Take Me Back: VersaEmerge

The opening band Kill Kassidy didn't grab my attention as I came through the doors and so instead I went and spent an obscene amount of money on merch. However, Not Advised (Now known as Natives) did draw me towards them. I had previously heard a couple of their songs but had never properly listened to them but right then I fell in love and have since never looked back.
Opening with 'Stranger' and not neglecting their EP's, VersaEmerge's set list provided a good mix of fast songs to keep us all jumping along but did allow a much needed chance to breathe by playing the beautiful 'Clocks'. 'Up There' was the stand-out performance of the night which was followed by a haunting cover of Bjork's 'Unravel'. With about 100 people and a venue no bigger than my garden the atmosphere was charged and you could feel every last song deep in your bones. It's safe to say that on May 18th 2011, at the back room of Bristol o2 Academy, the Floridians kicked some butt and proved to us all that they deserve our attention.
I also happened to be lucky enough to meet Not Advised's Jim Thomas, receive a high-five from Blake and meet Sierra all of whom were very lovely people as well as talented musicians.

5 Books That Ruined My Life

1) Ok, so this might have been an obvious choice and it might also actually be 7 books so my '5 books that ruined my life' is already a fail but the Harry Potter series by the legendary J.K Rowling simply had to go on the list. I can also tell a lot of you are confused as to how they ruined my life, but c'mon you can't deny it you cried your eleven year old eyes out when you didn't receive your Hogwarts letter. And if you're like me you still have frequent panic attacks that the wizarding world is real and you're just a muggle. I don't think there is anyone out there that needs me to give you a brief overview of the books and if you do shame on you! Get off my blog and go and read these books right now, but do be aware they will make your real life seem incredibly dull. 

2) I spent a good 20 minutes debating which John Green book I was going to put on this list because every single one of them ruined my life. His writing is perfection personified and the plot of each of his books will have you bawling your eyes out. However, I came to the conclusion that Looking For Alaska is going to be my choice firstly because it was the first book of his I read which then led me to his other books. Hence, if I had never read Alaska I would never have read his other pieces of equally devastating literature. The other reason I chose this is because, without giving too much away, the main 'event' of the book leaves you with so many questions - like was it on purpose and could it have been stopped? This along with his beautiful writing that makes me feel completely shitty about my own lack of skills is the reason Alaska is a life-ruiner. But of course if you haven't read it yet please do. You'll be glad to have your life ruined at the hands of John Green, promise! 

3) Lauren Oliver is another author who writes with sheer beauty and Delirium really is beautifully tragic. Delirium is about life in the future where love is not allowed and people are 'cured' of the disease. But of course Lena does the illegal and falls in love and as she falls further and further for Alex so do you. Her writing will make your heart flutter and want to fly out of your chest but in typical Lauren Oliver style it doesn't go the way you want it to. Be prepared and stock up on Kleenex before you allow this tear-jerker to break your heart. In fact, i'm almost considering The Cure for myself so I won't have to keep dealing with so much book induced pain. 

4) I cried from beginning to end of this book and lost the ability to function as a normal human being once i'd finished it. If I Stay by Gayle Forman grabs your heart and other vital organs, twists them, stabs them and then pulls them out and shreds them leaving you with nothing but a hollow shell of your former self. Reading the story of Mia - a car crash victim- will leave you in such physical and emotional pain that I suggest you clear your diaries for a while afterwards to ensure you enough time to recover. 

5) If any of you are sat there thinking oh yeah this is so sad I remember from watching the film, then again go right now and read the book. Don't ever trust movie adaptations. My Sister's Keeper keeps you on your toes questioning exactly why Anna no longer wants to save sick sister Kate's life and trying to work out just what is going to happen. And Jodi Picoult really does a number on you in this one. The ending is not what you expect despite her sneaky clues throughout the heartbreaking tale of the Fitzgerald family. 

There you have it. 5 (ish) books that ruined my life whether it was because they were heartbreaking, gave me unrealistic standards for life or the author is unbearably talented they all had me in tears at some point and I want every single person who reads this to go and check out all of these books immediately. Before I finish this post and publish it for the world to see it does need to be said that there are about another 40 or so books that could easily have made this list and i'm sure books that I have yet to read that will also be deserving of the title 'life-ruiner'. 

Back In Time: Reading Festival (Sunday and Monday)

Hurrah I've finally reached the last couple of days of Reading Festival 2012 and let me tell you this - it was good one.

We woke up super early on Sunday because yet again we had to queue at the NME tent for Baltimore's All Time Low. After seeing them live several times we met guitarist Jack Barakat and drummer Rian Dawson back in freezing days that January had to offer us but now we wanted to grab this opportunity to meet vocalist Alex Gaskarth and bassist Zack Merrick. We waited outside the main arena for a good hour and then walked to the queue. I say walked because a good 50 or so people ran but it really was too early to be dealing with that. We recognised a few faces from the Paramore queue and they happened to recognise us as being the last girls let through so we were met with a few glares, it's always nice. Needless to say we didn't make any friends in this queue.
Apparently whilst we had been living in a separate world from everyone else All Time Low had released a new song 'For Baltimore' which we were lucky enough to hear pulsing from one girls' phone. Compared to the Paramore fan base the people we were surrounded by were unfortunately very annoying. There was a group of 20-somethings who confessed they had nothing better to do, a girl who was queueing merely because she had been turned away for Paramore and The Vaccines and worst of all a group of 6 pre-teens who really had no clue who All Time Low actually were. One of these girls happened to hear the song 'Lost In Stereo' on the radio and decided Alex was hot and so she had to meet them but she didn't want to queue alone so all 5 of her friends went in too. She also claimed that Lost In Stereo was an old song and they had to Google the names of the other members and pronounced Rian's name like Reean. I wanted to kill them. Not because they were bugging me but because that meant that at least 6 people who were die-hard fans desperate to meet them now wouldn't.
Anyway, rant over. We only had to wait for 3 hours this time before the queue started moving and in we went. A flicker of recognition passed over Jack's face when we saw him, Rian and Alex told me they loved my hair (It had been a topic of conversation all weekend) and quiet Zack was most definitely high. They're probably one of the most lovely bands out there - when they aren't making dick jokes that is.

After we finally met all of the ATL guys we headed for the main stage to wait for their set and heard The Gaslight Anthem in the process. When All Time Low came on I knew this was going to good. Bouncing around as always and not letting anyone down musically their set was awesome and my day was made when they played a cover of Blink 182's 'Dammit'. 

They were the last band I really wanted to see for the weekend so we spent the rest of the time wondering around and in the NME tent which we had decided early on was just a really nice place to be. At some point we went back to the tent and thinking we would just be sitting around for the rest of the night I put all my layers on as it was getting cold. But no. I was dragged into the crowd for Two Door Cinema Club and this was the closest I think i've ever come to death. We hadn't had much to eat or drink due to lack of money and I was overheating like mad. The only reason I was still on my feet was because of just how many people were there - I couldn't have fallen if I tried. Until that is the entire crowd fell down. Now, previous to this a bunch of guys had decided they couldn't make it to the loo and simply unbuttoned there and then and peed all down our legs. A rational me would have been angry but I was delirious and full of vodka so I didn't really care. So when I fell and I just could not get up, for a variety of reasons mostly to do with the fact I really did not feel good, and Meg was yelling at me to get up and I was about to be squished and the guy who peed on me pulled me up I was really grateful and for a while we made friends with them. I don't think there are many people in the world who can say they made friends with the person who peed on them but i'm one of them. The short of it is Two Door were excellent and great fun and never would anyone expect their fans to be quite as violently enthusiastic.

Once this spectacle was over we did what we do best and sat down on the outskirts of the tent. Later in the night Justice the NME headliner came on and i'm almost ashamed to admit I loved it. I'm really not a huge Dubstep fan but when you're drunk and in an atmosphere like Reading it really is the best thing ever. An adorable security guard was dancing by himself at the back and I wanted to marry him but instead I settled for telling him he had the best dance moves ever and then hi-fived him. Meg also got a sneaky video.

Sadly, it was all over. We went back to tent sad as ever that we had to go home. Our hair had become one clump of dreads, we hadn't showered in 5 days and food and drink were things of the past but the thought of going back to Devon and college was torture. The atmosphere on Monday morning was one of total despair and nostalgia for only the day before and the shuttle bus was almost silent. We were at the train station by 9:15 so we an extremely painful wait for our train which wasn't until 1:35. People all around us were buying food and drink and we'd had nothing for almost 24 hours unless you count the vodka but we definitely don't. We plugged ourselves in to my ipod and blasted Yellowcard's 'Here I Am Alive' - the theme tune to the greatest weekend of our lives.

If there is anyone out there with a time machine let me know. I'm willing to either go back in time to Reading or forward to Reading 2013 - i'm not fussy.

Have We All Felt Something We're Never Meant To Feel.

It's Sunday evening and I should be working but I really can't be bothered so instead i'm breaking up the words a little and giving you some actual music. Honestly, this is one of my favourite songs ever and it's so beautiful I want to play it from the top of a skyscraper for the whole world to hear. So here's the stunning Anavae song 'This Light' with the equally talented Arthur Walwin who coincidentally has just released a new video.

Back in Time: Reading Festival (Saturday)

On Saturday there wasn't anyone we were interested in seeing until Scottish rockers Twin Atlantic and so after our night spent crying over Paramore we were relieved to get a lie in. Once we had pulled ourselves out of our sleeping bags we went exploring and saw some, uh, interesting signs.

Needless to say we didn't 'follow the road for a great shit'. There were endless shops and we were both cursing ourselves for not bringing more money.

We bought a locker to charge our phones with which didn't work (£15 wasted!) and so then we got a portable charger for £20 which lasted for about half an hour and did this to our phones:

Now money-less and phone-less we headed towards the NME stage to find we had missed the majority of Twin Atlantic's set but did manage to catch their final song Free and I was glad to hear Sam McTrusty's accent was more bearable live.
For reasons unknown to me Meg happens to like Enter Shikari and so I was bullied into going to see them. The crowd was crazy, violent and I was entirely sure that when I was dragged into the mosh pit I was going to die. She even punched me in the face. As for Enter Shikari I just don't get it. One minute there's breakdowns the next it's dubstep. My brain just can't process it.
We Are The In Crowd impressed me so much they made me cry. I had seen them 3 times beforehand and they've always been good and have never disappointed but this time around they were incredible. Their songs sounded more punk than pop and the tent was full. Surprisingly the crowd knew all the words and actually sang the Guaranteed To Disagree songs much louder than the few songs played by Radio One. We had been joking about how they would cope singing Kiss Me Again without Alex Gaskarth (Jordan > Alex) when who should step onto stage? Yep, you guessed it. Alex Gaskarth himself. As you can imagine the crowd suddenly became 100 times wilder than before.

I did want to catch Lower Than Atlantis once more but after WATIC we were exhausted so we went outside and sat down before heading to the main stage for Florence And The Machine. 
Admittedly i'm not really a fan of Florence but if there is anything you do in your life that at the moment you wouldn't even think about doing make sure it's going to see them live. It rained for the first time all weekend but it didn't bring anyone down - if anything it made it more magical. We even made a temporary friend, Hollie 'not Polly' with the metal head friends who ditched her for Mastodon.

There you have it. The highlights of my Saturday. Sunday and Monday coming soon.

Back In Time: Reading Festival 2012 (Thursday and Friday)

For several years now I've wanted to be able to say i've been to Reading Festival and now finally I can. To think only a month ago I was still counting down the days until my train left the station and headed towards what will be end up being some of the best few days of my life. And now you get to read about it - or at least how it was for me. 

We left at the crack of dawn on Thursday with too many bags and not enough arms. The train journey dragged on, which was especially painful due the many glares from other passengers after we bashed just about every one of them with our abundance of bags. Once we arrived in Reading we hopped on one of the shuttle buses but even that wouldn't save the pain of walking around trying to find somewhere to pitch our top quality Asda tent. After walking for the longest hour of my life we gave up and ended up in, well, a ditch. But really how much more of Thursday do you want to hear about? We were drunk, we went to the funfair, we took obnoxious photo's, I gained a bruise the entire size of my arm and we fell asleep and struggled to wake up the next morning. 

However, it was Friday. The one day we needed to wake up early because Friday was the day Paramore were signing in the NME tent. We still don't quite know how but we managed to get in the queue by 11:15. The next 5 hours were the most painful of my life. Sitting around for 5 hours with no food, no drink and hundreds of people cutting through the queue to get to the actual NME stage was awful. I'm impatient and fidgety and so by the time Paramore were due to be signing I couldn't quite work out why we thought it was a good idea to queue all that time especially as we had already been told by the security guys that it was unlikely we would get in. This was surprising and yet not for us. We were fairly near the front but at the same time I could never imagine meeting them.
Then the screaming began. Hayley, Jeremy and Taylor had arrived. Earlier on we had decided to 'group up' with 3 other girls who we had been queued with all day, so if one doesn't go in none of us do. As you can imagine people who had been on the outskirts on the queue decided to cut in, shoving a lot of us much further back and as a result causing around 50 people who would have got in, and had been waiting all day, to be turned away in tears. After 15 minutes (Paramore were only signing for half an hour) we made it through the first lot of gates and after 5 more the second gate. At this point you are pretty much guaranteed to meet them but none of us wanted to believe it. We were right not to as well.
The 5 of us were the very last people put through the gates and they weren't going to let us through. The security guy at our gate, who I think was a Paramore fan as he was taking photo's bless him, wanted to let us through. He asked me if I can whistle to get the Big Boss Security Man's attention and I said not very loud so I instead opted for screaming "whistle whistle". It worked he turned around and Paramore Fan Security held up 5 fingers and Big Boss looked at his watch looked at us and then after 5 painstaking seconds nodded his head. And then I died there and then.
Well, obviously not really but I think I nearly had a heart attack. We were going to meet Paramore. From the age of 9 they have been my favourite band and so explaining what they mean to me would be impossible but just understand this - never in my life ever did I imagine meeting them and it was never supposed to happen.
The people who didn't get through gave us a book they had made and letters for us to give them and that is what did it. Our determination not to cry went out the window as we flipped through the book and then felt like the most rotten people on earth that we were getting to meet them and they weren't. So, now we looked a mess we went in to meet them and before I had even looked at Jeremy properly he said to me "Hey, you've got awesome hair hi-five for that" and then held his hand up and I really couldn't quite believe (still don't, actually) that this was happening. I then made my along the table hi-fiving them and whisper-screaming I love you. I gave the book and the letters to Taylor and the look on his face was so cute. But there you have it. The one thing in my life I dreamed but never imagined to happen did happen. After, the guys who wrote the book came up to us crying and hugged us and then we all just stood there hugging and crying for whatever reason. Then we ran to the toilets and I called my dad and he just said "why are you crying it's just a band". I then cried more. As you can imagine this was the highlight of my weekend and is definitely one of my top five moments in life.

As we were the last people through we just made it to the main stage in time for England's very own You Me At Six. This would mark the 4th time seeing them since their tour with Paramore back in 2009 and as always they were brilliant. We talked to a lot of people in the crowd who were all very entertaining making the experience 100 times better and of course Josh demanding us all to take off an item of clothing and swing it around our heads was always going to be entertaining (Note: I took off a sock). Next up was Bombay Bicycle Club. I don't really listen to them and I don't think they should have come between the You Me At Six lads and Paramore but they did and they weren't bad just not my cup of tea. Now for the moment we had been waiting for. Paramore's return to the stage. It had been almost 2 years since I had last seen them and I could not wait and of course they didn't disappoint. I only have 2 things to say that I wish I could change and that is I wish the crowd knew Renegade better and I wish the girl who was chosen to sing on Misery Business did more than just stand there.

By now we were positive we were going to drop down dead from lack of food and drink as we hadn't had anything but vodka since Thursday afternoon and it was now late Friday night so we left the crowd in a hunt for food we could eat. Eventually we found the Fry's vegan and vegetarian stand and I had the best vegan burger ever whilst sitting watching The Cure do their thing.

*Saturday, Sunday and Monday to come at a later date as college work is dragging me down.