James Titcumb

I’m really looking forward to Hellfest, which begins this Friday (although we leave Portsmouth on Wednesday evening for the overnight ferry to Le Havre). In fact, it’s nearly rivaling Wacken in my “festival opinion”. It actually has more bands I like than Wacken this year, it’s nearer, the journey is easier, and it’s less “sold out”. Wacken has started disappointing me more and more over the last couple of years, booking bands I’m not so keen on such as Bullet for my Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold and Killswitch Engage. Yeah, they’re metal, but not my kind of metal. I’m starting to think about abandoning the organisation behemoth that is getting to Wacken for a much simpler task of booking a ferry + 2/3 hour car journey to Clisson, France. We’ll see what the festival is like soon and I’ll have a much more educated opinion.

So here’s the line-up, I’m excited!

Venom, In Flames, Dimmu Borgir, Carcass, Testament, Sick of it All, Paradise Lost, Katatonia, Mayhem, Madball, Death Angel, Marduk, Septic Flesh, Danko Jones, Baroness, Krisiun, Job for a Cowboy, Alchemist, Born From Pain, Bleeding Through, Rotting Christ, Throwdown, Eluveitie, Evile, Ultra Vomit, Ava Inferi, Kruger, Raintime, Red Mourning, Helloween, Gamma Ray, Cavalery Conspiracy, Apocalyptica, Iced Earth, Ministry, Porcupine Tree, Candlemass, Sonata Arctica, Satyricon, Anathema, Sodom, Punish Yourself, Treponem Pal, Airbourne, Disfear, Nightmare, Legion of the Damned, Anaal Nathrakh, Haemorrhage, Impaled Nazarene, Black Tide, Belphegor, The Old Dead Tree, Shining, Watain, Today is the Day, Benighted, Blazing War Machine, Slayer, Motorhead, Nofx, Opeth, Morbid Angel, Meshuggah, At the Gates, My Dying Bride, Obituary, Rose Tattoo, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Envy, Eths, Forbidden, Cult of Luna, Dying Fetus, Misanthrope, Comeback Kid, Neecrophagist, Primordial, Municipal Waste, Shai Hulud, The Ocean, Rotten Sound, Arkhon Infaustus, Origin, Between the Buried and Me, Ghost Brigade, Year of No Light

No sooner after I had started packing away the 360, Blu-Ray player, PS2 etc., Mike, a member of Pompey Music forum brought round the Nintendo Wii that Hannah wanted to buy. So unfortunately, the entire afternoon which was meant to be spent packing up for the new house was in fact spent playing on the Wii. We’ve set up our Mii’s, and have been playing a little Wii Sports and Mario Party 8. She’s still playing, but someone has to cook the dinner, so while the oven is warming up I thought I’d mention what we’re up to.

Things are getting pretty hectic around here now. Packing the house up for moving to Whiteley, as well as preparing for the imminent Hellfest (yay!). We managed to get down town today for a bit and pick up some bits (baby wipes, Euros and the like) ready for that. We’re on a really tight budget this year, and it’s made even tighter by the fact we have to save a shed load of money for the wedding, and more importantly, Hannah’s engagement ring! The new house’s rent is £170 more a month between us as well, so that’s another kick in the budget’s teeth.

Another headache I’ve been trying to figure out is what I’m going to do with the servers during the move. I can’t get internet at the new place until the BT line is activated which is on the day we move in (and not a minute sooner!). This means that I probably won’t have internet at all from 1st July for about 10-15 days, providing the new ISP doesn’t mess anything up. I spoke to Kelvin briefly, and understandably, he said no to letting me put the servers in the work’s server cabinet (security risks and all that), so ideally I need to find a home for them at a friend’s house. I’ll try and chat up a few friends who I know have good internet connections, but if any of you are my clients reading this, I will try and keep downtime to a minimum, but there will be a bit of disruption, so be warned!

Anyway, off to cook dinner, ta ta for now!

As Hellfest gets nearer and nearer the wait becomes even more agonising, and the more death and black metal I listen to and tap my feet. I’m starting to get into the festival mood now, summer is nearly here. Just 27 days to go at the time of writing…