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(though maybe not as good a time as last year)

Couldn't believe the lack of peeps for Blonde Redhead... Ace stuff from both them and Talibam!

Fucked off that queue for Rescue rooms later on and retired to a local boozer instead!

Did feel a bit of a twat for forgetting my baseball cap, crap hoodie, massive backpack and stupid neon coloured chequerboard t shirt

can largely be a disgusting pit of squalor on most occasions. It also has THE worst sound system i have ever heard.

didn't have to queue for wristbands, didn't have to queue to get in anywhere at all actually. There were some knobbers in the crowds, but that's what you get when you get people on the piss since 2pm on a Saturday/Bank Holiday weekend.

There weren't as many 'names' at Bristol though I guess.

Highlights: Fanfarlo and Architecture in Helsinki. AiH were loads better than I thought they'd be actually, just ace. I've had Frenchy I'm Faking stuck in my head ever since.

I got bored of Annuals after a few songs.

Also, The Fiddlers in Bristol is a bonkers venue. It's like a working men's club tacked on to a barn.

We started off by getting my wristband at the Social, thereby avoiding the daft long queues at Rock City, and headed upstairs to see Grave Architects jovially rapping about how lovely it is to ride a bike.

Suitably bemused, I then(following my 'if in doubt see the band with the daftest name' approach) wandered up to the Rescue Rooms to see "Yo Chomsky!". Before their opening song is even halfway through there is one word screaming through my brain: Ritalin. Ritalin Ritalin Ritalin! Tons of the stuff, that's what Yo Chomsky's skinny twelve year old frontman desperately needs. To be honest I couldn't really tell you whether the songs were any good, so offput was I by his hyperactive antics. Oddly enough, the rest of the band were pretty much motionless throughout.

Next up was Ratty Rat Rat. Or rather, they should have been, but they didn't turn up so, downhearted, I wandered round the corner to see the "weird-rock" of Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man. Great they were too. Daft hair and good tunes all wrapped up in a kooky little box.

One of the many problems of going to festivals with girls (especially veggie girls) is that they dont regard burgervan ratburgers as suitable nourishment. So Wagamamas robbed me of the opportunity to see anything else until 6pm, which was Sky Larkin time at the Social.

And Sky Larkin really are lovely. Everyone in the whole of Leeds love them. If you could marry a band, then they are the band that you'd want to take home to meet your mum. They sing happy catchy little songs and always have a smile to share.

Except today they're busy having a nervous breakdown. Having left their synth in Leeds the poor blighters are forced to present a "b-sides and rarities" set (ie the only songs that dont use keyboards). They gamely give it all a good go though , even attempting a bit of 'air-syth', which to my admittedly untutored ear sounded at least as good as any air guitar ever has.

We hang around in the Social to hear the angelic acoustic ballads of Emmy the Great. After 30 minutes it is apparent that she should really be called "Emmy the very good singer but generally a bit dull and unoriginal". Presumably though that doesn't fit quite so well on the flyers.

Next up is Brainlove's bosom-buddy Napoleon iiird playing, rather bizarely, in a tea shop. Nappy provides us with a proper old-school set, just like he used to do back in the old days. Yes, that's right, he forgot his setlist and spent half the gig punching, kicking and swearing at his rickety old reel-to-reel tape player. Truly wonderful stuff!

A brief swim through the torrential rain engulfing Nottingham later, we arrive at Rock City for the Dykeenies. Lamacq apparently likes 'em, which usally means that I'll like them too. And, despite their lead singer failing to deliver on his promise to buy "everyone here a drink", their energetic indie leaves with a smile on my face. They've got some good tunes and could almost certainly easily have The Maccabees in a fight.

Dragged upstairs to see Kano eventually perform the opening of a very very uninspiring set, I join the exodus heading back downstairs to see that Lethal Bizzle have turned the Rock City basement into one big slightly daft party. The whole place is bouncing along to House of Pain samples and engaging in left side/right side "lets see who can Bizzle-Bizzle loudest" games. If there had been jelly and ice-cream and a pin the tail on the donkey competition then this really would have been the best party ever.

All Bizzled out I head back upstairs to see if The Cribs have got any better since last time I saw them. They really haven't, and I spend most of the gig trying to work out exactly how it is such a thoroughly mediocre band have become so successful. Answers on a postcard please.

After rounding the evening off with some Grimewatch at The Social I head home, pausing only to look at the daftlong queues outside Stealth and conclude that bed is definitely a better option than queuing up for hours in the rain.

Overall, a good fun day, and I really must thank Myspace for providing the Rock City crowd with plenty of glowsticks to throw at Kano and The Cribs. Long live the new rave revolution!

was really disappointed with architecture in helsinki, they were good. but (i quote my friend) 'the sound quality is like you are listening to an mp3 from my laptop speakers' and to be honest it was not a good sound system. was that the same all the day in trent downstairs?
goodbooks were really good, stealth was far too busy between 1 and 2ish. Everyone wanted to be in stealth and rescued main was pretty much empty.
dancing was good. not as good as last year, but the weather was far nice last time.

I had a great day!! The queing at the start was a bit shit, but as soon as that was out of the way it was all good!

Architecture in Helsinki and Blonde Redhead were the two best performances, Annuals were probably the worst.

i had a great day, help she cant swim and blonde redhead were the highlights. the rain sucked and the queues were a bit ridiculous, but all'n'all, fun was had. and a suffered a day long hangover so it must have been good.

Six By Seven were supposed to be playing with the original line up.

They pulled out because they wanted more money and a better timeslot.

What utter twats.

so saying hello..may not have been the best idea.

Nearly half the gigs i have been to in the last two months have been at lee rosys tea, so i find it quite funny that people are acting in a 'gigs? Teashop?how queer!' way.

Still, wouldve been nice to see NapIII but AIH are australian ao the likelihood of me not seeing them for a long while if i missed that gig were greatly increased.