the wacken diary!
so, the first update from me in my nice new house!
here we have, the wacken diary 2006.
our journey started on wednesday 2nd august! i met will, tom and janksy on the train at huntingdon, but me being really clever, got on the next carriage, so que me jumping off and then back on at st neots. i got there in the end!
we arrived at kings cross and got the tube over to paddington and then hopped on the heathrow express (which was not worth the £26 we payed for a return). got to heathrow and checked our bags and things in.
chilled for ages in the departure lounge bar. me and will had a beer and spotted a group of people in the bar who looked as though they were in a band, but none of us recognised them.
went to board the plane and started talking a dude there who was on his way to wacken too. it turned out that the people we thought were a band..were actually fear factory!
so that was quite cool. ever more so when he sat next to jansky on the plane! he slept most of the way though.
will and tom.
jansky.
tom and me.
burton (fear factory singer) asleep.
tom and me getting the myspace poses in.
we arrived at hamburg airport at about 5 i think? got all our shit together and then tried to find our way to the train station! after a bit of confusion we got the right bus and then had the struggle of working out how to get to wacken from there! we luckily bumped into a few irish guys that were a bit lost too and found out we had to change at a station called elmshorn and then get another train to itzehoe to get a bus to wacken.
got our tickets and then had to find our platform. it was easy than we thought...follow the metal looking people! the train journey was horrible to elmshorn. smelly, filthy, loud and slooooow.
changed at elmshorn and i had to get a photo of the platform full of people!
it was a sight you dont see too often.
the train to itzehoe was a lot nicer. although some german girls kept pointing at me and will and talking/laughing about us.managed to get everything off the train and up the stairs to the shuttle bus stop just outside the station and waited for about 30mins for a bus. again, the place was swarming with people and the buses were all packed. we got talking to a few drunk german kids on the bus. one whom was telling us he wanted to be a beer brewer when he was older, the other said the queen of england smelt of cheese. made us laugh!
one bumpy bus ride later we finally arrive at wacken open air! we had to queue to get wristbands which took ages and then took even longer to find the children of bodom fan camp. none of the campsites are really signposted so you know where to go. so i think we finally found campsite e, section 06/53 at about midnight! everyone was really tired and stressed out and we still had the tent to put up! but once we'd got everything done we got some well deserved sleep!
thursday morning we went to register with the campsite organisers and get our wristbands so we could get back ito the campsite when we needed too.
first amusement of the festival was the fact that our campsite was sectioned off with ditches to the left and right. and most guys took it upon themselves to use this ditch to piss in! so the first thing you saw every morning was some guy with his dick out taking a leak. gross.
so, the aptly name "piss river" soon was minging. but that didnt stop some guys playing football and repeatedly kicking the ball into the river and then sending someone in to get it out.
so after some laughs at those guys, we ventured into the arena area to get some beers in!
here we have some photos of us guys with our 1litre glasses of beer! the glasses were 3 euros and the beer was 7.50, which wasnt too bad!
will and me.
will, tom and jansky.
we all then ventured over to have a look at the merch stands. all the girlie and band tees had sold out, so i didnt get anything. while the lads were waiting in the queue, it absolutley pissed it down with rain for about 30mins. me and jansky went for cover and met a few english guys. chatted to them and the rain eventually passed over and will and tom arrived with merch and bratwurst!
this is will, enjoying the German culture!
and another..
and tom with his purchase and our beers.
then some guy in a cheeta costume came past, and will being a little tipsy, went to shake his hand.
we went to have a browse around the market but soon got bored so then we went back to the campsite for some fun and frolics!
on the way we bumped into some people playing tug-o-war!
will is having a pee in the backround here!!
the next few hours we just chilled out with some beers. some people over the other ditch were playing in flames. so we just listened to that and chatted some scottish guys who were near us. also met a cool dutch guy. i dont know his name though. but he was really friendly. had a cool bodom tattoo on his arm.
then will and tom messed around for a bit and we took more photos.
janksy - the emo phase.
i love the look on wills face here :D
as it was starting to get dark we went back into the arena to watch Scorpions. although i dont know any of their material except like, 2 songs? we found a spot and stood around..me and tom took some photos..and then some guys came up to me and said
"now you take MY photo?"
now, i lol'd quite a bit to myself and agreed. no idea who he was, except that he was from Norway!
we watched the rest of the set and then went to get some grub. by this time i was getting sleepy (it was about midnight), i didnt sleep at all very well the previous night. i was cold and getting in a mood. so will decided to agravate me some more buy dancing around saying "Carly likes the sausage" and jumping on my back making me spill loads of my beeeer :(
so yeah, i got preeeetty annoyed and was going to walk back to the tent, but i was told i wasn't allowed to go by myself..so off me, tom and will went, leaving jansky to party with the germans.
friday morning was when the bands really started!
first band we saw were wintersun, who were really good. i did enjoy it, but the sun was hot and i had achey feet!
next we moved over to the black metal stage to watch legion of the damned. i just layed in the sun for these, catching some rays!
i think we went to get some beer after then..we listened to six feet under from the beer garden..
then for the pinacle of the festival! time to meet children of bodom! we were told to be at the campsite for 4pm as the band would be there shortly after. so we got there, obviously there were a lot of people there as we were in the fan camp. we started chatting to a guy called stuart who was also from scotland. turned out that his brother is the drummer in a band we've seen supporting the berzerker (mad man is absolut, check them out!).
he was lovely too. just chatting about general stuff, music, wacken, the weather ect. it got to about 4:30pm and there was still no sign of the band. we got told that they'd be with us soon.
these guys where from canada and are friends with stuart. they were nice too!
stuart was saying that he met the band in stockholm where they filmed their dvd last year and that all the band werer really nice, except alexi (singer and guitarist)..who was rude and a little bit odd..
jansky tries to fix some glasses with a plaster..
the crowd gets bigger..
so more chatting and some beers later. it's 6:30pm. i'd missed opeth, who i REALLY wanted to see so i was annoyed. but i said to myself that i could catch them on tour in the next few months or so.
it gets to about 6:45pm and the band arrive. only nearly 2 hours late! so we get all ready to meet them and evertything. and they leave. at 7:15pm. yes, thats right..they had to go to what we thought was there "official wacken" signing. so yeah, everyones really pissed off. i was more pissed off about missing opeth tbh.
back we go to the arena in a huff because we didnt want to miss any more bands.
we took photos :D
the roadies start to set up the bodom stage. it was looking promising. more english speaking people emerged and we got chatting to them as well. the band on the next stage finish and we prepare for the bodom!
it was packed, and as you can see we were pretty near the front.
so the band come on, and i manage okay at the front being squished for 15mins and then get punched in the face twice when a pit breaks out where im standing..so i depart from this position..
to this position!
i just sat chilling with some chips and mayo and a beer which was cool with me! earlier on, i suggested to will and the others that the band might have a reasonable explanation for not staying longer at the fan camp and that they might tell us whilst they were on stage. boy was i wrong. Alexi was all "you guys make us what we are and
we thank you from the bottom of our mother fucking hearts..we appreciate you so much"
bollocks. it just went to prove stuart right when he was saying the band are getting bigger which means their getting stuck up in a way. so yeah, i was still peeved at that.
jansky went back earlier on in the set and we all agreed to meet in the beer garden after bodom to watch ministry, which we did!
more beer garden photos..
necro as fuck.
we must of got back to the tent about about 1am and we were all pretty sleepy!
so, bands we saw on friday -
wintersun
legion of the damned
danko jones
six feet under
children of bodom
celtic frost
ministry
saturday morning started off with aborted who i'd heard a few songs but didnt know what to make of them! they turned out to be pretty good and i need to get hold of some of their stuff!
then we sat in the shade to chill and semi listen to caliban, who were as we expected, rubbish.
bumped into these mugs though!
greg, dyson, some dude and elvis. who are all from peterborough..except the dude! elvis, who is he?
some caliban beatdown later...
Click to view
it was time for arch enemy! this were one band i wanted to see at download, but i was there for the weekend so i didnt get too!
they were fantasic. i really wish i was as cool as angela gossow. she fucking rocks. and she doesnt have black hair either. she = cool.
then we went over to the metal market to have another look round. i bought a cd and the other bought some bits and pieces too.
i think we went back to the campsite after that and just layed in the sun chatting about stuff. took more photos..
i like this photo though..because i never ever smile in photos..
and then a girl covered in children of bodom stickers came to say hello!
had to get a "myspace hardly any of my FACE in the photo" photo. oh yes.
this one of wills face made me almost WEE myself with laughter!
so while we were just chilling and chatting about the weekend and someone was playing tenaciou d - tribute. so we sang along..and then will fell off his chair :D
then we went back into the area to catch emperor. to be honest, i wasnt overly bothered about watching them and neither was tom so we just sat with some jager, beer and archers chatting for about 2 hours!
will and jansky came back...really drunk! some how we accumlated about 20 people coming and going in about half an hour. and then i went to the loo and came back to find more people! but these guys were cool. i can only remember 2 of their names though! on was jennifer, who's in the photos with tom and the other is sophie? who is the other girlie that isnt me or jennifer!
i look utterly fucked in this photo =/
so they stayed for quite a while and were chatting to them. then they went off to watch subway to sally so we said bye and drank more beer! it was about 1am i think, and i knew we had to get up at 7 to be ready to get the earliest bus we could out of wacken so we didnt miss our flight. so i was going to walk back on my own..which would of been fine..but will was worried for my safety in case some "fat, drunk, sweaty german tries to rape you" were his words. so he walked, sorry STAGGERED, back to the tent with me. picking up a tea light candle and a chair on our way back!
so bands we saw on saturday -
aborted
arch enemy
caliban
fear factory
morbid angel
soulfly
listened to whitesnake
emperor
motorhead
fintroll
after will went back i got into the tent and sorted out my things so i'd be ready to go in the morning and not have to faff around with things. but then i needed a wee. so i trekked to the toilets, which at this time were grosser than any other festival toilets i've ever seeeeeen!
will, tom and jansky came back at 3:30am. i only remember this because will clambered into the tent and nudged me to check i'd set the alarm on my phone! which, of course, i had. i also remember tom shouted at jansky to get into his tent because his feet were hanging out of the end? tom was being uber loud, so i shouted at him to shut the fuck up and get to sleep because we had to be up in 4 hours.
eventually they got into bed..and if looks could kill, on sunday morning i would of dropped down dead. i had to wake the 3 drunk/hungover guys up to put the tents away and get to the bus stop to get the train, to get the bus to the airport.
2 hours after schedule we got everything together. got back across the fields to the shuttle bus stops where there were hundreds of people waiting for buses. we decided to get a taxi to hamburg airport instead. it worked out to only be 10euros more expensive than getting the trains and buses so it seemed logical. i didnt really want to be traipsing over germany with a hungover william in towe. because that = bad moooods.
the taxi ride was nice. the first comfy seat i'd sat in for about 5 days! and a nice breeze to sober us all up a bit..
got to the airport and will decided to just sit outside of the terminal because he couldnt be bothered to move. now, i get annoyed at that because it was slef inflicted! so i demanded his debit card so i could get the tickets from the check in machine because no one else seemed to be bothered about getting a move on so we could dump the bags. so then we bumped into emporer at the departure baggage place. i had no idea. will nearly wet himself with excitement, but none of them went to talk to them. i would of if i was bothered about them!
went through security and i went to buy duty free booze, of which the sight nearly induced some sickness from the boys! we went to get some food too as none of us had eaten. will the joked that he was glad flights still had sick bags on board..which he claimed was a joke. ho-hum.
the guys went to play some table football and i sat on the internet..which i seem to do a lot of in foreign airports? where i discovered that children of bodoms offical signing session had been pushed back an hour..so the band actually could of stayed longer..but nevermind.
eventually our flight was called and we found our seats. but no band on board this time. i slept for most of the flight and then woke up to tom handing me some water and a cheese roll! we started to land and the unthinkable happens. will throws up everything he had eaten that morning. yum. and guess who was sitting next to him standing by with another sick bag? yes, me. i'm such a lovely girlfriend. i ever had a tissue to wipe his mouth with :D.
we got back to heathrow and there was a mammouth queue for passport control which was gay. we got through there and then had another mission treck to the heathrow express terminal where i was gagging for a drink. i got one, and then it fizzed up and covered me in sticky shit. i was not amused! we got the train and then had to get back to kings cross..where somehow we ended up on the other side of the road and had a mission to carry all our bags to the ticket office. will thought he was going to be sick again on the tube and just looked like a bag of shit. tom got annoyed with will. i got annoyed with tom. so i went to get water and a burger king. ultimate hangover cures. hopped on the train to huntingdon where i sat near will and looked after him and then as i was getting off at my stop will was all cute and said "thanks for looking after me bean".
i got home. ate and slept. oh, how i slept..