A Week of Gigs and Wonderfulness!

So I have had a very hectic week! On Wednesday I went to see the lovely Russell Howard, on Friday I went to see My Chemical Romance and on Saturday I went to see Ocean Colour Scene. Those of you who know me well will know that the My Chemical Romance gig was the one I was most looking forward to but I thought I'd give you my opinions!

Russell Howard was absolutely hilarious. I don't know what to say. One of the things I love about him is that he just comes on and he's in his T Shirt and jeans and it's just him. There's none of the flamboyance and glitter like comedians such as Noel Fielding and Russell Brand (don't think I'm being hypocritical though.. I love the flamboyance!). Anyway I fully recommend going to see this guy. I'm not going to tell you any of the jokes because I don't want to ruin it for anyone else who is going but it was a top evening!

I'm going to do it in the wrong order and talk about Ocean Colour Scene next because I have a feeling I will ramble on for hours about My Chemical Romance! I bought the tickets for this for a present for my big brother, he introduced me to them years ago with the album Mosely Shoals. The first half of this gig was that album in its entirety and it was really good. I knew all the words and had a good sing song! The second half was their "hits" I suppose but I didn't know any of them. It was still really good though and encouraged me to go home and listen to some more of their stuff. It was also a bit more mellow and relaxed than the previous night which I am about to tell you about!

The thing you need to know about me is that I have always been an emo deep down! Green Day and My Chemical Romance have been my favourite bands since I was about 15. I saw Green Day last year and so I was extremely excited to see these guys! I bought the ticket for my younger brother for his birthday (I know, I buy my siblings awesome birthday presents right?) and of course I went with him. They were supported by Lost Alone who I was not hugely impressed with but I did like a few of their songs. They seemed like quite a small band who weren't used to playing such big arenas. The Blackout were next and they were fabulous. I knew a few of their songs already just from watching Kerrang a lot but I would never have bought a ticket to one of their shows. Anyway, I was wrong because they were really good. One of my friends has kindly lent me one of their albums so it will be going on my ipod! I really love how you can go to a gig and see a support act that blow you away. It happened at Green Day when I fell in love with Frank Turner and now I've found another band that I love! Anyway.. back on topic:

It actually started with "Look Alive Sunshine" which is the starting track on their newest album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. It ends with the line "Killjoys, make some noise!" and then they launched into Na Na Na. This was the start of a couple of hours of dancing, jumping around, singing and shouting at the top of my voice. I was in my element. Personal highlights included Welcome To The Black Parade which I think was the equivalent of Jesus of Suburbia at Green Day. When Green Day launched into Jesus of Suburbia last year we all shouted along with our fists in the air and meant every word. For me Welcome To The Black Parade was the same and the atmosphere was amazing. Another highlight for me was The Ghost of You which was amazing. He told everyone to light up and the effect was beautiful:

The atmosphere again was amazing as we all swayed and sung. A nice rest from the jumping around I can tell you! They finished on Cancer and at this point all the lights went off and it was just Gerard Way and his voice. It was really beautiful and fitted the song perfectly.

The encore was my favourite song on the latest album, Bulletproof Heart. As you can imagine, I was made up! I never wanted it to end and while it probably didn't beat Green Day's gig, it was a close second! I had real trouble picking out my favourite moments from it because the whole night was amazing. I'm going to have an equally hard time picking a photo to end on because I took so many but I think this one will do.

Billiesue

Thursday Thoughts - Marc Bolan

Today is the 33rd anniversary of the death of Marc Bolan. For those of you who don't know, Marc was an English singer/songwriter who did solo stuff as well as stuff with his band, T Rex. Marc Feld was born on the 30th of September, 1947 in Hackney (London). He was given his first guitar at the age of 9 and his first band was called "Susie and the Hoops". He left school at the age of 15 and became a male model. He changed his name to Toby Tyler when he met and moved in with his first manager (Allan Warren). He later left this manager and changed his name to Marc Bolan.

Marc's first single was released in 1967 and was called "The Wizard". He then joined the mod band called John's Children which wasn't very successful and didn't sell many records. One of the singles that Marc wrote for John's Children was actually banned by the BBC for having the line "lift up your skirt and fly".  When this band collapsed, Marc and one of his band mates (Steve Peregrine Took) formed a band called Tyrannosaurus Rex that played acoustic, psychedelic folk rock.  They used songs written by Marc and released four albums and four singles. They were highly supported by John Peel and got to number 15 in the charts. After a while, Bolan bought a Gibson Les Paul and started bringing electrical influences into the music. This increased when Took was replaced with Mickey Finn. After marrying his girlfriend (June Child) Marc shortened the name of the band to T Rex and released Ride a White Swan, one of his most popular songs.

Ride a White Swan got to number 2 in the charts and Bolan started getting more and more flamboyant, turning up for shows in feather boas and glitter. Other rock stars also started getting glam, including Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart. It was also around this time (1971) that David Bowie rose to fame. After Ride a White Swan came Hot Love, Get It On, and Jeepster. In 1972 Telegram Sam and Metal Guru got to number 1 while Children of the Revolution and Solid Gold Easy Action got to number 2.

Due to an affair with his backing singer, Gloria Jones, his marriage came to an end. The T Rex line up disintegrated and Marc spent a lot of time in America. His health deteriorated as he put on weight and he stayed quite popular until his death although he never got back as popular as he was in 1972. His son, Rolan Bolan was born in 1975 and Marc returned to Britain. In early 1977 T Rex was reformed with different people and a new album was released called Dandy in the Underworld. The band went on a UK tour with The Damned and Granada Television gave him a TV series named Marc where he had new and established bands performing as well as performing himself.

Bolan died two weeks before his 30th birthday in a car crash. The car was being driven by Gloria Jones and it struck a tree as she lost control of the car. The site in Barnes, London is now a Marc Bolan shrine and I would love to visit it. Although I am too young to remember Marc, his music lives on and he remains one of my favourite artists.

Wednesday Wants

The top ten things that I have been lusting over this week!


1) Ash Rem Studded Biker Ankle Boots - £269 from ASOS

This is way more than I would ever spend on boots! I have been wanting some of these biker style boots for autumn/winter and hopefully I will get my hands on some cheaper ones (*sob*) when I manage to get some money! These ones can be found on the ASOS website here but they are real leather so I wouldn't buy them anyway. Some faux leather ones similar to these are what I am after!










2) Urban Decay NYC Book of Shadows Vol.III - £30 from Debenhams (or £27 at the moment in the sale!)

I love my Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows, I use it most days and the colours are amazing. This box is almost as beautiful as the Alice in Wonderland one and the colours in it look amazing. The primer potion is brilliant so another little bottle of that would come in handy and I use the black eyeliner all the time. This also comes with a purple eyeliner which is my favourite colour. I hate having no money! You can buy it here.








3) Lust Perfume - £20 for a 27g bottle from Lush/Gorilla Perfumes

 

I have a small sample of this perfume (which you can get for £2 from the website) and it is divine. I am a huge fan of Lush's Flying Fox shower gel and this is so similar. It is a strong jasminey perfume but that description does not do it justice as I usually can't be doing with florals. Lush describe it as "Unashamedly carnal jasmine. Wear it if you want to get lucky. Mark is particularly fond of working with jasmine absolute and he's gone all the way. The indolic character of the white flower is in full bloom, accented by rich florals and a soft, woody base.". I will probably end up forking out on this perfume! You can buy it here.


4) Enchanted Large Halloween Set - £40 from Enchanted

I love Enchanted (as you may have noticed) and they have just come out with their Halloween range. This box has a pumpkin shaped soap in a choice of fragrances, a massage bar in a choice of fragrances and then 6 products of your choice in your choice of fragrance. The halloween scents sound amazing, particularly Monster Mash (It was a graveyard smash….sweet mango, lime, fizzy lemonade and a huge shot of sugared strawberry), Blood Bath (Fresh strawberries, tart raspberries, sugar, marshmallows and more sugar), Dark Spell (Plump black cherries dipped in dark, dark chocolate), Dia de los meurtos (A luscious autumn medley of brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cocoa, maple, walnut, citrus and caramel) and Gingerbread House (In the sinister tale of Hansel and Gretel they are lured by the sinfully tasty gingerbread house, this smells good enough to eat. Sweet and spicy iced gingerbread). It would also give me a chance to try some of their new products such as bath milk and lip balm. Get yours here!


5) Jolly Roger the Captain Necklace - £5 from Must Destroy Jewellery

Must Destroy Jewellery are celebrating International Speak Like a Pirate Day with a range of pirate lego necklaces and this is my favourite of the bunch. I already have a skeleton lego necklace and I love it. I always get comments when I wear it because they are so different.You can get your very own pirate from here.












6) Tickets to Alice Cooper's Halloween Night of Fear - £39.75 from Ticketmaster

This man is seriously a legend. I went to see him in Manchester a few years back and he was amazing. I would love to be able to go and see him again but I'm not sure there will be tickets left by the time I have money and I can't really afford to fork out to get to London and stay over. He promises the night will be fab though with his very own freak show that he has been holding auditions for and he wants the crowd in full fancy dress! Buy tickets here.


7) Poison Necklace - starting at £8 from Shottle Bop

How brilliant does this necklace look? I love the Shottle Bop necklaces and can't wait until I can afford to buy one. This is my favourite one and you can even get them with little silver spoons! I feel I may own one of these before the year is out... buy yours here.














8) Linger by Maggie Stiefvater - £3.99 (usually £7.99) on Amazon

I have read the first in this series (Shiver) and I really enjoyed it. It is a bit like Twilight but with werewolves instead! I can't wait to get the second one and find out what happens next. Get your copy here.














9) Professor Layton and the Lost Future - £29.91 (usually £39.99) on Amazon

When I went on Amazon to find the link for Linger (number 8 in my list) I saw this on the homepage and got extremely excited! I have literally just finished Professor Layton and Pandora's Box. I don't often complete games as I get bored with them but this one had me gripped from the off. Now I read that there is a new one coming out on the 17th September 2010! Get yours here.










10) Military Wool Jacket - £39.99 from New Look

Last but not least... when I came across this jacket I fell in love. I love the style and the colour and I need a new jacket for winter. This would be perfect teamed with my band t shirts, black skinnies and those boots at number 1 in my list. I can dream... Get yours here.

Green Day at Lancashire County Cricket Ground (Manchester)

We went to see Green Day in June and they were absolutely amazing. They were supported by Frank Turner and Joan Jett.

Frank Turner

Joan Jett

They were brilliant. I've seen Joan Jett before (when she supported Alice Cooper) but had never heard of Frank Turner. He is brilliant. I highly recommend "The Road" and "Photosynthesis".

Green Day were amazing, as I knew they would be! As one of my favourite bands, I've wanted to see them for years. They were on top form. The first hour was mostly their newest album (21st Century Breakdown) then they did a lot of classic stuff from Dookie/Insomniac etc. There was a lot of jumping up and down, singing, waving hands, screaming and shouting going on! Their encore was American Idiot which was fabulous. Here are some photos anyway! I am obsessed with Billie Joe so most of them are of him!

Mathew Street Festival - Monday

The Mathew Street Festival on Monday was amazing. 

We got there just in time for Kaiser Thiefs. This band were absolutely amazing. They sound just like the real thing. Unfortunately they don't look like the real thing. But hey, its free!





Here is Ricky-a-like acting like the real Ricky and climbing up the scaffolding!





Next up were The Fillers. These were the best band by far. They look like The Killers and they sound like them. They are brilliant! I cant wait to see these again!





This photo shows the famous jacket that Brandon wears! (sorry for the quality of the photo!)

After The Fillers were the Antarctic Monkeys. These always sound amazing. I saw them last year. It is also at this point where people start throwing beer all over the place. I got out of the crowd here. My legs were aching from jumping around! They sounded brilliant though.

Next were Razorlike who sounded a bit like Razorlight but not brilliantly. The lead singer did not look like he'd made an effort to even look like them! But they were OK. I didn't manage to get any photos.

After this we went to another stage to listen to Elevation (U2). These are amazing every year and have quite a large fan base. Therefore, it was a shock that they had been put on a smaller stage. We could get nowhere near and the stewards were ridiculous. There were barriers up everywhere so nobody could get where they wanted. I was so angry. We had to miss Elevation this year but hopefully will see them next year (on a bigger stage!).

Then it was back to the main stage to see Kins Of Leon. These were amazing. They didn't look like the Kings Of Leon but they sounded fab! Everyone was singing along to Sex On Fire. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I only got one photo and it was from quite far away.

So that was it for another year at the Mathew Street Festival! The weather was good on the Monday until Kins Of Leon finished and then it rained! I can't wait for next year.

Billiesue

Mathew Street Festival 2009 - Sunday

We went to the festival today and saw Guns 2 Roses. They weren't bad, Axl's voice was more croaky than it should have been I thought. We didn't get to see the Queen tribute band as the rain was terrible! Thankfully, the weather for tomorrow looks better! Here are some photos of Guns 2 Roses, I failed to get any closer so I had to take photos of the screen!


Slash:




Axl:

Mathew Street Festival

So this weekend it's the Mathew Street Festival! I'm very excited. I can't wait to see

• Dios Salve A La Reina (Queen tribute)
• Kaiser Thiefs (Kaiser Chiefs tribute)
• The Fillers (Killers tribute)
• Antarctic Monkeys (Arctic Monkeys tribute)
• Razorlike (Razorlight tribute)
• Elevation (U2 tribute)

I shall get lots of photos and may write some reviews of the bands. I have seen a few of them before, Elevation are on every year and are fab, as are Dios Salve A La Reina. I saw The Fillers, Kaiser Thiefs and Antarctic Monkeys last year and these were also fab. Especially The Fillers! (The Killers are my favourite band and these sound just like them!)
See you there! (30th-31st August - Liverpool City Centre)
Billiesue