Sonisphere day 1 – Friday
Ian, Nick, Ivan, me
When I booked the tickets for this 6 months ago we (Ian, Nick, Ivan & me) decided that camping was not for us and we wanted a hotel. It seems we were not alone in this decision as the closest hotel I could find with 4 available rooms was in the centre of Luton, a good half hour taxi ride away from the site. On arrival we found that rather than being booked in for 3 nights, the hotel had cocked up and we were only in for the friday, after some jiggery-pokery and I suspect the cancellation of some other bookings (as I type this I’m sitting in reception next to a woman whose furious that her reservation appears to have been cancelled, she was booked into room 3 – coincedentally the room I am in - shhh!).
We jump into a cab and 30 minutes later we’re lost. 45 minutes later and we finally arrive at Knebworth, not the right entrance but it’s close enough! Understandably thirsty by now we head staright to the bar for a beer. And we wait, and we wait – it doesn’t look like they’re quite ready for us! Eventually we get our pints of Carlsberg (probably the worst lager in the world) and check out the site. It’s quite amazing how many people are wearing stockings, corsets and tutus, some them are even women, but not many – is this a rock festival or a transvestite convention?
Prepared for an afternoon of rocking out we head over to the stage to catch hair metal gods Europe. They’re pretty good, a dire version of No Woman, No Cry is cancelled out by an excellent rendition of ‘The Final Countdown’. Gary Numan is excellent though the sound isn’t great, difficult to hear his vocals. Headliner Alice Cooper is fantastic, playing through most of his hits he starts and finishes with ‘School’s Out’ and the crowd go wild both times. His usual macabre act is in full swing, tonight we see him hung, beheaded, locked in a cabinet and spiked to death, he cuts the head off a baby, strangles a nurse and stabs a ninja – and not a copper in sight. Awesome. Last up are the vastly underrated Terrorvision. In a serious case of underestimating a bands popularity they are playing in a tent rather than one of the main stages and it is rammed. The band play an explosive hour of hits and album track and the audience bounce along to every one of them, for me, as good as Alice was, this was my highlight.
Time to head back to luton and things start to go a bit tits up. The cab we booked can’t find us and the cabs on the taxi rank are charging £50 to get back – the rate we were quoted was £30! We hang around for the taxi we booked but as time goes on (it’s been 30 mins since he phoned to say he was at the main gate and he still hasn’t found the official taxi rank where were waiting for him) we realise he probably won’t show and find another cab that’ll take us back to Luton for £40. By the time we get back to the hotel we are tired and cold but still able to see the funny side and though Ivan and Nick have been bickering like a married couple and Ivan has done his very best to wind up every taxi driver he’s spoken to, we haven’t tried to strangle each other, yet!
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