Monthly archives: February, 2014

Feb282014February 28, 2014March 2, 2014NoCommentby dan

Meeting Fred Durst

Posted in clubbing, music

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Last Friday I caught up with Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit, ahead of the final UK date of the 2014 Kerrang! tour. We talked about building the perfect Bizkit setlist, the two new albums they have in the pipeline (Stampede of the Disco Elephants and The Unbeliveable Truth Part 2) and breakdancing on stage!

Talking of Limp Bizkit, I’m looking forward to heading to Last Resort next weekend – a club night that certainly likes its nu-metal. If you missed my blog from last summer you can check it out here.

Elsewhere, I’ll be heading to the Garage this weekend to catch Manchester’s finest Sonic Boom Six – who I haven’t seen do a headline show in literally years. They totally destroyed the crowd at Warped Tour last November – with Laila performing the last track on top of a security guard’s head! If you like your music heavy with lots of rapping, screaming and breakdowns, make sure you get there early and catch The One Hundred opening things up.

I’ll also be checking out the new Lamb Of God documentary, As The Palaces Bun, which is out in cinemas today.


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Feb122014February 12, 2014February 12, 2014NoCommentby dan

Frank Turner @ The 02 – Preview

Posted in music

frank o2

I have seen Frank Turner perform live more times than any other artist. This is, of course, in part, due to his relentless touring schedule, but, equally, because he’s a bloody amazing live act and I rarely want to miss a gig!

It feels the right time then, on the eve of Frank’s biggest ever UK date, to compile a Top 10 of my favourite FT performances to date. (These are biased towards Leeds, since this is where I lived for my first few years of FT fandom!)

1. Leeds Brudenell Social Club, 31st March 2008.
The day his 2nd album Love Ire and Song came out, the first time many hear Long Live The Queen, a tribute to Frank’s late friend Lex. Not many dry eyes in the Brudenell that night. For me, subsequent Brudenell shows were always in this one’s shadow.

2. Wembley Arena, 13th April 2012.
FT becomes an arena artist, albeit one most people have never heard of. I could not believe it when this was announced, and still don’t know how he managed it. FT fans from all over the UK take the pilgrimage and pay an absolute bargain of £25 for WEMBLEY. I’m living in North London at this point anyway but wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

3. Leeds Student Radio, 21st October 2008.
Had to sneak this one in here. Whilst running my student radio station, we got FT in to do a quick session and interview ahead of his date at the Cockpit. I suggested someone else do the interview, but our Head Of Music insisted there was nobody else as keen, so I gladly obliged.

4. Outside, then inside Leeds University, 15th May 2008.
Ahead of his set supporting The Holloways, a fire alarm forces the whole of the union outside on a hot summers day. FT brings his guitar with him. Next thing he’s performing acoustically to literally to hundreds of students who haven’t the faintest idea who he is. When the all-clear comes, he then blows his friends in The Holloways off Mine Bar’s tiny stage.

5. Leeds Santiago’s, 5th March 2011.
FT rejects ludicrous claims of ‘selling out’ by playing a series of tiny shows. Luckily I know the promoter of the Leeds date and we race up from London on the, erm, Megabus. FT is taking requests for charity donations. I ask for ‘Worst Things Happen At Sea’, put £20 in and end up on stage. After the gig we tell FT how we’d come up from London after we couldn’t get in to a Camden show the previous weekend, he seems genuinely touched.

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6. Leeds Festival main stage, 23rd August 2013
As soon as Bring Me The Horizon leave the stage, the heavens open and everyone hides, apart from a committed core of FT fans getting positively drenched. None of this mattered at the time, obviously. I interview FT before the set and he tells me he’s about to announce an arena tour. I knew it was coming, but still couldn’t believe it.

7. BBC Maida Vale studios, 24th April 2013
The day it was announced that I was joining Kerrang!, I was also lucky enough to win 2 tickets to this, going out live on Radio 1. FT plays for half an hour longer than Radio 1 had allocated, and only stops because of a flight the band have to catch.

8. Reading Festival, 28th August 2011,
FT’s first main stage appearance, becoming the only artist to play every stage at Reading, an accolade unlikely to ever happen to anyone again. This is followed by a secret appearance in the ‘punk’ tent, ending with a rousing cover of Queen’s Somebody To Love.

9. Granary Square, 17th Dec 2013
FT teams up with Billy Bragg on a December lunchtime in aid of Shelter, performing mainly covers and FT tracks. I become a Billy Bragg fan.

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10. Olympic Opening Ceremony, 27th July 2012.
Ok, not the best FT performance, clearly – nobody knows who he is! But for the sheer WTF factor, this HAS to be in there. (Disclaimer – I wasn’t actually there)

Not many artists can make it to arenas and stay there. Indeed, Frank has said himself that he doesn’t think he can stay at this level. Personally, I’m not so sure. It’s not like he has just appeared at the 02 overnight, it’s taken years of hard graft during which he has developed the most enviable of fan bases, and its still growing.

Whatever happens, one thing’s for sure. ‘TONIGHT I’m going to play it straight, I’m going to take my chance, I want to dance’. See you at the 02!


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Feb112014February 11, 2014February 11, 2014NoCommentby dan

Meeting Jared Leto

Posted in music

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Last week I caught up with Mr 30 Seconds To Mars himself, Jared Leto. I was particularly excited about this since I think his forthcoming film Dallas Buyers Club is comfortably one of the best films I have ever seen, without exaggeration.

The film is about a group of dying AIDS patients who are forced to take unapproved anti-viral drugs not available in the USA, provided by Matthew McConaughey. Jared plays the part of Rayon, a transgender, drug-addicted woman who strikes up an unlikely friendship with McConaughey, despite his initial homophobic tendencies.

I also asked Jared about a number of recent articles suggesting that rock music is dying. He was particularly passionate about this so I included his full response in the interview.

Talking of transgender issues, if you have not checked out the latest Against Me! record, Transgender Dysphoria Blues, you are missing an absolute beast of a record. In equal parts dark, disturbing, shocking, brutally honest but yet euphoric at the same time. They are one of my all-time favourite bands, but personally I found their last record White Crosses to be quite bland and samey, dare I say it, quite MOR, so it’s an absolute pleasure to see them re-gain their inner anger. We live in an age now where bands struggle to stand out from each other and anything even slightly controversial has either been done before or just comes across as rather desparate publicity. It’s heartwarming, then, to be championing a band with a transgender frontwoman screaming lyrics like ‘You’ve got no c*nt in your strut, you’ve got no ass to shake’ and ‘They just see a f*ggot, they hold their breath not to catch the stick’, essentially releasing the first genuinely controversial and confrontational rock album in years.

Here is the single ‘Black Me Out’ (interestingly the last song on the album – has that ever happened before?!)

Elsewhere on the show, Renee from The Alex Baker Show was horrified to find that I didn’t know my shoe size, a source of much amusement to her and fellow K! presenter Jake Thomson.

Gig-wise, I’m looking forward to skanking my mind out to the Less Than Jake/Reel Big Fish/Zebrahead show at the Islington Academy, and Frank Turner’s biggest ever UK date at the 20, 000 capacity 02 Arena. More on that later in the week.


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