The Plane that Rocked

The plane that rocked

So here I am flying over Godthab in Greenland on my way to L.A.
Godthab, Greenland. Home of the Vikings. Very inhospitable, cold, icy home.
And only a semi-permanent home upon excursions for pillage from Scandinavian shores.
It’s interesting the idea of launching and leaving for a better place when things get rough. Or looking for new horizons. It takes a lot of guts I think. It’s not just running away, its braving the unknown. Leaving known boundaries, rules, territory.
Can you imagine being in a time when there were still places on earth unexplored? What a rush! What a nerve. What a great hope.

I feel the same kind of jealousy for the joy of exploration and discovery when watching “The Boat that Rocked” and thinking about radio - I just saw there film here on the plane. Bringing rock to the masses, introducing people to Hendrix to people for the first time, whilst he was alive I can only imagine what that was like. Presenting radio back in 1966 wasn’t like it is now. At that point it was before the conventions and mainstays of radio existed, when every show was still a discovery, and every piece of vinyl that arrived in your letterbox a potential new treasure. When Djs were the listeners connection with music and new releases, when presenters had the ability to change the outlook of music totally, introduce new bands and new types of music – even import music like the blues, and through the presenters understanding and connection to it, thousands of new converts then came to the altar of rock n roll.
Nowadays, there are so many bands, so many demos, so many new tapes. Legends like John Peel managed to make their way through all or most of what was sent to them, but if you are a presenter with a very full time job too, it’s unrealistic to do that.
But the cynicism is what is more annoying – my cynicism to new arrivals in my letterbox, compared with my total admiration for old masters, and my fervent wish that I could play listeners music that would change their lives the way that the original radio presenters did at the dawn of rock n roll.
Rock n roll should be rebellious, now however radio is mostly inside the law. Especially in rock – and its ironic that the only pirate radio stations these days are pretty much jungle or reggae. It said at the end of “The boat that rocked” that there’s something like 299 stations in the UK now that play rock and pop 24/7. None of those I should think are pushing the boundaries and breaking the law like music radio did in the early days. I would love to be able to push the envelope with my shows more – but what is there to do that hasn’t been done already – Howard Stern took most things as far as they could go, and in reality his kind of shock jock is more about the jock than the music, and what I really love is being able to play people music that I love that they end up loving too.
A discovery. A new continent. Although I get the feeling that if Rock n roll was the Continent, Metal was a state, and nowadays I just got the crumbs.
That’s not to belittle the new bands out there that I love – Wolf, Grand Magus, Municipal Waste, Cauldron etc.
But when you compare the first spin of those records to the first hearing of Sabbath…ever.
Or the first time the blues was played on UK shores.
You can’t really say its on the same level.
Its like I was down on Greenland in the cold, and those moments at the beginning of the airwaves were at 10363m, like this plane is now.

It’s a great film though!

Hammerfest day 2 and the return

Day 2 was gonna be busy. Although Evile played Friday night, their press was all Saturday afternoon, and Gama Bomb were due to arrive and play Saturday too, and do their press.

From previous experience, when Gama Bomb and Evile get together, or more to the point, Mike Evile and Gama Bomb, there's an uncontrollable chaotic love fest, where interviews will then go out the window... so one of the things i knew i would have to do, like when you have 2 naughty kids is keep them seperated until the work is done. Bless 'em.

So Lucy and i took a shift on the stall when we woke up. Here's the lovely Earache stall - stuck in the arcade where you couldn't bring alcohol in... (it moved later during the day - thanks security!)

I went to pick up Gama Bomb at the gate at 1pm. They mostly travel by public transport, even when on tour. Which i think is pretty awesome. And crazy.

Stupidly i'd arranged all the press for Gama Bomb and Evile to happen at the same time with the same change overs. Actually, i'm not sure if it was stupid or clever, cause i surely wasn't going to manage to do two seperate loads and better to get it all out the way. But it meant a lot of running about, which is... normal i spose.

I left Lucy on the stall with the dudes and took care of it. Both Evile and Gama Bomb are great to work with i'm really lucky to work with bands who (sometimes) listen to what i say, work hard, have great answers, and are a whole bunch of fun. Which is exactly what happened when i tried to get them to do interviews in a kids playground, multi storey ballpark. :-O Thrash bands all over the place, ball fights, obstacle course races in between BBC rock show interviews. Great stuff. Matt Drake decided that if Evile ever make it big he's going to build a ballpark in his house. Or alternatively make it a business if Evile don't work. Ballparks for adults.

Its such a shame we didn't get some of that Evile vs. Gama Bomb in a ballpark tomfoolery on tape.

Anyway, press done with 45mins to go before Evile and Gama Bomb's signing session, we headed to the canteen (bleugh), as i hadn't eaten all day, Gama Bomb needed to eat early because they were playing that night and all of us had been working press for nearly 4 hours. Also, strangely, the signing session was inside the canteen. I didn't realise this at first and thought that the queue outside was for the greasy fish n chips. But no! It was for Sepultura and our friend the amateur photographer Derrek (just kiddin he never took any photos and we were drunk and crazy and whatever anyway...-see Day 1 - Hey Derrek!). So anyway, we got some food and tried to eat quick in time for the signings. As Sepultura fans disappeared and Evile fans started arriving people wanted Matt to sign whilst he was eating so Lucy and i had to step in (Lucy was back with me now - yes guuurl!)

Then there was some mix up with Saxon's times for signing and they wanted Gama Bomb and Evile to wait, but i'd made them work all afternoon, and GB were due to play that evening, and they hadn't had a chance to enjoy the festival at all, so i made them sign on some tables down the side of the canteen to get it done, whilst Saxon were up the back. There weren't that many Saxon fans anyway, because the times had changed no one knew - people were there for Evile and GB - lots of them! Lovely job.

So after the signing i went back to the stall for a while, fully intending to stay on the stall until later on. By this point the stall had moved to by the main stage. After an hour of selling merch, Skindred came on and i just had to run and dance for a while. Lucy! This is what your poor arse needs, come down and shake it! We met Alice and girls in the pit and i bounced around for a while. I love Skindred. I always have maximum respect for 1) Someone who can start a good-time party 2) Frontmen that control the crowd like that 3) Frontmen who can spin a yarn

And i think Benji is fucking awesome.

We'd started drinking by now, and Skindred put me in a great mood. Benji came down to the stall to hang out for a while and we had a good chat, about the time i woke him up at 5am to do an interview for Totalrock (sorry Benji), Uxfest, music in the UK, and what he thinks about Earache, and how he kept saying to me that he has huge respect for Digby for investing so much money in his talent and spotting it early on. I like it when artists stay friends with Earache and appreciate what we do, heaven knows there's enough shit talking.

I also realise that with time opinions change, and with hindsight and perspective shows reasons and actions to be valid. So big up Benji, totally straight up and awesome. And i still owe him so much for sending Uxfest out with the bang it deserved at Islington Academy in '06.

So time for Gama Bomb! Second stage about 10pm. I love Gama Bomb's attitude. I love Philly's wit. And i love the fact those dudes are so cheeky. I think they're a really great band, and even though the sound was a bit shitty on the second stage, they played a storming set, and Philly is always worth while, oh and Joe's hair, because he's worth it too. Fuckin awesome.

I think i was a few drinks in by now, time to find Wolf, who i was REALLY looking forward to, having not seen them since the Municipal Waste / The Haunted tour 2 years ago. Axeman has been a regular contributor to my radio show on Monday nights and i love the new album Ravenous, so i was suitably excited.

We watched Saxon - with Doro.... (ok, not with her at all, but by her. But all hail Doro, we love you) Then Wolf (following Saxon!!!)

Lucy and i ended up on stage dancing our (injured in Lucy's case) butts off, and singing Voooodddooooooo as loud as we could.

The rest of the night was crazy, and Wolf lived up to their partying reputation. I was going between the Wolf party and the Gama Bomb party until about 5am. It was so funny. I believe i met an aeronautical engineer called Kevin would is responsable for the skin being scraped off the back of my knuckles whilst he was trying to give me £20 for some beers i had brought to the party. They weren't mine. I was giving out Matt's beer. The Aeronautical engineer didn't understand this.

At some point after that i headed to the beach for the sunrise with the remains of some booze.

All i know is that when i got in at 8am, Lucy was asleep. I out partied Lucy. Yes. Winner.

HAMMERFEST! What an awesome fucking weekend!!

And here's Lucy and i trying to be awake enough to get home, giggling all the way. (partly because i had ruined my sneakers and went home in sandals with socks. Yes. i did that. winner.)

1st Festival of the year. Result=awesome.

1 down, 8 to go.