Padjeq

Do you have tickets yourself, or did you just luck out with the email link?

Boys in Zinc by Svetlana Alexievich. It's about the Soviet-Afghan war. One thing I've been thinking about since I read it this morning is one of the young soviet soldiers, a few days into his first tour, saying when he sees one of his own army dead he's actually happy, because it means it wasn't him.

Thanks for the trip report! Looking forward to it, although having seen the debacle that a ticketless Kasabian gig caused at the brum academy, I'm not looking forward to how they handle the covid checks.

decent sized seating area. Will probably be chockablock, which suits me on the floor.

Okay I got it and got my tickets. Interestingly they're standing/unreserved seating. Never seen that before at a gig like this.

Thanks for this Currently in a queue that refreshes every 20 seconds. Feeling sick at being here again. Can't remember, is it better to just keep refreshing it myself?

I'm of the same opinion. Like with All Points East a few years back, I don't think they understand what an imposition these festivals can be for people who want to come from outside london. The ticket price is usually sound, but if I went, I either have to get a hotel and a day off work on the tuesday, or miss Carti and maybe Architects (dunno about clashes) to get home - and possibly more acts given it's a bank holiday and trains aren't gonna run so late.

I enterered this competition. https://www.kerrang.com/the-news/win-four-vip-tickets-to-alt-ldn-plus-a-huge-bar-tab Seems like a one off thing unless you've seen something else?

Friday Main Stage Supergrass Therapy? Candid Saturday Main Stage Craig David's Nintendo DS Sophie Ellis Bextor Steel Banglez The Selecter Zuzu Nova Twins Big Joanie Dream Wife Roddy Radiation and the Skabilly Rebels Macka B Second Stage General Levy Standard Procedure 2 hours of Eclipse DJs Sunday Main Stage Sister Sledge Fun Lovin Criminals Panjabi MC David Rodigan Current line-up. Nothing for second stage friday or sunday yet.

did wargasm social distance a couple of months back, but first proper gig is Sleeper/Bluetones in 2 weeks. Always a weird feeling when I go to see acts I was watching as a youth, normally on totp while pretending to do my homework.

3 new acts. Pretty cool Probably better suited to the tent and it's actual atmosphere(rip), but I'll take what I can get. Last time I saw Dream Wife was in Coventry library. It was a saturday night, and halloween, and the spookiest thing in the world happened: there was no alcohol. We weren't even pre-warned it'd just be foil topped cans of San Pellegrino, so I came in on a 3 pint head start. True horror was known that night.

Writing was on the wall with each 'tickets are flying out!' email for a 5000 cap event.

Dunno if it's always 6pm, but it was never a daytime affair on a friday. I've never had to even think about taking a day off work in the decade I've been going.

Disney+ won't be able to premier access the new spider-man, but whoever distributes the film would have final say on when it hits the cinema surely, which is Sony. Could be interesting times ahead. Honestly feel Shang Chi and Eternals are gonna die a death if they're put on premier access.

Reminds me of one of the worst experiences I had getting into a venue. Went to see WWE NXT Takeover at Wembley. We got there very early and were stopped from getting in the door listed on our ticket, and told to join this other, massive snake of a queue, because my girlfriend's clutch was 'too big'. This moved at a snail's pace. Timewise, we'd got there over an hour before the 7:30pm preshow, and spent all this time, plus an additional 20 minutes in this one bag check queue. At some point we were informed that our bags would be taken from us, so to take what we needed out of them now. Loading my pockets of my jeans with my girlfriend's effects, we reached the top of the queue (a queue that was much much longer behind us by the way, with people whose anxiety didn't bring them to the venue early enough - and actually was shown on the pre-show hype itself) and saw what they were doing. Now the reason for this was WWE had been given an internal government document that basically had a list of everything and anything that could in America be at risk of ISIS attack. WWE being as self-obsessed as it is went full Red Alert, and decided they were 100% the next target, and so decreed that no 'large bags' could be taken into the venue and issued a directive to wembley a Clear Bag policy. I'd seen this once before online. They empty your bag contents into a plastic bag and gave you that to carry around, so you can show other people you're clever enough to bring your own bumwipes to venues. But somewhere along the way something strange happened. Someone along the chain misunderstood what a clear bag policy entailed. So imagine my surprise when we get to the top of this 90 minute queue and found security taking bags from people, then inserting the actual bag into a clear plastic bin liner, tying it off and giving you a raffle ticket. There was a whole room full of these bags looking like fish to be won at the fair. A whole room of bags seemingly being suffocated for lice eggs. Absolutely deranged thought process. Did no one question why the evil large bag needed to be isolated inside another, larger translucent bag? Absolutely madcap. Got into the arena proper just to see Triple H standing in the ring, and promptly fell up the steep Wembley stairs while carrying 2 beers.

Interesting he's doing independent places. Sort of act that has an EP with Travis Barker is usually a slam dunk O2 venue tour. I'll be going.

Was hoping for Supergrass having seen Gaz Coombes headline the tent a couple of years ago. Great booking. Sister Sledge are the sunday headliner. They top the bill at the £40 a day Birmingham Pride a week later. Was hoping I didn't have to do all 3 days, but now I definitely am.

1. Billie Eilish 2. Sieze the Power - YONAKA 3. Dave

I do expect a left/right set up though. But with no Radio 1 tent, there is room up there now.

It's definitely doable. Advantages are it creates movement. Imagine 60% of the attendees in front of the right hand stage anxiously and loudly waiting for Post Malone's set, while some bland rock band dies a death on the left hand one. Obviously this would also put the second stage at the top of a hill.

woa It was alright. Can't think of many bands you could make a similar film about, given 99% are private-school-pipeline now. Funny story about Bowen seemingly falling in love with DJs Dev and Joe and then engineering a plan to get noticed, 18 months after they initially met him and forgot who he was.

I'm going to see the IDLES film tonight. Not sure why there even is a film about IDLES, but maybe I'll find out.

I hope we get all these films a week early. Piracy is probably a bigger issue now. Just checked, and the Sopranos film is now a week ahead of the states too. Was meant to be a month behind, which would've actually killed me. I'd have to leave the internet.

Feels like a more action packed Casper the Friendly Ghost.

The UK's biggest free 3 day festival is back in Coventry - although following the success of 2019 it now costs £12.50 for a weekend ticket. https://www.godivafestival.com/ Announced last week, and tickets on sale as of yesterday morning, we're getting a short-booked festival that could potentially be (almost) great for (almost) no cost. Announced so far: Craig David's TS5 headlining the saturday night. A confident booking from the rewind man, given he's doing back to back nights at Birmingham's arenas next April. I've seen some great acts at past events, often bands on their way up (Slaves) or down (Funeral for a Friend before the split that made them so in demand) and other acts meandering between successes (Biffy Clyro, Don Broco). They get some acts that don't seem to be on anyone else's bill too. 2019 saw the Sugarhill Gang/Furious Five supergroup, who knew exactly how to control that sort of mixed family type crowd. Then there's ska favourites like The Beat, The Selecter and Neville Staple. There's also traditionally a lot of landfill indie, but we all collectively forget that. Covid wise they're not asking for covid passports or proof of a negative test, but instead asking people to check in using Test and Trace.