Does he have better teeth than his day Shane?
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This conclusion is most unsatisfactory, but Iām not blaming you fats, youāre the victim in all this. I think your friend is lying (he may have been lying so long about this that he doesnāt even know whatās true anymore) and heās dug himself in too deep to escape this web of deceit and intrigue. The best thing we can do now is move on before it consumes us both.
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So we went to The Rolling Stones at Elizabeth Olympic Park place. I was a bit concerned as I had a visit at 4.30 but the family decided to avoid me. I will track them down next week. No issue with bags either. I had a very cursory check (security guard was super bored and couldnāt be arsed). My partner managed to just walk through.
Florence and the Machine were their usual mediocre and annoying self. I can listen to the albums but live I just donāt get it. Is it just me? Apparently she was meant to do something with Frank Turner but got so big quickly it never happened. I found that out the other week but have found them boring before then.
The Stones havenāt released new material since 2005. Why would they? They just play half of their hits and everyone is happy. We were sat up in the gods as thatās what Ā£100 a ticket can get you. That is our max for any show and even my eyes water at that. Watching the people who spent a small fortune to be at the front slowly arrive. None of the super fans rushing to the front anymore unless you shell out a couple of hundred.
Nevertheless I enjoyed it. But I think itās probably the last time I will see them. Theyāll likely last longer than me as Jagger is super fit. I doubt I could run up and down that stage or have children in my 70s. Although partner was looking at other dates. 
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Not a single review from SMS last night 
Past my bedtimeā¦not allowed out during the week. 
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Just spent a very lovely evening watching Kemper Norton.
Off to see Pearl Jam tonight. Flight of the Conchords on Friday and The Killers on Saturday. Not the best planning.
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So unsure why last night was he first time Iāve seen Pearl Jam. Lucky I booked last night as tonightās gig is postponed due to Eddie Vedder losing his voice. He mentioned seeing a Dr yesterday and joked about it. I thought he sounded good but others said he struggled (maybe my ear plugs are just too good).
I really enjoyed the show. Vedder is great at interacting with the crowd and did his jumping about and bending over backwards with the mic stuff. I was quite far away up in the gods but he had us all mesmorised at times. Hopefully see them again.
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Got me a ticket to see The Streets in Brixton February. Canāt find smilies on mobile discourse.
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First click on the hamburger menu.
Then click on the emoji link.
Or
Just type :
and keep typing to describe the emoji you want.
i.e. if I type
:
followed by
lou_sunglasses:
I will get our old penis emojiā¦
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Tempted to get a ticket too, if I can. Pretty sure I worked one of their gigs at the Guildhall years ago.
So I owe this site some Download reviews. I saw a few bands.
Dragonforce
Very fast guitar focused band. They are usually the final level on Rock Band or Guitar Hero, so that ought to give you an indication of how quick they were.
They were beset by a few technical difficulties though; the mic cut out at one point. The lead singer wasnāt happy. Oddly enough, I thought I clocked him in the crowd half an hour afterwards. Even more oddly, I actually did. ms pap and my mate Lee met him on a beer run. Bastards.
Marmozets
My new favourite thing from the festival. They came. They saw. They blew me away. I am not sure whether their lead singerās claim of camping here a few years ago was genuine, or a facsimile of similar claims made by Adele at Glastonbury 2016. Didnāt matter. She wailed. They rocked.
Avenged Sevenfold
The best metal band in the world, as long as youāve never heard any other metal, especially Metallica. They put on a fantastic show, full of flames, smoke rings and suchlike - heavy on the metal imagery. Even so, there are times when someone that has seen Metallica (and has got the T-Shirt 
) hears the hook of one of their songs and thinks āfuck sake, Avengedā. Theyāve got about four big songs that are essentially carbon copies of Metallica ones.
The Temperance Movement
Bluesy rock. Performed really well, but ultimately, I am inclined to agree with ms papās assessment that may not be quite ready for festival crowds, or theyāre better suited to Glastonbury than Download. People can be a little partisan at the latter, some seeing a blues rock band as the next worst thing next to Take That.
Thunder
The third time Iāve seen them, and third time Iāve seen them at Donington. Second favourite performance of all three. Their first was the best. Both other performances Iāve seen have been attempts to recapture that first performance, which they definitely didnāt manage in 1992, but were at least a bit more cynical about stuff this time out.
Guns N Roses
Wasnāt expecting much, but was hopeful. Axl had never impressed me in the recorded concerts Iād seen. There is no GnR live album anything like the quality of other bands, who often do better. Slash and Duff were back; this wasnāt just a hired hands GnR anymore, as Axl had trotted out in the past. There were also reports that they were actually turning up to gigs on time.
They were pretty awesome. Axlās voice held up for the most part, only croaking out during the last few lines of Coma, which is a pretty hard song. Slash is just a fucking maestro, and their other lead guitarist was very good.
The show was probably a bit too long. Deals had obviously been done to get Axlās Chinese Democracy into the mix, as Duff sang a song and Slash got a hell of a lot of solo time (which I do not regret one bit).
Theyāre not the band they once were, or could have been, but what theyāve got is still pretty special. People moan about the double albums, but it gave them to scope to cover stuff both respectfully and spectacularly, where the likes of Avenged would just pilfer something and stick their own label on it.
As I said, was probably a bit too long, but that band has the stuff to put the best 2 hour rock show on the planet.
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I went to see Jack White in Hammersmith last night. Yes, I know I said this was a few weeks ago, but Iām a prat and dates are hard.
He was good fun, had a pretty good distribution of new stuff to old stuff (plenty of White Stripes stuff too). But the absolute best thing about itā¦he insisted that everyone put their phones in sealed pouches. God it was such a fucking nice change to not just see a sea of lit up screens waving around in front of you. I swear it made for a better atmosphere too. People were actually talking between the warm up act, and then paying attention to the band, dancing and having fun. How very fucking novel, eh?
If you ever find yourself going to a show that does this, I would recommend turning your phone off first. My mate didnāt do this, and the vibrating notifications drove him mad not being able to check them.
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I have just woken up to a trashed flat and a pounding head.
Having drunk Kings Cross out of prosecco last night, Iāve just decided the best thing to do is go stand in a field, full of annoying pricks and have loud music blasted at me.
So, off to Queens of the Stone Age it is then.
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Last weekend we trekked to Swansea and back to see The Killers at the Liberty Stadium. Bit of a hike and slow as bloody Ed Sheeran was on in Cardiff. Liberty stadium isnāt that big and we were near the front in seats so had one of the better views in a long time. I sort of wished Iād made it to the front standing as it wasnāt that hectic. As a huge fan I am totally biased but once again a full on packed set. It was worth the 5 hour trek, night in a slightly odd hotel and the 3 and half hours drive back.
We also saw Flight of the Conchords the night before. But do I put that in comedy or gigs??!
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This was, mostly, a fun day. It was roasting hot, but thankfully there were plenty of trees I could hide my pasty af self from and prevent sun burn/stroke.
Was a cracking line up, managed to see bits of/whole sets from Miles Kane, Hinds, The Hives, Brody Dalle, Run the Jewels, Iggy Pop and, obviously, Queens of the Stone Age.
My poor planning also paid a nice dividend. I didnāt have a ticket, but bumped into someone outside looking to shift one. Some scabby parasite of a tout was offering him Ā£10 for it (face value Ā£85), I offered him Ā£40. So, we both did ok out of that.
Speaking of poor planning, the actual event (bookings/performances aside) was an utter fucking shambles. Queues for the bar were over an hour. Some bars only had one card machine, if that was even working. There also simply wasnāt enough bars (6 for 45k people). The āarenaā felt dangerously overcrowded - despite the event not actually being a sell out, and the lay out caused some pretty hairy pinch points. Plus, there was basically only one exit - which made for chaos and kicking out time. Toilets and water facilities were not much better either.
The acts were mostly great though. Iggy Pop was probably my stand out, him and Brody Dalle (Josh Hommeās wife) were the only people I was seeing for the first time that day and that may play into it (I really enjoyed her set too). Iggy is in far better shape than me and is easily twice my age ffs. That all said, the sound was shite, so it was actually hard to hear Queens.
Not sure Iād rush back to Finsbury Park in a hurry, tbh.
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