Back home and knackered I am getting too old for this lol. Here goes my thoughts of the weekend.

Friday great to hear Beggers and Theives (couldn't see em where I was) and great to catch up with some old faces.

Saturday
Talon - ok i guess but just didn't do it for me.
Loud and Clear - love Disc-Connected and was really excited about getting to see them. They certainly didn't disappoint absolutely fan bloody tastic and Jess Harnell is now invited to come to Scotland and become my personal court jester. Joint band of the day for me.
Paul Laine - was over the moon to be hearing him do a solo gig, good performance just wish he would interact with the crowd more.
Valentine - Ok but didn't enjoy them as much as last year.
Jeff Scott Soto - Well it's Jeff what can you say but great :-)

Had to sacrifice one band to go out and eat and due to being a big fan of the other bands had to miss PC69 although I would have been interested to see them.

Tyketto - Again what can I say I have never ever left a gig of theirs disappointed. They put a bog ol smile on my face as usual, not sure about that lanky got on the extra guitar though :p

Sunday man this one posed a real dilemma on when to break for food so decided to sacrifice Burn and David Readman in favour of lunch.

Heat - caught the last few songs and enjoyed what I heard.
Rox Diamond - was looking forward to these but was very disappointed. Survived 1 and a half songs before my ears bled and decided to take a wander downstairs. They still sounded awful from down there and did they get any applause at all? All I saw was people leaving!
Mitch Malloy - Love him, always enjoyed his gigs and was fab to be getting him doing the debut album which is my fave and man can he still belt em out. Nice to see Tommy D on stage.
White Sister - omfg they didn't half rock. I believe it was Surfpunk who introduced me properly to this band and I was so looking forward to seeing em. Bloody brilliant, a privilege to get to see em and as has already been mentioned put on a great performance and were great characters. I so hope I get the opportunity to see them again.
Tall Stories - really difficult to sum this one up . I absolutely adore the album and loved Steve's performances when he was in Tyketto. Needless to say I was almost peeing myself with delight at getting to see them live Didn't quite live up to expectations though. I enjoyed it but after the personality and showmanship of White Sister the lack of crowd rapport with Tall Stories was disappointing although it didn't help that the majority of the crowd didn't seem to be showing any love to them. Steve's voice to me seems like it isn't back to pre Journey days, he seemed to struggle and indeed to need a lot of help with the vocals and that broke my heart for him. Anyway looking forward to the new cd and really hope to get the chance to see em again with Steve on form.
Danger Danger - Joint band of the day. Its no secret I love D2 and as usual they put a big ol smile on my face. Ted is cheesier than a Pizza Hut Stuffed crust but he really is Mr Entertainment. You just can't not feel cheery and hyperactive watching him :-) I sang I jumped and well I think I did pee myself when Paul Laine joined the stage. Never did I expect to see hi and Ted in the same building never mind the same stage lol. Was a great unexpected treat :-)
With that ended my Firefest V experience, we were hungry and tired and I don't particularly like Firehouse so tootled off to Pizza Hut where the entertainment continued :p

Now for my gripes. Rock City becomes more vile every year, toilets are minging and the venue stinks, beer is overpriced and there is nowhere to sit :/ We really do need a Firefest with Sofas and meals on wheels - we aren't getting any younger lol.
The other thing I noticed is people attending the gigs seem to becoming less courteous to others. There were large groups of people who decided that they would hold there cameras in the air for the entire performance meaning no one else could see or get a chance to take a pic. Do you really need 500 pics of each band (or the entire performance on video), perhaps you could make do with 400 and put your arm down for a min or so to let others get a view. Also more and more people that don't have a photo pit pass but still bring a camera the size of a small cannon and think this gives them the god given right to push the rest of us mere mortals (who obviously are not important because we don't own such a huge weapon) out of the way (usually by nearly knocking off your head with the camera). Special mention goes for someone who was stood behind me for one artist and if she had prodded, scratched or hit me with her bag one more time was in danger of having me turn round and stamp on her fingers and break em so that she couldn't assault me any more. Finally the thing I found really disgusting was people's ignorance towards a very nice lady on crutches. Every time she struggled down the stairs people were too ignorant to give her some space until shouted at by security. you should be ashamed of yourselves.



Passion is the source of our finest moments,
The joy of love, the clarity of hatred and the ecstasy of grief.