EP1: Download 2024 Review Part 1

Download 2024 Review Part 1 - Re-uploaded

Come grab a slice with us and checkout what happened at 2024's Download!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

The following podcast is intended for mature audiences. Discretion is advised. We are two idiots, so please take everything we say with a pinch of salt. Hello and welcome to our little corner of the internet. On this podcast, we'll be discussing everything from games, festivals and music and everything else in between. So I'll hand over to my co-host. Yo. That's me.

SPEAKER_08 0:57

There you go, that's him. Um what what do you want to discuss? Do you want to talk about a recent festival that we went to?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Yeah, I mean, uh, do you want to introduce that festival to everyone that we went to? Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_08 1:11

Um, so this is my first festival. A little festival that some people may know or may not know. Download.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah, it was his first one. Broke his cherry in the most um craziest way I've ever seen somebody do it, but yeah, fair play to him. That was his first one. And I did it in style. He fucking did. Literally, he was probably the most prepared person in our entire campsite I've ever seen. And I've done a few of these now, and literally watching him, my jaw was on the floor with all the shit that he bought. I was just going, This guy has thought of literally everything, even to the point where he bought lines.

SPEAKER_08 1:49

Well, I I like to live in style. What can I say? I was I was more comfortable in a field than I was in my own bedroom.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Now that's how you do download properly, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_08 2:02

Apart from I wish I was a little bit warmer on the night.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Yeah, the nights, the nights weren't great, but obviously because the weather kind of just ate shit. Ate shit compared to last year. I mean, last year, 2023, was nuts. It was literally like being in a savannah plane, but yeah, we'll we'll get into the weather and stuff a little bit more. I just kind of wanted to pick apart from the get-go, sort of your run-up to download, how you were feeling, being as it was your first time.

SPEAKER_08 2:36

Um, as with anything that I am gonna enjoy, I forget about it till the last minute. So that well, years ago I used to be like, I can't sleep, I'm too excited.

SPEAKER_06 2:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 2:49

Now I'm like, eh.

SPEAKER_06 2:53

And then I wake up and I'm like, woo, yeah, we're going somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Yeah, I'm still the opposite to that. Like, literally, we went down to um my friend's house, it's a little bit closer. Um, a bunch of us did the night before for this year. Um, we didn't do it last year. Last year it was kind of all sort of foot in mouth because it was my now wife's first time doing download last year, and I kind of threw all planning out the window to make sure she had a good time, but this year I kind of went into it a bit more anal, if you will, with all the planning. So like everything was packed days before, ready to go. We went down the night before, got lost on the way there, which was hilarious because you got lost? We we got lost going to the friend's house we were gonna stay at. Oh, okay. So we were supposed to head towards Kannock, which is where I'm from originally, and Nikki just put in the address, the street address, she didn't put in the postcode. So we ended up in fucking Tipton in some random flat council estate thing, and then we had to backtrack about an hour and a half to get back to Cannack because we went completely the wrong way. Oh, I remember this in the Snapchat. Yeah, it was uh quite the tale of misfortune, but it was still quite funny.

SPEAKER_08 4:11

Oh yeah, so and then I I was like too busy packing that I couldn't come over until the morning.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Yeah, you couldn't, could you? Because you you kind of just went ham for it, but like we um we all kind of like were there the night before we had some friends come up from Kent who we met last year, um, who we've just stayed in touch with and um yeah essentially we just but we just essentially um stayed with them and had a good time the night before and unfortunately guess what happened before we left Fred's house? What our airbed went to shit and we didn't realise this until the morning because we went to sleep about 12. Or was it one? I can't remember. Earlier than me, earlier than you, yeah. And then we woke up at four to basically me and the wife just in the middle of this blow-up bed face to face, like literally like touching noses and just kind of going, right, okay, well, this isn't a great start. Let's pray it doesn't get any worse. Um unfortunately it did, but we'll get there when we get there. But um these fine gentlemen turned up to the house at about half four in the morning and we set off, so I'll hand it back over to you to describe your first pilgrimage.

SPEAKER_08 5:41

So that night I was because I live in a flat and there's a lot of stairs, it took me a while to pack. I was sweating the weight of all the beer, my blow-up bed. I mean I I brought enough beer and it lasted, and I've still got a crate left, which we are tucking into right now.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

That is correct, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 6:09

This is what I mean. You did it in style. Yeah, I mean I I I took wine.

SPEAKER_07 6:16

I had a portable wine glass, you know. You when in Rome When at download, yeah, do as download this. When in a field uh be in charge. Be in charge. Yeah, you've got to set a standard. Oh, you've set the standard pretty high for next year anyway, mate. Oh don't you worry. Don't you worry.

SPEAKER_08 6:41

Are we gonna be all like sultans in our fucking tens next year at Black Camp? My plan is to have a uh motorised cart. A motorised cart. Yes. Because la well this year, my cart was such an arsehole for that. I've already sold it. You've sold it? Yeah, I've sold it someone, I've already got my money back for that. Well, technically, yeah, because it was technically free.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Valid point.

SPEAKER_08 7:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Valid point, mate, valid point.

SPEAKER_08 7:15

Chinese site that is advertised everywhere, which I'm not gonna say. Um had a voucher. If I spent £100, £50 voucher, so £50 uh trolley was free. And uh yeah, now I've made a profit.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Well, to be fair, your trolley wasn't that bad. I mean, our trolley was pretty good.

SPEAKER_08 7:37

The build quality was good, but the wheels just needed to be larger radius.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Yeah, I kind of Especially with the mud. I guess I kind of found that with as like Fred's wheels perfectly. Yeah, but Fred had got something a lot like a fucking World War I tank. Yeah, yeah. In comparison, so you know it kind of it it sort of negated itself the problem of having small wheels because we were so close to the car, like I can't get over how close we actually were. Like me and Nikki, my wife, stayed over in um eco camping last year just because I wanted to have a bit nicer experience for a first download before going into general. And this year, I was like going, no, we gotta like I was freaking out about the parking wasn't I for like days before like running up. I was like panicking about it, even though I don't drive, I was the one panicking about it the most. Everyone else was like, It's fine, we don't give a shit, whatever. Then there's me panicking in a Snapchat download chat about like, oh, we gotta go here, we gotta go there, which of course everybody now knows they didn't enforce, which they said they were gonna, but they didn't, which is hilarious because everybody else's vlog that I've watched, like the guys from Dare Download, like you know, Simon Bond's vlog, you got Chid's vids, and those guys, they all said that they couldn't believe how close they all got to the campsite from the cars and how quickly the walk was. I think Chids timed it on his video, and I think it was six minutes it took him to get from his car up to the top of Blue Camp where they were. Nice, nice. Bear in mind we were in black camp, so we were probably like two minutes closer. Yeah. So but the the thing is because we'd all sort of planned it so well, none of us really needed to go back to the car for well, anything apart from the first day just to get the rest of the last little bits, but yeah, I decided I'll keep a crate of beer in the car as an emergency stash.

SPEAKER_08 9:46

Never needed it.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

No, that's true. I mean that's that's one piece of advice I'd give to anybody who's going first time next year, and I think I'm gonna stick to my own advice here. So if I don't, feel free to pull me up on this one. Um, but I'm gonna be buying the beer next year from co-op because I don't really fancy lugging the beer when I can literally just walk and get it. It it seems a bit silly to me now that I've done it twice.

SPEAKER_08 10:17

So what I'll probably do is I'll buy two crates of 18, leave one in the car, let's bring crate with me.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Well, to be fair, we drank that crate of stellar between the lot of us, didn't we? Yeah, before we even got in the shapes. Before we were in the queue, we were already drunk before we even got in. Like 10 o'clock? Yeah, it's that we just 10 o'clock, it's five o'clock somewhere, fuck it, let's go.

SPEAKER_08 10:40

Well, we didn't get much sleep anyway. Anyway, back to the main story. Um I woke, I went to sleep about two, and then uh I was like, dingo, I'm not gonna come for you yet, I'm gonna have a nap because of the drive and everything. So it was just an absolute pain. I just wanted some I needed some rest. So I got packed up, went and had a rest, got up about an hour later, went to Dingo's, and I was I realized I got a lot of shit. And I'm gonna get his stuff in the car as well. He did have a lot of shit to be fair. Uh I was like, oh, he's not gonna have that much. What's he gonna have? He had a lot as well. There there was uh there was somehow he carried, I don't know, he he had loads more drinks than me.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

He had tons of food. I don't know how you all got that in that car.

SPEAKER_08 11:42

Well, until the last day when I was repacking, or was it when we got there, we emptied the car. We we then realised you could put the seats down. I forgot about that, I forgot you didn't put the seats down.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 11:58

I mean I could took the subwoofer out, but that's that's important.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Yeah, no, you know, you you need the subwoofer for coming into download lane, that's just standard. You gotta you gotta announce your arrival onto the uh the hallowed grounds of Donny Park.

SPEAKER_08 12:10

Yeah. After that, picked him up, no problems, no traffic, came to you, and then uh said hello to everyone, and then we uh headed off. Yeah, and then we started the pilgrimage. And then uh when we started driving the other motorway, we spiny seen the signs, and uh we were all flipping each other off the other windows.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yeah, we were in our little convoy coming down the road, but I just want to go back to that sign because every time I see the signs, I always get the exact same feeling each time I see the signs, that's when it becomes real. Oh yeah. Because when you're on your way, because you're so obviously if you like we didn't travel very far because we we arrived at about 6 a.m. Because we wanted to get in early, which was kind of glad that we did because we've got a really good camping spot. But right to the front of the queue. You know, I've I've seen, like I said earlier, I've seen other people's vlogs where they arrived much later than we did, and they found a spot fine.

SPEAKER_08 13:14

But yeah, because there's a group of us, we needed that, yeah. We needed that time, we needed that territory, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Especially for what we had, like the setup was amazing.

SPEAKER_08 13:26

So, like gazebo in the middle.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Yeah, we all had our own little spots. Yeah, my little penthouse on the side, yeah, your swag den, we got the fairy lights up in there. Yeah, so it was very good. I mean I still think that's probably the best camping set we could have gone with. I think next year we just need to go one bigger.

SPEAKER_03 13:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

I I would like to be a little bit further up the hill.

SPEAKER_08 13:54

What towards the back where the trees were? Tow more towards toward more towards the showers, I'd say.

SPEAKER_04 14:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 14:06

Just on the other side of that little row of trees.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

I think I know the one annoying the ones you're on about, the ones where the the guard tower is.

SPEAKER_08 14:15

Yeah, just past that.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 14:18

Because we we had an absolute landmine of tent and and a lot tent lines.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Although, I'm kind of glad we did because looking at those tents on the edge when the weather came in, I'm glad I was further back because we didn't get muddy where we were.

SPEAKER_08 14:38

We had less footfall where we were, so the grass was less disturbed, yeah, which is nice. Except for at the front of my tent.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah, for some reason the for some reason everybody went past my tent. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_08 14:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Not sure why that happened, because out of all of the camps that were around us, the little light pockets, as was the most dense. So you'd think looking at it, you would go, I'm not gonna walk that way because I'm not gonna get past it, but somehow people did, and fair play, because there was a tent right butted up against that gazebo. So fair play. But um oh that side.

SPEAKER_08 15:15

I was I think I was thinking between me and you. Yeah, that's what I'm on about. Yeah, go just walking through between the gazebo and Fred's tent. Straight up between me and your tent, and then to the rest of the centre of the field.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Which doesn't make sense because everything that they needed was on the left. Yeah, bit bizarre, but anyway, we digress. So your first thoughts when you saw you know the tents over the hill when you're coming over the brow of the hill towards West Car Park. What how did you feel? Just to give some excitement to people who might be going first year next year. How did you feel from a first timer?

SPEAKER_08 15:55

I was like, uh well, you know, um not much. Not much. I was like, oh it's like we see the Eiffel Tower, not the Eiffel Tower, the Blackpool Tower when you're driving. Oh no, there it is. We're we're getting close. That that was pretty much what I got. Fair enough. And then I was like, how big are these tents? And you can't tell from that distance. And then when I seen all the nice lights with the um what do they call them? The colour coding with the button, yeah. No, no, the those little white TP things. Oh, um the RIP counter. Yeah, that stuff. I was like, that's pretty nice, that's cool, that looks nice. And then we just ended up in a field.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Pretty much, yeah, that's that's pretty much the pretty accurate description, but I can assure you the reaction in our car was much different than that because last year when we went, we had Electric Call Boy accompanying us into Dangload last year on uh the wives cars speakers. Oh yeah. This year, however, we had a simple plan for some reason when we were coming. Oh, okay. I don't know why we had that on. We had a slightly different vibe, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Spongebob. Oh mate, can't go wrong with it. Was it plankton by any chance? Oh it was, it was.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Good man. It was a little bit of plankton. To be fair though, like when we were coming in, like the excitement from Nikki was different than last year. Like, she obviously I haven't said this already, so it's not obvious, but last year was her first year. So it kind of needed to be a bit more impactful this year, which it was because the bands were more in line to what she liked. Like Fallout Boy is one of her favourite bands, so obviously seeing them at download as a headliner was like a a must-see, but she's seen them before um back in October of uh 2023. So I partially remember remember them playing. We'll get to that later, we'll get to that later, but but um yeah, well, like coming in, it was for me, it's always like coming home, and I've said that to everybody, I've even said it to you before you came. It's just like it's like walking through a front door that you know and it's familiar. Like when you go back next year, you'll get the same feeling that I get now, where you you kind of are coming home, yeah. Almost like, and especially when you first walk into the arena, like obviously mine got screwed a little bit this year, but I'll get into security when that comes up. Yeah, so we'll talk about that um uh when we get there. But yeah, coming in and seeing it all, same feeling again, that buzz type feeling of like I'm gonna have a good time here, I'm not gonna want to go back home again. Um and yeah, obviously, like we said, we came in, we parked really close. I think we queued for about initially to get into the the queue for the queue, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_08 19:12

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Um, that was probably about what half an hour maybe? No, it was longer than that. Was it? It felt like half an hour.

SPEAKER_08 19:22

Because we got what time did we get to the car park? Uh we arrived at a just after six. And they didn't open the gates till like quarter to ten.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Yeah, I'm I'm on about the bit from the car park to the queue, you know, where they gated us in. Yeah, that that's it. That yeah, that bit beforehand where the little that lonely little portaloo was sitting on it. Yeah, I think uh it must have been about half an hour and an hour we're there, but we just started chatting. I I went very quiet and sleepy because I was knackered. Yep.

SPEAKER_08 19:55

Um is why I took a nap.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Exactly. Um, but yeah, like literally got got there, got in the queue, got a really good spot. Um I think we were the second lot let in, and we were pretty much at the front of that gate, weren't we? Coming in. And then the anecdote for finding the camping spot, me and Nikki were like, right, we need to get in and get through security as quickly as possible. Which we did, got our wristbands, all that stuff. Little tip on the wristband as well. Put it on the hand that you don't wipe with. And the reason why I say that is because you don't want those tassels going in your bump. You don't want a little bit of Pokebum fun with the uh the tassels of your download wristband, because if you're gonna put it on your battle jacket, don't want it smelling like shit. Or do you? Well, you might if that's your thing, then you know go for it, knock yourself out, stuff it up there. But if not, don't ah, smells like download. Exquisite shit.

SPEAKER_07 20:54

Um is it mud? Is it shit? Is it piss?

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Who knows? Who knows? Take a wild guess. Yeah, but yeah, um we got through, as I say, uh, and we literally ran. Like, bear in mind how full my trolley was that was pulling behind me. Oh yeah. I ran around the corner. Saw that there was like a no flags here sign for the obviously the power cables. We went just beyond that, yeah. Um, on the crest of the hill, and then I obviously shouted you guys as you were coming in.

SPEAKER_08 21:27

I thought I was first through security, so I uh pulled to the side and waited. Did you? Yeah. I think we must have gone past you at that point. Yeah, must have, because I mean, I was looking out, did not see a single soul.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

No, we just ran, what this we got through, and I was like, right, go. I said to Nikki and we literally just ran to the field from black. So um yeah, for those of you who were in black camp, if you saw a black flag with a grim reaper St. Peter Time, hence the name of the podcast, yeah, that was us. Yes. Nice. Um so yeah, I mean i it literally straight in, straight there, campsite setup within what, an hour we were set up? Oh yeah. Probably less than that. Probably about 40 minutes at best. Yeah. We were all done and dusted. I mean the hardest part was a gazebo. Yeah, true. Because yeah. It's very finicky. Yeah, it's very finicky that one, but now we know. Because me and Connor put it up in the back garden on our own two of us. And obviously we've got Nikki and Talia to hold it up. But yeah, like our garden isn't that wide, so it was kind of barely manageable.

SPEAKER_08 22:44

Good tip is if those poles need to be in a certain way, get a marker. That's not a bad show at all.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

I might do that actually. That's not a bad show at all.

SPEAKER_08 22:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Well, I'll have to build it again in uh May next year if it's wham enough. Oh yeah. I reckon we well, we've got a heat wave. Well, we are planning on doing a post-load, so we might do a little uh a little post load, post load, post load podcast for you as well.

SPEAKER_08 23:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

On that one. There's a lot of posts going on there. Post Malone. The pre-post. The pre-post of the post-post.

SPEAKER_04 23:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

And the pre-drinks. Or is it post-drinks? Pre-post. This is getting too complicated now.

SPEAKER_08 23:34

Anyway. Yeah. Um, so tens all set up. Uh we've we're all putting our chairs inside of the gazebo in a circle. I'll got my I've got my table out.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Yeah, he bought fucking t literally. This guy bought everything, like I said earlier. He bought absolutely everything. He bought fucking table, limes. Somehow. Well, when you got desperados, you need lime. But you didn't use a lime.

SPEAKER_08 24:03

I did. You did once? Well well, yeah, we did um we did plant them.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

But uh sorry, I'm just letting them think you planted a lime in the field. Yeah. You didn't don't need to do it.

SPEAKER_08 24:19

We scattered them around with a bit of force of uh leaving your palm Jesus Christ and uh spreading them out quite evenly, you know sharing is caring, yeah, after all. And if any other tents, couple of uh a couple of tents down need a lime and if the looked on the floor, there may be one. Possibly, possibly, yeah, if they're lucky, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

I mean like I think our setup in that gazebo is great. I mean, that first night the weather was unbelievably nice, like the pictures that we took.

SPEAKER_08 24:54

Oh yeah, the sunset.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

The campsite with the sunset, like literally that to me six download that right there, that little hour and a half window that we had, oh yeah, that was peak download for me. Like, that is the moment that I remember the most, mostly because of other things we did, but that moment there, that's probably gonna be burned into my head forever. Like, it's just one of them with this like like looking around, seeing you guys, looking back, seeing you all talking, it's just me outside, like looking at this view of all these tents, chilling out, living our best life. Yeah, man. No worries in the world. Well, that's the thing, it's your own little pocket of the world because you know, nothing got gets stolen at download, touch wood, but nothing ever gets stolen, everyone's really friendly, everyone wants to help you, everyone's just there to have a good time. It's not it's not like other festivals which I won't name where shit gets stolen and people are a bit dickish. You know, everyone wants to help you and wants to have a good time, so the only robbery is the uh food vendors.

SPEAKER_08 26:06

Oof. Oh I mean unless unless it's giving you diarrhea, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Uh well at least it gives you something. We'll get to that, because uh that's what happened, isn't it? Yes. But luckily, or rather luckily but unluckily, I didn't go for the the fated Yorkie Pud. Yes. However, I think it was only a couple of them that did it. Yeah. Others were fine, but you know, when it's like that, you're not gonna rob them.

SPEAKER_08 26:34

I believe the one that was fine was the one situated right next to the toilets in the arena. That's kind of ironic, isn't it? Yep.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Let's just let that sink in for a sec.

unknown 26:46

Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Would you like some VCs on that? Jesus Christ. Tough. Would you like some chips?

SPEAKER_08 26:56

Would you like some brown sauce?

SPEAKER_02 26:58

Oh Christ.

SPEAKER_08 27:00

Give it a smear.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

Oh god. There's little flares in the shit.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

But yeah, um amazing. That first night was great. Like and then the second well, the second day started off very interesting.

SPEAKER_08 27:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Because we all got up, it was still sunny, it had rained in night, and we were kind of all looking at each other going, is this what it's gonna be like? Is it just gonna be raining at night and everything's gonna be okay in the day? It was until it wasn't, because my god, did the heavens open up on the Thursday? Like literally, we had like an hour of sun, and I looked at I looked at Nikki and I looked at this was this was after Hanabi, wasn't it? No, no, this is on Thursday. Oh, Thursday. Yeah, so we literally all got up, we all had breakfast, we all had a bit to drink, um, and you know, we got into the mood of it. And we went up to see it. Was that doggy band? I can't remember what they were, the kids band.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Slay doggy. That's the one. Sleigh doggy, I couldn't remember the name of them. They were they were absolutely fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

They were great. Like, literally, if you've got kids, take them to see them because when me and Nick have got a little nippet, that's what I'm gonna do. Just take them to see the foot. Literally, they had an octagonal pit with fishes and dolphin in there as well. Oh, yeah, yeah. Where they were just like flinging them around and like they had like parents with their kids on their shoulders and stuff. It was it was great to see, like, definitely a very different vibe. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 28:46

I've got this amazing video when he grabbed the cymbal. He's like smacking himself in the face.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Yeah, there's also one that I got of them trying to play a full song in like 14 seconds on the top, and they did its second attempt, so oh great. I see so good. Like, not the way I thought that year was gonna open, but I'll take that because it was quite fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 29:11

Um you know who you know, did you we missed Michael McIntyre doing go?

SPEAKER_01 29:21

Yeah, it was the guy who takes the piss out of him, isn't it? Yeah, I've seen him, but like the guy who wears like the black parade outfit and he's like hello everybody, and all that stuff, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 29:33

Ah, I wish I was there. That would have been quite fun. I don't know where I was at that point in time. Well, I do, you were with us. Was was this when the arena was on?

SPEAKER_01 29:43

No, no, this was on a Thursday, mate. Oh, was it?

SPEAKER_04 29:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Okay. Because on the Thursday we were wandering round having a bit of an explore, because that's where we went and got the merch. Ah, yes. And talking of merch, I must say the t-shirt for this year, the one that I bought anyway, I know there were three options, but the one that I bought was the one with the red sort of death core-ish typeface with that like big mammoth Colossus over the stage. That t-shirt is fucking sick. And the thing is, as well, because when I was talking to Simon from um Deer Download, he hadn't bought it yet, and he was like, I haven't actually seen it. You know, can I can have a look and stuff? And we were talking about it for a while at the merch and what was on offer, and you know, I think Fred eventually went and got one, but he couldn't get one in his size, so he had to go some more. But I got very lucky and managed to clinch my hands on one before they all ran out. But yeah, Nikki got the coddy because she wanted the purple tie-dive hoodie, but I lost it in game.

SPEAKER_08 30:52

No, I see I didn't really think any of the merch was my taste. I did I mean I did get a souvenir. A free one. Um but yeah. It's it's now living down the wall in my bedroom. What was that? The uh the the it was the when you come in, the the sign that says these things are not allowed. I now have.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Yeah. Yeah. That was a nice little grab for you when you left.

SPEAKER_08 31:28

Well, it wasn't secure. So it was just place on the side.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

Well, I'm surprised it wasn't secure considering how secure everything else was. That was air quotes, by the way, for those who were so. Thank you. Yeah, well, there you go. That's it.

SPEAKER_08 31:43

At least you got something out of it. So, yeah. Um, it's still got the original mud on there as well.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Well, my battle jacket's got mud on the Gojera patch. Nowhere else, just on the Gojera patch, and I don't quite know how that happened. Is it mud? Don't know. I might have to scratch and sniff to confirm later on.

SPEAKER_08 32:04

I uh l two days ago I finally got around to cleaning my uh my vans.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

Really?

SPEAKER_08 32:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Right, okay. Here's a point. Footwear. Now I wore wellies pretty much the entire time, just just to be safe. This man, however, what did you wear?

SPEAKER_08 32:27

The only the legendary Crocs.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Exactly.

SPEAKER_07 32:30

He went through all of that mud in Crocs. And the socks were not touching the mud at all.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

I don't know how that worked. Yes, me neither. I I literally watched his foot go into the mud, get submerged, and come back up and go on the way up, not a drop on his socks. Yeah. Not a drop. I don't know how he did it. You either got very lucky or there's some damn good crocs, one or the two. Yeah. Yeah. Literally, there's there's no other option. You either got very lucky or the crocs are like god tier crocs. Uh both. Why not?

SPEAKER_08 33:08

But I need some crocs. Oh some crocs next, yeah. No. Oh god. We need we need uh duck crocs.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Duck crocs.

SPEAKER_08 33:19

Yeah, duck crocs ducks. No, so that's a different brand.

SPEAKER_06 33:25

Screw it. There are no yellow crocs or ducks.

SPEAKER_07 33:29

That's I was gonna say, like there were so many people with ducks, it was amazing.

SPEAKER_08 33:35

There were, there were, like you were onto something because you bought a pack of ducks when you were I brought a hundred little plastic ducks, and I started handing them out, and then uh I met these people wearing um duck shirts on the I think it was the last night. Yeah, and I gave him I gave him a gave this guy a duck, and in return he gave me a bigger duck. Couldn't be more happier. He'd even squeak.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

He levelled up your duck, yes, you got ducked up. I got ducked up, but um yeah, I think like that first night when we like me and the wife went to the day downloading it because obviously, like those guys in the podcast have been watching them. I think I started watching Simon first. Um shout out to those guys, by the way, amazing podcast. Go listen to them, go check out the channels. Everything they do is like spot on and stew as well. Um SMTV, great bunch of guys. Um go check out all this stuff, everything they do, seriously. But um, yeah, uh, we went to that meetup, and literally the fucking skies just opened. That was the point when I looked at like there's a picture of me and Nikki that we took outside, windswept in our you know, hoodies and stuff, and like ponchos on, just getting absolutely annihilated by the rain. And bear in mind the walk from tents to get to the where they had the silent disco on. Um the uh what was it called? The Ace of Something bar.

SPEAKER_08 35:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

Down the way, that white tent.

SPEAKER_08 35:15

Uh towards where the Shisha bar is.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Yeah, and towards where the uh the cinema was as well, the outdoor cinema. Um literally what five-minute walk by the time we in the dry in the dry, yeah, five minutes. In the wet, however, it took us ten minutes to get there. Yeah. Yeah, no, that that's to get to the path from the tent. Pretty much. But by the time we got there, we were soaked and didn't know where the hell anyone was. Turns out we'd walk straight past them. Um but yeah, coming back out, we just we just couldn't believe how much rain fallen, but that was only the start of it. But honestly, it yeah, if anything, it actually made it more fun, if I'm honest, because last year when it was super dry and super hot, because it was so hot, you didn't want to drink anything, you didn't want to eat anything, you didn't want to do anything, you just wanted to stay in one spot and not move. Yeah, which in turn meant that we didn't really explore because it was too bloody hot. Like we took a crate of beers, we came back with more than half of the crate of beer, just we didn't drink it because we just were too hot. But this year, totally different ball game.

SPEAKER_05 36:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

So I think we ran out of beer on the third night, I think. Me and Nick. Yeah, I think we ran out on the Friday night. Yeah. Because she came back, didn't she? Um, because I you and me stayed towards Queens. Yes. Well, I was on my own in the end, I think. Was I?

SPEAKER_08 36:50

Um no, no, we all left together. We left before the end of the show.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 36:56

And as we got off, the that song came on.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

Yep. Yeah. Yep, and I just literally turned around to you and went, I can't believe I'm walking away from this. I would have I would have stopped, stood there, and watched that song.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

I wanted to, but I was like, I just want to go back to the tent. I was so high.

SPEAKER_08 37:14

Yeah. Oh I I couldn't.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Yeah, you you were you were a spectacle that entire weekend.

SPEAKER_08 37:23

I I was basically the owner of a bread factory. I I was I was bait.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Yeah, you were like, God, you were like on it morning and night. Ridiculous. I've never seen anything quite like it.

SPEAKER_08 37:39

Yeah, it's it's really the security is not good enough.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

No, well, since we've gone on to that, the fr the Thursday night we I think we all just come back and got drunk in the end, after like that, we all come back. I think Fred and Kel went to the dog house for a bit. Um I wasn't doing much drinking. No, you weren't actually.

SPEAKER_08 38:05

We were doing more of the drinking. I was well, you see, the first night, this is this is a story. This so after drinking all them pre-gate opening beers, I on that night I woke up about one o'clock in the morning feeling like I needed to take a biggish shit. I've overtook. So I got up, got dressed, walked over, tripped up over a bunch of tents. It was like the crystal maze. So finally got to the toilet, feeling like my stomach was gonna implode on itself. So in the toilet. Standard download shit, so went to the blue, nothing happened. You know, and then decided, yeah, I'm just gonna go for a walk and I was at your breathing, like trying not to throw up. So I went for a walk around the outside of the campsite because there's like a pathway. So I was walking, met some met some nice people, seen them if I was alright, yeah, no problem. And then uh some stewards came by young people, two guys and a girl, and then she goes, Do I look like uh what's Shana? What did she say? Do I look like a can't think of the word? Um, she was posh. Do I look like a like a narc or something? I can't remember.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Yeah, yeah, that was it was something like that. Do I look like a pig or something like that?

SPEAKER_08 39:44

You said does she look like she she's not trustworthy, or she would tell um if someone has a bit they're not meant to. Right, yeah. Told and then everyone was all laughing, they walked off. It's perfect. Anyway, at this point, my internals were shutting down, and I gave in and threw up. Throwing up is a sign I'm having a good time.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

Well, if our wedding's anything to go by, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, we'll tell that story another time. We'll do that at a different time. We'll discuss my wedding another time, but yeah.

SPEAKER_08 40:27

Um that that's a whole new that's a whole whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 40:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 40:32

Um, but yeah, I threw up, went back to bed, felt like shit again, walked to the toilet. This this is like a like a ten minute walk to the lake in the dark, and then uh still nothing. Walked back. I was got I went back and forth to the toilet like seven times, and then uh and then I was I was walking around, I was shaking, I was so cold, got in the tent.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

I didn't know any of this up.

SPEAKER_07 41:01

No, no, you look kept this quiet. I'm not yeah, we teeth like chattering, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 41:07

You only told us about the fucking woman, that was it. Yeah, and then uh my teeth were chattering, I was freezing, I got back into my thing, I put clothes on, I put my jacket on, and I'm there like shivering, and then uh finally dropped off. I was like sweating at the same time, I was cold and sweating, and then I rolled over and it was wet. That's a standard download night actually that I rolled over, it's like wet from sweat, and it then I rolled back, it's cold and wet, yeah, and then uh I needed a shit again, so and I gave up, went went for last last time to loo, came back, past days.

SPEAKER_05 41:50

Right, this makes sense because you were very quiet on the Friday morning, yeah. You was no, this is the first night. This was it? Yeah, this is the first night. Jesus Christ, bro.

SPEAKER_08 42:02

Yeah, um that's I'm going to be in that state on the first night.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Oh yeah. Fair play.

SPEAKER_08 42:07

And then uh, you know, I was like, can I make this whole week?

SPEAKER_01 42:10

I I don't know, but I make it all be fine.

SPEAKER_08 42:17

Um yeah, uh after that I was okay, but I was I was getting I was cold. The nights were really cold. Um I managed to figure out that in the shops you the army shop you can get these really thick socks, which really helped. You wanna wait for Frank for the uh the one that by the swingy pendulum thing? Yeah, yeah, it's uh opposite that. Um yeah, the five quid, you can't go wrong, really thick army socks. Uh went up to my like my knees. Perfect. Perfect things. I wish I'd uh got them sooner. Even brought a uh quilt which wasn't too badly priced.

SPEAKER_01 42:58

How much was that?

SPEAKER_08 42:59

Uh I think it's 20 quid for double quilt, which you know that is not bad.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

Considering festival prices as well, that's that's not bad at all. I think we paid about 30 for our replacement blowbird because our anecdote the first night was the blowbird was fucked, which we'd already figured out on the Tuesday before coming down. Should I say Wednesday morning? Um Wednesday night it was okay. Thursday morning was fucked. So I was like, right, excellent, cool. We'll try it one more night, see if it gets any better, because we had the same problem as you with the the cold, but the difference was me and Nikki knew from last year about the cold in the night. Yeah, because Nikki bought a Rodi and I got given this like uh it's kind of like a long poncho, but it's not really a poncho, it's like a fluffy poncho type. Yeah, another one. Yeah. Um, and I literally slept in like jogging bombs, socks, t-shirt, and that on me inside of the duvet because we bought duvet from home. Yeah. Um, which by the way, I would recommend that rather than a sleeping bag, because a sleeping bag. I did both. Yeah, it can either heat you up too quick or heat you up too quick, then you take it off, and then you s sweat goes freezing cold. So yeah, it's kind of a bit of a catch-22. Um, but yeah, it just got worse. So, like on the Friday morning when we got up, I just said to Nikki, I was like, this thing is fucked. We'll just use it as a base sheet. But it's unfortunately staying here because it's just yeah, it wasn't salvageable. We were trying to find where the puncture was in it, but clearly there was one, but nah, it just had to go, so we went aboard double for about 30. But uh no, I mean like that that Thursday morning that was that was great, and the Thursday night was proper chilled out, like, and then Friday we all got up relatively early. I think we're all up by about eight o'clock, weren't we?

SPEAKER_08 45:21

Something like that.

SPEAKER_01 45:22

I I remember waking up at 10 past seven. Yeah, I think you were up before me. Chilling out because I remember hearing your voice and Fred's voice when I woke up because Nikki was out cold still, and I was just like I was like stirred and poked me out of the tent. It's just like a little mea catalog out the tent.

SPEAKER_08 45:40

But uh, yeah, no. Yeah, well, had a had an afternoon nap.

SPEAKER_01 45:46

Yeah, that would that was another thing. Like we we all I say we all, Fred didn't, but we all regularly napped. I mean Connor was I I've never seen somebody nap so much at a festival. That guy was the king of naps. Like, I mean, I get why he did it, because to his logic, there's bands that you don't know, you're not really that bothered about.

SPEAKER_08 46:09

Yeah, but you've got to give every everyone a chance. You don't know until you've been and listened. If you've listened to them once, you go, yeah, I can miss it on them, already seen them.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

Well, exactly. That there is that. I mean, so the Friday morning we all got we're all quite pumped. And we were like just waiting to go down, and we'd got all that shit packed up and everything. And I had a bag, which was Nikki's bag that we took the year before. It's a kill style backpack. It is the size of A4. You'll see where this is going. It was packed just fine. You know, we got chargers in there, nothing untoward, like jumpers, stuff like that, just in case it did rain, which thank god we did pack that stuff because it fucking rained. So we're queuing. The queue literally took probably like what 20-30 minutes, right? Something like that. We got in, and as I was coming in, they stopped me and was like, Oh, you can't bring that in. And I was like, literally bought it in last year. I was like, No, no, no, it's too big, da da da da. And I was like, Well, it's not because it's the size of A4. So I was there pretty much arguing with them for about 10 minutes to the point where they bought over basically the head of security, and he was like, No, no, you're gonna go da-da-da, and all this stuff, and I was like, Well, okay, but why? Because literally this was fine last year, and people walking past you have got bigger bags than me, just letting them go, so why are you singling me out kind of thing? Yeah, yeah. Um, however, I would say, based on what I witnessed and saw while queuing, very bias. Yeah, there was a bias at the security. So if you had like if you looked a certain way, i.e. like myself, beard, long hair, kind of thing, battle jacket, you know, look a bit rough and ready, so to speak. Yeah, proper thug. They would fucking not proper thug, no me, I wouldn't know to fly, but they look at you and go, You're a cunt, I'm gonna pull you over to the side and make you day shit. Because that's exactly what they did, and they did it to other people. Anyone who looked normal or looked like they were just going on a morning walk or a hike, did you slow them by, no problem. Anyone who actually looked like they wanted to be there. Yeah, I've seen some part of the natural like full-size hiking bag. Exactly. This is what I mean. Blend through, no problem. Exactly. So that's point one about the security team, very biased, very rude as well, because there's a thing that Fred saw because I literally they weren't gonna let me go. I couldn't run past them because there was no distraction, otherwise, I probably would have gone for it. But I had to go all the way back to tent camp, swap the bags out for another bag that was even smaller than that one, come all the way back out to queue for an hour, which by this point I missed Hannaby. Yeah. So on the first band, I will hand over to Damon because you saw them, whereas I didn't.

SPEAKER_08 49:27

Well, not quite yet. Let's carry on with the security because you want to keep going. There's there was a big thing that I'm not happy with, which is if liquid death are the sponsor, valid point. We we brought cans of liquid death. I had email confirmation saying that yes, we can bring a sealed can, a single sealed can per person. And I got through, no problem. A couple of other people came through, no problem, and then they decided you know what? No, they're not allowed. Even though I showed him proof, he just it wasn't happening. Not not very good security or information given to them this year.

SPEAKER_01 50:13

No, not at all. I mean, last year, the security was very lackluster, and they didn't really do any searches, but to be honest, out of the two of them, someone who's not searching you properly, not doing their checks, versus somebody who's checking too much and is basically upsetting people or literally refuting written documentation from the festival organizers saying you are allowed to do this.

SPEAKER_04 50:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 50:45

And upsetting kids, which is another thing that Fred saw while I was gone. They literally had a go at this little girl with a mom and made the little girl cry.

SPEAKER_08 50:58

Um, I should have gone full Karen.

SPEAKER_01 51:00

I I don't know about you, but yeah, you're a bit of a cunt for doing that. Anyone who makes a kid cry at a festival when they're like five or six or any age, yeah, you know, it's just not acceptable, really. So I think for me, and obviously for Damon as well, and possibly mainly of you guys, I think the letdown for this year's download was the security because it it seriously slowed things down. And too many rules, too many rules, don't necessarily stand their own rules. No, that was the thing, they were arguing amongst themselves. Like, somebody get the fucking picture right. If you're gonna have a rule, stick to the rule, don't let people through and stop other people and upset kids and stuff, you know, it's fucking ridiculous. Like, honestly, like I could go on about it for hours, but I won't because I've got more fun things to talk about than uh than Billy Big Bollocks who's sitting on the gate thinking he's an odd man because he's made a kid cry. So we'll move on from that. But that's the point that um I think was the takeaway. The only low point is security for this year. Um much better last year. Go back to that. Um, but yeah, um Hanobi. Hanaby. So while I was doing my little expedition back to the campsite and queuing for an hour and a half to get back in, Hanabi were on.

SPEAKER_08 52:34

Oh beautiful, yeah. Four on waifu material. I I I just I've wanted I've listened to Hanaby for a few years. I just really wanted to see them. I wanted to see how they go from that the cutesy girl to the the grills, and now I have seen it. It was beautiful, absolute and the weather it was I could could not complain.

SPEAKER_01 53:07

Yeah, it was really nice at that point. It wasn't until I got back that it started raining. Yeah, I think it was my shit move that bought the weather.

SPEAKER_08 53:14

Hanaby is one of my like favourites at the festival. Really? Yeah, the one of your highlights. I would say top three. Shit, okay. Top three. Yeah. Def definitely right up there. Somewhere in the top three, I'm not sure. On a specific number, but yeah, definitely, definitely there.

SPEAKER_01 53:34

Falcon. No, to be fair, like by the time I got in, they obviously had finished, and Nikki, Blesser, and Fred, they'd waited for me at the gate, so they obviously missed them as well. Um, which I said, don't bother, I'll just come in and find you. Um, but they didn't listen. Um, which is fair enough, you know, and I appreciate it, but it's one of those things. But um after I come in, went over to the second stage straight away because Halo scene we're on, which is one of Nikki's other favourite bands, because we saw her on the night before, yep, um which forgot to mention, uh, because they were doing like a cover set, which was great. A lot of the songs that we'd heard on YouTube before, brilliant to see him live. Um, the lead vocalist voice is amazing, like her tambour in her voice is just spot on. Yeah, good tits, and the uh the quality of the sound and the dogos for them was pretty good. I've heard it better before in there, but it was pretty damn good for them.

SPEAKER_08 54:41

Yeah, it's quite uh an echo-y environment.

SPEAKER_01 54:45

Yeah, for the dogos. I mean, second stage though, when they played, fuck me, that that set where they played their own stuff was just spot on. The sound was great, no problems at all.

SPEAKER_05 54:58

I never got to see them.

SPEAKER_08 55:00

Now, where did you go? Um where was I? I think I went to the other tent to see Oh, I can't remember.

SPEAKER_06 55:15

Was it Parkway Drive?

SPEAKER_05 55:17

No, that was on the last day. No, no.

SPEAKER_06 55:19

Who was it now?

SPEAKER_05 55:21

I don't know. I was in the uh what's that tent there in the back of that tent? Oh what the dog is.

SPEAKER_01 55:26

Oh the yeah. No, not the dogos. Dog tooth, sir. Yes, dog tootes. Yeah, sorry. Sorry, Jesus Christ, you think I'd know what the tents are. I went that way. It it was uh very packed. Yeah, that that was packed. I mean, when we went to see Parkway, that was runned.

SPEAKER_08 55:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:46

Right over.

SPEAKER_08 55:47

Did we have a downpour as well at that time?

SPEAKER_01 55:50

No. Um so for us back over on second, we stayed there because Scene Queen was on after.

SPEAKER_08 55:59

Yep, I skipped, didn't see that one.

SPEAKER_01 56:01

Yeah, I was gonna say you missed then, but we stayed where you got to the front.

SPEAKER_08 56:06

Um, I remember.

SPEAKER_01 56:08

Come on.

SPEAKER_08 56:09

I was with um Rick. Oh yeah, yeah, you were watching um oh crap, what are they called now? Uh summits I can't actually remember.

SPEAKER_01 56:23

Do you want to do you wanna get the line up post me? Because I I didn't bring my phone up to the recording.

SPEAKER_08 56:28

Uh let's have a look.

SPEAKER_06 56:33

Oh no, that's last year. 24. Uh the was it the struts or something?

SPEAKER_01 56:41

Oh, yeah. I think they were on main. Yeah, they were. Yeah, yeah, they were on main stage. Yeah, the struts.

SPEAKER_08 56:49

Yeah. They were pretty good. Pretty, pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 56:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 56:54

Someone I may add to my playlist if I uh start listening to me a bit more.

SPEAKER_01 56:59

Yeah, first. I mean that's what it's about, isn't it? You you don't really just go there for bands that you know, like you were saying earlier. You kind of go there for the whole you gotta dip your toe. Yeah, exactly. And then you don't know unless you try. That's how I found Mammoth because I didn't know what the fuck Mamleth was, and then Chris was like, Oh, it's Eddie Van Halen's son, and I was like, What? Because you know me, big big Van Halen fan, so yeah, um I was like, wait, what? He's got his own music, and then yeah, it was just great. But um yeah, we then after that saw seeing Queen, um lead vocalist of Halo Scene came out. Mickey got a picture with her, yes, um, so did Connor as well. I didn't, I was the one taking the pictures because there's always that one guy behind camera. Um see and Queen were great, brutally heavy as always. Um we did after that. I think we went over to Maine to go watch Blackstone Cherry, I think. That rings a bell. I think that's what we did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 58:06

I I was because that's when you turned up then. Yeah, I was I was a bit high at that point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 58:14

Yeah, because I remember I remember being very sleepy. I may I may have may have had a little nap.

SPEAKER_01 58:24

Can't remember. Well, this was the the theme of your download was taking naps while bams were on. Oh yeah. But um poured a nap between songs yeah, like we went down, or rather up, um, from there to go see Blanktstone Cherry because Nikki loves them. I wasn't too fussed to be honest, but um, yeah, but the problem that I found was, and I don't know if you found this, if you were in certain parts of the arena, not so much with the second stage or the tenth, but with the main stage, yeah, the sound would just fuck off. Yeah, you would just drop off a cliff, like it'd be fine one minute. It was like surround sound, but yeah, it would like move, yeah. It wasn't ever solid, it was like the wind was taking it, yeah. And it wasn't like that last year, and I don't know if it's because maybe a problem with the new sound towers because they had six last year, they had four this year. I don't know, it could be anything, but it literally dropped off a cliff the sound for them, and we were like behind the sound tent, so maybe that had something to do with it. But kind of bass. It it it kind of ruined it a little bit for me because certain songs I wanted to actually hear, because I'd obviously heard them on Krang, Rest in Peace, um, the TV channel, but you know, uh overall though, from what I could hear when it came through, it was great. Yeah, um, and then I think we had the first meal in the arena after that, a bit later on, which was burger and chips. Yeah. And then you guys had the hot dog, didn't you? I think Nikki went for the hot dog as well.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:10

I don't think I had a hot dog. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:12

No, it was Conrad who had the hot dog, you had a burger like that.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:14

That, yeah, it was it. Yeah, that yeah, the that was such a pain because my hands are full. I'm trying to carry chips and a burger and a drink. Separate containers with two hands. That was not fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

Welcome to download, my friends. And then when you add mud, welcome to download. That's just what happens, mate. Yeah, but um yeah, we uh after after that, like I think me and Nikki went for a bit of a wonder because we wanted to try and go see Busted later on. So we had a bit of a wonder, but then we came back and we watched Baby Metal, or rather, tried to because I think you guys had disappeared at this point. I think you went to a tent. No, I was there for baby metal. Were you? I was. Are you sure? Because on the video that I've got, it's just me nicking Connor.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:18

No, I was there for baby metal. Because we all come on and then started raining, and then they got cut short.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:23

Yep. Yeah, that was that's probably one of the funniest moments that I've ever had with a friend and obviously the wife, was that moment when the rain started coming down because we literally tented ourselves over the deck chairs we were sitting on and just were giggling the whole way through, pissing ourselves laughing.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:47

I'm just in shorts and a a jacket. Yeah, you didn't even have a punch, yeah, because crocs, yeah, which was like woolly, so it's soaked up water. Well, funny enough, it it's it's made a lot of wool, but it wasn't really that wet. I don't know how, but I mean the outside's wet. But the inside was not even toastly dry.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:12

So normally you won't look the other way around, mate. Oh god, I don't know.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:20

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:21

But no, um from what we did hear though, they were good, but yeah, please, please, please don't put them next year because every time they come in fucking rains, yeah, every time Baby Bell of played, it pissed it down.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:35

Yeah, and I really, really wanted to hear the new song with uh Electric Call Boy, but they're backed out because the Nico was ill.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:45

Yeah, so I mean they still played the song, just obviously with the dub over and stuff, but not the same. I did want to see Electric Call Boy because I didn't see them last year.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:56

Um but yeah, iconic that you listened to them in the car last year.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:02

This when they were there and they didn't see them and then didn't listen to them this year. And they didn't turn up. So yeah, I don't know. I think I think next year if they are there, which we'll get on to that in another episode about what we think next year will be. Yeah. Um we'll do that as a separate entity. That'll be another episode about our predictions. We'll do an episode each, or we'll split the episode into two hours on our predictions for 25 because I think we've both got very different opinions on who will be there. Um but yeah, um so after babing that all me and Nikki tried to brave it to get over to Busted. We got there way too late. Yeah, it was packed. It was fucking rammed. It was super packed. Connor somehow managed to get into the middle. I don't know how he did it. I couldn't. I wouldn't me and Nikki just were like, we can't see anything. The sound's gonna be shit. I'm literally sinking in the mud in here. Fuck it, let's go. So what we did, we went to the um the bar that was there, that like little wood shanty ball we went in there for a pint.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:19

And there was a really nice clothing um stalk your steps out there, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:24

It was it was by that. I didn't go in there, but um I think at this point my mom was just like I need beer. Um but there was this little lad who came in with his mum, and he literally he was just drumming along to the songs like a pair of drumsticks, just going for it. He was great. He couldn't have been more than nine years old, he literally just went for it, like tapping on all the metal stuff, and he was banged on time. I was like fucking hell. I was like looking at his own, I was like, he's going places. Um yeah, then we uh sauntered back over to Maine, um saw the back end of Royal Blood, and then into Queens, which for me was a personal highlight of the whole festival because I've always wanted to see Queens. Not my usual type of music, but yeah. See, I know like two or three songs, that's it. Whereas I know quite a few, and yeah, but we'll go on to Queens because I want to hear what you were doing while we were doing all this adventuring and oh I I had my my own adventure. Go on then.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:34

So regalus with the tail. Um it was raining at some point where it started to come down heavy, so was that the uh dog tooth. Um I couldn't get in the tent because everyone's sheltering from the rain. But it was coming down at an angle where if you're just outside where the the ropes hold the tent up, the uh there was loads of people there sheltering. And just between in between the people sheltering and the actual entrance of the tent, because other water could be off the tent. Strung to the floor, making a river. Yeah. Uh so like there was a gap of like no people. Well, people, no people, tent. And I seen some guys walk straight to it in his shoes, up to his ankles.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:26

There's some mad bastards there this year like diving in the fucking tundra or something. Fucking hell.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:33

And uh after it calmed down a bit, I was like, alright, then I'm gonna go for a walk because uh I want to go and see Wheatus and busted.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:41

Wheatish.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:42

Yeah. And uh Wheatish. Yeah. So uh I was like, alright, let's go figure out where these are. So I got my map up. I was like, okay, uh how do we get down here? Can I go this way or this way? I was like, there's too many people at the main stage to get down that that end. So I went past the is it apex? The secondary stage. Um I was like, where the hell's where's the opening to get to the next one? It's a little narrow alleyway. So headed down there, and just as I was going towards the alleyway, the band on that stage finished, and then everyone, everyone stampeded over towards Witus. That was a mistake. It was that pact that so many people that the steward at the on the other end of the alleyway was saying you've you've got to go right around the barrier. It was it was like a like an island. You had to go that way, and everyone was like, nah, fuck that. Going the wrong way, yeah, yeah. Um it was literally like twice the length of the tent of people outside. That's how far back it was. I managed to push through a little bit, got too near the tent, and yeah, won't get any further. Listen to it 10 minutes, saw dem, could not do any, could not, could not move. So I was like, screw it, I'm off. Struggle to get out.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:21

I can imagine that.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:22

Yeah. It was the same difficulty getting in as it was to get out. I thought it would have been easier, but it was not. Then uh I walked past that bar that you went to, that little wooden place. Uh went in the looked in the clothes shops there. Um it started raining again, so I stayed in them for a little bit. Came out, went to the main stage, met up with you lot. Um back end of Royal, they were doing the last song when you turned up. Yeah. And then I came, sat down. I can't remember the rest. I I was just destroyed.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:06

Yep. We all do up to you though, to be fair, your first data download, you you're always kinda going. When it's like proper festival, you you never really sink it all in or know quite how taxing it is. Yep. Super tiring. Which is why you bring a chair. I know some people do it without a chair. Kudos to you who would do it without a chair.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:31

First day I didn't have a chair. No, you didn't, did you? No, because the weather was fine and we could sit on the grass.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:39

That's the point.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:40

And then it started raining a little bit toward the evening.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:43

Absolutely right. Yeah. Absolutely right. You didn't have a chair. But yeah, we do it where we normally keep one person on the main stage to look after the chairs, and then we all meet back there at different points. So we kind of cycle who's gonna do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:59

Um, but yeah, honestly, it was for me, Queens. Like Royal Blood were alright. Not my bag, but they turned really good. Um, so fair play to them. Uh my ass wanted a chair, that day. I was gonna say, like, I said they did say to you with phones when we were leaving, are you sure you don't want a chair? And you were like, No, no, we're fine.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:25

But you learned, you learned, but yeah, oh I also uh my chair was good, but it was massive. You're like 1.2 meters tall, clap it's collapsed, it was massive.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:43

But you need chairs like ours, the little ditty ones, just go yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:50

It started to hurt underneath your legs because it being so high up.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:55

See, I get it on the lower back, just above your cockseps. That's where I get it.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:00

Because mine was quite high up. I'm sat in it, and it's like the bars are here underneath your legs, and because your legs are dangling down a bit more, that's where the pressure points are, so it's kind of like a bruise. But you know, you live in London.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:17

Yeah. But Queens it's fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:20

Oh my god, for me personally, Queens was like it was just a highlight because I grew up listening to them like when I was younger, like um wasn't it bus uh bone for soup before it uh no, that was the next day.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:38

That was on the next Saturday. Because I thought it was the same day that Wheatis were on and then they appeared on Bowling.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:46

Uh I think they came on with them the next day. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:50

Cool, yeah, probably make probably makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:52

I can't remember. I think Wheaters were on before busted on the Friday, if memory serves from looking at the poster. I think they would have no actually both.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:03

It was Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:04

Oh, was it? Yeah. Well, well, well, there you go. I think we're gonna have to refer to this. Wheatus was Friday. There you go. There we go. I got one out of two right. Can't be that bad, but um yeah. Queens. They sounded amazing. Um, you know, the effects were nice. The effects were great, the stage show was great. I mean, I do have one comment though, and I think it's a bit of a a similar thing to what I've seen and heard from what happened when Vifi headlined. No one really saw them as like a download headliner because what I saw, and obviously Josh would have seen it on stage because he reacted to it, but after two or three songs, everyone saw it fucking off, like literally like in dros, just leave it, yeah. And after they played No One Knows, everybody left apart from like me and you, like yeah, there's not a lot of songs that people know by them.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:13

It's only the popular songs, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:15

That's the problem. It's like they're only gonna stick around to see that one song and then they'll fuck off.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:20

But I will say that the lighting and all that I would say is much better than Avenge Sevenfold's.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:27

Oh god, yeah. Avenge Sevenfold's stage show was boring, yeah. It was better. It was better at my first download, which was the Lincoln Park one in 2014. I know a lot of people are gonna hate me for that, but that was my first download. But that show with Avenged was far more enjoyable than this one. This one felt very cold.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:52

Um that's not a play on words with the weather, by the way. It just didn't it didn't give me much um the new songs though for Avenged I enjoyed, but I'll get to them when we get there. Um but with the whole way that it was going with Queens of the Stone Age, it literally just felt like no one was interested, and Josh was even trying to get people involved in the crowd, like they stopped playing it for like two, three minutes. Yeah. Just to try and hype up the crowd and what was left of it, and it was literally only the people inside the front that were doing it, no one else at the bat was getting involved. And I kind of felt a bit sorry for them because like they were playing well, and I think I think it did upset Josh a little bit, but maybe it's because they've played Glastonbury. I I don't know what it what it was. Yeah, it just seemed like no one was that bothered about them.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:58

I mean that's exactly how I felt. Well, there you go. I just wanted to hear the the songs that I know that they do that I like. The rest of it was just meh to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:08

See, whereas I was there to see them. So it was kind of like for me, I kind of felt a bit sad about it. I was like, oh, I didn't really get the reaction I wanted them to. Were they one of your top? Yeah, for me that was one of my highlights, like seeing seeing them. Because I like as I was saying, like as a kid growing up, like seeing the music videos, hearing the songs, like Go with the Flow, all the popular stuff, then listening to um songs for the Deaf, stuff like that. That album literally listened to that album because he wrote that album about like um long drives and stuff, because that's why it sounds like a radio station clicking over for each song. Okay, um, it kind of tells the story in like other songs that they do, like the masterpieces musically, but um yeah, it it just felt like you know, for me it felt very much I needed to see them because I obviously I'd like mentioned grew up listening to their stuff, and then they were on games that I used to play, like Jack X Combat Race. I don't know if anybody remembers that game. Um, not a lot of people do, um, but they did one of the songs for the intro piece for that. Um it was one of that album that I mentioned earlier, Songs for the Deaf. It was one of the songs that was the one that I walked away from as we were leaving, and I was like, That was one of the songs that I do know. Can't believe I'm walking away from that song because that song holds a lot of childhood memories, but I just wanted to get back to the tone because I was cold and exhausted, exhausted. I just was fucking done.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:44

And you know that as soon as that song's over as well, there's gonna be a haul.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:49

I mean, it wasn't too bad, it took about what, ten minutes to get from the main arena run down to the co-op. Yeah, something like that. Normally, last year when we left Metallica or Bring Me, I think Bring Me took like two hours to get back to the co-op. Two hours of walking. Before we were back, it was about half one by the time we got back to the tent.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:11

Um so who would you say is your top three that you enjoyed?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:16

Pantera is number one.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:19

Because it's Pantera. I I never thought I would get to say I've seen Pantera live.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:25

I was too cold and high to see him.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:27

Yeah, you I looked at you and I'm gonna come and you're like, nah, man, I'm gonna see.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:31

I wanted to, but my shoe choice wouldn't let me. I had no grip. This is why you wear whellies. Yeah, next year I'm gonna get something with like spikes or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:42

Well, hopefully an extra fucking rain in the end.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:45

I'm gonna bring like something with spikes in just in case, like snow shoes or something. Just giving like a pair of like slipper uh tennis shoe looking spikes. Spiky crocs are the whole day.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:59

Nah. I think I do think though, like for me, highlights from Friday definitely Queens. Seeing Queen was quite fun to watch. Lee's your top three. Yeah, for the Friday. So I mean I was gonna do that at the end when we've done the whole thing, but I think Friday for me probably seeing Queen. Um Queens, definitely Queens at the top. And um Yeah, I was surprised by Royal Blood, they were quite good. I think the disappointing one for me though was probably Blackstone Cherry, that that did disappoint me, but only because of the sound. Yeah. Like the performance-wise was great, but I couldn't hear shit, so yeah. Opus stage is much better sound. Oh god, yeah, yeah. This year Opus was the place to be. Yeah, like out of all the stages, that was the one you wanted to go to was Opus. Oh yeah. Um, or that was perfect, perfect. Or the dog tooth, because there was one band that I really wanted to see, but I was just too tired. And that was on a Sunday, but we'll get there when we get there, because I was just absolutely done by that point, so I just knocked it on the head and called it a called it a festival. I was like, right, I'm just gonna stay where I am and see it to the end. Um but yeah, that was the Friday night, so um it was pretty good. So yeah, my Friday.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:40

I'd say half it, I can't remember. Somewhere between Black Stone Cherry and Polyphia, I was pretty much gone.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:53

Polithia forgot we saw them as well, they were good.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:56

Uh yeah, uh sin them, yeah. Uh that's one way of saying it. I wasn't them, but I don't remember them. Um can't even I I I I I blinked and then it was almost over. And I blinked again, it was gone. I'm pretty sure there was a lung set as well. It was a long set. I I was gone. I had a couple too many biscuits that day. Um but from what I do remember, uh Softplay.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:34

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:20:35

Soft play were absolutely brilliant. Oh, I forgot about Softplay, I thought they were on Saturday. They are performing at the O2.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:43

When?

SPEAKER_08 1:20:45

Can't remember. Was it October, November? If it's October the 20th, I cannot do that because that's a wedding anniversary. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:52

So I'll uh I'll find it, we'll look at that. Hey, that was the third one I was thinking of. Yeah. Soft, but fuck me. They were so good. Oh, even that pink hat was hilarious.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:03

The energy was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:05

I like your hat, mate.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:08

Yeah, it was fucking great. I would say they they're they're like my number one for that day.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:14

Yeah, they were great. They're probably number two, actually. I think you go to seeing queen soft play queens.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:21

Uh in fact, that's probably only one for that day.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:24

I'm gonna remember the rest. Jesus Christ. That I was destroyed by that. The most prepared man, the most fucked up man while we were there.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:33

Yeah. What I mean. I could say I seen busted, but realistically, I see the backs of people's head, and I couldn't see in the tent because it was too sunny outside, and it's dark in there. What did it sound like? Um because other people said it sounded like crap. Well, I was outside, so I couldn't really hear too much. So it wasn't great. So you kind of saw but same with Wheaters, so the same issue. Um I wouldn't I would love to have seen Skate the Fate, but I can't remember what what what I was doing or what universe I was in. Um yeah, um, I'm pretty sure I may have caught Make Them Suffer at some point.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:22

I heard Make Them Suffer and I was like, I wish I was over there.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:25

Yeah, I wasn't in the tent, but I was trying to get in the tent. That was pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:31

Yeah, they're a great band, they are. I remember their early death core stuff, that's where I listened to them.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:36

Not all so much recently, but all right, and also of course Hanna B, which is definitely number one. Number one, Hannah B. Number two, soft play. That's that's how good it was, even though soft play was mint.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:46

I loved Soft Play, they were great.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:48

Yeah, but yeah, that that is that is day day Uno, Friday, 14th of June.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:55

Alright, and with that, guys, um that will cover uh part one of the very first episode of the Pizza Town Podcast. Lucky you. Yeah, lucky you getting to listen to us drivel on about download for uh what will probably be just over an hour. Um so uh either you're listening to this while you're having a very long, arduous shit. Oh yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:21

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:22

A download shit.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:23

Or were you shutting other people's shit?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:27

Yeah. Pile of shit. Yeah. Um yeah, maybe you've got a very boring day at work, but either way, we appreciate you guys listening in. Um, we'll be putting up part two some point after this, uh, where we cover the Saturday and the Sunday.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:45

Um who's our favourite bands? Yeah. Top top three for that day, and then overall for the festival.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:52

Yep, and uh a day-by-day breakdown of Ash and Adigans and what we got up to. Yes. Probably be talking about the showers in that episode as well and some some food reviews as well.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:04

Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, let's do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:06

Um, but yeah, thanks for listening, guys, and uh take it easy. Adios.