balti-pie

the wind whipping off Lake Ontario and around the Rogers centre might be the coldest ive ever been in my life. baseball is a thunderingly boring sport but my god, the food options are ace 😄 twenty different toppings for your footlong hot dog!

outdoor gigs in October/November in Florida, Indiana, Louisiana are one thing: but in Toronto? Bloody hell. I dont know if the Rogers centre has a retractable roof or owt but even if it does close, Itll still be absolutely bloody freezing there, not even Rammstein could make that space toasty warm

Yeah, not often i get to do a namedrop, but i met Lizzo a couple of times at the 2019 Glastonbury and i hadnt a clue who she was, and she was absolutely lovely with no need to be, i was just a knobhead on a gate asking to see her wristband. Find it quite hard to square that with these reports, but who knows

This would be four dollops of Yay from me 👍

As I’m looking at going to the World Cup in 2026, I’d like to throw my support behind it as a fallow year as it’ll make my own personal logistics a f**kton easier

If i won the lottery, proper stupid money-falling-out-of-pockets type amounts, i think i'd give it a bash one year and then report back on it as a 'normal person goes posh' kind of observation. Im struggling to understand how a Bentley gets down the hill to Strummerville though, not a huge amount of clearance under them id have thought. For my £35k i'd like tio choose the vehicle that pops me around, and i'd like something more practical and less ridiculous.

Yes. This. in 2016 was stuck between earth wind and fire, or LCD soundsystem - and wanted to decide on the night which one i fancied more. i went with EW&F, no regrets, but will always have the faint tinge of yearning for LCD, until i do finally get to see them. This would sort me right out

If its Coldplay, then fair enough i guess. Keeps a lot of people happy and occupied on the pyramid stage. and I'll get to bust out my Coldplay-avoiding skills, as displayed so masterfully in 2005, 2011 and 2016 😄

Motley Crue played at Camden Underworld that week, one of those surprise pop-up shows - i think thats the only way id be even slightly interested in seeing them to be honest. They've a couple of ok tunes, but are all pretty much unable to play them to a decent standard (John5 excepted), not even nostalgia gets you through that sort of issue

Normally i'd say bleh, Friday at Hellfest and sunday at Glastonbury is easy enough, but AC/DC are absolutely bloody ancient and would ideally give themselves a nice old rest between massive headline slots!

Only a sith deals in absolutes.

Extra fiver for aisle seats ffs! As a tall bloke it feels like a punishment in seats, as there’s nowhere to put my legs - cinemas, planes, trains, gigs etc etc. an aisle is a bit of a result cos I can at least stretch out one leg. but that’s the trade off for everyone behind me at standing events cursing my childhood appetite for broccoli while I have a lovely view 😁

The Shedders are just like Leeds United, they'll fill as many tickets as there are available - 90k at wembley stadium? Aye lad

Its an aerobatics display team. Its essentially dancing in little planes. Its not exactly an inflatable Oliver Cromwell being paraded - as shows of potential British imperialism go, this really doesn't even slightly register

I was having a wee in the urinals at the Tow & Hitch, wondering how in the name of blue f**k they managed to get Arcadia to start firing out aeroplanes

Bleh, they were right up in the gods, sitting at an upper tier of a stadium gig is about as good as watching a live feed of it - good on anyone getting in for £2.75 or whatever it was

I went to Blur at wembley stadium last week, but only cos of the half price NHS tickets. I was complaining like buggery about the golden circle being £150 or whatever they were, and the normal standing being £90 - ninety quid! but as soon as they made em BOGOF i could happily justify it to myself and get aboard 😄 and they were great! i hate wembley, and there's a handful of acts that could tempt me to a stadium gig, but i'd never seen Blur before - my previous time was ac/dc in 2015. Think i'd go for Slipknot, and that would be about it for me. £100 is such a huge mental barrier for a ticket but i'd rather spend it on a gig than a football match cos there's far less chance of stomping out after an hour cos they've all been so pathetic and shambolic. (this may not apply to people who dont support Spurs, admittedly)

🤣 if you play in East Sussex, I could very easily be persuaded to come and heckle

Its fascinating - i have absolutely no interest in TS either but big ticket sales are always fascinating, and im caught up in people's excitement at getting them now! PLUS im telling myself its forearming myself with inside info for the next time im desperate for tickets to something - the waiting rooms stuff is all new to me, i'm typically watching bands at small venues that not many people care about 😄

I was stewarding with Oxfam this year, my first time at Download - i thought that great swathes of it were excellently organised and great, and other bits were kind of shambolic. I'll preface this by saying i'm used to glastonbury and know that other festivals are different (in lots of different ways) but the way the disabled campers were treated really wasnt great - the campsites allocated for accessibility were numerous, but were all over the bloody place and were very oversubscribed. Whether thats down to accepting too many people, or everyone bringing bigger tents meaning less actual space, i couldnt tell you. But there werent enough toilets or water points, and not even slightly enough bins (glastonbury has bins every ten metres, im scarcely exaggerating!) in campsites or in the arena. Some extra provision for accessibility ticketholders getting from car park to campsite wouldnt be too hard to put together, the majority of campers i dealt with were bringing all their stuff in themselves and in that heat, that couldve knackered anyone up for the weekend, let alone people with extra mobility challenges. The complete lack of shade was most evident on that absolutely bloody baking hot sunday afternoon, i had to sack off The Hu and go for a nap back in the comedy tent in the village cos that was the only place with at least a little bit of shade that wasnt completely full of people! Sticking up some basic cover to the right of the stage as you look at it, or round the sides of the two tented stages, would be very simple and would be great in sunny and rainy years. I couldnt tell you about the traffic probs or the car park issues, cos a) i came on tuesday and b) ive not got another year to compare it to. Im not keen on all the toilets being portaloos - compost toilets are loads cleaner and nicer to use, but i suppose theyre all being inputted for use at glastonbury and thats only two weeks after so might not leave enough time for upping, cleaning, transporting and putting in again. Didnt ever have to queue for too long, so i can praise the amount of loos, and they werent too bad in terms of cleanliness. My own musical preferences were fine for the headliners this year, but every other stage shutting down for the main stage headliners is a bit off - there's no alternative. Surely there could be alternatives! Both tent stages could carry on until midnight as well, they were really decent for sound bleed. Food variety was ok, quality was ok, im perhaps a bit spoilt by the 400 odd vendors at glastonbury and the healthy options they have, Bar choices were frankly shite, with brooklyn pils being the only vaguely acceptable drink and that only being served at one bar. I am a massive beer snob, so i do have to take that into account . . . . overall though i had a wicked time, just about everyone i spoke to was lovely, and i'd say its even more friendly than Glastonbury and thats always been my previous barometer for talking to random nice people. Will definitely go back but my only reservation is if the headliners are a bit ropey - i'd like at least one or two alternative choices but as it is you get a set that ends with at least an hour left of the main stage. Again im spoilt by Glasto and the amount of stages - if i dont fancy something, off i pop to something else, and if the music doesnt get me im off to theatre and circus or the comedy and cabaret - thats not an option at download and i'd love it to be. Greedy twat, i know! Will definitely return, its a great festival and with a tiny bit of tweaking could be even better

Final uk stop on his last ever tour, it’s a bit of a string vest of a promise

sh*t yeah, it was only 10p more for the goose island ‘craft’ IPA so we did that instead of bud and snuck in some whisky miniatures. The classic Wembley special! (The prices and general charmless stadium are why even Damon can’t get me joining in a chant about Wembley)

They were great weren’t they? I had a bloody lovely night. They’d absolutely marmalise a headline spot obvs, I’d want it on the Sunday cos that feels like the most valedictory, celebratory kind of slot. Oily water was a great pull out of the drawer, sounded really psychy- loved it. I agree with the general suggestion that it’s probably only this summer, but with a new album about to come out it may well be that they’ll be at least a little active next year: but then they could quite easily disappear for a half decade and rock up in 2027 or something instead!

Green Day are an absolutely fantastic live act - I’ve never listened to them but saw em with an ex-missus a few years back, as she bloody loved them. I was a tadge cynical beforehand but they were superb, and really do craft the whole thing brilliantly, it’s so well paced and charismatic and they’d just smash a headline set. They’ve got the tunes, the presence, everything. It should happen. blink 182 can headline Reading/Leeds, and stay there. Don’t headline anywhere else, it’s just not needed. Baaaad live band.

I finished me shift on the Thursday at 9:45, needing to hot foot it a bit into the SE corner to get into Skindred for half ten - I was anticipating it being a right bastard but it was completely fine, I got straight in and only had to stop in a queue coming from the Temple to the start of Shangri-la across the railway line. I even managed to get a round of cheese toasties for me and the mates I met in the window after Skindred and before ho99o9, I was anticipating it being a tedious half hour wait cos it’s right opposite the Truth stage, but everyone’s standing around or passing thru and hardly anyone is actually queuing or doing anything! Got my toasties, got my emergency stash of kickass beer cans, and continued the earache Thursday: I do absolutely love having a small pocket of heavier stuff and long may it be be there!