Download 2013.

My resounding memory of this particular Download (before the music) is of the Thursday afternoon.  About half four the heavens OPENED. It wasn’t just rain though, (I can deal with rain and God knows we’d had to deal with rain at the previous Download) it was a huge storm complete with thunder and lightning. I ended up curled up in my sleeping bag which was inside a binbag because my tent was leaking and I was absolutely petrified. The magazine I‘d been reading when the storm hit had completely disintegrated, my phone was dead, and I had nothing to do other than lie there and be scared. It SUCKED.

FVK played on the Friday I think, headlining the Red Bull stage I’d seen them play on further down the bill a year before. The fact they were headlining meant they clashed with Slipknot, but luckily I’d seen Slipknot play Download in 2009 so I can’t honestly say I was all that pissed about the clash.

EDIT: I've had to come back to this point to add in the fact that I was absolutely WASTED most of this day. Maz wasn't staying for the full weekend, she only had a day ticket, and by the time I met up with her at about midday I was already off my face. The most bizarre thing about this is the fact that I had no idea why, because at the time I didn't think I'd even had any alcohol. As I sobered up I eventually realised that when I'd woken up at about 8 that morning I'd necked an entire bottle of energy drink (visible in the above photo) to try and help me get through the day. The issue with this was that I had two of those bottles, one of them was full of energy drink and the other was 3/4 vodka, 1/4 energy drink.
And so ends the mystery of how I got wasted at 8am without being aware of consuming any alcohol.

 The lads came on stage to The Circle of Life which was one of the most bizarre things I think I’ve ever seen, and was made even more odd by the fact that Beveridge was wearing a lion mask that covered his whole head. I’ve wondered for a really long time quite why they did that, but for some reason I’ve never asked.

…That’s all I really remember about their set other than the fact that they played Batten Down the Hatches cos I really liked that song and it was only about the second or third time they’d played it, I think. After the set the boys disappeared and I somehow met up with Kiera (I don’t really remember how?) and as she, Maz and I went to leave to walk back to the tents (well Maz wasn’t camping but you know) I saw Pill walking the other side of a fence and legged it back to hug him. I ran up to him and hugged him from behind and he looked confused for a split second before he realised it was me and hugged me back. He then put his arm around me and announced “Come on, we’re going to watch Slipknot.” By this time Kiera and Maz had caught up and so along with Jammers from Fort Hope and Ben from TDLW we went and stood and watched the last few Slipknot songs. It was a good time.
We didn’t see any of the other guys that night which was a shame, especially for Maz who was only there for the day, but I guess they must have gone off somewhere to get wasted. Who can blame them.

As soon as Paige (who was part of the camp I was in, along with Louise and Annabel) and I got in on the Saturday we went to see who was in the signing tent, cos we’d guessed the lads were going to do a signing. We were right.
About an hour before FVK were due in the signing tent we went to go and queue so that we knew we’d definitely meet them (you know cos we’d never met them before). We ended up being the first people in the queue which was really handy cos it was chucking it down and I couldn’t wait to get somewhere slightly warmer and slightly drier. I think it eased off just before we went in but because we’d been stood in the rain for so long we were both still soaked. When we were finally let into the tent the first person I saw was Will South, who I made come over and give me a hug so I made him as damp as I was. I don’t think he was impressed but you know. If I’m suffering I don’t like to suffer alone.
Kemp was the first one sat at the table in the tent, and as soon as I walked over to him I moaned that I’d had to queue to meet him. I don’t think he actually really cared and I’m pretty sure he just laughed. He picked a card to sign for me (I didn’t even  really want anything signed, I felt weird asking them to sign things) and wrote “SHUT UP MEG” on it. Fuck you Kemp. Fuck you.
Drew was next and he was mean to me but I don’t remember in what way. The only reason I even remember that he was mean is because in response I blinded him by shoving my camera in his face and taking a photo. I think he might have laughed at ‘Shut Up Meg’ but I might be wrong.

was… Pill. He had an open can of beer in front of him so I stole a few mouthfuls of that until he noticed and shouted “HEY!” at me and I thought I’d better stop.
Shane was next to Pill, and he drew a little man in the stamp section of the postcard they were signing for me which was really cute. I asked him if I could have the full can of beer that was sat on the table in front of him and he looked really sad and said “…But that’s my beer…” so I put it back down. I really wish I’d stolen it.
For some reason Beveridge was stood on the end instead of sitting down behind the table. I don’t know why he thought he’d stand up instead of sitting down, there was a desk and a seat for him but he clearly didn’t fancy that. I don’t think I said anything of note to Beveridge other than complaining that I was really wet from having to wait in the rain…

When we came out of the signing we went to wait at the main stage to wait for Maiden cos there was very little else to do that day. I can’t remember who was on the stage at the time but at one point when we were moving through the crowd Paige and I bumped into Steve from TDLW, who although I hadn’t seen him for a really long time greeted me like an old friend, which was really nice of him. While we were chatting to Steve, Sam Sara (also TDLW) wandered past and I yelled his name. Steve threw himself at him and I was really confused until he explained that they’d lost Sam literally like an entire day before and they’d had no idea where he’d been until literally just then. If you know Sam Sara then you know how fucking amazingly Sam this and if you don’t know Sam then this probably sounds really far-fetched but please believe me when I say that if this could happen to anyone it’d be him. There’s a photo somewhere Ben (again, TDLW) took at Takedown where Sam is asleep under the hand-drier in the men’s toilets.
I genuinely don’t know how Sam has made it this far in life but I’m very glad he has cos he’s one of the most amusing people I have ever met.

I think we happened to bump into Kiera when we were waiting for Maiden cos I know she ended up with us and I don’t remember calling her or anything. Anyway Kiera & Liana ended up with us and one of them (I think it was Liana) spotted Shane and Drew. Standing watching Iron Maiden with most of FVK will go down in history as one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. It was so sweet that they were so willing to have me stood there being mildly irritating and screaming all the lyrics at a stage I couldn’t even see cos the people in front of me were too tall.
When Maiden finished we all hugged and went our separate ways and that ended up being the last time I saw them at Download that year. Pill had promised that we’d watch Rammstein together but that never happened, but it didn’t really matter cos to be fair I’d had the honour of watching the other two headliners with them which I really wasn’t expecting so you know.

That was a lovely bonus.

Until next time, 

Meg Mercury xoxo

MCM London Super Comicon, 25th May 2013.

By the time this came around it had been way too long in my mind since I’d seen the boys. A month wasn’t very long to have been without them when you think that I’d had to go three/four months at other times, but coming off a tour always feels like crashing back down to earth, and when you’ve spent two weeks with your favourite people being happy a month is a fucking long time to be without them. Anyway, I can’t remember when the lads had announced that they were attending this to promote their comic some more, but as soon as they did I messaged Maz and asked if she wanted to go.

The doors opened at 10.30 so Maz and I arrived at about 12, thinking we’d have given people plenty of time to get in and we’d have avoided any queues.
Oh dear lord. We were very, very wrong.
The con in February had been all in one of the large halls, so I assumed that this would be a similar sort of thing, maybe slightly bigger, but not much, because it spread outside too. There was a stage outside that The Dead Lay Waiting (who were also there promoting THEIR comic) were due to play on at two, and I was dying to see them because I hadn’t seen them play in months. Anyway, we arrived expecting to breeze pretty much straight in and find the lads, chat to them for a bit, then go and watch TDLW. Beveridge had said he’d only be at the con until one because he had to go and… do something, I forget what, but I still thought 12 was a decent arrival time.
Oh how naïve I was.
Keeping in mind that in February the entire con was in one hall, when Maz and I walked into the hall we were directed to I was thinking that would be where the con was.
Nope.
It was where the queue was.
The room was full of the longest, most weaving, snake-like queue I have ever seen in my life. It seemed to double back on itself ten times over. You know how at theme parks they put barriers up to make you queue in a smaller space? It was exactly like that. Except about fifteen times bigger than any queue I had ever seen at Alton Towers. I almost cried on the spot. Maz and I looked at each other in utter horror as we realised that we were going to be stuck for the foreseeable future. We tagged on what we perceived to be the end of the queue and started waiting. And waiting. As 12.30 approached I actually caved and did something I’d sworn to myself I wouldn’t do again: I texted Beveridge. There was no way we were going to get through to him by one, and I was so desperate to see him that I texted him and said if he could possibly hang on I’d be really grateful, because we were stuck in the queue and definitely not going to get through by one. He didn’t reply and I knew he’d be gone by the time I got in there. I wanted to cry.
Several times I suggested giving up but we decided to stay seeing as we’d been there as long as we had, and we made our slow progression through to the ticket booths. The only vaguely amusing things that I can remember happening are me threatening to kick the small child in front of us over for my own amusement, seeing the message “SEE KARL” scrawled in chalk on the floor (I don’t know why that was amusing, I think by the time we saw that we were starting to get delirious) and someone trying to force feed me the biscuits they were passing around when I politely refused the offer.

We got into the actual convention at about quarter to three. We’d queued for over two and a half hours and had missed both seeing Beveridge and seeing The Dead Lay Waiting play. I was crushed. The first thing Drew said when I walked up to the table was “Laurence says he’s really sorry but he had to go. He asked me to tell you.” and I wanted to cry all over again.

I’d written a short letter that I’d planned to give to Beveridge or Pill (Pill didn’t actually even go to the convention but I didn’t know that he wasn’t going when I wrote it obviously), but in their absences I gave it to Drew. It wasn’t much of anything, only a short note thanking them for the past year, because the convention fell three days before the anniversary of the first time I’d seen/met the boys but I’d put a photo from Basingstoke inside it that featured both Beveridge and Pill leaning on my head, which is why it was one of those two that I was planning to hand it to, but never mind. Drew read it and thanked me and laughed at the photo, and I think he might actually have handed it to Shane to read too, I don’t really remember. I’m 99% sure he didn’t hand it to Kemp, and that was probably for the best because somehow Kemp had managed to get wasted. How you get drunk at a comic convention is beyond me, but somehow Kemp had managed it. We’d been there about ten minutes when he wandered off, and came back wearing sunglasses, a red felt bowler hat, a bullet stuffer’s belt and carrying a fake pistol. I have no idea where he’d gotten these things from and to be perfectly honest I strongly suspect he didn’t know either. He looked very proud of himself though.

There was a blonde lady that I’d never seen before and haven’t seen since at the lads table and I think she’d just sort of accidentally stumbled across them while wandering away from the table she was supposed to be at, but she was drunk too and I remember Maz asking her where you could get booze from and she led us away to something called The British Tea Society (I think) that was people all dressed in steampunk gear drinking gin out of teacups. Apparently if you went up and said what she told us to say you got free gin, but Maz and I were both too scared to do it so we gave up on that and slinked away because to be honest that entire stall was really cool but also slightly intimidating. Maz went and bought a book and had it signed by the author at this point but I can’t remember who the author was because I am a terrible person. All I know is the guy was awesome and he wrote her name in the most beautifully detailed block capitals I think I’ve ever seen. When we got back to the table Kemp led us back to where we’d just been for what I think was supposed to be a group photo but Maz and I hid. I remember going up to Kemp afterwards though because this was the first time I’d ever noticed that he’d got his own name tattoed on the inside of his left wrist and I took the piss out of him, asking if that was in case he ever got so drunk he couldn’t remember his own name. (I now suspect that this was accurate, having seen some of the states Kemp gets into, but those are other stories.)

When we went back to where Drew and Shane were I went over to Shane to converse with him properly because I hadn’t really said two words to him since I’d arrived, mostly due to the fact that I was still sulking about the queue from Hell. I don’t really remember talking about anything apart from the fact that he still owed me two pounds, which I brought up as a joke but he got out his little purse (which is shaped like a cat face because Shane is actually a five year old girl) and started digging around to pay me back. When I’d made the joke I’d forgotten it was Shane I was talking to. Any of the others would have laughed and told me to piss off but Shane seemed genuinely upset that he hadn’t ever paid me back for that stupid geometry set and I felt so bad that I don’t think I’ve ever brought it up again.

This was also the day that Kemp FINALLY realised “Shut up Meg” was a thing. As I mentioned before, at this point I’d known the lads two days short of a year and had done more than 30 shows, and it took Kemp until this day to finally go “Oh shut up. ….SHUT UP MEG!” I couldn’t even be angry with him. He looked so fucking proud of himself.

The final thing I remember from this horrific day was ordering a Could We Burn, Darling? print from the massive folder of artwork they had with them that day. It was £20 for a full poster sized print and to be honest I wish I’d bought more than that one because it is a fucking beautiful thing. Oh well. 

Until next time,

Meg Mercury xoxo

Brighton, 28th April 2013.

On the way to Brighton we noticed a van alongside us on the motorway and we knew instinctively that the lads in it were a band. I don’t really even know how we knew but they just…clearly were. I ended up holding up a sign I’d written that said “ARE YOU A BAND?” at the window and they saw it and got very excited and nodded vigorously. I flipped the sign over and wrote “WHO?” and they made us a sign saying ‘BLACK DOGS’. 

And that was how we made friends with Black Dogs.

Louise and Sarah actually met them because they were playing at a different venue in Brighton that was close to the car park (we’d been dropped off outside the venue already).

The wait for the show was the longest and coldest wait EVER. Because we were by the sea (unlike when we were in Stoke *cough Pill cough*) it was really REALLY windy, and the venue was down a side street, so it was essentially like standing in a wind tunnel for several hours. The main redeeming feature of the venue (The Haunt, I think it closed for a while but I think it’s come back now) was that it was REALLY close to Brighton Pier, so we took it in turns to go there at regular intervals. We were actually walking up the pier to head back to the venue at one point when we bumped into the lads, and we decided to go back down the pier with them. We followed them further into the arcade than we’d actually already explored, and Drew and Pill found House of the Dead 4.

Let me break off here and go on a slight tangent. I am not a massive video game fan. I never had a console as a kid, and it wasn’t until I was about 15 that I even got a PS1, and even then the only games I owned were Dance Dance Revolution and the sequels. However, when I went to uni I met Andy, who was (and still is, he didn’t stop playing when we broke up or anything) a big video game fan and he slowly but surely got me more into them. The first thing I ever really started playing was House of the Dead. There was one of the arcade games in our student union, and between morning and evening lectures (or you know, most afternoons really) Andy and I would just… take control of it and play it for hours on end. It even had handy little things at the side to put your pint on to swig from during the cut scenes where you don’t have to be ready to shoot a giant zombie sloth in the face. Actually you didn’t shoot the zombie sloth in the face, you shot the giant security guard in the face, you shot the giant zombie sloth in the claws to try and make it let go of the stairs and fall down but that’s a whole other tangent.
BASICALLY, WHAT I’M TRYING TO SAY, WITHOUT BOASTING, IS I’M REALLY FUCKING GOOD AT HOUSE OF THE DEAD AND ALL OF THE SEQUELS, OKAY..

Where was I? Oh yeah Drew and Pill found House of the Dead 4 and I am very good at it. Anyway, I spent about half an hour watching them, twitching and shouting ‘RELOAD. NO, SHOOT AWAY FROM THE SCREEN.’ and other helpful hints before Pill died and left Drew on his own. I was really tempted to run in and tag myself in but I refrained, and about 20 seconds later Drew died. They got to the second level.
I could have beaten that…

Oh man I’ve just realised that I meant to put in something about when the lads were loading in. Basically, Pill’s arse is always hanging out. Not like bare, I mean his jeans are always sitting below his arse and you can see his pants CONSTANTLY. As they were loading into the venue I told Pill to pull his trousers up (which by this point was a fairly regular thing) and he actually stopped and looked at  the floor as though his trousers had fallen ALL THE WAY DOWN AND WERE AROUND HIS ANKLES. God bless that boy.

The main thing that I remember about this show is that it was the first time I saw DEAD! play. I think it was anyway, I don’t remember ever seeing them before this date but I have seen a LOT of support acts. I’d heard of DEAD! cos Louise and Annabel had mentioned them before, but I don’t remember having actually seen them myself. They played their first song blindfolded, which totally threw me until I found out it related to the name of the song (it might actually have been called ‘Blindfold’?). I really liked them (which was lucky actually when you consider in a year’s time I was following them with FVK on the Cabin Fever tour but that comes up much later) but I was so wound up about the fact that it was the last night of tour and the last night I’d see Fort Hope/the lads that I didn’t really pay an awful lot of attention to them, as bad as that sounds.

I think I cried during Fort Hope and FVK this night, cos I’m really not very good at last night of tour. At War With The Thirst almost always gets to me.  (Current me laughs loudly in the distance.)

Drew smashed his bass up at the end of the set and I screamed.

As I walked out of the venue that night I stole a poster. Just outside I bumped into Andé and he asked what it was. I showed him and he told me off for stealing it, at which point I informed him that if anyone asked I’d just tell them he took it.

There was someone wandering around outside who wanted to talk to Beveridge but seemed to be crying whenever she got near him, so I went over to her and tried to get her to talk to him but as soon as he said ‘hello’ she burst into tears and ran away again. I don’t think she ever did talk to him, but at least I tried. If you’re reading this, whoever you are, I hope I’m wrong and you did talk to him.

I took a photo for a fan I didn’t know this night cos she didn’t have a camera, which I’ve done quite a few times (I just get their twitter name and send it to them), and when I offered, Beveridge went “YEAH! Meg’ll do it! Meg…” and then he trailed off. After I’d taken the photo I asked him what he’d been going to say, and he answered with “…bees knees…I was going to say ‘Meg’s the bees knees’…” I almost cried.
I also told Beveridge he had Irish hair this night, because the wind made him look like Dylan Moran. OH and I kept offering him my hoodie because he kept saying he was really cold.

Andé walked us back to the car when we finally left, because he’d ended up parking Fort Hope’s van really close by. He and I walked side by side and chatted all the way, I was horribly aware that I was probably going to cry when I said bye to him, cos a bit like me and Pill in FVK, Andé was the member of Fort Hope I’d immediately hit it off with, and we’d gotten pretty close. As we walked, I asked him if he had a spare pick I could have to put on a necklace. He’d given a few picks out right at the end of the set and I didn’t really think he’d have one, but he dug around in his pocket and gave me one he’d been using on his acoustic guitar earlier in the day to film a video for a YouTube interview. When we finally got to the car and said goodbye for the last time I managed to pretty much hold it together until I got in  and we started to move, then I started to sob. I messaged Andé and apologised for being so quiet but I’d known I was going to be upset. He told me it wasn’t a problem and he was sad too.
When I got home I made a hole in the pick he’d given me.
I’ve worn it around my neck every day since then.

Until next time,

Meg Mercury xoxo

London, 24th April 2013.

Getting to London was ridiculous. As I mentioned in the last post, Manchester was the day before London, and I had to work the day of London so I had to leave Manchester at about 5am. I got up at about 4, I think, had my shower and went and got on my train. I then worked for four hours and then went and got on my train to London. I was so fucking tired. I actually had the intention of napping in the hotel, but I ended up being so excited I couldn’t sleep so that didn’t work. I went and sat outside the venue instead with Louise, Annabel, Paige and the Bales and we spent the day waving at people on buses who were fascinated by us.  To be fair everyone except Maz and I were in pyjamas because Drew had said if everyone turned up in pyjamas he’d do the encore in his or something… I don’t really remember but in the end I kind of dismissed the idea, cos I'd forgotten to wear them and couldn't be bothered to go back and get changed.

I cried during Earthquake this night. I was stood right in front of Andé during Fort Hope’s set and he seemed to keep glancing at me while he played. I suddenly became horribly aware that I knew I wouldn’t be hearing this set many more times (I only had this show and Brighton left of the tour) and after Bristol I was very aware of what the song was about, and I got very emotional when they played it. I remember telling Andé afterwards and he said he’d noticed and it had made him emotional because his brother had in fact come to the show that night and they were starting to talk stuff through and then I almost cried again because I was so happy for him.

Anyway. Back to the gig.
I got talking to a photographer when we were in the gig (Rupert… something) and he was a really nice guy. I actually ended up in a lot of his photos by accident.
…Actually I don’t really remember anything else. Except for the fact that I remember getting really angry because when Beveridge reached into the crowd like he always does someone tried to steal his S.O.P.H.I.E. wristband. I mean who does that? Why would you fucking steal a band member’s stuff? I wish I’d seen who it was, but on second thoughts it’s probably for the best that I didn’t cos I would have gotten very angry.

OH I’VE JUST REMEMBERED THAT UGLY LOVE SUPPORTED THIS NIGHT OH MAN GOOD TIMES. I’d totally forgotten that they were support until I literally just thought about Tom in that fucking flamingo hat he got from somewhere. And a gold medal that I don’t know why he had it. Tom was on fire that night.
As I’m writing this I’m trying really hard to work out whether this was the first time I actually properly saw Ugly Love play cos that time they supported Ashes at Surya totally doesn’t count cos they were all wearing dresses and I didn’t know who they were or what was happening and all of my attention was fixed on trying to say hello to Beveridge at that time I’m not even gonna lie. I know I met Tom at Brixton K! tour but I don’t remember seeing them play before this night. I may have done, but I don’t think so…

We hung out for a very long time after this gig too. It was much fun. My favourite moment was when Beveridge was stood drinking from a 1.5 litre Diet Coke bottle whilst talking to some young fans. They asked him for some of his drink and he asked how old they were. They replied with “15 & 16” and he went “Ah, I can’t give you this then sorry, it’s not only got coke in it…” and I just sidled up to him and said “…You can give it to me though, Beveridge...” and he just said “Yeah, I can give it to Meg.” and handed it to me.
We also invited Beveridge to our “pizza and vodka party” in the hotel because he said he wanted to party but he didn’t know if they were going out. He thought about it for a second but then declined.

There were so many bizarre photos taken this night. At one point Shane drew a smiley face on his palm that he decided was me and he kept putting his hand up to show it off in photos. If you look closely you'll see he's even written "MEG" in the mouth.

Maz and I walked six million miles for pizza after the gig. Andé appeared from somewhere just before we left with what looked like the most delicious slice of it and we decided we couldn’t last the night without it, so we walked back towards the hotel cos we knew there was a Dominos around the corner from it. As we got closer we realised it was really actually quite late and we had no idea what time it closed but amazingly when we got there all the lights were still on.
We tried the door.
It was locked.
We ended up walking all the way back to the place around the corner from the venue where Andé had gotten his pizza from. (On the way there a group of people stopped us and asked if we had a lighter and while we waited for them to finish with it one of the girls started stroking Maz’s head. No, I don’t know why either.)
When we got back to the pizza place the pizza guy tried to convince me to sit with him to eat it.
I politely declined.

Until next time,

Meg Mercury xoxo

Manchester, 23rd April 2013.

Manchester was… ridiculous. Well. Getting to/from Manchester was ridiculous. Because I wasn’t actually planning on doing it I hadn’t shift swapped around it, so I had to work the morning of the gig before I ran and got on a train. I was also due at work at 7.45 the next day so I had to get on a train at about 5am to be home in time but I’ll probably write about that in the next entry cos the next day was the day of the London gig.

I don’t think much really happened in Manchester other than the fact that I was totally crushed on the front row and in a lot of pain most of the night haha. OH and the guy next to me was wearing a huge puffa jacket during the entire show which was the weirdest thing I think I’ve ever seen at a gig. I mean he was sweating so hard and he didn’t even unzip it.

My other memory was Shane stepping forwards up onto the weird box things that were between the band and the crowd and shouting “HI MEG” at me because he was really close to me and his guitar was RIGHT IN MY FACE. He came up to me later and apologised for “guitaring in my face”. Bless his heart.

Manchester was the first time I had photos with all of Fort Hope, which was really cool. I mean it was pretty far into the tour and I’d fallen in love with the guys but I’d only ever had a photo with Andé so I thought I’d better actually get photos with the rest of the band. The photo of Gaskin and I is still one of my favourite photos ever, I think.

The only other thing I remember happening in Manchester was standing next to Kemp and asking for a photo but he was stood on the curb and looked ridiculously taller than me, so I asked him to step down. He just stared at me. I asked him again. He stared at me some more. I said it again. He leaned forwards.
What a knob.

Until next time, 

Meg Mercury xoxo

Bristol, 20th April 2013. (30th show)

Bristol was odd cos even though it was in the middle of the tour, it wasn’t actually an FVK headline show. Fort Hope and the lads were both playing, but the thing they were playing was Hit the Deck, which is a one day festival. I can’t actually remember who was headlining it. I think it was Don Broco, but I might be wrong on that.

Anyway. We got to Bristol really early cos Fort Hope were on at about 2, and then FVK were on (luckily in the same venue) about 5 hours later. I didn’t actually bother going to any of the other venues I just stayed upstairs in the O2 waiting for the bands I was there to see. I think it was after Fort Hope had played that FVK arrived, and I don’t really remember seeing any of them except Drew. I don’t remember how it came about but we ended up swapping sunglasses. ACTUALLY I think what really happened was that I stole his sunglasses and then offered him mine as an exchange. I remember Drew saying that I’d ‘Megged’ him which was the best pun I think I’ve ever heard him come out with and I was really proud of him.  We saw Andé before the show too and he almost gave me a heart-attack by announcing that Fort Hope had been “talking about me in the van earlier”. As it transpired he meant they’d been talking about the fact that I like Queen but for the 30 seconds in between him saying that and the full explanation I thought I was going to die.

Just before the lads were about to come on stage Nico appeared , and I turned around to give him a hug and stupidly let go of the barrier. The woman who had been stood next to me for the past ten minutes took this as her cue to open her arms as wide as she possibly could so that when I turned back around to the barrier there was no room left for me to lean on it. I asked her to move because I’d been waiting for like 6 hours to see the lads and she said no, I shouldn’t have left the barrier. I told her that I’d literally turned around to hug my friend and I hadn’t gone anywhere, and I’d been waiting hours for this. She still wouldn’t move. I just leaned on her until she moved over slightly and I could get back on, but she was such a massive dick honestly.

There are actually two things I remember about the actual music part of the gig which is unusual for me.
Beveridge nearly knocked his brain out on a speaker and it scared the shit out of me. Like Kemp had spent the entire set stepping up on the monitors at the front of the stage and singing out to the crowd, and as soon as Beveridge took the mic he tried to step up onto them and cracked his head on a speaker mounted on the wall. I would actually make a pretty certain bet that he saw stars. How it didn’t knock him out I’ll never know, he actually moved the speaker with his damn skull. Anyway. The only other thing I remember is when Beveridge was singing Fetish for the Finite he stepped forwards to the barrier and grabbed my hand. He put his forehead against mine and sang “no justice here” in my face with me. Pete managed to get that on video, actually.

After this gig was one of my fave times, because the lads all wanted to see the headline act (which I have just Googled and was definitely Don Broco) so we hung around with them for ages outside while they loaded out and shit and Maz drew a cock on the barrier which she was really smug about and was hilarious. This small act of vandalism led us into pressuring Shane to write “#1 FAN” on the fan they used to use to keep Pill from overheating. (Some time later, I think at comicon, Shane had to confess to us that they no longer had #1 FAN and he looked genuinely sad about it. We told him he had to write #2 FAN on the new one but he said it was a proper posh one that was basically just a cylinder and there wasn’t really anywhere he could write it. Sad times man.) I wonder if any of the lads actually ever noticed that had been written on it.

We ended up going back in to watch Don Broco even though none of us really knew who they were, cos the lads wanted to watch them and there was no point standing outside when we could be inside with them. Kemp was absolutely wasted at this point, and my main memory of interacting with him was asking him for a photo, and then after it had been taken he took my arm and tried to lead me off somewhere. I asked him where we were going and he told me he had no idea. I don’t think that he knew what his name was at that point, bless his heart. (His fucking eyes.)

Andé was also really drunk. He took a photo of me with his sunglasses on for some reason and then sent me it the next day telling me he didn’t have any recollection of taking it hahahaha. He also stole MY sunglasses at one point when we went back outside and was running around shouting “HEY, IT’S A-ME, MARIO!” for reasons that I never knew and he can’t remember. Bless him. I miss him.
Andé chose this night, while he was very drunk, to tell me that he’d written one of Fort Hope’s songs, Earthquake, about his brother who he used to be really close to but they’d grown apart over the last few years. The song clearly meant a lot to him and hearing him talk so frankly to me was lovely, and I haven’t listened to that song in the same way since that night.

It was after Don Broco had finished that I said something to Jon and Andé about wanting to do an extra show (or something) and I happened to mention that Manchester was the only one I could possibly do. They both told me that gig was almost sold out, but for reasons best known to themselves they both said that if I turned up and it was sold out they’d get me in. That was me totally sold. I mean, if a band tells you they can get you into a sold out gig if you turn up, you’re gonna fucking turn up, right? (I also mentioned this to Kemp before they left and he also said if I struggled getting in they’d find a way to get me in, which just like doubly sold me on the idea to be honest.) Maz was doing Manchester, and she offered me the floor in her room (I think we ended up in a family room anyway in the end, oddly) and that was that. I was suddenly down to do Manchester.

(EDIT: I’ve just remembered that this was the night I found out about FVK supporting Madina Lake on the September/October tour, because I found a flyer that had the tour on and FVK were listed as support. I picked it up and went over to Beveridge going “IS THIS RIGHT?” and he got really angry saying that it wasn’t supposed to have been announced yet but yes, it was right and they were on the tour.)

Just before we went to leave, I managed to hug Maz and knock her flat on her arse. I still don’t know how that happened, I just went to hug her and then looked down and she was sat on the floor. I must have been stronger than I thought or something but whatever happened it was fucking hilarious. Speaking of hilarious, I’m 99% sure it was in Bristol that Andé showed me the video of Jammers shaving his initials into Kemp’s chest hair which was hysterical and disturbing in equal measure.

Until next time,

Meg Mercury xoxo

Stoke, 17th April 2013.

Stoke was fabulous cos I met Paula for the first time. I don’t even know how we got talking, I think it was in the lobby of the hotel after I’d run back to get something but I don’t really remember… Was it pens maybe? Something anyway. More on that later.

I can’t remember what time we got to the venue but it must have been pretty early cos I know I wanted to be front row and Maz agreed to be on front row with me, which is really unusual. Spending time at the venue before the show is always a bonus cos you normally get to see the band before they actually go in to soundcheck.
At one point I ended up taking Gaskin to Tesco cos he wanted someone to show him where it was and everyone else who offered sort of screamed when he asked them, so he asked me to go with him. I bought a little purple hippo while I was there cos I’d forgotten my cuddly penguin who accompanies me on tour and I can’t sleep without cuddling something. The reason I’ve mentioned this hippo is because when I got back, for reasons I don’t fully recall at the moment, I asked Shane to draw a beard on it and turn it into Pill for me. He did without question, bless him.

 In fact, this was the day that I asked him to draw “Thomas the Tank Penguin” which was the brainchild of Maz and I. Again I don’t really recall how that came into being but I gave Shane a piece of paper that I’d been writing a Spike Milligan poem I wanted to learn on and asked him to draw this creation for me. He took the piece of paper and disappeared into the venue. When he came back he handed me the drawing and uttered the amazing sentence “I couldn’t remember what ears penguins had, so I gave it pointy ones.”

For some reason Drew and Shane went to Tesco and came back with some ceramic garden ornaments. I can’t remember who had what but one of them had a mushroom and one of them had some dogs. I’ve never known why that was or what happened to them. The ornaments. Not Drew and Shane.

Actually in the gig, Kemp let me sing. Like actually held the mic in my face and let me sing the line “…and be loved” in Bite Down on my Winchester. That’s actually how I found Paula on Facebook, I think, I asked if anyone had filmed it and she had (sadly for me and luckily for you guys the video has since been lost). Poor Paula. Her introduction to me was my awful voice. And the poor lads being able to hear me in their earpieces.
Anyway, it’s Kemp’s fault.

I thanked him afterwards for letting me sing with him, and he responded with “Thank YOU.” When I asked him what for he paused for a second and then said “…For knowing the words.”
Kemp it hardly my first gig was it mate.

We stuck around for AGES after the gig. I can’t remember whether the lads were off the next day or something, but we were hanging out for a ridiculously long time. It was windy as FUCK though, and at one point Pill (God bless you Pill I do adore you) piped up “Why is it so windy? Are we by the sea?” YES PILL WE’RE IN STOKE ON SEA, BLESS YOUR BEARDY FACE.

Oh, the bad thing about this night was that I broke my camera. I knew something shit had happened in Stoke. I was stood talking to Maz and Shane about something and somehow my camera slipped out of my hand and hit the curb. I picked it up and turned it on, and realised the screen was cracked to shit. Shane saw what had happened and asked me if it was the screen or the lens, so I snapped a photo of him and was really relieved to find it was just the screen. It also resulted in a really hilarious photo, but you know, that was kind of just a handy bonus.

At some point I ran back to the hotel to get some pens or something and bumped into Paula in the lobby of the hotel. I can’t even remember how we started talking but I think it was Tash she was with, and FVK had signed her arms. I don’t even really remember what we talked about but I think we swapped names or I told her my Twitter name or something and we found each other not long after, and then I was treated to the wonderful video of me singing. Again, apologies to anyone who was there. I hope your ears have recovered now.

When the lads left Maz and I decided to go and get food. We walked around the corner from the venue to look for a takeaway and found one with ease, but then we realised the lads were in there. We hovered outside for a bit not knowing whether to go in or not cos we didn’t want it to look like we were following them, but then we realised that hanging around outside probably didn’t look that great either, so we gave up and went in. We weren’t sure to start with whether to acknowledge the lads or not so we just stood awkwardly after we’d ordered until Drew and Shane started talking to us. At one point Dave had challenged Kemp to eat something with some form of really hot sauce on it (I think he filmed it, and in fact I think I saw the video at some later point) and Kemp let out the most amazing sad whine of “I don’t want my food to hurt me!” which was so pathetic I laughed until I cried. What a baby. My only other proper memory of being in the takeaway was Shane asking me If I was vegetarian because I was eating cheesy chips (I wasn’t at that point, so I said ‘no I’m just broke’) and when he commented that our food was taking a long time I told him it was because Maz had ordered pizza, and he tutted at her and said “Maz!” in a very disapproving voice. 

OH! OH AND PILL APPEARING!
When we’d been outside, before the lads had gone to the takeaway, Pill had asked if anyone wanted anything from Tesco cos he was heading down there for something, so I asked him for Red Bull substitute cos we’d run out. I didn’t really think any more of it until he appeared in the takeaway. I remembered what I’d asked him for and asked if he’d got it. He told me he couldn’t find Tesco. Now I know Pill is one of the most easily confused creatures in the universe, but Tesco is in a straight line down from the venue. In fact, I think you can probably even see it from the venue if you stand at the right angle, so something here didn’t add up. As I got closer to him I realised where he’d actually been (I dare not explain further because he'd be in trouble if I did). I laughed at him and said “It’s okay, Pill, I know where you’ve really been.” at which point he burst out laughing and hugged my head.
I know I say it a lot but I really do love that boy.

When we walked back past the venue to get back to our hotel, Maz and I realised Fort Hope were still standing outside. We stopped and asked them if everything was okay. It turned out Gaskin had left his phone in the dressing room, and the people who worked at the venue had locked up for the night. The lads were banging on the door trying to get someone’s attention but it wasn’t working. I pointed out that there was a phone number on the top of the ‘upcoming gigs’ poster and said it might be worth trying that. Simon did. There was no answer. I told Gaskin that if he had to leave really early in the morning I could pick his phone up for him if he liked and give it back to him in Bristol, but he said he didn’t have to rush off so he’d try again in the morning. I tweeted him the next day to ask if he’d got it back and he had.
Bless him.

Until next time,

Meg Mercury xoxo