Sonisphere 2011, knobworth, thrash metal odyssey

I was brought up on thrash metal and Metallica and Slayer will always have a place in my festering, black, six inch nail punctured heart. I lived in battered old farm houses at the time with no neighbours and had a whopping stereo so my poor parents endured, and it was definately endured and not enjoyed, Hetfield and Araya's dulcet tones being pumped out at 11 shattering the tranquility of country life.

I must admit I am more of a repetetive beats kind of a guy these days, the last Metallica album I bought was the Black album, by then I was making boxes and had discovered the art of gurning and my music world changed forever. I prefer the old fast Metallica like Kill em All and Blitzkrieg rather than ballads and Dave Lombardo is a god with the sticks but again I lost touch and my knowledge of Slayer tunes did'nt go any further than Season in the Abyss (for me it was seasons in Newtown 6th form in rural Wales, which at the time felt very much like the Abyss).

Anyway I guess I am mid way through my mid life crisis as I already have 2 lugged steel bikes but now it is time to re-live the thrash years as I'm off to Knebworth this week for Sonisphere where the big 4 of Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax will be assaulting our senses. (Assuming Lars can stay off the coke long enough to finish his set without having to be helicoptered off to hospital for a bit of lay down, pffft well rock, not). I had a proper wave of nostalgia over the last week as I have listened to some of those old classics but also realised I am old, I did go and see Clash of the Titans in Wembley Arena in 1990 and it's just hit me that was 21 years ago, FFFUUUUUUU! As a result there is a bit of catching up to in terms of 'tunes' by the above that I need to get familiar with or else I'm going to look like some spotty Herbert's Dad who is just there to do the driving.

Bill Bailey's rendition of Angel of Death with a traditional chord structure had me chuckling on this:

http://uk.sonispherefestivals.com/tours/vip-tickets/

And my mate who sorted the tickets has gone for the VIP option (cringe), I thought this may mean we get glass bottles to piss into instead of the plastic ones the prols will be using, or we'd be boshing drugs with the roadies but alas no. I was mortified to see that this means I will be given a goody bag, WTF! A thrash metal gig with goody bags, do not want. I guess that is the face of the modern day corporate festival.

Anyway despite this I am still looking forward to it, mullet watch alone should be entertaining enough. So are any other forum-ungers going to be donning the denim and squeezing into those battered, flared and now too tight band t-shirts and heading off to this thrash fest this week?

vip is good at sonisphere... separate bar and nice area to hang out in... you can't put a price on the nicer toilets.

Managed to get in on the guestlist, which I'm still feeling smug about

I went along on Friday. Only had a day ticket as I couldn't get enough time off work and I couldn't be arsed with the camping lark. I arrived at about midday along with millions of other black t-shirted drunkards and stupidly decided that the best thing to do was immediately hit the beers. You'll not be surprised to hear that it can be tricky to pace yourself. The rain held off and I'm covered in bruises so was a really bloody good day. Only thing to remember for next time; get to the taxi queue early. I idiotically thought that allowing 30min for queueing and transport to Stevenage rail for the last train to London would be enough time. It wasn't. I had to fork out for a taxi to Luton airport so I could pay for the overpriced airport transport back. Even that late night malarky failed to dampen the awesomeness of the day though. Highlights were Anthrax, The Defiled and some mystery band whose name I didn't quite catch.