I have been absolutely dying to write this post for ages now, but I haven't been able to due to lots of coursework I've had to do for college it's seriously never ending.
Finally it's now the weekend (and nearly a week since the actual event but oh well) and I have time to write up about the UH-MA-ZIN weekend that I had.
To start off all the excitement I went and met my babe of a friend Erin who had flown down from Scotland, and that's really where the excitement began. On the Saturday I took Erin into Manchester and showed her around as she has never been before, and it was fabulous taking her as she was such like a little tourist! We went and did a bit of shopping with a few bits n bobs picked up along the way!
In the evening I went had dinner in Hard Rock Cafe with Erin and my family, and every single time I go there I always an amazing time and a delicious meal. To add to the excitement this time Green Day started playing and where all over the screens in the restaurant and I lost all my morals and burst out into excitement and songs. To make me act even more like a mad woman my most favourite things in the whole Cafe is the wall which has costumes which the Arctic Monkeys have actually wore. Like, actually wore. If you read the shrine in the photo, it will explain everything ( and save me from explaining what the costumes are because I'm ever so lazy).
So the next day was the Sunday, LEEDS FEST TIME ay ay! I was so excited it was unreal, and one of the main things which made the day was the weather, it was absolutely beautiful from start to finish, so warm and not one drop of rain (except from when we where trying to find the car after the event, which took 40 minutes, but hey who cares after its over?!). I'd been to Leeds to see Green Day headline last year, and it was a complete washout, so the weather was such a blessing.
The first thing on the to do list was to get our wristbands, one thing I was looking forward to getting was this wristband. That probably seems weird and a bit strange but I unfortunately lost my wristband from last year, so getting a new one this year (sort of) made up for it!
As soon as we got our wristbands and got in the venue completely, me and Erin went into freak mode and ended up being like your everyday person and instagrammed and tweeted constantly. (as you can clearly see by the photo, the weather was staying great for us).
The atmosphere at Leeds is so amazing and everyone always has a right good laugh, and there is some proper weird and hilarious sights. We all had a bit of time to pass before the first act we wanted to see (Royal Blood) where live, so we went for a little walk to check out the stalls, tents, grab a pizza (what else?), and check out the main stage.
Once we had done all of our exploring it was then time to go and watch Royal Blood. Now I had heard a few of their songs before on XFM, and from what I heard, I really liked some of their songs.
Whilst standing in the crowd (which was pretty big, considering Royal Blood are not that well known and where playing on the Radio 1/ NME stage in one of the tents) I decided to turn around and have a look at how many people where squeezed into the tent, ya know, to have a nosey and to my surprise, literally right behind me, there was a familiar face who clearly knew me too, and it turned out to be my old form teacher from high school! it was such a pretty big shock because lets face it do we plan to see form tutors whilst we're at festivals? I think not!
Ive got to say, Royal Blood are amazing live, and considering the band only consists of two members, that band really can play and are clearly loved by a lot of people. Even Mike Kerr (lead singer and guitarist) was shocked at the turn out, which is pretty sad really as they need to realise that they are amazing along with their songs, and deserve a lot of fans. I personally think they are really underrated at this moment in time and deserve a lot more attention and respect, but I'm sure they will get in the future. Below are some photos my dad took.
If you have never heard or listened to Royal Blood, I suggest you should definitely check them out!
Here is a list of my favourite songs!
- Ten Tonne Skeleton
- Better Strangers
- Out Of The Black
- Come On Over
- Little Monster
- Figure It Out
Again, if you haven't heard of Peace, give them a listen, they are great and just as good live, here is a list of my favorites and ones I recommend:
- Bloodshake
- California Daze
- Wraith
- Lovesick
- Money
- Float Forever
- Higher Than the Sun
Once we passed the time by decorating ourselves in luminous paint (you could probably see me from like, a mile away), it was time to watch Foster the People, and as we are not obsessive fans, we all decided to get a nice spot near the main stage where it wasn't as crowded, but you could still see nicely. Once we found a spot we just chilled to get some more energy back and watch them from where we was. As you can obviously expect, I have to say my favourite FTP songs are Pumped Up Kicks, Dont Stop (Colour on the walls) and Call It What You Want. When I watched them perform Pumped Up Kicks at Glastonbury beforehand (on tv, of course, in real life, I wish) it sounded amazing and got me totally excited for leeds, so that was the song it was anticipating to hear live the most. Foster The People played a fantastic set and are exceptionally good live, they ended up playing all three of my favourite songs live which I was really happy about. Below are some photos we took:
As you probably guessed what's coming next, here are some songs which I recommend:
- Pumped Up Kicks
- Dont Stop
- Call It What You Want
- Helena Beat
- Coming of Age
Next up was Imagine Dragons, and by this time my excitement was seriously building up, I was probably getting a little too giddy to be honest. I watched a set by Imagine Dragons at T in the park (look at all these festivals and concerts I didn't go but managed to watch on TV this summer) and they looked really good live. I didn't really know what to expect from them, I thought that they maybe not sound as good as they do on the album?? but I was 100% sure that they where gonna be amazing, and I was right.
Their playlist was awesome, i'd probably say they played near enough all of the Night Visions album. They literally performed all of my favorites where in there (which is most of the Night Visions album really) so by this point my voice was already dying due to all of the singing I was doing! They're just so good to watch, and are so talented. It amazes me how Dan (lead singer) runs around the stage as well as singing and playing instruments, I cant even run upstairs without losing my breath because im such a lazy ass. He also came up close to the crowd and got himself involved with everyone (as seen on the very top left photo of the collage) I would definitely see them live again if I had the choice, and the fact that they where so grateful at the turnout was really nice and respectful, here are some photos:
So as you've probably guessed im just going to list more songs that I would reccomend, well you're right, so just expect it at the end of every section now hahaha!
Here is a list of my favourite Imagine Dragons songs which I would recommend to anyone who hasn't listened to them:
- Tiptoe
- Radioactive (everyone should know this one by now)
- Working Man
- On Top of the World
- Fallen
- Demons
- Amsterdam
- It's Time
As soon as the Jake Bugg backdrop went up I freaked instantly (and obviously put it up on instagram). As soon as he came on stage and started playing , I ended freaking out, and of course bursted into song. Me and my dad are huge fans, so much so we are seeing him again this October!
Jake's setlist was so perfect, and he even played my favourite song, Me and You. I'm honestly surprised I didn't cry but hey I was really happy so how could I cry?! to be honest I felt pretty morbid cause there was just couples surrounding me being all cute and annoying stuff like that, but eh I didnt plan on focusing on that when I had Jake Bugg infant of me. We had a really good spot where we was stood I couldn't of asked for better (it does help that im quite tall too) the fact that I know and sang along to all of Jake's songs didn't help with my developing dry and sore throat, but you cannot care about that kind of stuff at festivals!
My dad got some really good photos of him:
If I was to list all of my favourite Jake Bugg songs it would take me forever, both of his albums (Jake Bugg and Shangri La) are fabulous, but I guess I can try and narrow the choices down! here are some of my all time favourites:
- Me and You
- Trouble Town
- Taste It
- Simple Pleasures
- Broken
- Lightning Bolt
- Storm Passes Away
- Two Fingers
- Seen It All
Finally, for the main act. At this point, as you can imagine, me and Erin where completely freaking out. Im literally obsessed with Arctic Monkeys, and I literally could not contain my excitement as I find it really hard when it comes to music. We had to wait about twenty minutes for them to come on after Jake Bugg, and that did not help with the excitement at all, if anything it just made me even worse as I was just so tense and excited. Unlike last year, like the washout it was, we could actually sit on the floor and wait for a while, which a lot of people ended up doing, and before we knew it, it was time for ARCTIC MONKEYS BABY.
Of course Arctic Monkeys came on to Do I Wanna Know? and the "AM" was lit up in the background, as soon as the monkeys came on, flares where set off everywhere and it was amazing I cant even explain, at one point you could hardly even see due to all the flares (shown below).
The monkeys themselves seemed to be oh so happy to be back up north, Alex said he was gonna have a "right laugh" with us northernly love for the win.
As for the setlist, it was too good to be true, a mix of old and new. Baically there was a song from every album, which I couldnt ask for better really. Florescent Adolescent was part of the setlist, and luckily for me I was able to get on my dads shoulders (who is seriously tall) throughout the whole song, and I got the most perfect view, as I could see over everyone (same happened during Jake Bugg too). The location where we was stood was perfect too, as it was directly in the middle of the crowd, so as you can imagine, my view was great.
It was pretty unbeliveable that the monkeys where right there in front of my eyes, I genuinely wanted to just cry, like really I can't even explain, and the fact that my ultimate fave man in the whole word ALEX TURNER was standing right in front of me was too good to be true.
With the monkeys headlining, the crowd was obviously immense and everyone was having a blast, its just so good to let yourself go and enjoy everything.
Below is some photos my dad took, ive gotta say considering the crowd was huge and compact, I salute and respect him for taking this magnificent photos, I could imagine it being pretty hard to get Alex, Jamie, Matt and Nick into the photos too considering people where being pushed about, but you can see Matt and Nick in some of them!
I dont even need to tell you to check out Arctic Monkeys, as hopefully everyone should know who they are, and I wont even bother reccomending my favourites as I will be here, quite literally forever (well basically I'll just name every song off ever album including sides). I cannot thank the Arctic Monkeys and other acts enough for making my night absolutely amazing and memorable.
Arctic Monkeys are so unbelievably good live, and it's still pretty shocking that Ive seen them live in the flesh and heard most of my favourite songs. Im now so happy to say that I have seen my two favourite bands live (Green Day and Arctic Monkeys) and it still hasnt sunk in to this day, an d I seriously hope to see Arctic Monkeys again some point in the future!
On the journey home, I could top off my fabulous day with a Starbucks at a Welcome Break on the motorway!
I have to thank my amazing mum and dad for giving me the opportunity to go, and also another big thanks to my dad for taking me there as well as taking some amazing photographs, don't know what I would do without him and I am so thankful. I also have to thank Erin for being a fabulous friend and making my weekend the funniest and most enjoyable, and now im gonna be proper cringey and thank you for reading this bloody long post!
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