The Metal/Punk/Rock Thread

[SuperBacon]

6 minutes ago, gmoney said:

I'm guessing as you referred to her as ex-girlfriend and not ex-fiance or wife that the answer was negative? 

Who knows.

[Merzbow]

Download are rightfully getting shit on again this year, while inviting trans artists to play they're putting up the ban on the toilets for trans attendees. I'd imagine this is the second year in a row a bunch of artists pull out.

[SuperBacon]

I haven't been to a festival for a while but surely they are all gender neutral portaloos anyway? Apart from the area with those weird 3 way urinals where you are face to face with others (always fun) which Download definitely had, any festival I've ever been to has been open to all.

What's changed?

[Merzbow]

You'd think they'd be gender neutral but the official response to an artist who asked said otherwise.

[WyattSheepMask]

Is this something that’s come in since COVID? The last time I went in 2019 I don’t recall it being split by gender

[Merzbow]

They've now said that the majority of toilets are gender neutral but are still following the anti-trans guidelines for "single sex" bathrooms.

[King Coconut]

2 hours ago, gmoney said:

I'm guessing as you referred to her as ex-girlfriend and not ex-fiance or wife that the answer was negative? 

Sounds to me like she was already an ex when he proposed. I mean, we've all slept in a transport hub after making a complete tit of ourselves thanks to the beers we drank alone on valentines day,  right?

[WyattSheepMask]

Svalbard have announced that they’re calling it a day at the end of 2026.

They’re on tour here in November and then next year will embark on an EU tour and a tour of Japan as well as some select other dates in 2026

[cobra_gordo]

Download's toilet gender policy has trigger a memory of the last time I went there in 2006. I've only been twice, 2004 an 2006. Both belting years in terms of bands and overall experience. 2004 it was still finding it's feet, still in the two day format and we paid for a camping upgrade where we got access to portaloo-style shower cubicles and extra toilets. Top drawer. The campsite was relaxed and full of vibrant enthusiams.

By 2006 it was up to three days and the campsite toilet situation was now a case of climbing up some stairs and effectively shitting through a hole in to a shipping container full of excrement and sunglasses. Long gone was the enthusiasm and exuberance, replaced now with glum faces in the hundred person long queue to open your guts and the introduction of a barter system to get access to a few sheets of bog roll if you'd stupidly assumed it would be provided. We still paid extra for the showers so on the second day, expecting a nice private cubicle, I made my way to the showers, towel in hand. There was no hint until getting to the front of the queue that it wasn't individual cubicles, other than the occasional person stood wearing their swimming shorts or ladies in bikinis. It was pretty horrifying to get to the front for my turn to discover and open plan room with just rows of shower heads, prison style. And it was mixed sexes. I didn't have my glasses on and still saw way too much for 8am on a Friday morning. It was a heady mix of showering techniques from full-on "ERE HAVE A LOOK AT THIS" exhibitionism to folk teaming up to create makeshift screens out of towels. So, having not been for nearly 20 years, does the Porky's shower system still exist there or is it something else now?

[SuperBacon]

2006 was also the hottest Download ever. I remember my lighter pissing gas from it in my hand before I threw it to the ground and it exploding while watching the England game during the day.

I suppose it serves me right for holding a disposable lighter tight in my hand in 100 degree heat, but still.

At Reading first few years we just used to pay to go swimming next door to the site and then just use their showers. My Dad also lives 10 minutes away so that was always handy for a mid festival shit and shower much to my Stepmums disgust.

[CTXRussomark]

8 minutes ago, cobra_gordo said:

So, having not been for nearly 20 years, does the Porky's shower system still exist there or is it something else now?

If you're a VIP wanker or have paid for "Refresh Retreat" upgrades (essentially an area with fancier toilets/showers) then they're all individual cubicles but the main camping showers are still communal.  Not mixed sexes though, and thankfully the container of shit is long gone.  I remember Leeds Festival having something similar when I used to attend years ago and it was horrific.  First year I went some girl fell in while trying to retrieve her phone 

[WyattSheepMask]

15 minutes ago, CTXRussomark said:

If you're a VIP wanker or have paid for "Refresh Retreat" upgrades (essentially an area with fancier toilets/showers) then they're all individual cubicles but the main camping showers are still communal.  Not mixed sexes though, and thankfully the container of shit is long gone.  I remember Leeds Festival having something similar when I used to attend years ago and it was horrific.  First year I went some girl fell in while trying to retrieve her phone 

Yeah that was after everyone decided to burn the portals after the end of the 2002 festival and Temple Newsam told them they were never coming back.

We went in 2003 which was the first year of “the long drop” toilets and there was a girl who fell in that year trying to get her phone back. I presume that’s the you went too? Unless some other poor sod suffered the same ordeal another year

Edited May 29, 2025 by WyattSheepMask

[WyattSheepMask]

On 5/28/2025 at 8:57 AM, Ironic Indie Lad said:

Maiden kicked off the Run For Your Lives tour last night in Budapest

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/iron-maiden/2025/papp-laszlo-sportarena-budapest-hungary-1b53d97c.html

Songs in here not played in 10, 20 and 25 years!

Crazy stuff from the GOATs

Cracking setlist that.

Rather than go the Ghost route and ban phones outright (which I still say was a good call even though a like to get the odd clip), Maiden tried to be a bit more diplomatic and asked people to “severely limit” the use of their phone. Clearly some people didn’t get the memo, with one guy deciding it would be totally fine to film THE ENTIRE show, including the full 8 minute intro (half of which is UFO’s ‘Doctor Doctor’ that play before coming on)

 

[cobra_gordo]

57 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

one guy deciding it would be totally fine to film THE ENTIRE show

See, I don't mind somebody filming a couple of minutes of their favourite song or taking a couple of pictures or facetiming their mates/kids during a gig but filming the whole set should be classed as a war crime. A bloke filmed the full Rammstein set the last time we saw them ON A FUCKING IPAD. All you could see was this cunts screen for two and a half hours.

[lanky316]

I just can't imagine it. I know everyone is different but generally during a gig I might take a maximum of five photos. Maybe one of each if there's two supports, a shot or two early in the set and one at the end for the "curtain call" shot. Seeing seas of phone screens of people who basically watch the whole thing through their screen just feels so alien to me. Obviously different strokes and all that but at a gig I'm usually a bit too busy to spend the set trying to get a nice shot or hoping that my favourite band member smiles at me for a nice photo.