extremely short notice, I have to find out whether any of the other venues are accessible, and book trains and possibly accommodation. The best bet is Wolverhampton Slade Rooms, which I've been to before, but none of the usual ticket sites are listing tickets for the gig (sold out?). The second best bet is Southampton Joiners, but I can't find out if it's accessible online. (The site which says it is also gives contact information for a completely different venue. Argh).


* the hair metal band, not the porn star.

Yesterday, Richard and I went to see Avenged Sevenfold at Wembley Arena. And we definitely did not complain about being unable to see the band properly!


( Setlist, gig review, and seven more photos under the cut. )

I've just got home from what has to have been the most disappointing gig I've been to this year: the Paradise Lost 25th Anniversary Tour at the Roundhouse in Camden, London.

I've been a fan of Paradise Lost since Icon came out in 1993, when I was 17. I'd been looking forward to this show since May - I even bought my tickets on the first day they went on sale!

We had a shitty journey into London which I shall spare you the details of, and missed the first band, Katatonia. But we arrived just in time to see Lacuna Coil, and are very glad we did. They were excellent. Very clear sound, lots of energy from the band, awesome backdrop. I was looking forward to seeing Paradise Lost even more.

Then they came on stage. In total darkness, with a video screen projecting images behind them. A few lights went on: purple and green. By three songs into the set, it became clear that while Paradise Lost were on the stage, I wasn't actually going to get to see them. The lighting was purple and green, purple and red, or dark blue and green for almost the entire show. Very dark colours with virtually no spotlights. I remember from my teens that Gregor Mackintosh (the lead guitarist) hates being in the spotlight, but that shouldn't require an entirely dark stage!

I could make out Aaron Aedy, the second guitarist, because he was physically closest to me, and has a shiny shaved head. I cannot be certain who else was up there. Nick Holmes's voice was, but I don't know about the rest of him. He could have stayed home in Yorkshire and relayed his vocals via internet for all I know. The drummer was visible in spotlights twice, but I didn't recognise him because Paradise Lost have had something of a Spinal Tap problem with drummers. Anyone at all could have been playing the bass. I think it was a shortish man with a beard. And my favourite musician of the lot, lovely Greg - there was a long-haired tall left-handed person playing guitar on his side of the stage, but gods only know if it was him. Could have been any long-haired tall left-handed guitarist, since I couldn't even tell that person's gender.

I can't fault the band's performance. The choice of songs was good, not all of my personal favourites from the last 25 years, but it's impossible to please everyone in an hour and a half. The selection was certainly one that would keep most fans happy. The sound was okay where I was sitting - not fantastic, and not terrible either.

The person I want to criticise is whoever the hell decided to make the lighting so dim that audience members couldn't see the band. Was it just because of that video projection?

In this day and age, going out to see bands is expensive. Fans go out for a number of reasons: to share in the atmosphere of the gig, to support the bands they love, and to see the band perform. If you didn't want to see the band, you could get a bunch of mates round and listen to their albums at home. Honestly, I'd have much rather they dispensed with the video screen and let us see THEM.

At one point, Nick addressed the people sitting upstairs - "Are you having fun?" or words to that effect, and got a very poor response. In reply, he said something like "Maybe you should have stayed at home". That's exactly how I felt. Maybe I should have stayed at home, rather than be horribly disappointed by failing to see one of my favourite bands.

I don't have much time for a gig review because I have COURSEWORK TO DO, but Adrenaline Mob was awesome. They were playing in a tiny venue holding 620 people when full (Tutu's at King's College Union - a place Richard knows well from his misspent youth doing sound & lighting there instead of studying), but no more than 400 tickets were sold. The individual band members range from "quite well known in certain circles" to "actually very famous". (Most people into prog, rock or metal have heard of Dream Theater, the band Mike Portnoy co-founded). And yet, rather than throwing diva-esque tantrums about their new supergroup not getting much publicity, the four band members were having the time of their lives. They played so hard that we were showered in their sweat, made genuine eye contact with individual members of the audience, shook hands, bumped fists, posed for photos while playing - all the stuff you can't possibly do in an arena.

If you get the chance, and are at all interested in metal, check them out. Really. They won't stay this small forever.

Anyway, now you can see what Mike Portnoy did to Paploo's t-shirt! M is for Metal + Mike indeed.
( More photos... )

Yesterday was busy & chaotic. ( Long! Features Ginger, Trivium, Steel Panther, The Quireboys, Killswitch Engage & Metallica, also a few other bands. And mud. Lots of mud. )

Do I know anyone who lives in or near Nottingham, has a car, & would be available for A MASSIVE FAVOUR on the weekend of 8th-10th June? Financial reward offered.

If you think this post is related to this one, you'd be entirely right.