WOLF ALICE

On the 23rd of July, Melissa and I headed down to The Corner Hotel to see Wolf Alice. I was super keen as I've been listening to them for about a year now, and they've recently released their debut album 'My Love Is Cool'. Wolf Alice is signed to the same label as artists such as The 1975, The Japanese House and Marika Hackman. I found out about them through a fan account of The 1975, and I'm so glad I did.

While we bought tickets (aka I dragged Liss along to another gig for a band she's never listened to) as a very last minute as consolation for Catfish & The Battlement cancelling their gig the night prior (can't talk about it, still v. emosh) - it was definitely the right decision as they are SO GOOD LIVE. I missed Wolf Alice 3 times at Glastonbury.... and if you think that's ridiculous you should probably check out the Glastonbury festival site and see how insanely HUGE it is, its a real effort to manoeuvre yourself around all that land on foot in a timely manner while weaving through ginormous waves of people.

Anyway, we were middle second row, with fantastic view of the band. Their setlist consisted of classics like 'Fluffy', 'Nosedive', 'She' and '90 Mile Beach' from their 2013 EP, Blush. They also played my my old time favourite, 'Bros' . Weaved through these older tracks, they played through some of their new tunes from their debut album 'My Love Is Cool'. These inclued 'Your Love's Whore', 'You're a Germ', 'The Wonderwhy', 'Lisbon', 'Storms', 'White Leather' and 'Giant Peach'.

Ellie had amazing stage presence, I was mesmerised the entire gig by her effortless coolness whilst simultaneously feeling a pang of jealousy and resentment as I thought to myself I shouldn't have given up my guitar lessons. During their encore of 'Moaning Lisa Smile', Ellie leant into the crowd, getting the crowd to sing along with her, to which the crowd went mental (of course). Theo was providing the audience with some bass face and headbanging. As I said, we were second row, and we had this big guy dressed in all black tap us on the shoulder and tell us to move out of the way for him to get on stage, us thinking he was security, we moved out of his way - only to find out he too was a fan, and he made his way over to Theo and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Theo then told him to give him a kiss on the lips, with the crowd cheering. Joff jumped around his side of stage, swinging his guitar around, while in contrast, Joel sat up the back drumming away. They really engaged with the crowd, making it a more intriguing show and giving positive vibes and good energy. As the gig was at the Corner Hotel it was relatively intimate, and the band really made sure it was an intimate and inclusive gig.

After the show we met the band around the back of the venue, they were super chill and cool - signed my ticket and got some photos with us. Seriously such nice people, and now I'm super cut I didn't see them the 3 opportunities I had at Glasto. Ready for them to come back to Melb ASAP thanks @dirtyhitrecords get on that x

GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL: PART THREE -- SATURDAY

GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL: PART TWO -- FRIDAY

GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL: PART ONE -- GETTING THERE

 This year I attended Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England. I made the decision to (attempt) to buy a ticket to the festival last October, when I was suffering through Year 12, desperate to escape on a gap year, explore England and be surrounded by music. Surprisingly, I was successful in scoring a ticket, cooped up in my bed at 4am scrambling to enter in all my details as quickly as possible, with an English practice sac the next day... priorities, right?. Obviously, as an Australian I had no idea how intense/amazing it is to actually get a ticket to Glasto - like seriously, people from the UK set up numerous computers, iPads, iPhones and go at it to try and score themselves a ticket. I managed to get my ticket in the first minute (!!!!) - however, in my flustered state I managed to book myself on the 8am coach from London on the Wednesday. This meant that I'd be at the festival for the full 5 days - 2 days before the bands even started playing... actually worked out really well and I do recommend going the full 5 days because it gives you time to get your bearings, explore as much as you can and rest a little bit before the intensity of the next 3 days.

Come this June, off I went alone to the biggest festival in the world, by myself. I spendt a few days in London with one of my friends first in order to adjust to the time zone difference and attempt to get over my shitty cold. I spent the Wednesday from 8am until roughly 2pm at the front of the bus next to this old(ish) man as this couple asked me to move from my seat 'um, because you're by yourself, would you sit up the front and let us sit here together?'. We stopped briefly in Reading at a servo .. aka me eating Burger King in the grass by myself surrounded by groups of friends, me silently praying that'd I make SOME friends over the next 5 days.

I arrived at Glastonbury around 2, walked through the gates and found myself at the beginning of the ginormous (seriously, it's fucking huge) field/s. I began to doubt my decision to do this thing by myself ... this sprawling site was already dotted with thousands of tents and crazy amounts of people milling around. I set off to try and find my tent that'd booked, already set up for me (so worth it). With my hiking backpack (half the size of me), my backpack, sleeping bag, sleeping mat and hat in my arms - unaware of how insanely huge this site was, I began to walk through the middle of the site, only to begin to freak out as I started sweating in the HEAT ... caught me entirely off guard as I was expecting cold, rainy, muddy conditions. Having a minor breakdown, I walked over to some volunteer staff and asked them where Worthy View was (where I was camping). They were very surprised and unsure of what I was talking about, only to look at the map and gasp as they discovered how far I'd already walked and how much further there was to go. Luckily, they helped me carry my stuff the rest of the way...  however, not up the next 3 hills. Once I arrived at the top a lady who was very puzzled said to me 'you do know there was a free shuttle up here from the bus drop off?' I WALKED 3 HOURS ACROSS ALL THESE FIELDS WHEN THERE WAS A BUS THAT WOULD'VE TAKEN HALF AN HOUR. DEAD.

Once I'd recovered from my extensive walk I decided to wander down into 'The Park' and get myself some dinner, then venture up onto the hills to watch the sunset over the site. While sitting on this hill I managed to meet some very lovely English people who took me under their wing and hung out with me over the 5 days. We went and had some drinks and partied a lil, then I made the trek back up to my tent.