Rage 1 Cowell 0

So, here it is. Finally. The entry about the Rage Factor.

Last week, I woke up ridiculously early and couldn’t get back to sleep. So I took the time to write my homework for my creative writing class, get it over and done with.

Then I decided to head to the LRC to go online briefly before I had to catch the bus. Got there only to discover that the network was down and there was no internet. Hmmm.

Went for a wonder round town and decided to go for a wander round MIMA, as it had been a while since I was last there (I believe it was the Top Gear thing). They had an exhibition in connection with the AV festival on the ground floor. Some of the stuff was interesting. I also got to steal something.

One of the exhibits is called The Stacks. It’s two stacks of paper, each stack with something written on each sheet. On one stack it says Somewhere better than this place and on the other it says Nowhere better than this place. And here’s the rub. The artist gave them an ideal stack height. Visitors were invited to take a piece of the paper if they wanted. So I did:

So, basically, I stole a piece of art with permission :¬)

Came home and watched The Cut and the last episode of the last series of
Mad Men. Then I headed back to the LRC to give my laptop to a friend to look after.  (Obviously, I didn’t want to take it to the gig with me, but I didn’t want to leave it at home when I wasn’t there either.) I then headed to the bus station to catch the bus to Manchester.

The bus driver was a bit strange. He snapped at someone who wanted to get off briefly at the bus station for having delayed us, but then (due to the toilet on the bus being out of order) made a comfort stop for us. I finished reading one book and started re-reading another one only to discover that I didn’t have a bookmark. Then I realised that I had my hair bands with me and thus was discovered impromptu uses for a hair band #1: bookmark. Got into Manchester about 20 minutes late and met up with Jemma. We wondered round Mancherster for a bit then she took me for a drink in one of her favourite bars. It’s a tiny, tiny underground place that’s actually really cool. Unfortunately, a bunch of drunk idiots followed us in but we didn’t have to sit anywhere near them. Jemma knows the bar staff and got us permission to sit behind the bar.

Couple of pints there and we headed back to hers. We watched I’m In A Rock And Roll Band Live, which annoyed me because Led Zeppelin won the vote for best band, beating The Beatles and Queen. Now Don’t get me wrong, I do like Led Zep, but I’m trying to work out in which universe they are actually better than the Beatles. It was while watching this and messing about I discovered impromptu uses for a hair band #2: device to hold your can of beer without having to, y’know, grip it.

(I also believe that you can use them to keep your hair in place.)

After 8 cans of lager, Jerry Maguire and South Park, we finally went to sleep about 3. Only to be woken up at 7:30 so I could go and catch the bus. Got the tram back into town and then went to the pick up point. We stood around for about half an hour then the bus turned up. I gave Jemma a goodbye hug and boarded. I settled into my seat and started reading. Then the bus driver (who was really cool) said that he’d hang about a bit longer to make sure there were no stragglers and if anyone smoked we should get out and have a smoke as he wasn’t planning on stopping. He also pointed out that by law we were supposed to wear our seat belts and could face a £60 on the spot fine if stopped by the police and we weren’t.

I got off the bus, had another smoke, spoke to Jemma briefly (she hung around to wave me off) gave her another goodbye hug and got back on board. Then we set off.

The trip there was fairly uneventful except for two things. It turned out that we did have to stop due to the fact that it was either stop at the Watford Gap (after which I joked that it was fine that we were in the south as I’d had my inoculations) and then, when we started off again, someone came to speak to me and I discovered that we were born in the same hospital.

When we got there, the directions to the gig were simple. Follow this road to get there, reverse to get back to the bus. So I set off. After about a 15 minute walk, I found the entrance to the gig and, more importantly, the ticket office (as my ticket hadn’t turned up). I waited in the queue and took out the pieces of ID I needed. Finally, finally, after months of waiting and a week of stress, god-awful hold music, I had my ticket in my hand. Instead if going straight in, I went for a wander round the park as I’m not sure if I’ll be back there again. Then I went in, after a security check that was quite funny. (Top tip: never ask me to empty my pockets due to the amount of crap I usually carry with me.)

I looked round the fun fair, the food stands and wished I had the money to buy myself a t shirt (I’ve since bought one online. I’ll post pics when I get it). Found a piece of grass to sit on and listened to the music they were playing while I waited for it to start. I did think it was going to rain, and it did start spitting a couple of times, but the weather held out, thankfully. Then the first band came on. The reviews:

Gallows: I’d never heard of them before they were announced as one of the support acts. I got hold of their album Grey Britain and found it to be really good. Well, live, these guys fucking rock. Plenty of fan interaction (for example, getting us to boo Justin Bieber as he was playing a gig at Wembley that night). They even got us to start a huge Dio chant. They came out to the National Anthem (making it the first time I’d ever seen people throwing devils horns to that particular song) and from their opening cover of God Save the Queen to the final song on the set they never gave less than 100%. Fucking awesome.

Roots Manuva: I must admit I was a bit disappointed with these guys. I am a fan of their music but it just didn’t work for some reason. Don’t get me wrong, they were good, but I just felt there was something missing. It’s possibly because they were the wrong type of act for this event, I’m not sure.

Gogol Bordello: Again, I listened to some of their stuff online when they were announced. I wasn’t massively impressed. In fact I thought they were crap and wondered if there was something I was missing. Turns out that thing was seeing them live. They were brilliant. I still wouldn’t buy their music, but if they were on the line up at a gig I was going to, I wouldn’t be too disappointed. How often is it you get to see someone singing while stood on a bass drum being held up by the audience?

Rage Against The Machine: Now for the reason we were there.Interestingly, they were introduced by Simon Colwell. Well, a crudely animated version:

Then an air raid siren went off as a huge banner with a giant red star on it was raised in the background. Then the band hit the stage and the madness began. It’s actually easier than you think to enjoy music while pressed up against a metal barrier. Water was being freely distributed by the security guards (when they weren’t hauling people out). After the first song, Zac De La Rocha stated that they never saw us coming at Christmas, which is true enough. It was also gratifying that one of the biggest cheers of the night went to the Mortons, the couple who started the whole thing, when they came onto the stage to accept a cheque from the band on behalf of Shelter. (Inspired by the Mortons asking people to donate money to the charity as well as/instead of buying the song, Rage donated every penny they made from the sales of the song to Shelter. The total is over £100,000.)

After the last song the band left, but ~I had a sneaky feeling that wasn’t the end of the gig. There was one song they hadn’t played that I was sure they would. Sure enough, on the screens, accompanied by The Climb (the X-Factor song last year), various quotes from the whole thing flashed up. It then informed us how many singles the X-Factor single sold. Then there was the sound of a record scratching as up on the screen, in red, came the word Rage followed by their sales. That was replaced by this:

It stayed like that for a couple of minutes before the guitars came crashing in the band came back out to play Killing in the Name. Afterwards, the gig was over and I headed back to the bus then back to Boro.

I do have pics of the whole thing here

Oh, and I’m on fb here and twitter here

As I said in my previous entry, the whole day was brilliant and well worth the hassle I went through to get the ticket. Amazing day and memories that will last me a lifetime.

Couple of other things. Because I got into trouble for not letting people know this at Christmas, I’m heading back to Aberdeen. I’ll be home between 5 – 12 July.

Oh, and I have a job interview on Thursday. It should be easy enough, I have plenty of experience, but still. Wish me luck.

Will