Milton Keynes, 26th October 2012.

Like Peterborough, Milton Keynes wasn’t a gig we planned to do. We decided on the day that we couldn’t  last a week without seeing them, so again I offered to pay Louise and Annabel in and away we went. We decided not to tell anyone we were going, with the idea of hiding from the band until they hit the stage. A bit like Basingstoke, but without bumping into them in the car park. That didn’t really work out so well, as halfway through the first support act (FVK weren’t headlining this gig, they were support for a Slipknot tribute act called Knotslip) Drew came and stood with us. I genuinely  don’t think in 103 gigs I’ve ever managed to surprise all of the guys with my presence. In this instance Beveridge was the only one we actually managed to surprise, halfway through about the second or third song he saw us stood a few rows back and grinned and reached out to us. Bless him.

Knotslip were, from what I remember, actually really pretty fucking good. I wandered forwards in the crowd to get a better view at one point, and I ended up stood behind some really tall fucker. I turned to Louise and said “WHY DO I ALWAYS END UP BEHIND A BASTARD GIANT.”
The giant turned round.
It was Beveridge.

I somehow ended up at the back of the venue again not that much later and was stood by the merch with the guys when I realised Knotslip were playing Spit It Out. Having seen Slipknot live at Download like 3 years before, I knew that Corey called for everyone to get down and then ‘jump the fuck up’. The singer of Knotslip (I don’t know his name) did the same. I threw my glasses on the merch table when he asked us to get down for fear of jumping up and ending up in a pit, which luckily I didn’t, but when I turned to get my glasses off the merch table they were gone. I started to panic, then began to say “Pill have you seen my glasses” when I looked up and realised they were on his face. He hadn’t even realised they were mine, he’d just found them and decided to put them on cos he thought it was funny.

I felt really sorry for Beveridge this night, cos one of my outstanding memories of this gig is him spending most of it trying to get away from a very very drunk girl who was dressed as a nurse and clearly trying to chat him up. He was very polite and I swear at one point I stopped laughing at him and rescued him.

I think this was one of the first times I talked to Maz properly too. I have some form of vague memory of talking to her and the lads by the van and taking a group photo with them for her. I think there was some sort of incident involving the van and a bollard but I forget what that was. Maybe it’ll come back to me one day…

Until next time,

Meg Mercury xoxo