We got there and saw Tom (from YSNBWATID) who was the bearer of our tickets - there was a bit of cock up with the tickets but it was soon sorted out. Once we finally got in we celebrated with a cheer, "HURRAH!" was how it went. We found our chalet - yes CHALET, not tent, not ditch, CHALET. We felt like royalty in our fourth-berth bedsit hovel. Whilst Dan and Fin went for a beer, Barney and I polished off the beef jerky and started on the peanuts. There was no messing around - this shit was real. We were in a chalet. Without parents. With beer and belgians living next door. The fist band was on in about twenty minutes, but we missed them... OH WELL. At ten to three we went to check out the first band playing the first stage... or 'upstairs'. I had no idea what to expect, with a name like 'Envy' it could've been anything. But as soon as I entered teh room I was like, "HOHOHOHOHO". Yes, I was excited, and yes I did ejaculate without realising, anyway...

Envy came on and they were Japanese. Need I say more?

Yes, or this would be pointless.
They were amazing, it was like listening to a life story of a very troubled person, their music was beautifully soft and melodic then, out of nowhere, it would explode and literally blow you away. The vocalists' voice was so in captivatingly angry and so emotionally charged. These guys were amazing and now they hold a place in my increasing record collection. I stayed and watched the first ten minutes of Part Chimp who were as amazing as I'd expected but nothing had prepared me for the mind fuck I was about to experience downstairs, Acid Mother's Temple, Japanese (again), were a crazy, psychedelic spin out. I was expecting something weird from what I'd heard from people, but this was way out of this world. It was also fucking great, they had a keyboard player who looked about 12 and constantly had a cigarette in his mouth, a wild guitarist with hair like a lions main, another guitarist with long l o n g white hair and incredible facial hair. Yes, it was weird, fun and fucked up, but it was an experience.

After the Acid Mother's Temple I needed to wind down with something a little more easier to listen to so I made the mistake of going to watch Converge. As we approached we saw some friends from Portsmouth; so we had a quick word and they said about Converge being shit, well after all the hype that had been going round about them I decided to see for myself. And yes, I shouldn't have wasted my energy - to call them shit is maybe a bit too harsh, so I'll just say they were disapointing.

We stayed to watch Trans Am, and even though they were brilliant, I couldn't help but get bored and so Fin and I decided to sit down at the back of the room and listen, there was plenty of wankness about the music but it was still rock solid and great. Due to my lack of energy though I fell asleep. We went back to the chalet and ate more food, drank more beer then myself and a sceptical Barney made our way to see Turbonegro, and although they hadn't put on a great show at Reading Festival the previous summer, we ere pleasently suprised with the sheer rock and roll these guys spewed out. It was a legendary hour, they threw fake blood into the crowd, then they threw some more, then they threw water bombs filled with fake blood, then threw some more, then they threw a pillow into the crowd... It was a fucking mess, but it was grand. Then they sung about erections and got the crowd to sing about erections too. There was campness, blood, denim, and death punk, all in one hour. What more could you ask for?

After the awesome spectacle of Turbonegro, we stuck around for a little taster for the legendary Mogwai. I was really looking forward to them as I'd meant to see them a few months previously at Brighton, but due to the fucking flu they couldn't play, so I was ever so excited... Then people came in by the dozen and eventually, you couldn't move. It was horrible, on top of the fact that there was no air conditioning it belt up to an atmosphere similar to being wrapped in foil and being left in the desert. Surrounded by thousands of radiators on at full power. Not very comfortable. To add salt to the wound Mogwai were taking fucking ages to set up, so people were getting hot amd ammpted, eventually Mogwai came on and were exactly how I expected them to be, not brilliant to watch, but great to listen to, I decided I would just as well be, if not better off, listening to one of their cds in the chalet. It was now ridiculously hot and I decided to get out and get some fresh air, I ended up chatting to some drunk crazy Irish man about farms and tobacco, I then got bored of him and went back upstairs and sat down to listen to the beautiful music, then it was over. So we did some partying and went to bed. BEEZER.

Mike Simon