This Saturday night was spent in the National Ice Centre or, as it's called on a gig night, the Trent FM Arena. Soon after getting in I was pissed off by having to hand my ticket in and not being allowed to keep my stub! I keep my stubs and they took it away. I'm guessing because it would be easy to pass your ticket to someone who is seated and getting them in but really that's why venues rip the ticket and stamp your hand or give you a wrist band. This annoyance will in future put me off Trent FM Area in favour of Birmingham.

The gig it's self saw Pendulum headlining with Hadouken as their support act.

I saw Hadouken earlier in the year at Leeds Festival and my verdict was "a more repetitive Pendulum". This is still my opinion of them but they were better in Leeds. The volume wasn't what it should have been and I'm guessing it was because the Trent FM Arena is much more open than the tent at Leeds, which is easier the fill with sound. However that bass was pretty good and gone halfway through the volume was turned up a notch. I'm going to stick with the original verdict and that they don't do anything for me but fair play to them.

After an hour wait it was time for Pendulum. Their most recent album is called Immersion and Pendulum's set lived up to the name. It was definitely immerse. Pendulum are all about getting you going and that's what I love about them. They achieve this with wicked beats and some heavy bass. That's drum n bass for you, but what really gets me with Pendulum are their close ties with metal. The show was fantastic and they pretty much played two hours straight. Pendulum are another band I recommend seeing and having seen them six times now I highly suggest you make sure it's indoors. Buildings keep the sound in making the bass much stronger. Of the five times I've seen them the smallest venue (Leicester University. Now an O2 Academy) was the best with this gig and Sonisphere (outdoors I know but I was right near the speakers and it felt sweet!) coming in second. The other three were outdoors at Leeds Festival, Download 2009 and Projekt Revolution.

Something I realised at the gig.... drum 'n' bass mosh pits are a bit rubbish when compared to heavy metal pits you get at your Downloads and Sonispheres. The pits for Pendulum at Sonisphere was great fun but on this occasion lacking. Plenty of pits opened but the majority of the young male audience didn't have much of a clue of what to do. Most just run through once avoiding everyone and stopping. I did wanna shout "fucking get in there" but knowing no one would hear me over Pendulum or that I'd need to step up and mosh  myself, I didn't. Unfortunately, I wear glasses (new ones in fact, that cost an arm and two legs!) and hadn't taken them off I really didn't want to risk them in a pit. I WILL be in the pit for Disturbed and Papa Roach next week I can guarantee you that.

I've been really busy recently and haven't had time to write my full Leeds Festival review. With the few moments I have now I'm going to quickly review each of the artists I saw from what are some very vague memmories, so excuss the breifness.

Friday

The Walkmen - Ok but nothing speical.

The Futureheads - Same as The Walkmen really

Gaslight Anthem - If I recall I liked these a bit...

Hadouken - These were pretty cool. A more repeative Pendulum is what I originally thought. 

Kids in glass Houses - Enjoyed these.

Frank Turner - FTHC is one of the more memorable artists. His set was great. Really enjoyable music with clever and meaningful lyrics. I'm actually seeing Frank Turner on the 10th Decemeber. This is definately someone worth seeing.

Dizzee Rascal - Not a Dizzee fan but it was a good, cheesy, and fun set. He did ruining Smell's Like Teen Spirity by using the music and rapping over it. I'd have much prefered him doing a weird rendition of it.

Enter Shikari - I only caught a little of Enter Shikari but have seen them before. From what I saw and heard it seemed pretty awesome but not loud enough! And like Enter Shikari (and Pendulum) need to be played loud and at a festival you'd expect them to have that right. Nothing taking away from Enter Shikari though.

Pendulum - I'm a bit fan of Pendulum and seeing them live is fantastic. They did their stuff as great as I'd expect but again, as I mentioned, it wasn't loud enough!

Saturday

Motion City Soundtrack - These were alright but again average.

The King Blues - Now The King Blues weren't a band I had heard of and when they came on stage I saw the lead singer who looked a bit like a chav. I feel a bit ashamed really for judging them straight away because they turned out to be an excellent band. Really worth taking a listen to. They used all sorts of different instruments which was impressive. Like Frank Turner, The Kings Blues were great to listen to and have intelligent lyrics. 

All Time Low - These guys were very vulgar, a bit on the "oooh that's not funny" or "that's just creepy". The music was ok but nothing I'd go out an listen to especially.

You Me At Six - Overrated! I could leave it at just one word but that would be unfair. They are quite good with a couple of catchy/cool songs but too hyped.

Limp Bizkit - Old Skool is kool! Love Limp Bizket and have done for years. These guys are great. Fun music that reminded my of the old days of school. The mosh pits are great fun too. If you've never seen them I'd highly recommend you get your arse down to their next show. 

Cypress Hill - Knowing a few Cypress Hills songs I was some what interested in seeing these but not bothered if I missed them. They turned out to be more than expected. Some great rapping, tunes and record scratching.

Weezer - Snore! Weezer are another overrated band. They are really mediocor. A couple of songs are slightly about average but other than that they are just boring. For Weezer fans it would have been great but not for me.

Paramore - Paramore came on late for some reason and changed were a little disorganised. Hayley William's vocals were too quiet. Other than that I do really like Paramore, ESPECIALLY Hayley! The set was good but could have been better. I'll be seeing them in November so hopefully will redeem themselves.

Blink 182 - Another band I've not really gotten into at any point in my life but I do like them and their set really impressed me. I knew every song! Being the headliner you expect a show and what they had was really cool, six circlular screen with some neat animations. Travis Barker did some awesome upside down drumming.

Sunday

A Day To Remember - duh duh duh duh duh duh. duh duh duh duh duh. duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh. These guys were great fun.

The Skints - I think these were a ska/punk band or some sorts. Can say I remember them that well.

Gogol Bordello - Did nothing for me.

Nofx - Not a fan of their music and they tried to be funny but were just a bit creepy.

Lostprophets - I like a few Lostprophets songs but never been a huge fan. I wasn't expecting much from these guys... they were really good. There was a great happy feeling going around.

Biffy Clyro - These boys did a cracking set. Really good quality.

Queens of the Stone Age - A very solid performance but QOTSA haven't ever been a band that really get me going. Much link Them Crooked Vultures.

Axel and Friends (Guns 'n' Roses) - After reading what had happened at Reading in a newspaper no one was expecting much and that worked in our favour. They came on only 30 mins late, played every song I wanted to hear and some I didn't know I wanted to hear. It was actually a great show. Axel did annoy me a lot so arrogant and having ago at the festival organisers when HE came on late is just rediculous. But it was great to watch. What adds to it more is that Reading had a terrible time and only a few days after they were bottled, booed and walk off stage after only 4 songs in Dublin. Will Leeds be their last decent show?

Well that's it.

It's been a good weekend at Leeds Festival and I got home a few hours ago now. Damn I'm in a good mood, really cracking mood. As soon as I got home I turned up my speakers, blastest out some Kick In The Teeth by Papa Roach while dancing around like a fool in my boxers. Followed by some air guitaring to Guns n Roses. 

Following this post I'll be doing my usual day by day review of all the bands I saw but as this was my first Leeds festival I thought I'd do a bit of an overview of the whole festival. 

If you know a bit about festivals in the UK you'll know that Leeds is the sister festival to Reading. They take place on the same weekend and have the same line up but just on different days. If you don't, you now do. This year Reading had torrential rain and the Gun n Roses set was apparently an hour late, terrible and cut off during Paridise City. Haha! We in Leeds had a much better weekend. It was dry for the most part with only the occasional breif shower and Guns n Roses set was... I'll save that until the review post. 

One thing I really noticed about Leeds was it seemed like disordered order. Camping was all over the place including right next to fair ground rides. It worked fine but just seemed a little weird to me but then again I've only been the Sonisphere and Download festivals before. The toliets were pretty poor. If you're a guy and need a pee it's fine but if you're busted for the other and the arena isn't open you'd have been fresh out of luck becuase the majority of toliets were the open hole with a fixed, pee soaked, wooden seat. Not nice. I hear the girls toilets were quite nice.

There was a lot of crime in the campsites. On the second morning the people in the tents next to us had cameras and phones stolen in the night. They weren't the only ones. To add insult to the situation some other things were stolen from their group on two more seperate occasions, including one the of the girls's whole bag. The steward who came to see them the last time was saying someone had been "rinsing" the whole campsite. It's terrible. I was lucky, nothing stolen but someone had definately been in my tent (inner zip was open and I never leave it unzipped).

The stage set up was fine but there was a few issues with volume. I'll mention indiviual bands in my reviews. 

That'll do for now. The rest will come maybe today and tomorrow.

Sunday's entertainment began, as every Sunday should be started, with the wise words of Henry Rollins. The Bohemia tent was even more packed than it had been for Corey Taylor. I saw Rollins do a spoken word show earlier in the year after trading my spare ticket for Dave Gorman with someone for their spare Rollins ticket. It was a great trade. For probably the first time ever I had sat down listening to someone for over 2 hours without my mind wondering all over the place. The reason I went to see Henry at Sonisphere was because he is one of those people who are interesting, great story tellers and most importantly speaks a hell of a lot of sense. His show was a cut down version of what I had heard earlier in the year but it was different too. Give Henry Rollins a few minutes of your time and you'll be hanging his every word.

Next up was Skindred on the main stage. The lead singer is very entertaining and the music isn't half bad. Not much else I can really say about Skindred, so I won't say any more.

After what was quite a break it was time for Pendulum. They were the band that every in our group was looking forward to the most, apart from me because that honour went to Papa Roach. I was still really looking forward to them. Pendulum are a fantastic live band that have a great position in the festival game since they can play the big metal festivals like Sonisphere and Download while also getting second stage headline set at Reading and Leeds. We made our way to the front and lead by Ruth we came to an opening. Ruth and my sister both had no idea that was where a mosh pit would be. They soon found that out. I had a couple of goes in the pit which was great fun. Having mentioned earlier that she wanted to flash for the cameras I got Ruth on my shoulders and she did what she had to, twice! You're welcome Sonisphere. Ben Mount the MC noticed the second time which was cool. Had an awesome time, even going against what I've said in the past to people about how Pendulum are at their best in small venues. The one thing I really noticed about Pendulum's set is that they didn't play Slam!!! I can see way they might have decided not to play is, probably because that's what people expect. Not playing is takes them away from being that type of one song band, which they aren't. They did play Self Vs Self with a guy form In Flames. It's Pendulum's heaviest by far and it's a TUNE!!!

Unfortunately I missed Fighstar but having seen them what must be almost 10 times now it wasn't a huge lose. Next up were Funeral For A Friend, another band I've seen quite a few times and always have high expectations about how they perform. They did exactly what I expected, nothing less than a blinding set. As happened the first time I saw Funeral For A Friend, Charlie Simpson from Fightstar come on to perform the chorus for All The Rage. A walk on like this is always good, even when clearly staged. However, what really stood out for me was a particular crowd surf. It was the first time I saw a crowd surfer in a wheelchair, pretty cool. 

As soon as Funeral For A Friend left the Iron Maiden started. Their show was great. You can definitely tell they have been doing this kind of thing for decades. For me Run To The Hills was a noticeably absent. I feel like I'm short changing Maiden now but can't seem to think of anything else to say so I'll rap it up here.

Sonisphere 2010 was such a good weekend. Better than last year and better than Download! There was something about the whole weekend, a feeling of some sorts of enjoyment I didn't get at Download. Before you say I'm totally bias (I am a bit but I'm honest) check this quote from The Guardian's website "Although only two years old, Sonisphere has elbowed Donington's Download aside to become the UK's premier metal festival".