Welsh Weekend: The Highlights...

Fuck my NaNoWriMo, I'm doing a highlights blog.

20th November: Acoustic gig

- Finding Belgian Chocolate Blackout Cupcakes in Marks and Spencer... and buying them

- Being in the third row through Egyptian Hiphop (they were odd)

- Still in the third row for The King Blues (and being one of only about ten people singing along)

- Sneaking into the first row for The Blackout

- Sean admitting to being utterly terrified

- Rhys playing an acoustic bass for the first time in years

- Snoz's tambouriiiiine!

- Silent (When We Speak) making me burst out in silent tears

- Matthew grinning at me ridiculous amounts for singing along

- Seeing Mike and Jay on the balcony, and getting Jay to wave at me

- Dragging Vikki down the front for Lostprophets and sitting on her lap

- Eternal weird looks from Ian Watkins... his expression was something along the line of "wtf? Why?"

- Ian having a sparkly belt buckle and the eternal must...not...stare...at...it...

- Lostprophets being absolutely mindblowing

- Hearing two new songs which Lostprophets had never played live before... ever.

- The chats with Ian Watkins! He chatted/told off/made fun of pretty much everyone in the front row. Including:
Ian calling my hat a "mouse hat" and then saying "that's debatable" after Vikki and I screamed it was a cat
Telling Ian his collar was up at the back and he insisting it was "like Usher", then telling me off after I called him sweetie ("what are we? Three?") and accepting my apology with a "you'd better be sorry!"
Ian telling me off for laughing so much at what Vikki said and "devaluating all my other jokes!"
Someone pointing out there was a glowing badge and not a bag, and Ian saying "Oh well done, you have successfully identified a badge".
Ian making fun of a guy who had to go to the loo and so holding up playing the last song until he got back.

- A mens' voice choir appearing onstage for about the second half of the set

- Being about the only person who knew all the words to Where We Belong and not just the chorus.

- Calling Sam in It's Not The End Of The World... and bloody hell. Ian singing so high Vikki and I were wondering who had grabbed his balls.

- Lee and I having a nodding match

- Afterwards, seeing Sean (who didn;t hug me but instead stroked my hat) and Rhys (who insisted it was lovely to see me, and gave me lots of hugs)

- Finding Jay outside smoking and sharing odd Star Wars quotes with him


21st November: The Blackout Instore

- Oversleeping and managing not to get out of bed till past 8

- Getting on the same train to Kingston as Laura did

- My Handywork on four of us, drawing Blackout lyrics/song names on our hands (THIS IS A BLACKOUT/WE ARE THE DYNAMITE/I'M A RIOT/TIWWCHNT)

- Running around Kingston trying to find Banquet Records with Laura

- Running around Kingston trying to stalk The Blackout with Vikki, Annie, Caz and a girl I can't remember the name of

- Getting back to McCluskys in time to chat to them... except Rhys and Gav who were nursing killer hangovers

- Snoz signing my hands to announce he liked them

- Sean running his hands through my really short hair to work out how short it was, and pretty much hair raping me

- Photos in the queue!

- Managing to sneak the blackout cupcakes in and working out there were 6400 calories in the box

- An amazing ten song set from TBO

- The hat song! In which Bob grabbed my hat and Sean proclaimed "we don't want that shitty hat!"

- Singing "rhys" in place of the words to the chorus of TIWWCHNT

- Bob managing to trap my hand between the barrier and the guitar... Ow.

- Being asked if I wanted to meet TBO first because I had an injured hand. I declined.

- Fashioning my scarf into a sling

- Gav's face when I gave him the cupcakes. He looked like I had given him the stars. And he gave me an enormous cutch <3

- Having to explain to each member of The Blackout how I'd hurt my wrist

- Bob's expression when I told him. He kept on hugging me and exclaiming how sorry he was and how bad he felt

- Bob apologising to me on twitter too

- Chats with them afterwards, with Rhys agreeing to answer any questions I facebook message him about being in a band, for help with my novel

- Gav agreeing not to

- Matthew thinking that TIWWCHNT was Welsh, until we pointed out otherwise

- Matthew throwing my hat in a puddle (grrr)

- Sean insisting there was nothing wrong with my hand

- Waving goodbye to the van so Snoz and Sean kept on waving, stopping, seeing we were still waving, and started waving again


I miss Lostprophets and TBO already. And especially my wifey Vikki. I'm seeing them all in February, and I cannot bloody wait <3