James Titcumb

As you may/may not know I recently got back from the yearly pilgrammage that is Wacken. There were very few bands I really wanted to see, compared to Hellfest, so much of it was socialising and partying rather than watching tonnes of bands. We left on Monday (28th July) around 9pm to pick Tom and Sophia up. I had a little strop due to the ridiculous amount of packing they did (and always have done). Srsly guys - fail.

Anyways, we set off for Dover, and as we did, the entire Atlantic Ocean poured down on my car. Most of the journey was spent doing between 20mph-40mph due to the extremely low visibility, but we pressed on. We made it to the ferry for about 00:45am after a ridiculuously long detour due to some morons closing the main road into Dover ferry terminal - srsly guys, FAIL.

After I had a disturbed sleep on the ferry, we set off still in darkness through France. As we headed into Belgium, the day began to show itself, and my tiredness kicked in again. Just before the German border, I flaked out and let Hannah drive for an hour or so, for her first time in Europe, woohoo! I took over before we reached the A1, and sped most of the way to Wacken at around 100-110mph aside from roadworks etc., and we arrived at the holy Wackenland about 2pm, after a couple of stops for food and beer (which were piled up on Tom and Soph in the back!)

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Yes, today we leave for Wacken, it’s nice and early and suprisingly a sunny day here. I’m up bright an early as there’s simply loads of stuff to sort out. We won’t actually be leaving this house until about 9pm, but there’s loads to do! Money changing, server cabinet to be picked up, other bits and pieces.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to it, and I’m quite hungry, so I may go and grab some breakfast! Adieu.

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

So today Tom asked me to do some research into places I’d like to visit in Denmark and Sweden when we go there after Wacken this year. We’ve been planning this little trip for a little while, but I never really thought much about what could be there. I don’t know much about these countries, just that they speak other languages and that the terrain is spectacular apparently.

Places I’ve seen (I’ll expand this list in the future) include:

Denmark:

• The Jelling Stones
• Fyn Island (or Funen), mainly Egeskov Castle.
• Copenhagen

Sweden:

• Ale’s Stones in Scania, South Sweden
• Visby medieval city on Gotland (if we can get there!)
• Stockholm

So as the dust settles from the mad festivities of August, I am finally starting to settle back into normal life. Wacken was absolutely immense, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the bands and spending time with good friends (Tom, Sophia, Joss, Gil, Ross, Sam, Nestor, Maren, Luke, Laurie etc. etc.). An excellent festival by any counts, and I will certainly be there next year.

I spent a few days in California after that doing a hard slog of work, but came back in time for Bloodstock Open Air, which was fun, but having Wacken fresh in the mind sort of dampened how good it seemed. It was OK - quite a few good bands (Korpiklaani, Freedom Call, Sabbat, a few others) but rather annoyingling I missed Testament (and all other bands) on Thursday due to being stupidly tired (same as Gemma!).

A small rant now….. I enjoyed marching around the camp-site with randoms, various chants and shouting and boozing. I was extremely disgusted with a group of people that burnt the god damned wheelie bin. Seriously, what’s the point? It’s dangerous for starters. I was in a group of people who kept marching, I turned round and noticed a lot of people had stopped, so I went back and saw what was going on, at which point, I hurried off. Disgusting behaiviour, and ruins the family-friendly environment that Bloodstock tries to implement.

Anyway, next year I shall probably give BOA a miss - the ticket prices will be going up apparently, and I really can’t afford to go to both Wacken and BOA. Unfortunately for BOA, Wacken gets my pick - everyone is so friendly, it’s much more of a holiday for me (getting away from the British people helps alot), and I can stay drunk for longer (turning up at Wacken on Tuesday evening is always good).

Last Monday was Gemma’s birthday, where we got horrendously drunk, and ended up at Alex’s flat at the Deco, which was fun and good to catch up with him after BOA. A few days of work followed, and came Friday - Tom/Sophia/Phil came over, had a few drinks and watched some films. I fell asleep though due to tiredness, and then Saturday we went to England’s Medieval festival which was fun. Watched a battle re-enactment and a massive loud cannon. Nice. That evening was Aaron’s 21st - more drinking until the small hours of the morning, and a few arguments and more (eep!).

Today Gem and I woke up about 10:30am, I took her to work, and then went to meet my sister, Finley, Katie and Collin’s mum on Hill Head beach. Then went to Stubbington fair to see the last Donkey Derby race, and generally had an afternoon of relaxation which was nice. So that brings me to now, where I sit contemplating cooking dinner!

Until next time peeps…