Football fools, festivals, farewells and other things beginning with F

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Well its been an interesting few weeks I can tell you that.

I doubt news trickled back home but the other week Manchester held the UEFA cup final between the Glasgow Rangers and the Russian team St Petersburg, this resulted in an estimated 100,000 Rangers fans descending on the city for what started as fun partying but ended in a mini riot.

The city centre was taken over by the Rangers fans and with my work so close to Old Trafford we also had 1000s of Rangers fans streaming past our offices all day - it was all pretty good fun at this stage.

What really kicked things off were the two large screens in the city centre malfunctioning just as the match started leaving 1,000s of angry Rangers fans desperate to see the match. Fuelled by copious amounts of beer (they were out in force at 7am so a solid 12 hours of drinking was bound to take its toll eventually!) fans then clashed with police and things escalated into small riots from there.

Naturally I wasn’t staying safely tucked in bed that night, I had a gig to go that happened to be 100m from where all the fans were! So oblivious to the dramas, I calmly walked my usual way to the Roadhouse shortly after the TV screens stopped working and was confronted with about 10,000 Rangers walking towards me trying to get to an alternative viewing area. They were fairly well behaved but I could sense things were about to get out of hand.

Safely inside the venue (we could still hear police sirens and chanting during the quiet bits) the music kept going whilst the match played on at nearby City stadium with the Rangers losing - this was pretty much the worse result possible! So when the gig was over the management suggested a ‘lock in’ for our safety. As my mate had left to catch his train, I stayed around for a little while but then also braved the outside - the streets were a mess! Think Australia Day Skyshow and you’d appreciate the amount of litter on the streets, there were still riot police and a few skirmishes around me and the Rangers fans were still out in force.

Anyhow, it was a crazy night and a shame that the Council were so badly organised and that the fans had to kick off like they did as it could have been a great party atmosphere.

For info and pics: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1049714_battle_of_piccadilly

A week later it was almost a repeat performance but this time it was Man Utd v Chelsea for the European Cup final in Moscow (yes, Moscow - go figure!) and there weren’t riots (hey United won on penalties!) but the streets were still pretty mental.

To show how dedicated the fans are here, tens thousands of United fans (and Chelsea fans too) paid around ₤1000 or more just to go to the match in Moscow (literally a fly in fly out job). My mate Scott from work went but fortunately didn’t pay that much but he’s still mental for paying more for one night than you would for a week’s holiday (sorry mate!).

Catching my bus home at around 11.30pm just after the match finished I got accosted (friendly style) by some guys asking me if I was a ‘red’ (I suppose I am but as if I’d say I was a blue!!!), the streets were packed with people celebrating the win and cars tooting there horns into the wee hours of the morning (one of the downsides of living in the city centre).

Not sure what happened but just as I got off my bus (oh and two guys were having a fight right in front of me that luckily didn’t escalate further than a few tame slaps - I’m not doing much for Manchester’s reputation as a violent city am I ???) I heard a loud thud, when I got off the bus I realised that my bus had slammed into what must have been an open car door as there was a car door sitting in the middle of the road, I don’t think anyone was hurt though.

Remember, both these events took place on Wednesdays - some serious hangovers to be had on the following Thursdays!

Anyhow, so enough football, onto music! In between the Ranger riots and United’s win, I went to Butlins in Minehead (think Adventure World meets Rottnest Island) for the three day All Tomorrow’s Parties festival.

Each year the festival gets a band to choose the bands, this year it was Explosions in the Sky a band that I love dearly and have seen three times already this year. The bands were mostly fairly obscure but some ‘bigger names’ included Dinosaur Jnr, De La Soul, Battles (every indie kids favourite ‘new’ band), The National and Okkervil River. The diversity was pretty good too, for example on the last night I started with Swedish pop in the form of Jens Lekman and ended with hardcore Japanese band Envy and then hands in the air dance in the form of The Field.

The best thing about the festival is that it is the antithesis of the big corporate festivals the poms love so much, everything is kept pretty small, you stay in comfy chalets (no tents!), everything is undercover (no muddy fields) and you get your own shower, toilets, cooking facilities, fridge (for the beer) so pretty much its luxury all the way.

Added benefits of the festival was TV in your chalet programmed by ATP and the bands, a movie cinema (saw No Country for Old Men - great film!) and lots of rides and other activities (the place is designed for kid).

Being a small festival everyone mingles together so you can be walking to your chalet or dancing to a band and be surrounded by the bands themselves. For a fan boy stalker like me that is a pretty ace thing and I even got to (in a very drunken state) talk to one of the guys from Explosions in the Sky - not surprisingly he quickly escaped (see pic) when I admitted to my stalking the band! Hehe

Anyhow, I had an awesome weekend, saw around 25 bands (most were excellent) and had late nights (bed time was around 5am). A light dampener to the end of the festival when my mates got kicked out on the last night (don’t ask!) whilst I was out partying and so I was left with nowhere to sleep and only the shorts and t shirt I was wearing to protect me against the cold - my solution was to party the night away and luckily get a lift home with friends in the morning (my other friends also had my train ticket home), luckily managed to retrieve my possessions from my friends when I got home.

Anyhow, it was a ‘fun’ night with no sleep and no rest when I got back to Manchester - had a gig to go to that night and then a long day at work the next day!

I also recently watched the new Joy Division documentary, definitely one just for the fans so naturally I loved it. The archival footage of the band and important sites in Manchester was great. Sadly many of the places have since been demolished but was surprised to find out that a pedestrian bridge I have crossed many a time was the location for a ‘famous’ photo shoot of the band - being the sad fan I am, the next day I went back to the bridge to take some pics and also imagine Ian Curtis and the band standing in the same spot 30 odd years ago having their picture taken on a miserable Mancunian morning.

I’m now technically unemployed, had my last day of work on Wednesday (my leaving drinks on the previous Friday was awesome - will really miss the whole HF crew, we had heaps of fun most days and my god could we all eat cake!), have basically packed all my stuff (am also effectively homeless) and am ready for the last of my European travels.

Tomorrow I’m off to Barcelona for a festival (sister festival to ATP) then off to Paris, back to Manchester for two days then off to Madrid and Berlin and then back to Manchester for a day and a half before heading to London for one last night and then its Vancouver.

Yes I am totally freakin about Vancouver, still have no job or proper accommodation sorted and I am still clueless about the city although I have booked stacks of gigs already including Madonna !!!

Recent gigs:

Shady Bard in London - great pastoral rock (yes that is apparently a style of music)
Black Mountain and Wintersleep - a little Canadian rock to prepare for Vancouver
Iron & Wine - disappointing set from this guy and his touring band
Caribou & Born Rufians - same night as the Rangers chaos, great gig and some more Canadian rock from Born Ruffians
ATP festival - the best festival in the world
Jens Lekman - perfect pop, funny stories, great music and excellent showmanship
Peter Hook and Dave Haslam - missed most of Hooky’s set but Haslam was great
One and a Zero - Scott from work’s band, their first gig under their new moniker (previously known as Tripwire), I’m biased but it was a good gig despite the crap weather
Martha Wainwright - lovely voice from the ‘other’ Wainwright

Bye for now.

Pete

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