Richie J's Blog

Leeds 2004

well leeds has come and gone and i have to say i had a really great time, good to get away from aberdare for a few days, and leave problems behind.

the weekend started on thursday morning, up early, cooking some breakfast rolls for the trip to leeds and then i headed out to cardiff to catch the train. got to the train station and run into a very excited becki and abbi eating burger and fries in burger king. they were way to hyper for that time of the morning haha. anyway met up with luke, forge, bodman, ben and twmo and we got on the 8.44am train to manchester. after being chucked out of our original seats we finally sat down next to these two mad girls from cardiff who made fun of our valleys accent all the way to manchester basically. journey went pretty quick didnt stop laughing all the way, got to manchester and then jumped on the train to leeds. wicked. got to leeds and began queing for the shuttle buses but luckily while in the que a taxi pulled up and we jumped in it and saved ourselves bit of money and about an hour waiting in the que for the bus. safe as fuck. finally got to the site and set up our tents and continued the drinking.

thursday night pretty cool was a bit pissed so wandered round the arena doing some shopping with forge and ben, brought a pink belt, its wicked!!!! also that night THE GAY COWBOY was born hahahah you have to see him caught a bit of this shit emo/screamo band cant remember their nam and then No Comply were really good i thought. spent about ten minutes trying to explain to this english girl that the band playing were No Comply as she couldnt understand my welsh accent, she thought i kept saying no surprises lol anyway got back to the tent later on that night and just crashed out.

woke up friday feeling pretty good, got into the arena for the first band minus, who were wicked, watched some really good bands this day, highlights would have to be the streets singing dry your eyes, it was just one of those moments, the lostprophets singing last train home wish someone was there to watch that with me and the whole green day set, i love this band son much and they get better everytime i see them <3<3<3 after the bands finished got back to the tent, where we went walking round the site looking for some action, all of a sudden there was a welsh flag, a mob of about 50 people, and chants of BAR- GOED, BAR-GOED, BAR-GOED hahaha i\'ll leave it at that. a very good day and it didnt rain hehe

saturday woke up early specially to see Goldie Lookin Chain, and OMG I havent seen a crowd that big for an opening band ever!!!!!there wasd loads there, GLC were wicked fair play, made everyone laugh. other highlights of the day included taking back sunday, reel big fish, who were amazing i forgot they had such good songs, the distillers, who were much better than they were at download, brody seemed happy this day and they got some awesome tunes, darkness were a little disappointing, they werent ready to headline this festival quite yet. best band of the day had to be ASH, they have a great back catalogue of songs and just were brilliant, highlight of their set was Starcrossed(wished someone was there again to witness this song with me ) and shining light,ash give me goosebumps <3<3<3 back in the campsite i was wrecked and basically crashed as soon as i hit the tent , with the tent doors wide open, thank god luke locked us up for the night, thanks boss woke up around 3am to the sound of riotting and to the chants of STEPHEN!!!!! apparently they took his bagpipes away and luke decided to take the power back and encourage the mob to riot hahahah

sunday was feeling good not tired at all, missed 5,6,7,8s thank god!!! then me and forge decided to go shopping again hahah but it started raining so with my new pink hat ( pink being the theme for this years leeds ) we ran to the radio one tent and watched bloc party at the front of the stage, they were boring, but then i got to see the bronx and the icarus line from the railings so it was worth it decided to have a few drinks and watched the new york dolls with bodman and twmo, before we watched franz ferdinand and the libertines on the main stage a little disappointed with the libertines, there dont seem no energy without pete there with them . then on in i made my way to the carling stage for roxy saint <3<3<3 who was brilliant and then right at the front for mondo generator who blew me away nick is a legend. met up with twmo then and his friends tina (i think thats her name) to see funeral for a friend. seen them a few times now and they were wicked as usual. higlights of the set included the art of american football and your revloution is a joke, this song give me goosebumps, wish someone was there with me again nevermind hey. back at the camp site all hell broke loose, the mob started running riot all over the shop, the security tried their best, but there was huge fires everywhere, just sat there watching all this madness going on around us and crashed at 1.30am to get up at 7am in the morning to go home the riots continued throughout the night as we lay alseep.

monday morning woke up at 7am, packed our bag and packed our tent away, and got stuck with this girl who decided she would just sit down and watch us pack away as she couldnt find her friend, strange :S lol got to the train station with no problems no queing for buses or anything, nice train journey home, twmo mearly missed the train in manchester cos he went to safeway, we panicked but he got there on time. ben g was then owned by the gay cowboy and myself hhaahaha and then got back home around 3pm nice time.

all in all one of my personal favourite leeds/reading festivals to date, great bands all round roll on next year i cant wait