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Had a voucher for a hotel stay from a previous cancellation, and thought i might as well book it up for the night before glasto! So its in the centre of southampton, not entirely convenient for the journey, but hey i had to use it so its free.   This does mean i can go to 7 Bone for a magnificent burger on the sunday ahead of the fest! 

I have no idea what to make of the Mags' trip to Old Trafford tonight. Newcastle's record at Man Utd is historically sh*t, having won once in league games there since the early 70s - we've actually won more FA Cup semis in that time at Old Trafford - and looking at the trends, Newcastle don't tend to win games close to or on my birthday, which is coming up tomorrow.   Still, given how incoherent Man Utd have looked of late, this feels like a game to go for the win and pick up, especially given Newcastle look in their best form this season so far. Guess we'll find out tonight.   Certainly will be helpful if Man City are now winning games again and Forest are still defying gravity judging by the fact they're second and even if Chelsea & Arsenal win their game this week they'll still be 4th.

I've been saying this elsewhere tbf - rock had a real slow 2010s, which has fed through to a lack of big headliners coming through in the same way as they did in the 90s and 00s, when it did feel like the genre had multiple boom periods.   It may well be that the style will come back around again, but it'll need a big shift to pull off given most of the interest in rock still seems to be on the been-there-done-it acts. The expense of putting a band together when you're starting out probably doesn't help.

Over the years I’ve had a blast at Chems,  Hot Chip, Avril, The Streets, Bloc Party, Jamie T, Glass Animals, Fred, TLDP, Vampire Weekend.    It’s a great stage.  Especially since the new sound system was installed. 

The Other Stage has one of the best atmospheres of any festival stage I've been to. Confidence Man this year, CRJ last year, Foals in 2022 - I could go on. The amount of absolute party sets that place hosts every year is phenomenal