INSIDE THE WORLD OF MEETUP

The music highlight of the year 50 bands spread out over 7 stages. Met for breakfast in the 3 crowns before collecting wristbands. Had the usual group chat to keep in touch. Jude kirk . Started proceedings, bit bland for me but ok for the time of day. Sharp Class . Much better, the kind of band I came to see. Stained glass . Too loud and heavy for my taste, not worth walking across the city to see. Static kill . Entertaining and a bit different. Davoli. Bit bland, rescue rooms was packed by this point. High speed peach . Another cross city trip to Bogoda more worth it this time. Blood wizard . Listenable but a bit bland The outcharms , Bit of an Arctic monkeys feel, top 3 bands of the day. The publics . Excellent as per last year, stole the show. Commons . Hard act to follow in the red rooms Kaliko, Average Bored marsh .  Bland would have been ok at 1pm but not later on Pet Needs . Bit loud but needed since I was fading away fast. Stayed out later than most but time to head back to...

I was a lot better prepared than last year with accommodation and a band list on a spreadsheet. Colour coded to indicate yes, no or maybe. We met at Lloyds / Weatherspoon's, where we spent an hour before heading out to the 40 odd venues around the city. I had no preference for the first few hours and went with the flow. Started off in rough trade with a strange instrumental duo called Revenge of Calulon . Moving onto Brewdog to see "guts" before heading into Billy Bootleggers for Noise which were ok then another band I didn't particularly like. It was back to rough trade which was starting to get busy so I bailed out to see Luis then Whiskey stain at the Jam cafe. Less crowds and better music. Back at rough trade it was so busy you couldn't see the band plus the layout of the building doesn't help. Finished off the evening with some Myki Tuff at the metronome.

  I'd done beat the streets a couple of years earlier. We met in the Horn in hand for breakfast before heading to the venues. First stop was whiskey stain at the red room which I didn't plan to watch but were ok. I then made a dash to Rough trade to see Grain who to be honest weren't great but that was the only time I went that venue.  Cam mannix who I'd seen before at splendour put on a good show at rock city. From that point on all the bands I wanted to see were at rescue rooms. Bloodworm were ok, but lacey were far too heavy for my taste so I went back to the horn in hand for a diet coke and a rest. Others from the group were also taking a bit of time out. By the time we went back the cost of living were on at 19:00 and the crowd were getting louder. Unlike last time I didn't spend long alone due to losing people. The publics and The chase put on a great show the crowd got very rowdy with crowd surfing and concerned security. It was a good end to the day. As peop...

  I was originally meant to be going walking but the event got cancelled a couple of days before. Hockley Hustle was a massive event advertising 400 acts over 40 venues. Far too big to be researching on YouTube, the little research I did do I forgot to transfer to phone and turned up clueless anyway. We met for breakfast in Weatherspoon's before being taken on a walking tour of the venues. This was interesting as I seen many streets and pubs I'd never seen before. Starting off in rough trade we seen the first 2 acts, Jonny Olley then Kelsey and the Embers. Both were entertaining and it was a good start to the day.  Everyone wanted a change of scenery so next stop was Billy Bootleggers, nice venue but too quiet for my taste.  Then it was onto the very modern looking metronome to see Sancho panza which I liked. The others went to back to rough trade but I stayed to watch these a bit longer. But the time I arrived it was getting crowded and there was no chance of gettin...