Three-quarters of APR (and roadie JJ, second left) check out some other bands
At the end of August, fast-rising Sligo-via-Belfast alt. rockers A Plastic Rose headed to Reading and Leeds festivals to play the BBC Introducing stage. Exclusively for iheartau.com, guitarist Ian McHugh kept a diary of the weekend, as the band crossed the Irish Sea to play the biggest gigs of their lives. Following pumped-up rappers on stage, seeing Radiohead and Brand New twice, hanging out with Bloc Party and getting kicked out of parties – this is their story.
HOLYHEAD TO LEEDS
We’re sitting in ‘Jean-Claude’ – a white, loud and so far quite smoky former Larne YMCA minibus – which Gerry [Norman, vocals/guitar] borrowed from his boss for the weekend – in miles of cars and lorries at the dock in Holyhead, bellies full of crisp sandwiches and dubious Irish Ferries Guinness, taking turns screaming profanities at the nasal ‘Have a nice day’ voice lady on the sat-nav. The exuberance of the sunny, Silverchair-soundtracked drive from Belfast to the boat in Dublin and the fevered hunt for reasonably priced munchies aboard the vessel give way to a sleepy brooding on the way through Wales.
APR on board Jean-Claude
Darren, our guitar tech (and frontman of prog-rockers Tapasia), is stroking his chin-beard next to me, immersed in Dante’s Inferno; the front row – drummer Dave [Reid], Gerry and our newly recruited chauffeur (and Gerry’s dad) Jerry Sr. are attempting to reconcile road signs, an iPod and the sat-nav (eventually stopping to buy a good old-fashioned map). Roadies JJ and McGinn and bassist Troy [Heaton] are bringing up the rear with the gear, all three asleep already, snoozing, sleeping and snoring like an animal respectively. It’s 12:55am. We could be at the Leeds site by four if we find the thing ok.
LEEDS
APR grace the signing wall
10:30am Saturday and we wake to the dulcet tones of Radiohead sound-checking ‘All I Need’ on the main stage. We agree we’ve had less pleasant awakenings. As we stumble moaning from our enormous tent we notice the guys from Bring Me The Horizon in a painfully cool, lime green VW van next to us. We didn’t notice it when we drove in to the festival site at 5am past the imposing main stage, a sea of tour buses ever-so-slightly fancier looking than ours and some impressively friendly festival staff. We pass round the baby wipes and backstage passes and arrange to meet at the van at 6pm, an hour-and-a-half before our stage time, for a beer and a team huddle, giving us plenty of time to wander round and get lost.
LEEDS TO READING
We’re back in Jean-Claude on the way to Reading at 1am on Saturday night, jaws still dropped from watching a flawless Radiohead set – we held our breath for an hour-and-a-half as they soared through a treat of a set-list packed with fan favourites, mesmerizing thousands of people to a stunned silence. Festival highlights of the day included playing frisbee behind the alternative stage to the sound of Tim Minchin’s ‘Canvas Bags’ and accosting him backstage for some fan-boy photographs, Brand New’s surprisingly grungy set, Frank Turner and a packed tent screaming ‘The Ballad Of Me And My Friends’ (threatening to ruin mine and Gerry’s voices), and convincing a couple of hundred Bloc Party fans on their way to the main stage to stay and hear our set.
Troy (L) and roadie JJ (R) with Tim Minchin
READING
Sunday and we’re backstage at the BBC Introducing stage at Reading where we just heard Frank Turner do a surprise acoustic set (including a bizarre semi-ironic Abba cover) and a very interesting two-piece grunge folk act called The Old Romantic Killer Band. We sit and wait for Radio 1’s DJ Nihal to do an interview which never happens before making our way to the main stage to see Brand New for the second time this weekend. Afterward, we catch a bit of The Gaslight Anthem sounding incredibly tight and confident at the NME stage to calm the pre-gig nerves before heading backstage for a team talk and some stage beers. Amazingly, Dave and Troy show up without the customary frantic phone calls.
Dave backstage at the signing wall
Back stage areas are vastly overrated – nerves tend to ruin the atmosphere and the artists aren’t exactly in PR mode, generally preferring to be left to themselves. Fortunately, free beer, clean toilets and a rare festival calm go a long way toward making up for it, though Reading’s otherwise comfortable backstage area lacks tea-making facilities, giving Leeds an advantage in the battle of the almost identical festivals.
THE AFTERMATH
We’re nursing our formidable black absinthe and Sanatogen (a gloopy tonic wine used in times of desperation to substitute for Buckfast) hangovers on the Ulysses, Irish Ferries’ former flagship vessel, a fading Eighties yuppie dream killed off by Ryanair and the Seacat, but still trudging its way over and back to Holyhead. While bars on land perpetually imitate boats, there’s not a porthole or a dead fish in sight in the Leopold Bloom lounge for some reason.
The show was slightly later last night at 8pm, meaning we finished in the dark, and though the stage was identical to Leeds, the layout was a little more suited to attracting passersby. The act before us both days was a rapper called Boney Black, which made us slightly nervous until we saw him emerge backstage after his set beaming with infectious enthusiasm, high fiving everyone within 50 metres and giving us his sincere best wishes. We were so won over we’ve decided to give Boney his rightful place alongside Frank Turner as man of the festival. Boney MCed out of his skin last night, so we had a bit of a crowd waiting for us this time which was a nice surprise and we felt we gave the performance much more than at Leeds.
The crowd at the BBC Introducing stage
Afterwards we let loose for the first time all weekend (no longer needing to mind our voices) getting to appreciate Radiohead in a slightly less analytical, vastly more hectic fashion, and hitting the guest bar to accost minor celebrities and dance ’til the small hours. We recap the most ridiculous festival moments (Darren hugging a suspiciously friendly Kele from Bloc Party at the guest bar at two last night, JJ forgetting he had been at Radiohead, getting forcefully ejected from two parties in 10 minutes) to lighten the mood of dread induced by rocky seas, crying babies and arguing couples. Tomorrow we’ll all be back staffing cafes and shops and it’s just starting to sink in when we get a few texts saying the Reading highlights are up on bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds. The post gig buzz gets a second wind.
Posted on: September 10, 2009
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