It’s been a while since I last did a regular blog post~ Sorry about that!! But, as I’m sitting on a train to London from Southminster, I figured I’d take the time to update the blog. iPhone style.

Biggest thing to happen this month would be the UK Exam results, which were finally released on Thursday, 19th. The good news? I got more than what I needed and I’m off to uni! So that’s me happy. Accommodation and funding is mostly sorted, so in 3 weeks time I’m moving up to London~ ^____^ I’m really looking forward to it!

As for what’s been taking up all my time? Blame work :P I got a new part time job which is taking most of my days away – on the upside, providing me with money. I’ve also been working on 91.8 The Fan – tune in 12-4pm every weekend! – enjoying my time and speaking to great people, so that’s always good.

So why am I off to London? Well, my main goal is locating my housing (yes, I don’t know where it is yet…), and then heading to The Enterprise on Chalk Farm Road to see my friend Cory’s band play – Esprit D’Air. I might post some photos later.

But for now, that’s all from this post. Speak again soon!!

I’ll start with one thing. I’m not fully recovered yet in the slightest. My ears have stopped ringing, but my throat still hurts, and my muscles ache. My mouth also aches, but that’s too be expected from eating 3 packets of grape Mentos in the queue. GACKT was truly a God up on stage at the O2 Academy, and he put one of greatest and entertaining performances I’ve seen live. Sadly, I do have some negative experiences of the event, which does put a hamper on things, but I’ll save that till the end. I also read on another review that GACKT himself looked close to collapsing at points. While I must thank him for carrying on, I’d much rather he takes a break – I don’t want to see him go down whilst trying to entertain us. His health is far more important.

The gig opened with an announcement from GACKT’s secretary ‘Oz’ (or Osu, not sure), warning us that we had to be manly and such. Pretty epic, especially the number of “motherf*ckers” he managed to belt out xD. And warning us that, in the case of an emergency, we were all to stab ourselves in the gut and commit “harikiri”. LOL. After about half an hour, and a five minute warning from Oz/Osu, GACKTJob walked onto the stage, to loud cheers from the crowd, and then the man himself entered – looking pretty awesome with his 2010 hairstyle slightly modified – he had half of it braided back. And with his eyes wide, staring out into the crowd, it began. The opening riffs blasted out, and we dived straight into ‘斬～ZAN～‘, including the audience screaming out “Zan!” at appropriate times, and plenty of headbanging. ‘Dybbuk‘ followed, with similar treatment as the crowd screamed “Dybbuk!” You’ll have to excuse me for not mentioning certain songs, as some completely slipped my mind, while I focused on my favourites (Flower :3 )

Can I add here that Chirolyn is an amazing bassist? He had an awesome stage presence – it’s the mohawk! – and really kicked some ass with his playing style. My favourite part of his playing was seeing him start smacking his bass against his thighs to get it ringing. Awesome! As a bassist myself, I love watching other bassists, so having him right in front of me was pretty epic. He came atop the podium with You and on his own a few times just to groove which was great.

GACKT’s newest single ‘EVER‘ also made it’s first appearance here – which was a real privilege, after I’d been hoping for it since I heard the preview! Very guitar heavy, which I really liked. Can’t wait to own that one! Around here, GACKT broke into an English speech (it was wonderful to hear him speak in English, rather than the tiny snippets on Youtube) about how we are “different colours. From different countries.” Yet we are like “one family” and how “destiny has brought us to this one night”. Oh man. Powerful stuff. Don’t get me crying! :3

As the music began to draw to a close, GACKT yelled out “JESUS!” followed by a roar from the crowd, as the riffs started up. Never had the urge to join in been more apparent, as practically everyone joined in for the chorus and parts of the verses. ‘Jesus‘ ended similar to the -ЯRII- version. Awesome. (And for Gacktpause on Twitter? I rocked out as much as I could in my tiny space just for you! :D )

Finally, with silence falling over the crowd, my most anticipated song began, as GACKT began to slowly the sing the chorus with the crowd joining in. Four drum hits later and ‘Flower‘ truly began. It was heavenly. No other word for it! I joined in with as many of the lyrics as I could, all the while gasping for air and water (which was thankfully provided by Chachamaru courtesy of a spraying bottle to the face :D ). Towards the end, GACKT held his microphone out for us to join in with the song. I tried my best to sing along, but it was so faint, noone else joined in! Which is kind of humiliating… But still, I loved every minute of it.

Sadly, I don’t remember much of the encore as I was close to passing out as GACKT left the stage – a point I will expand upon soon. However, GACKT played the new ‘Uncontrol‘ remix (available on the YFCz album and his newest single ‘Ever‘! As the song finished, GACKTJob got a hold of the England flag, holding it high as GACKT promised to return if we all promised to come back. With that, he waved farewell to his ‘family’ and left the stage, leaving us with Chirolyn who is possibly now the greatest bassist ever. He threw a number of picks into the crowd, hyped everyone up, and then, whilst devil horning it up, pulled his shorts down and waddled off the stage in his underwear. Legend!

Unfortunately, now comes the negatives. And it is here that I realise how very dissapointed in this gig that I am. And that’s partially my own fault for getting so hyped up on what I thought would be a perfect gig for the month and a bit before. But there were a number of issues that really dragged this gig down.

1) Campers. The venue sent out a notification at the beginning of the month telling people not to camp, as they will refuse to invite J-Rockers to the UK in the future. So what did 30 imbeciles do? Camped 9 DAYS before the gig started. And they were not punished. No, they were welcomed inside and allowed to stand right at the front for the entire god damn show. And of course, campers leads to point two:

2) Queue jumpers. When you get to a gig at 7am, you like to think that you’re going to get a good spot near the front. Unless the campers decide to invite all of their friends to join the queue with them. And despite the head of security’s warnings, the queue jumpers still managed to sneak back in and get right to the front. Pathetic.

3) Fangirls. THIS is what caused the camping. The ridiculous number of 14-16 year old girls thinking, if they camped, GACKT would be proud of them. This was claimed on a Facebook page for the event. Wrong. You’re breaking the rules, and pissing the other 750 members of the queue off. You also think that by demanding he come on stage when he may not be ready that you are a fan? Baka. But the fangirls were out of control at this event. I have to wonder how many showed up primarily because of GACKT’s looks or because he was a Japanese artist. None seem to have taken the time to look into “Yellow Fried Chickenz”, demanding GACKT to play Vanilla specifically for them when both he and his band have not rehearsed for it? Come on, think of others here. From the moment I set foot into the venue, pushing and shoving began, with everyone ending up so tightly compacted that buckets were being sweated from everywhere. Leading to my least favourite point:

4) The Crowd. For the most part, it was horrendous. By the end of the first track, we were so tightly compacted from the damn pushing that jumping became impossible, and moving your arm from by your side to ‘rock position’ took about 2 minutes of unsticking the person in front, to the side and behind you. I saw 5 people pass out from the heat and had to be dragged over the bar and out of the venue to cool down. I also nearly went down just prior to the encore and had to crawl my way to the side of the room, which – amusingly – got people to move back, as if to say ‘I don’t want you collapsing on me’. The everyone for themselves mentality was definitely there. There was no crowd control, not enough water getting passed out, crap air conditioning, and security wasted way more time on getting cameras then trying to stop the crowd from a mass collapse. It didn’t help that I was one of 3 boys down the front, constantly trying to stop younger girls in front from being crushed. Fights also developed over GACKT’s shirt and tie when he threw them into the crowd – I think the shirt was shredded over the course of about 20 minutes, whilst the tie was – fortunately – cut by a sensible few (well done Rachael!). It was truly a smelting pit, and after 2 songs just became ridiculous thanks to how hard it was to move, stay cool, and breath.

So did I enjoy it? I’m still half and half. While I loved getting to see GACKT outside of Japan for the first time, the crowd really ruined it for me, which is a big disappointment – thanks primarily to how excited I’d been during the lead-up. I hope that, if GACKT shows up again, the crowd can behave a lot more maturely and enjoy the music, rather than demand GACKT marries them. It pains me to be this negative about an artist performance that I was really looking forward to, it really does. And ultimately, no one is going to learn any moral lessons from this – campers will still be dicks, and fangirls will continue doing the same thing without thinking of the consequences. And I feel really bad about thinking this way, especially after GACKT’s amazing speech about how we are all “like family”. I’m sorry, man. T_____T

But GACKT, you were fantastic. I do hope to see you again in the UK. Just… maybe I’ll be standing a bit further back with an ice bucket. And a 4-way riot shield.

More importantly? On behalf of the smaller number of real fans at this gig – Thank you so much for this privilege of getting to see you in person. It’s an experience not to be forgotten in a hurry. And please take care on the rest of your tour!

I thought last week was hectic with all the Expo lead up and the spending of money. This week, during my school half-term, created a whole lot of extra hectic-ness thanks to a certain announcement on June the 1st.

On the night of Monday 31st, whilst laying in bed at about 10pm preparing to shut down and go to sleep, I got an e-mail from NeoTokyo. And contained in it’s contents was an announcement. An announcement so epic, so amazing, so brain-fryingingly insane, that sleep went out the window.

Gackt f*cking Camui is doing a Europe Tour.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~ *fangirls*

I spent most of the week trying to find out details, watching the price slowly going up, watching the event vanish from the venue, calling up the venue to find out what the fudge was going on, watching the event go back on until Saturday when priority tickets went live at midday.

Now, O2 Priority tickets generally don’t sell out all that fast [I THINK]. I remember when I went to see Utada I was able to get 3 priority tickets about 2 hours before general ticket release. And general tickets sold out within the hour, which was odd. However, for GACKT… they were sold out in 5 minutes. 5. FREAKING. MINUTES.

And yes, I got a ticket. :3

General tickets see release on Tuesday at 9am for £42, so if you want to go I would advise being present for the beginning of ticket sales – they are not going to last very long.

For everyone going, I look forward to seeing you on July 16th at the O2 Academy Islington, when the YELLOW FRIED CHICKENz tour comes to the UK. And holy crap, the Islington isn’t going to be standing after we rock the house down, GACKT-style.

Just due to my disbelief in the situation of epic-epicness here. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~

That is all for now. :3

Because there were so many good photos from last Sunday’s MCM Expo, I’ve created a gallery of all of my photos for you to look through. Clicking on images will provide you with the full picture. These are in no particular order, in case you are wondering! Enjoy!

The London MCM Expo is described as the biggest event of it’s kind in the UK. And with 41,000 attendees over the two days this year, it’s not hard too see why. Occupying the last weekend of May, I headed over to MCM on Sunday the 30th this year – a first for me (and it’s only my third Expo!).

MCM Expo number 17 once again took place at the London ExCeL Centre, and as usual the generic train ‘repairs’ were causing a number of problems. Fortunately, I managed to get there in record time thanks primarily to getting lucky. Heading into the queuing hall, I was enthusiastically greeted by four stewards fighting over which one of them would check my ticket, and then upon heading a bit further down the queue lane, received my wristband and – to my surprise – a bag of goodies from Forbidden Planet, including a rather awesome Vital Suit Drion shirt from Lost Planet 2.

Entering the bulk of the queue with the other early entry show-goers (MCM offers a special preorder ticket to let attendees enter two hours early on the Saturday and one hour early for the Sunday), I saw a few very good cosplays, and was overwhelmed by the number I recognised. Amusingly, whilst tweeting to NEO Magazine writer Matt Kamen, he mentioned an amazing Gundam Wing Custom cosplayer with wings, and looking down the queue, I managed to spot him. Also present were a very cool FFX-incarnation Shiva, Shizuo from Durarara!!, the KFC Colonel and the sisters of Burst Angel.

10 o’clock arrived, and the excited wave of cheers flew overhead as the door rose up, and the queue started to move into the next hall where the Expo is held. And there was the sudden wave of cosplayers waiting to meet one another and people looking at where to head first. Being the bargain hunter I am, I headed straight into the stalls, making my way towards the official UK Anime distribution stores. First up was MVM, hosting a 50% Off deal. Sadly, nothing caught my eye, and so I proceeded around the corner to my particular favourite – the Beez Entertainment stand. I must of stood there for 5 minutes, staring and trying to make up my mind on what to buy. Eventually I surrendered, and picked up the new Anime Legends line of Eureka Seven (both parts), Gundam Unicorn on Blu-Ray (with special gift; postcards!), and a month early release of Code Geass R2 Part 1. I checked to see when Andrew, the community manager for Beez, would be back at the stall to have a chat with him, and then proceeded off.

Around the corner, a sad sight greeted my eyes: the final ever appearance of ADV at an Expo. And my word, the deals they had on. Complete Series for £10, and apparently, hourly raffles to clear out stock. Up next were UK Anime forerunners Manga Entertainment, who had a huge selection of stuff on offer, including Sherlock Hound, Naruto box sets, Bleach box sets, and a £1 bargain bin. Some good stuff on offer!

Back-tracking to the industry panel the day before, here are each companies new announcements and some other notes:

MVM announced Moribito, Blade of the Immortal, Slayers Revolution and Slayers Evolution-R. Also mentioned plans to move away from single-disc releases and enter 2-disc sets. They also plan to continue with a range of live-action Japanese movie releases.

Manga Entertainment announced Eden of the East on DVD and Blu-Ray for November, also expecting to release GitS: SAC – Solid State Society on Blu-Ray and Vampire Knight before Christmas. Other new announcements included Baccano, and investigations into Kanon and Bamboo Blade. Manga also admitted to still looking into bringing One Piece and Dragonball Z to the UK, while stating that they’re “reticent to license Sgt. Frog at the present time.”

Finally, Beez made the announcement of subtitle-only Durarara!!, which will be their first subtitle-only release, but announced that the may plan more for the future. Also announced where Season Two of Gundam 00, the Gundam Zeta movies, and Outlaw Star as an addition to the Anime Legends range.

Back in the present, I began prowling the other variety of stores – United Publications and Otaku.co.uk (both big importing sales companies for Anime) had a wide variety of new US titles (including Soul Eater part 3, which was out a few days early!). I settled for Strike Witches, and made my way back over to the Beez stand where I met Andrew. He recognised my Twitter name (anyone who follows my Twitter would know I had been tweeting to him for the majority of two weeks before the Expo), and he happily told me that I had won the first volume of Durarara!! upon release. He asked my opinions on the series and if I’d been watching it, to which I replied about trying to keep up on Crunchyroll, but really enjoying what I’d seen so far and how I couldn’t wait to see it on DVD. I joked about how the Beez stall was eating all my money with such good releases, and he promptly asked if I wanted anything else. With me, that’s never a good question, and I happily purchased the Anime Legends release of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Strolling down more lanes, I came across a very talented Japanese artist named Sachiko who was selling manga-styled portraits for £3. I surrendered more cash and bought one. Possible best purchase at the Expo? She was amazing to watch drawing at such speed, and then adding soft colours. Must of been less than 10 minutes? I was impressed.

The gaming section of MCM had the first playable preview of Transformers: War for Cybertron. I took Megatron for a spin. Wow, I want this game! It could be described as the Arkham Asylum of Transformers games – I’m sure it has been somewhere – and there are some very awesome features. For example, on finding a turret station, rather than just man it, Megatron transforms into a different form and becomes a part of the turret. The turret could also be detached and becomes a part of Megatron’s arm as I ran around blasting Starscream’s minions to pieces. Overall? I really want that game. I got a lot of amusement from seeing the newest Shrek game around the corner – with nobody playing it.

By around 12 o’clock, I made my way over to the Japan Centre stall, bought myself a melon bread, and then went to stage 2 to await the voice actor panel. Presently on stage was a panel about Steam Punk fashion and how to make your own – it was pretty cool to watch. Of highlight was a steam punk ‘Spaceman’, made out of a plastic flowerpot. Nice.

Come 1 o’clock, I’d managed to sneak down to the front of the audience as Yuri Lowenthal, Tara Platt and Kyle Hebert made their way onto the stage, answering questions about hardest role to play (from me!), to most-asked lines at cons and what character out of any would they love to play. After this was a signing by the three of them, and when I got to the signing queue literally seconds after the panel finished, it was already huge. I spoke to a nice little group about Persona 4 and some of the cosplayers going around, and we were all presently surprised in the queue when a large amount of laughing forced us all to turn around. We saw the lane cleared and two cosplayers, as J.D. and Turk, slow motion racing down the lane. It was hysterical!

I finally met Kyle, Tara and Yuri, surprising them with a copy of Voice Over Voice Actor pre-purchased. They’re a great little group. I spoke to Kyle about his voice acting consultation sessions, and then Tara recognised me from Twitter and I asked about what they’d been up to since they arrived in London. Honestly, I love Twitter.

Following this, I decided that I would make a move. It was 3 o’clock, trains back to my house were a nightmare to find – with a potential 3-5 hour round trip back home thanks to the stupid maintenance. However, stepping outside and seeing the large amount of cosplayers sunbathing and enjoying themselves, I decided to get a few photos as I walked around, armed with my camera and a Costa Hot Chocolate. Some awesome cosplayers lurked outside, including the Millennium Earl from D.Gray-Man, and armoured Terra and Aqua from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. My word, the detail on those suits was amazing. And the Keyblades, don’t even get me started!!

My Expo day ended at around 3.45pm, as I jumped back on the train, and sadly left what was becoming my favourite place to visit every 6 months. Maybe in the October Expo I’ll get around to complying for the first time? No guarantees though. A big thank you to Showmasters, Beez, Manga Entertainment, MVM, ADV, Kyle Hebert, Yuri Lowenthall and Tara Platt for another fantastic MCM Expo – possibly my favourite one so far! I’ll be posting up a full gallery of photos from the Expo in my next post, as I could only use a selection with this page. Overall, there was some fantastic cosplay this year and it was great too see so many people make a fantastic effort! I’ll leave you with a selection of purchases and autographed items from the day. See you next time!

London MCM Expo Logo

It’s nearly that time of the year once again. The London MCM Expo takes place this weekend at the London ExCeL Centre and it’s looking set to be a good ‘un.

Guest attendees this month include Kyle Hebert (Kamina, Gurren Lagann, Gohan, Dragonball Z, Ryu, Street Fighter IV), Yuri Lowenthal (Yosuke, Persona 4, Suzaku, Code Geass, Ben Tennyson, Ben 10 Alien Force) and Tara Platt (Temari, Naruto, Elizabeth/Mitsuru Kirijo, Persona 3, Marida Cruz, Gundam Unicorn). All of whom will be well worth meeting.

Plenty of deals also seem to be taking place. Once again, BEEZ Entertainment look set to steal away my money with new releases such as Gundam Unicorn, Code Geass R2 (early release!), and Haruhi Suzumiya alongside 4 exciting new announcements. Manga Entertainment will also be hosting a great variety of deals that will definetly be worth looking into. I’ve also heard that the last ever sale from ADV will be taking place, so hopefully there will be some good deals. MVM will also be at hand, with up to 50% off their releases I believe. As for Revelation Films, I do not know – I fear they may have dropped out of the anime market completely which is a sad loss.

Another hugely exciting event taking place is a live performance from Bentley Jones, who has performed music for the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and whom will be very cool too see live. I think he may only be performing on the Saturday though, at the DS World Record attempt party.

The EuroCosplayer Qualifiers will be taking place on the Saturday evening, so that’s worth looking into. Seeing as this will be one of the major competitions this year, I expect some good cosplayers will be there. Masquerades will also take place on both days to lead out the Expo.

Annoyingly, I can only go on the Sunday this year but, hopefully, when I start Uni, if I can scramble the money together I will attend the whole weekend – maybe cosplaying but I don’t know yet. Never done it before.

Unlike last time, I will try and have a full expo write-up done for the week after but don’t hold me to it – you know what I’m like.

Sorry for my long abscence again too. I recently moved house, and had no Internet for 3 weeks. I was most distressed!

Catch you next time!!

For more info on London MCM Expo and to book tickets, visit http://londonexpo.com

Hey folks! I’ve got a very late write-up of a very good gig for you today – Abingdon Boys School Live @ The Underworld, Camden.

Now the atmosphere prior to the concert was electric. A huge queue circled the entire venue in the pouring rain, as camera crews ran around to get footage for the Abingdon Road Movies DVD. The sound check could be heard through two side doors. Fangirls were squeeing. Smiles were all around despite how wet we all were. And then the great crowd were finally allowed in, and we descended like Valkyries upon The Underworld’s stage. Discarding wet bags and jackets, me and Josh managed to get pretty good standing places in the midst of the mosh pit. The lights went down as an instrumental of Sweetest Coma Again played in the background. And finally it started, with a huge great “squee!!” from the assorted fangirls.

The mighty Abingdon Boys School – Sunao, Shibasaki Hiroshi, Toshiyuki Kishi, support members Ikuo and Kozy Hasegawa, and of course the Godlike Takenori Nishikawa – took to the stage, and let the riffs rip with Strength. Now this was my first proper gig, and I’d never seen such an enthusiastic crowd – we jumped, sang along and headbanged along to practically every song as the Headmasters played their hearts out. It was amazing. Takenori would frequently let us know how happy he was to be here in London, to which the crowd energetically responded. I recall reading an interview by the boys before they started the tour, stating how they were uncertain about how Europe would respond to them – I think we made a good impact, as Takenori promised he’s be back again “real soon”. Another energetic response.

Music-wise, a large selection of their older songs and b-sides were played, alongside some of the newer singles from Abingdon Road. Particular crowd favorites included Howling, which really kicked off the mosh pit as Takenori threw his glasses into the crowd. Jap, with it’s highly energetic atmosphere created a partying mood, as the whole crowd joined in with the clapped beat. Freedom and Innocent Sorrow saw a great response as the crowd sung along. Fre@K $HoW, while being a b-side, saw a great response as Takenori screamed out “Fuck!” and practically raised the roof. It was truly sensational. The crowd were also highly lucky to see a crowd-surf by Takenori – it went slightly wrong when a section of the audience collapsed under him, and security struggled to pull him out, but it was still amazing. He even asked me if I was ok, which I was overly thrilled with ^______^ Setlist below:

1. Strength
2. Freedom
MC
3. Howling
4. Nephilim
5. Via Dolorosa
6. Valkyrie
MC
7. Fre@K $HoW
8. JAP
9. INNOCENT SORROW
MC
10. Kimi no Uta

Encore
1. From Dusk Till Dawn
2. stay away
3. Athena

Enjoy a video of my highlights from the gig – you’ll have to excuse the cutting out, as my normal camera died, and I had to resort to my iPhone which… didn’t really capture the essence of the gig as well.

Some other highlights, provided by other crowd members with better cameras.

Overall, a fantastic gig, and I really hope to see them come back this year, to see what else they can bring to the party. Rock on, a.b.s. Rock on. Now, you wait until you see all my Abindon Boys School stuff xD

Image from Utada.com

Now February 12 was quite an important day. Why? It marked the first time Utada Hikaru performed live in London. When tickets went on sale back in November, they were sold out within the first 5 hours. An extra show date was even added. Was it worth it? Oh yes.

First notes, Utada has a great sense of humour. She regularly interacted with the audience, making jokes and responding to the many questions shouted out from the crowd. She even shared some personal thoughts regarding the weather and her short time in London – at one point saying she’d like to live here (as you can imagine, that caused for some loud whooping!).

The music too was very, VERY good. The live band were excellent, adding some extra flair to her songs, and her voice was amazing too. I wasn’t sure about some of the newer songs on her newest album, but the live versions were much, much better. So much so, that I went out and bought the album afterwards x3

Music wise, there was a selection from across her career. Newer stuff like ‘Apple and Cinnamon’ and ‘Come Back to Me’ was intermingled with older favourites like ‘Automatic’, ‘Simple and Clean’ (“Sugoi~”) and an awesome Japanese/English mix of “Passion” and “Sanctuary”. There was even an incredibly awesome rock song that I didn’t know the name of – I was later told that it was a cover of Placebo’s “The Bitter End”. Holy crap!

At the end, Utada threw out some balls which she’d signed, as well as drawing her Kuma mascot on them. I would of liked to get one, but the crowd managed to be too tall. It’s hard being at the middle-back T____T

The crowd… hmm, kind of lifeless for most of it. I was stuck behind two rather large people who didn’t really move. Not once. Madame Tussaud’s renting crowds out now? There was the occasional fist pumping, and the crowd towards the front seemed to be going crazy. But towards the back, it was really hard to get energetic with so much lifelessness going around. *shudder*.

Overall though, a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY good gig, and a fantastic first appearance in the UK. I would of liked to get photos, but the people at the O2 Academy were pretty strict – every camera was confiscated I believe. Still, a live DVD is supposedly coming of the event, which should be pretty awesome. I hope she comes back some time!

EDIT: Found a tracklist for the concert – might have to make this into a playlist, much like I did with abingdon boys school.

1 Crossover Interlude
2 On and On
3 Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence – FYI
4 Poppin’
5 This One (Cryin’ Like a Child)
6 Passion/Sanctuary
7 Sakura Drops (keyboard)
8 Stay Gold (keyboard)
9 Devil Inside + Kremlin Dusk
10 You Make Me Want To Be A Man
11 The Bitter End (Placebo Cover)
12 Apple and Cinnamon
13 Come Back to Me
14 First Love
15 Can You Keep A Secret
16 Automatic
17 Dirty Desire

-ENCORE-
1 Simple and Clean
2 Me Muero

Weirdly, this month has been quite good! Aside from the exams I’m currently in the middle of, I’ve had a pretty good month!
I passed my driving test on Wednesday with only six minors, and my first time too! So, I can thank the year and a quarters worth of lessons for that.
As well as that, I went to see Feeder last night under the guise of their side-project name “Renegades”. Standing 2 feet away from an awesome band is pretty good – aside from the blown out, squeaking ear I currently have.

Still, February (and my final exam until June) are fast approaching – hopefully I’ll be getting a few new things in the post very soon (Abingdon Boys School’s second album anyone?). Will try and get some of these write ups done too when I get a chance.

So England doesn’t have the best record for snow at Christmas time. In fact, snow tends to show up 2-3 months late. And then schools close and everyone reverts to a child like curiosity about this strange weather that has shown up.

Overall an enjoyable day out! 8.30am – 12.00pm of pelting snow balls at one another, building failed snowmen and general larking about and getting cold. ^____^