Isle of Wight Festival 2012

(no photos were taken by me, unless stated otherwise)

Thursday was a pretty stressful day... Wednesday I stayed at Stiggers and we overslept, resulting in not only him being an hour late for work but I was an hour behind for everything! I had my (hopefully) last ever college exam that afternoon, before which I had to pack all my stuff for the festival, shower and get it all to Katies and still turn up on time. I'm not feeling to brilliant about that but after the exam Katie and I headed off to Southampton to catch the Ferry to the festival.

Which was the easy part. We left Andover at 5, got to the actual festival at about 9.15... It took us 2 and a half hours to plough through the ridiculous amounts of mud and pitch the tent. We met a lovely drunken man guy called Matt who kept calling every one Doris! He was awesome and I was so greatful to him, Torie and Toni for helping us pitch our tent... I'm so gutted I missed Primal Scream and the Strangelrs on Thursday night, but there's not a whole lot I can do about that now...

Friday was a good one! Katie and I chilled out all morning, mooching round the stalls etc and ate some amazing pizza... the high winds and mud were nooot a good mix, and nearly made me fall on my arse time and time again.

Photo of part of the main arena I took on Sunday, so many people watching the footie instead of Ash!

Before the main arena opened we met up with Robby and every one again for a few bevvies before racing off to see Feeder... a race we lost. Which is something I still don't understand. We left a good 20 minutes before the rest of the group and they all managed to see the end of Feeders set before we even got there. But we saw Noah and the Whale who were surprisingly good- I'm not generally much of a fan of them but they did impress me live. Next up was Example, which was just horrendous! He was brilliant, so good live! But I just couldn't handle the pits! That and I had some girls arse in my face for literally the whole set. Following Example was Elbow- Who were quite possibly my favourite act of the weekend, I thought they performed amazingly and I would love to see them again.

Headlining the Main Stage was a persona hero of mine, Tom Petty. Absolutely incredible. I was lucky enough to get right up to the barrier for his set and balled like a baby when they played You Wreck Me. They played loads of my favourites too, like Listen To Her Heart, American Girl & Free Fallin' (ofcourse), Refugee, Learning to Fly and Handle With Care... It was the highlight of my weekend and an experience I'd give anything to relive.

I love this man.

Saturday I got to see Madness! a band I absolutely adore and did not disappoint me, except for the fact they didn't play Lovestruck or Shut up :( I also ended up seeing Labrinth and Tinie Tempah, who both pleasantly surprised me! Big Country were incredible and Biffy Clyro absolutely blew my mind as well, especially with all the lighting and pyrotechnics they used... Unforunately I missed Pearl Jam though...
Sunday was spent following Katie round like the sleep deprived Zombie I was, watching Noel Gallaghers High Flying Birds, Band of Skulls, Bruce Springsteen, Christina Perri and finally The Darkness. Darkness closed the show in the Big Top and after Springsteen and the Footie finished it filled up ridiculously quickly, but stayed quite tame until they played 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love' which of course set the crowd going mental...

I really cannot be bothered to write any more, which is just as well as I'd just be rattling on trying to figure out a way to end this post.. So instead I'm just gonna say I cannot wait until to crawl in to bed in a minute! Sooo... Goodnight!

this is what I look like...

Don't mind me... just puttin' this here cause I really dig this photo Alana took of me...

I'm genuinely too angry to actually come up with a title... wow...

I know this blog doesn't get a whole lot of attention, not from people that know me personally at least... But I also know that it does reach some people, how you found this blog is something I'm completely confused by- but I'm so grateful that you read it... 


I'm sorry for the upcoming rant, because I know it probably wont make sense or will probably come across incredibly hypocritical/egotistical... But I'm beyond angry at the moment... (surprise surprise there!)

I think one of my biggest pet peeves is people that literally preach bullshit they have no idea about on the internet, out done only by my hatred for respected people that preach stuff they maybe sorta understand on the internet- to people that will buy in to their every word & feed their egos, generally these people are something to do with the music industry either being a promoter, writer or even in a band. I just get so angry when someone feels the need to blog about how shit another band is, or how 'they were printed in Kerrang! so clearly no one that posts in their ask box is good enough to talk to them'.. the latest one is slightly different, talking about how fans are essentially shit nowadays.

Okay, of course you're entitled to that opinion! But why post it on a social networking site where all your fans can and probably will read it, then promote that post on every other social networking site you're a member of...

No wonder you fall victim to the issues you describe in the post. Issues that you probably shouldn't be talking about because you're just pointing out the flaws in the work you do actually.

oooh burn.

(a not so) Happy Birthday to me!

Last night I turned the big 1-9! The weather was glorious, the costumes fantastic and the drama at... an unbelievable high...

Friday night I did go on a bit of a mad one and stayed at Stiggers, luckily for me (!) he had work at 9 o'clock Saturday morning and was kind enough to wake me up at 7.30, so in turn I woke the rest of the house to tell them all it was my birthday :). After we got a taxi in to town I stumbled through to my Nans house and then back in to town to go shopping with her... eventually getting picked up by Dad who took me home to sleep off my hangover...

Saturday was quite literally spent asleep, until 3 when Katie came and picked me up and we went back to hers where I got to open presents! I got a beautiful little union jack trinket box & some snooker shot glasses, Jenny even made me an amazing cake!

























Then we had a beautiful BBQ in the sun & waited for Mez to pick us up so we could get ready to go out. It was a long and stressful process, so stressful that I nearly cried... buuuuut eventually we were ready in our fancy dress get-ups, and went to meet Mike, Chris, Emily, Kelvin, Ange and Katie at Spoons.

Katie, Me & Mez

After a chat with Stig, we decided to leave and head for Life... only to be stopped when Stig play Nickleback - Rockstar which we all started dancing too... but eventually we did get to Life where we were just essentially harrassed by squadies. But a birthday booth was reserved for me, even if it was under the name 'Ashliegh', and I got to drink Champagne and dance, it was good!  About 1.30 Sophie rang and said she was outside, so I left the guys in Life & tried to get in to Piston, since I left my ID in Life it didn't really end brilliantly. So we mooched back to the George and waited to Jon, Stig, Martin, Katie and Belfast.

cue my night going to shit!
I got to listen to my boyfriend argue with his ex-girlfriend, then sit in his living room while every one was moody and he was on the phone to his ex-girlfriend. so all in all 'spending the night at Stigs to spend some time with him on my birthday' definitely suuuuucked!

Sunday was no better either.. but that's a day I don't even want to think about for a long time.

May Bank Holiday

It was undoubtedly a heavy one... & it started last Wednesday with the usual 'life - antics'...

Me beaut mug, with Sean, Sophie, Callum, Coops and Jack chillin in the background

...with Sean, Callum, Coops, Jack, Lewis and the girls Sophie, Jaimie & Sian.  The night started with a cheeky fag with Freddy, Jack, Ben and Sleepy Kid, then met with Coops & had a quick drink at the George whilst waiting for all the others to finish their charity quiz at Propaganda. Once they did we headed to Life for the standard Wednesday night ting. Get shiiiiitfaced, something we do quite well on £15 each with drinks being £1.20... Callum- my Life dance partner- bust out those moves like nobodies business and then they all left at closing time, leaving me to wait for Katie to finish work. (definitely found £20 on the floor on the way back to hers though)

Thursday I stumbled in to college for my two hours of film, hungover as anything, and spent them chatting to Marcus... Then for unknown reasons I decided to go see Yearbook, a band I'm not a massive fan of. Buuuut they were pretty good, and I got to see Ben on his birthday which was awesome! Then for some reason I volunteered Martin & Myself to help push start some guys mini, buuut the police turned up and jump started it... Afterwards I was halfway home and Stig and Martin came and got me, then I ended up staying at theirs...

Friday, after attempting to shake the absolutely horrendous hangover I had by sleeping near enough aaaall day, Alana picked me up and we mooched on over to Basingstoke for Nandos, then after driving back to Andover Millie phoned and asked if we wanted to go to her dads gig in b'stoke- which we did... It was pretty good! But it was so hot in the venue we spent most of the night sat in the back bit trying not to die & judging all the locals. They dropped me off back in town and I had a catch up with Bill at Redbridge, went baaack to the George and got drunk with Sophie, Martin & Jon.. then 2 taxis later myself, Katie, Nathan, Martin, Stig, Sophie and Jon were back at their house having a 'make up' 80s night because Sophie & I missed the actual one. A game of Roxanne later and I was pretty drunk consoling an upset Sophie until we all decided to go to bed.

Saturday was spent chillin out, watching Spongebob and trying to make bacon sandwiches as a 'team'... then Sophie was amazing enough to let me tag along in her taxi back in to town where I hung out at home til my Dad rang me, so instantly I agreed to go out in town with him... me, Dad, Browner & Taff started out at The White Hart, then on to Redbridge (quite possibly my favourite place to drink with my Dad because the banter with the door staff is hilarious)... next was on to the Foresters, a place where I am normally the youngest person in their, halfway through my pint a bunch of lads from college turned up which was quite weird but I said my hellos and we left and went to the Central Club, where amazingly I stumbled upon my friend Reece's gig- and got royally fucked over by my Dads mates who sent me in to the Gents toilets because I was drunk enough to believe whatever it was they told me... Then after a real quick pint in the Lardy Cake I went straaaaight back to the George, pissed as anything. I have no real recollection of after that point.

Sunday I slept, I slept a lot. Martin & I watched The Princess Diaries & Then headed back in to town for the Sondura show. Sondura were incredible as per... I missed the headline band though, as I went to Chico land for chippiesssssss. Afterwards there was a lot of skankin'... then a lot of shouting... and I ran off home quick...

Monday & Today have been horrid. I woke up with a horrible fluey/cold thing... and I've barely moved since :( I'm in dire need of some sympathy and someone to look after me.

"I've lost the vodka... again..."

Was pretty much my motto for Friday night! To be fair though, it was actually nicked. 

I spent all of last week debating with myself as to whether or not I was going to go to the house party that was being held by a girl who lives a few houses away from me, considering we hadn't spoken since I was 14 and her folks absolutely despise me I was pretty confused as to why I'd been invited- but a few friends from college who had also been invited convinced me it'd be a good idea! So I got ready and headed to Asda to meet them, bought booze and baccy and headed on over to the party. It was pretty dead when we got there, but us being the oldest and wiser, more experienced of the guests (and some how we deemed this as reasonable logic) decided to make sure we were obliterated to show the 16y'olds how it's really done. I did pretty well, leaving the party at 4 and waking up outside my bedroom door an hour later...
Unfortunately though, south street decided to crash the party- which I wouldn't have minded had they not bought a certain lad with them. Now, I'm not close to my family and as much as she talks shit about me I will always stick up for my younger sister so when (at the age of 14) her boyfriend (of the same age) cheats on her by sleeping with two other girls then I certainly won't be happy when he decides to try and crash a party I'm at. Thank fully Kim dragged me upstairs before I kicked off too bad and she kicked him out! 

Unfortunately the only photo that actually got taken of me at the party was this one...

...which I've just noticed looks as though I've got a hand coming out of my tutu. But all in all shows how pretty wasted I was? Considering I don't remember wearing a tutu and I didn't wake up with it on?

Other than this party, I've had a generally really interesting week or two... I've met some really cool people and spent a hell of a lot of time hanging out with Alana, Katie, Ross and Josh, playing the Deal or No Deal board game at Katies house and eating an ungodly amount of KFC. I've drifted away from people, but I know that they're still there for me if I need them & I've had a lot of time to my self- which has been nice! I always underestimate how could it can be to just have a few days to my self. Next I've got Saturday to look forward to, Swindon with the girls to see The Dead Lay Waiting, which reminds me that I need to sort out my camera to see if I can get any photos for the review, and it'd be nice to be able to speak to Luke for longer than 5 minutes! - It'll be nice to get away from Andover for an evening at least...

Happy Easter!

Well, this Easter weekend has been a pretty heavy one...
Wednesday consisted of the standard wednesday night ting, with Joe, Jordan, Sarah, Robyn & Lewis, it was brilliant! Until we all decided to carry on partyin' at Jordans house- at which point we got as far as Tesco where Joe, Callum & Sam where and I made callum take me home. then Jordan phoned and I ended up walking back paaast tesco to go stay at Jordans where we drank hella whiskey and watched the drum and bass awards at 4AM.

some how we ended up with toblerone on wednesday. Me, Jord, Ro. :)

Thursday was good too, went out with Katie and Tim and ended up spending most of the evening with Sian, Jack, Lewis, Callum and Sam. It was such a laugh, glasses where getting broken and ridiculous dance moves where getting cracked out- the amount of times I did the sprinkler was ridiculous...
Friday I ended up absolutely obliterated. I went to the George for a quiet pint with Stig then went and met Alana for a bit... Got back to the George and just ended up wankered with Martin and Matt Horton moshing to Feeder.Then at 2 when the George closed, I attempted to walk home but some really bad jokes were made that really offended me and so triggered a two hour heart to heart with Matt after some guy puked on my filters.
Saturday Hell, Saturday I don't even knooow what happened... at the gig I was chatting to some guy who i don't even remember, drank way to many jack&cokes in tooo little time with my Dad, got hammered. From when Alana had to leave the George at 11, and when I was at Rosies at 2.30 i remember noooothing. I spent ages in Rosies kitchen talking to Martin, had a heart to heart with Belfast before bed, cried down the phone to Alana because her car had moved, and had to sleep under like 3 hoodies because I had no quilt or anything. Saturday was just generally ridiculous.

bu-bye In On The Chase

Last night I went to The George to see We Caught The Castle, In On The Chase, The Fortunate and Jody Has A Hitlist... All bands played incredibly, but as per I was mainly there to see my good friends in IOTC this time in there final show as a band... It was absolutely brilliant, so proud of my buddies, and they definitely got the best crowd reaction of the night!

Other than IOTC and JHAH I didn't really catch the others as I was sitting at the merch table with Katie selling IOTCs tshirts, chatting to Katie, Sean, Zack, Jack and Gabelli. but when JHAH played they did good! I've always been a fan of there stuff even if they're not my favourite people in the world haha.

how to lose friends and alienate people

I should have been the author of that book, because apparently it's something I was really good at Friday night!  But every cloud has a silver lining, and with every friend I lost I've made at the very least two more! With my new relationship with Sean (well, we've been together nearly 2 months...) I've also gained some awesome new friends in Joe, Jack, Callum & Zack- they're gonna destroy my liver though!

some of the wednesday lot! L-R Jordan, Sarah, Beth, Joe, Lauren & Ro

The Wednesday Crew have been hitting town hard the last few weeks, normally resulting in some sort of drama and hilarious anecdote, including being started on by some fat woman and a disabled french man telling us he had filled up his nappy. It was annoying and hilarious respectively. I tell you though, £1.20 drinks will be the end of me!

me & stanley at the flat warming party.

Friday night just gone was an absolute blur. After about 10PM I don't remember much! I know I annoyed a lot of people, because of being loud etc... but I also know that I made a good friend in Stanley that night! We chatted for aaaages & sat in an empty bath tub for way over an hour. I have no idea whaaaat we were talking about for that long but I had a fun night so whatever!

Knee Deep Presents... @ The Star Inn- Guilford

Will Kent from Within Her Depth

After an absolutely ridiculous night of drinking last night, the last thing I really wanted to be doing this evening was going to what was essentially a hardcore show- but I promised the promoter that I'd be there after he promised to give me two mars bars in return, and I'd already gone through a lot of hassle trying to find out if Dan could give me a lift there... Armed with my camera and a pair of sunglasses to hide the hangover I got picked up at four by the Eyes Like Knives boys and we set sail for the wondrous guilford! (I sat in silence for an hour while Chris and Lewis talked about guitars and other shit I don't understand).
We arrived pretty early, and had a wander up a really steep hill, then back down again because we realized Guilford really isn't that great and there's not a whole lot to see so we unloaded the equipment and retreated back in to the venue.

It wasn't long before my good friends in Within Her Depth turned up, so after a much needed catch up with their bassists' girlfriend (one of my best friends from school) WHD took to the stage to open the show- It was definitely one of the best times I'd seen them play even if Will did seem to knacker himself out by the last few songs- but all in all they played a good strong set and pleased the crowd, even though it was nearly impossible to get them moving.
Next up where Eyes Like Knives who had so much energy from the very beginning of their set, but they need to learn to pace themselves as they all burned out after 2 or 3 songs, there was something different about these tonight- there energy and stage presence went beautifully hand in hand and made for a entrancing show, I couldn't take my eyes off of them! The guys were playing incredibly the whole way through but unfortunately a lack of communication (or just members of staff being absolute idiots) resulting in the band being told they had 10 minutes longer to play than was planned for, meant they didn't get a chance to play 'The Lurcher' which I'd say was probably their best known track as they've recently released a video for it-



After Eyes Like Knives finished there set and we packed everything away I got a but caught up in the whole socializing side of things and only caught a few tracks from the rest of the bands but from what I saw/heard they were all brilliant, The Divided really impressed me and they actually managed to get a bit of movement from the audience and Mind Set A Threat where great to watch because of the shear amount of energy they had on stage- I was getting knackered just watching them! In League disappointed me a bit though- I didn't think much of their clean vocals and to me they didn't really seem to really pull together or get that great of a crowd reaction. But I've got the upmost respect for them and what they're doing! They are an Australian band that've been touring the US and Europe since October... that's a long time to be living on the road playing shows.

The journey home was a long one, I got a lift home with Within Her Depth to save Dan having to drive the extra distance from Andover to Shrewton... we got a wee bit lost and ended up chanting Yearbook songs at eachother whilst I struggled to stay awake- and now I'm sat on Katies living room floor writing this because I'm  not allowed to go to bed until her little brother's gone to get the coach for the college trip he's going on.

You have no idea how well I'm going to sleep tonight!