20-06-10 – Well. That was unexpected.
The last few weeks entailed…
- YAWA playing Download Festival
- Setting up the office
- …did I mention YAWA played Download?
YAWA Played Download!
Remember that Red Bull Bedroom Jam competition we entered? Yeah, we won that and are now playing 5 festivals throughout the summer. Well, 4 now, since we already played download.
It was absolutely incredible. We all got a free VIP pass to download each. Though before I describe the festival, I should probably mention that the announcment was made on the Tuesday afternoon and we left for download 48 hours later.
It has been pretty hectic.
After the initial shock, we got organised and had two last minute practices, a band shopping session (cereal bars, pepparami, oranges and carrots – I couldn’t think of anything more “healthy”. The guys thought 8 cases of beer was healthy enough though.) then set off in the van to download.
On the Thursday we watched our homeslices “Silent Descent” who we played with in Worcester last summer, having a chat afterwards and I set a precedent of going to sleep at a reasonable hour, leaving the other guys to get wildly inebriated and do whatever it is normal people do at festivals. I was intent on keeping a decent sleeping pattern so I wasn’t exhausted during our set on the Sunday.
Download – Friday
It kicked off with quite the opposite of the Thursday night, which set another precedent of me going to sleep positively shivering and waking up drenched in sweat and squinting into the harsh morning sunlight. The tent only did so much to diffuse it, so every day I ended up waking at 8:00am pretty much on the dot.
The VIP camp site was awesome, and we found ourselves camped next to one of Kieran’s childhood friends coincidentally. So we spent a while getting to know them, then got on with the important business of blagging our way backstage. We did that successfully, meeting several pretty famous people:
etc.
Ring any bells? It was crazy back there; every corner was a new celebrity and there were free shoes, drinks and even free tattoos that Zak booked in for. I also got to meet Andy Copping – the guy who books the bands for download and also one of the judges that put YAWA through. It was great to thank him and have a quick chat. Apparently YAWA was one of the bands all the judges agreed on very quickly that they wanted to go through, so that made me feel freakin’ cool.
We ended the day watching a few of the bands, followed by AC/DC on their own headline stage! It was hilariously rock n’ roll, complete with giant train, blow up whore and old men rocking and rolling.
Once again, I got back early (choosing not to watch the whole of AC/DC’s set – it got a tad repetitive(yes,I do realise I make dance music)) and went to sleep. The rest of the guys stayed out late and used up another few crates, returning around 5am for a healthy 3 hours sleep before…
Download – Saturday
We didn’t manage to blag our way backstage on Saturday, with the security having wisened up and realising that artist wristbands that say “Sunday” on them mean that those artists can only go backstage on Sunday. damn.
Anyway, it gave us a chance to explore the festival from a conventional punter’s perspective, as well as promote the fact that we were playing the following day by handing out a few flyers and making some festival friends.
Stand-out bands for me were Five Finger Death Punch, who had an awesome frontman who really know how to get the crowd to respect him (I need lessons!) and Rage Against The Machine, who were AMAZING. Though that’s probably because I freakin’ love funky, dirty riffs and cool rap music.
After staying up a while and wandering round the village, chatting with Zak about business and life while the other guys experienced some wrestling (again, not really my thing) then going to sleep late, but not as late as everyone else, who got another 4 hours sleep to add to their collection.
Download – Sunday
A freakin’ busy day, since we wanted to make the most of our time backstage. We met some more stars (Slash was having a drink near our table, either that or some random guy in a big hat) and Zak got his tattoo done.
We then met up with our guests who came down, including a friend of mine “Rachel” who is pretty cool. We wandered about with them briefly, but then had to go backstage to the Red Bull Bedroom Jam tent to prepare to play.
The band before us didn’t play to many people considering there were well over 100,000 at the festival, I think Rachel said something like 100-200 people were there, so I was initially a bit worried as to the turnout, but then just before we were due on I had a look and the tent was at least half full, around 500-700 people there.
Then we went on and the heavens opened. Literally – it poured down with rain and the tent filled up. We played to the biggest crowd we’d ever played to. It was just awesome – I even got to vent my ego to the biggest crowd I’ve ever played to when after Kieran say “It’s been a dream come true to play Download” I butted in with “Not for me, I’m bigger than this” – from the varying tones of the proceeding “oooooh”s from the crowd, not everyone realise that I was joking (how big would your ego have to be to say that in that context with any seriousness? I’m not quite there yet.) but that didn’t stop the crowd going absolutely mental for us on the following songs, especially with the massive circle pits for Nebula at the end, which was just awesome.
So yes, after playing to a rapturous, appreciative crowd (check out the review and photos for more proof, there’ll be a video soon too, I’m sure) we found ourselves packing away in the pouring rain. I grabbed Rachel and after being stopped by some new fans, went back to the tent and hid in the dry for the next 3 hours or so. It was around this point that she decided to instantly crave noodles and complain about wanting them for the duration of time we were stranded in the tent. I learned patience that day.
Fortunately, the rain eased by the time Stone Sour went on, so we caught a decent amount of their set, followed by some satisfying (on Rachel’s stomach and my ears) noodles, then Aerosmith for some lols. Steve Tyler sure didn’t want to miss a thing. His guitarists sure didn’t want to miss the opportunity for multiple 10 minute blues jams either, so we quickly departed and met up with Liv who kindly drove us home.
After some serious problems with motorways (night driving is great until you find the inevitable massive diversions) we found our way back home and got the best sleep in a long time. Especially for the other guys, who I think got about 12 hours sleep total the whole weekend. Ouch.
Studioffice!
It’s almost complete now, after being put off a lot due to download (I’ve had to push loads of things back these past few weeks thanks to winning the red bull bedroom jam and being really ill the following week – probably those damn noodles…) but all the furniture barring the shelves are up and running.
Dad’s even helped put together a freakin’ awesome TV unit which will have a green screen blind in front of it, keeping everything tidy and functional. I’ll get a video of the new office up eventually when things calm down, but until then just take my word that it’s business as HELL.
Next time on Dave’s Blog
Well, assuming I can blog next week, I’ll be…
- Starting to use my new Studioffice!
- Catching up on private tutorials
- Starting the 7 day song
- Potentially getting some really reeeally good work!
- Realising I’ve got 4 more festivals (including T in the Park and Sonisphere) left to go!
Take it easy, mi amigos!