Newcastle 5th August

[Abstract Unknown Girl]

I enjoyed the Manics themselves, but these recent gigs have just reiterated how little a fan I am of festivals. Too many bands I don't care about (PSB were decent, but oh my god The Cribs were beyond DIRE), too much time stood waiting for the band to come on (some of which was in the pouring rain, welcome to British summer time!) and earlier gates means more time for the crowd to get pissed up, which inevitably leads to drunken dicks skittling people who've been waiting hours out the way as soon as the Manics come on. If I sound bitter, it's because I am and have had one too many gigs ruined by absolute arseholes who are so wasted they can't even stand up properly. A drunk woman pushed in next to me on the barrier after using my back as a climbing frame for the entirety of Motorcycle Emptiness, whilst her even more drunken boyfriend/husband/whatever he was couldn't even keep his arms in the air and kept hitting me on the head and in the face every few minutes. I told him to stop, woman next to me gave me an earful of abuse saying it's not their fault they're being pushed by those behind them...even though it wasn't the pushing it was the being hit in the head I was complaining about and they were the ones who had pushed everyone else out the way and were still the cause of the crushing themselves when nothing was even going on on stage! Security eventually told the bloke to stop and he backed off, but she continued to be a totally selfish bitch for the entire gig and wouldn't stop trying to push me over or waving her arms right in my face so I could barely take any decent photos or even see properly at some points. I'm so fed up of people like this ruining it for those who just want to watch the band. Even when I personally manage to avoid such wankers, I always come online and see others saying they had their gig ruined in the same way. So many people just come to live music events to get drunk nowadays, although having said that the woman next to me did actually know a lot of the words to the Manics' songs, so it's a shame a fellow fan couldn't have cared less about ruining it for other fans around her. Her and her boyfriend also kept booing the sound desk guy that James thanked (or wished happy birthday to or something?? I can't actually remember now, he gave a shout out to him anyway), which was the weirdest fucking thing ever. People like them just put me off gigs and there's a small part of me (admittedly, a very small part of me) that just doesn't want to bother with it all after incidents like this, because I come away in such a bad mood and with such a bitter taste in my mouth about the experience, which is the total opposite of what it should be about. But hey ho, it was one gig and I've been to many others without these issues. It's jut complete luck of the draw where you end up stood...or where such idiots decide to attack. I did half expect Newcastle on a Saturday night to be like that.

Anyway...none of the above was remotely the band's fault, so I shall try say something positive about them. So glad they played SATT! After the Bristol gig I came on here and moaned that I couldn't understand why they weren't playing the title track of the album they're currently celebrating and lo and behold, they play it (I know they played it at Kendal Calling as well)! I'm taking credit for that obviously The rest of the set wasn't particularly exciting (acoustic Masses was weird and I wish they would stop playing This Is The Day), but I think you have to be realistic about these summer gigs re: the setlist. They're not ready to give us any new songs yet, they're not really promoting anything other than the SATT anniversary and they've just done a load of album tours.

Think my favourite moment was James getting stuck in the ticker tape when it blew back on to the stage in the wind and got stuck in the lighting directly above where he was stood at the mic stand. He needed assistance to get untangled from it all I saw that Nicky didn't travel to Ireland the day after, so I hope everything is ok with his mum. He was singing along in Newcastle (he did his lines in YLAINE too).

I haven't dared to look at the state of my photos off my camera yet. Every time I was poised ready to take one, the cow next to me flung her arms in the way so depending on how crap they are, I may or may not share any