Anathema – Gig Addiction

Scorpions, Anathema, Saxon, Blue Oyster Cult, FM, Toseland , No Hot Ashes, Ramblin Man Fair, Maidstone, Kent 25-7-15

An early start on the train to London, to meet Rob. He drives us to the festival (Thanks mate). Weather is fantastic ! We get our wristbands ; VIP ones i won via Saxon FB page, & i ask for it to not be too tight ( Rob says “He suffers from bad circulation!”) The reason for not being tight is i’m only going for the Saturday & Rob & Ady will do both days….so i can take it off easy & Ady can use it tomorrow 😉 (Not that i’d told him…i’m just good like that 😉 ) Have a quick look around the festival site. It seems a very nice size. First band we see are No Hot Ashes. I’d seen them before & my opinion hasn’t changed 😉 Then it’s Toseland. They go down pretty well, but leave me a little cold as i find it rather formulated & have seen it all before. (sorry). Next it’s FM. Simply quality. You know what you’re gonna get. Then it’s the mighty Saxon. Such consummate pros. Easily the best band of the day for me so far. Then it’s B.O.C. It’s the 3rd time i’ve seen them & i still just don’t get them. I suggest to Rob we go to the other stage for Anathema. Great choice. It felt so much better than last night in Sheffield & the audience seemed more into it. I made a right schoolboy error though as my camera battery died 🙁 So from then onwards, no video, just a couple of photos. Back to the main stage for Scorpions. Great set list. Make it Real, The Zoo, Coast to Coast! Then some real oldies jam “Top of the Bill/ Steamrock Fever/Speedys Coming/Catch Your Train” It then dipped a bit. The whistling song !! Thank god they brought it back up with Blackout , Rock you like a Hurricane etc ! Over all, a great day. Oh yeah, forgot, we had some great burgers & sweet potato fries. Expensive, but well worth it 😉

Took a while to get out the car park, but, as Rob knows his way around Maidstone, we went a different way to the other cars & cut off some journey time. By now i was truly knackered & was dozing off in the car. As i said, i think i could have fallen asleep standing up i was that tired. Hell, i even managed to sleep in the same room as a heavy snorer 😉

P.S. On Sunday morning Rob made some Bacon & Egg butties. I really shouldn’t have stayed as i got to the train station with literally 1 minute to spare before my train left ! That could have been a very expensive butty ! Also, all afternoon, i had the most evil eggy farts 😉

Anathema, Lone Wolf, @ The Ballroom, City Hall, Sheffield 24-7-15

I picked up Cat 30mins later than planned (or was it ? 😉 ) & off to Sheffield we go. Park up at Meadowhall Interchange & take the tram into the city. Once there we go exchange tickets for wristbands. Interestingly, this was happening in the City Hall. I’d never stood on that stage before, so had to take a photo from up there. I told Cat i’d seen Metallica in here twice & it seemed to blow her mind 😉 After grub, we go into the Ballroom. It’s not over busy, but the front row is already took. Then Cat gets a msg from Daniel that we have passes waiting for us ! Very nice thank you. Once back, our luck gets even better as a couple decide to leave & we get front row! Perfect. I just love the songs of Anathema, they’re so moving. I think the lighting in here is pretty rubbish tbh. I got the feeling that Vincent wasn’t over impressed with tonights crowd (pretty sure he said something off mic 😉 ). Still, i enjoyed the show as i always do with them. Afterwards, we went for a quick drink. Cat wanted to meet Daniel to thank him,but, we were running out of time as the last tram was at 11.45. Once at Cathedral stop, it’s listed there’s a later tram. We now know which pub Daniel is in, so go for a walk. Soon find him & thank him etc. I tell him i’m going to Ramblin Man festival tomorrow as i’d won tickets. He didn’t realise Scorpions were still on the go….& then took the piss about the “whistling song ” 😉 He also offered me guest tickets for Ramblin Man ! What a great guy 🙂 (I didn’t take up the offer, but it was a back up plan if needed 😉 ) Anyway, time was getting on, so we went back to the tram stop. Well, it seemed the info on the board was wrong & we’d missed the last tram (11.45). So had to get a taxi back. Was expecting it to be really expensive, but it cost around £10. Got back to Boston around 2.45am & i was gonna get up at 6.30 ready for my train to London….