Chloe

My favourite time of the year has started ! Festival season for me has kicked off my all time favourite festival that is Isle of Wight Festival. There was a lot of worry about it not going ahead but it went ahead and needless to say it was a pretty dramatic experience this time around. I got to see some of my favourite bands again including Nothing But Thieves and Bastille ! Yup I saw Bastille again and also saw Rag n Bone Man , The Kooks , Catfish and the Bottlemen and Kaiser Chiefs for the first time. Here is my as always really , really honest thoughts on this years festival.

Friday

I have to admit my anxiety was off the rails. I was terrified going to the festival this year due to not knowing what my anxiety would be like. My tummy hurt a lot due to anxiety too so that was absolutely wonderful. We got there an hour earlier before the music started and I was already anxious before even getting in there which was also an excellent help. We went down the front as it doesn't usually get that busy until some of the more popular acts come on. the Sex Pissed Dolls opened the main stage this year and honestly I have no words for what the hell I watched on Friday. If you remember my post about bestival you would remember that I went and watched an act that was literally a circus on acid , they were worse than the circus on acid. The Sex Pissed Dolls are basically an all female tribute to The Sex Pistols.

Nothing But Thieves are always one band that I look forward to see live because of how effortless their live performances always are. They debuted a new song that I can't remember the name of and they also played Amsterdam from their new album 'Broken Machine' , that is out in September. The last time I saw them was also at the festival but the crowd they were playing to wasn't as big as it was in 2015. After they had performed the crowd started building for Rag n Bone Man. This is when the initial worry started to settle in as I get pretty claustrophobic and crowds are not my thing.So as Rory took to the stage I was having a great time and taking a lot of photos as that eases my anxiety a little bit. Rory has such an incredible voice ! Towards the end of his set We ended up leaving the front of the crowd because I was close to having a panic attack. A few seconds later , I had a panic attack. It was something that I knew was going to happen as I seem to have one every year I go but this one was really bad.

My panic attack stopped when we found the perfect spot to stand in for the rest of the weekend. It was on a barrier that surrounded the speakers that were pretty much in the middle of the main stage area but a bit more towards the back. I had the perfect view of the stage from where I was stood and could take the perfect photos of the stage as well. I took some great photos of the Kaiser Chiefs who were definitely my favourite of the Friday for sure. I didn't stay for the headliners as I Run DMC is not my thing and David Guetta is also not my sort of thing either. I had a really bad anxiety day so we went home after the Kasier Chiefs who were actually brilliant considering how many people have said how crap they are live. Kaiser Chiefs have been a band I've been listening to since the age of 9 so it was pretty cool to see a band that I have wanted to see live for so long.

Saturday

I was pretty excited for the Saturday as I was finally going to be seeing Catfish and the Bottlemen for the first time ! I have wanted to see them for ages and finally did on Saturday. Definitely worth the wait to see them for sure. Our day started off with seeing Tom Chaplin who was fab. If you don't know who Tom is then basically he's the frontman of the band Keane who were literally my childhood. Tom was really good and his solo material is bloody great and if you haven't listened to it and you like Keane then I strongly suggest you give his album 'The Wave' a listen. After him was Jack Savoretti and oh my god the crowd absolutely loved him. Everyone was just dancing and it was wonderful. We also Texas before The Kooks who I'd never really listened to before but she was very good.

Where do I start with The Kooks ?!?! I mean Luke (vocals , keyboard & guitar) called Theresa May a twat which everyone absolutely loved. The Kooks have been another band i've been listening to since I was very young so it was very nostalgic hearing the songs that I used to listen to when I was younger. Honestly The Kooks were incredible live. I'm literally so happy that I got to see them. Catfish and the Bottlemen have been a band I have wanted to see and play the festival for a long time and I'm so glad they finally played IOW this year . There was a lot of older people around me who had no idea who Catfish and the Bottlemen were and didn't like them but then again I didn't like Rod Stewart much but more on that later. Catfish and the Bottlemen are definitely a band that everyone needs to see live at some point even if you don't like them because they are actually really good live.

Whilst we were waiting for the Saturday night headliners , Arcade Fire my anxiety suddenly got pretty bad. There was a group of people sat around in a circle and then the next thing I know , this really drunk man leaped over the barrier where I was standing and nearly kicked me in the face. I was absolutely terrified and I burst into tears. Not to mention earlier on I saw a man get his todger out and pee in a bottle which left me traumatised as the bottle of pee was right next to me but I ended up moving the bottle to elsewhere so it was nowhere near by me. Also another guy that was also pretty drunk asked my mums partner if it would be ok if he climbed the tower thing that a giant speaker was attached to and of course I freaked out again. Did I also mention that we had to wait half an hour for Arcade Fire to start because they brought a lot of stuff with them.

In my opinion I think booking Arcade Fire was a huge risk. Not many people had heard of them which is surprising but then again they're not constantly played on the radio like some of the bands that had been on throughout the day. I had no idea what to expect from Arcade Fire and the only live footage I had seen before is from when they headlined Glastonbury in 2014 and a video where they sang 'Wake Up' with David Bowie which reduced me to tears because like most people I absolutely miss David Bowie a lot.

They opened their set with Wake Up actually as well which of course I tried not cry and then they went into their new single 'Everything Now' from their new album under the same name. Everything Now might be my song of the summer I absolutely love it. One thing that really surprised me was the amount of people that were leaving. So many people were leaving that you could almost see the barrier at the front of the main stage. I absolutely loved Arcade Fire and I think they've been one of my favourite headliners I've seen since I've been attending IOW.

Sunday

Sunday was my favourite day for sure. I had no anxiety and we even made friends with the people behind us who were actually really nice. Our Sunday started off with Scouting For Girls and I wasn't impressed that they decided to cover Bon Jovi .... The rest of their set though was a proper throwback to 2007.
Last weekend was a proper throwback to my childhood I guess as I saw 3 bands that I listened to when I was younger which is pretty cool. So after Scouting For Girls had performed , Jack Maynard did a DJ set which was to get the crowd hyped for The Vamps I guess. If you didn't know I did the portrait that is on Jack's main channel on YouTube which is something that I did last year. The Vamps were actually one of my highlights of the Sunday. They were honestly so good. I wasn't to sure if I'd enjoy seeing them but I actually loved them a lot.

The Vamps were great ! Then they finished their set and on next was The Shires. I wanted to see The Amazons but because of all my anxiety I had on Friday we decided to stay in the same spot all day which meant I'd miss The Amazons as they were in the big top. I mean i'm a bit annoyed I missed their set but I can deal with it. The Shires are a english country band which consists of Ben and Chrissy. I'm not the biggest fan of country music but I had seen First Aid Kit before and thought they were wonderful so I had a slight idea of what The Shires would be like.

At this point though I was getting really impatient as I couldn't wait to see George Ezra and Bastille but after The Shires had finished Imendla May took to the main stage and i'll be honest she wasn't my cup of tea but everyone seemed to really enjoy her set.When the backdrop for George Ezra went up I thought I was going to go giddy with excitement. He opened his set with Cassy O. This might sound weird but I used to sing Cassy O to my dog Cass because her name was Cass.

George played a few songs off of his new album that is out at some point this year and oh my goodness they are all bloody great songs ! I'm literally so excited to hear the rest of the album as what I heard at festival sounded good. Everyone had a good sing a long when Budapest was played and everyone was having a great time. Budapest was George's last song but I'm happy I got to see him live. The next band that was on I couldn't really explain how I felt at the time because I was about to see Bastille for the 3rd time !!!

Not wanting to sound biased at all because I'm a massive fan of Bastille but once again Bastille have proved that they are bloody great live. The set list was ok , I think I preferred their Bestival set list from last year but I got to hear Glory this time around which was great so I won't complain about that one. We got talking to some people that were behind us who had never heard of Bastille before and were really impressed with them , needless to say I think Bastille gained some new fans at the weekend. Kyle chucked confetti in the air after Of The Night and I literally have no idea why but I can deal with that as it was wonderful. I've decided that Pompeii drives me up the wall because i've heard it too many times and i'm actually in love with how incredible Fake It sounds live.

Flaws still scares the living shit out of me. If you've never seen Bastille live before then you'll have no idea what I'm on about but Dan jumps into the crowd during the song Flaws and I remember when I saw Bastille for the first time he ended up whacking some girl in the face with the microphone and the wire ended up getting stuck half way around the venue but luckily Dan now has a new microphone so he doesn't have to worry about getting stuck. I think this is probably the biggest stage I have ever seen Bastille perform on. I literally did not want them to leave that stage I could never get bored of seeing Bastille live they are literally incredible. I'm hoping they do another UK tour soon as I'm itching to see them again.

The Sunday headliner was Rod Stewart. Now I jokingly said to my mum " we should go and see Rod Stewart as a joke" and now I've actually seen him live purely because I couldn't be bothered with the big top and all the other stages would be hell because no one my age gives a hoot about seeing Rod Stewart really. I've seen Queen & Adam Lambert and Fleetwood Mac but Rod Stewart was no Sunday headliner for me. I know it probably takes a lot for them to book such huge names but I mean Rod is entertaining and can sing well live but I wasn't a fan of the 3 outfit changes , the instrument solos and his backing singers taking over for a song like I went to see Rod Stewart not his backing singers. There was also some Irish dancing thrown in too which of course I started cringing.

The big screens panned in on the crowd and I'm not even joking you could not see anyone that looked younger than the 40 , maybe 50+ age gap so of course I found that hilarious but also pretty cool. I think he was aimed more at an older audience than a general audience I think. He was also kicking out signed footballs out into the audience which are apparently collectors items. Although I only knew like 3 or something songs I thought he put on a good show. So he closed with Sailing and then came the fireworks which we saw as we were leaving the festival. They dedicated the fireworks to the tragic attack that happened in Manchester last month by playing Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis.

So that was how my weekend went ! Not going to lie this was not my favourite year I've been. I've been going since 2012 and I haven't seen it this busy in all my life. I don't know if it was the day tickets but there was so many people around and I'm aware that festivals are busy places but my god this was horrifically busy. Something has changed and I can't really place my finger on what made me feel uncomfortable. I think the line up this year wasn't exactly great and compared to recent years the line up was nowhere near the standard that it was in 2015. A lot of people were complaining about chairs being down the front near the barrier which I'm just like really what is the point plus that itself is a huge health and safety risk.

If anyone read my IOW post from last year you'll know about the sperm flag ... it came back for the 3rd year ... It's the most ridiculous flag I've ever seen.
Anyway I think next year i'll be going for a day if they do day tickets as I found this year an absolute nightmare with my anxiety and there is no way i'll cope with a whole weekend if I choose to go next year. Highlights for me this year include : Bastille , Arcade Fire , Nothing But Thieves , The Vamps , George Ezra , The Kooks , Kaiser Chiefs , and Catfish and the Bottlemen. Over the weekend I think I ended up taking probably over 1000 photos and honestly condensing it down to just a few photos in one post proved a challenge so I'll leave a few at the bottom of this post ! Heres to the rest of the festival season !

Speak soon ,

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, by chloeamies123

My 10 Favourite Bastille Covers

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Isle of Wight Festival Line Up 2017

I'm heading to the Isle of Wight Festival again for the 5th time ! I've been coming to this festival since I was 14 and ever since i've only missed one year which was 2013. Even though I'm a festival blogger this and Bestival have only really been the only big festivals I've ever been to which might come as a shock but as they are festivals that are local even though Bestival isn't that local anymore. I'll admit that this years IOW Festival line up is a weird one and I feel like the headliners are a bit strange but we'll get into that in a bit more detail in a moment. The Isle of Wight Festival was revived by John Giddings in 2002 after it got stopped in the 70s. I think its crazy to think that some of the biggest names in the world have played a festival on the island that I call home.

Headlining this years festival is Razorlight on the Thursday in the big top , co-headlining the Friday is hip-hop legends RUN DMC and everyones favourite tribute to the most iconic scene from the titanic , DJ and producer David Guetta. Saturday is a UK festival exclusive which happens to be Arcade Fire and closing the festival on the Sunday will be Rod Stewart. Right heres my honest opinion on the headliners.

What the hell were they thinking with Rod the Hedgehog ?!?! I jokingly said to my mum one that i'd like to see Rod Stewart and now its actually happening. As for Arcade Fire I think I'm going to see what they are like but the amount of people I have seen complaining about how much of a boring headliner they're going to be is actually pretty annoying really like if you don't like a headliner or the line up in general then don't go. Thursday I'll probably give a miss but I think its definitely worth going if your camping or not. Friday is just hilarious really I mean David Guetta waving his arms will be the highlight of the festival season for sure.

The rest of the line up looks pretty exciting though thats for sure ! Friday on the main stage will be opened by the Sex Pissed Dolls who are an all female tribute act to the Sex Pistols. I managed to catch a tiny bit of their set on one of the smaller stages last year and they had such a huge crowd so I think they're deserving of that main stage slot. Joining them will be Nothing But Thieves who I'm seeing for the 3rd time which i'm so excited to see them again because both times i've seen them before they absolutely smashed it. Rag n Bone Man will also performing on the main stage and I've been waiting since 2014 to see so I'm pretty excited about that. I'm also getting to see a childhood favourite of mine and thats the Kaiser Chiefs ! They've been a band I've liked since the age of 9 so it will be interesting to see what they are like live.

Saturday on the main stage looks pretty great not going to lie. Opening the main stage in the afternoon will be My Baby and after their performance , Slow Readers Club will be playing the main stage. You will also find the front man of Keane ,Tom Chaplin playing the festival again but this time he's alone as he recently released his debut solo album. Jack Savoretti , Texas and The Kooks will also be playing the main stage too. Before Saturdays headliners a band that I've wanted to see for ages will be finally coming to the festival and oh my god I'm so excited ! Catfish and the Bottlemen will be playing before Arcade Fire and I'm literally so excited to finally see them.

So closing the musical extravaganza will be a wide range of acts that everyone will love. I'll probably be seeing The Vamps again depending who's on at the time which shall be good as the last time I saw them was in the big top and of course we had to leave early along with the fact that I had a panic attack so it will be great to see them on the main stage if I can.

I'm finally getting to see Scouting For Girls who were the band I grew up with and i'm pretty sure loads of their songs used to get played at school disco's too so thats going to be a huge throwback. Scouting For Girls are also celebrating 10 years since their debut album so expect a lot of songs from that album.George Ezra shall be playing too which I'm also looking forward to as myself and my mum have been wanting to see George for a while so it will be great to finally see him play live for the first time.Also playing the Sunday will be : Jon Stevens , The Shires and Imelda May.

Conor from Nothing But Thieves at Isle of Wight Festival 2015 - Photo taken by Chloe Maria Snow

This next band I'm about to talk about get their own paragraph because there is no way I can say a little bit about Bastille because they're my favourite band ever. I haven't shut up about it since they were announced and I think I woke up shouting "BASTILLE" because I was that excited about seeing Bastille again. I've also not shut up about it on Twitter by using gifs of Bastille to show how stupidly excited I am. This will be my 3rd time seeing them and I can't really believe it. A few years ago I thought I'd never get to see them live and now i've seen them twice and I'll be seeing them again next month ! Of course they are the one band I'd love to meet so hopefully I'll end up bumping into one of them or something because its literally one thing i'd love to happen one day.

Thursday will be the opening of the festival as all the campers arrive for the weekend. Performing on the Thursday in the big top will be : Starsailor , The Alarm and The Sex Pissed Dolls who are also playing Friday too. Friday in the big top has been called 'Girls Night Out' and will see Paradisa , Lucy Spraggan , Ward Thomas , Alison Moyet and The Pretenders play. And there will be a DJ set by Jonas Blue.

Saturday in the big top is called 'Pop Goes The Big Top' which seems pretty decent. Playing the big top on the Saturday will be : Victoria , The Geremin Sisters , Alex Francis , Bang Bang Romeo , Elle Exxe , The Showhawk Duo , Space , Melanie C and Zara Larrson. The Saturday night will finish with Example + DJ Wire. Sunday will be the day of 'Rock The Big Top' which will be headlined by Clean Bandit and the other acts that will be playing the big top are : Duke of Wolves , Wild Front , JUDAS , Asylums , The Amazons , The Sherlocks , The Undertones and The Strypes.

There is a huge selection of other stages from Cirque De La Quirk , The Hard Rock Stage and the Jack Rocks tent which has recently just announced its line up. Some of the bands playing this years Jack Rocks stage will include The Wytches , Superfood and many other up and coming names that you need to keep an eye out for in the future. In one of the tents called Kashmir Cafe , Wheatus will be making a special guest appearance. That tent is literally the smallest thing I've stood in so I can tell its going to be absolutely packed when they play.

My overall thoughts of this years line up are very mixed. I think its a good mixture compared to last year but the headliners are nowhere near the standard they were last year but I reckon they'll probably be great live. They've also done that thing again where all the female acts get shoved in the big top but thats not my problem to worry about. If your heading to this years festival it's going to be a fun weekend for sure ! If you want to find out more about this years festival or if you want to by tickets you can go to http://isleofwightfestival.com for more information.

Speak soon ,

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, by chloeamies123

The Sunday Mixtape's Vol 1

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, by chloeamies123

Harry Styles Album Review

This is the last thing I'd expect to be reviewing but here I am reviewing Harry Styles' debut album. I think when One Direction announced their hiatus I really didn't care as I'm not a huge fan of One Direction but when rumours started flying around about the band releasing solo music I was pretty intrigued to see what would happen. Harry is the first to release a full solo album and I thought I'd share my opinion as i've given it a listen and I have a lot to say about it.

The title track from the self titled album , Meet Me in the Hallway is one of the more acoustic and stripped back songs that I absolutely love. There is something almost very 70s about the entire album itself which I think is why I like the album so much as I'm a huge fan of music from the 60s and 70s. There is something so refreshing about hearing someone re-creating a similar vibe to some of the bands and artists from that era but revamping it to fit in with modern day. Meet Me in the Hallway is probably one of my favourites on this album for sure.

Sign of the Times was the first single to be released and it really pleasantly surprised me when I first heard the song. I had no idea what Harry's music would sound like whatsoever but when I heard Sign of the Times my jaw literally dropped as I literally could not believe that Harry Styles did that. I just really wish they'd let him go solo in the first place because Sign of the Times is something the world desperately needed. At first I thought it was going to start as this really emotional piano ballad until the chorus kicked in and that was the moment when I realised that I probably wouldn't stop listening to the song. The video is just hilarious more than anything as I could not stop laughing.

Bloody hell why does Carolina sound like stuck in the middle with you by Stealers Wheel ?! As I was writing this post it literally occurred to me that there is a bit of a similarity to that song. Anyway I really like this song and I think its another favourite of mine. This is definitely one of the more faster tempo songs on the album that will make you want to find a tambourine to start waving around whilst shouting LA LA LA LA LA. Theres a lot of la la's in this song by the way but I think thats what makes it a very catchy song.

Two Ghosts or better known as that song about Taylor Swift. It's so bloody obvious that this is about her. I'm not a huge fan of this song , I don't know why but I'm not. Its a lot more chilled out than some of the other songs but I guess it will probably grow on me the more I listen to it. Ok so Sweet Creature almost made me cry ok. I have no idea why it almost made me cry but it did. I think its a lovely little song even though it is about a long distance relationship. Once again pretty slow and acoustic but again its another favourite of mine.

Only Angel starts of really slow but then out of nowhere it speeds up and suddenly I'm getting the urge to want to do air guitar because i'm a giant ball of cringe and I need to get a life . Oh not to mention theres a little quote plonked in there and we all know how I feel about quotes being plonked into songs , I bloody love it. This also really surprised me because I was expecting it to be another slow song but nope it's a lot more rockier than the past two songs. There is cow bell in this song which automatically makes it a great song.

When I was looking at the track listing the one that I was really intrigued to hear was Kiwi. At this time I had no idea what the album was going to sound like or even what this song would even be about. I honestly thought it would either be about New Zealand or kiwi fruit. I know I said Only Angel and Carolina were really had a bit more of rock-ier sound but this is a lot more faster than the others. All I want to know who's having who's baby and why is it none of my business. I'd love to know how this song started off as I'm aware it started off as a joke but the lyrics are pretty interesting. This is also another favourite of mine.

Ever Since New York was played live on Saturday Night Live and when I first heard it on there I was really confused because I literally had no idea that Harry could play the guitar. You learn something new everyday. I don't really know what to say about this song other than I really like it and I think its a great song.

Woman is the one song that I can't listen to without bursting out into laughter purely because there is a sound on the song that sounds like a honking goose. I'm sorry if you can never un-hear the goose if your listening to this song. This also includes some more la la's and some pretty great guitar playing with added goose honking. The goose honking isn't actually a goose apparently its Harry himself making the noise with some effects thrown over the top of it which I refuse to believe.

The last song on the album is called From The Dining Table. I love how it goes from being pretty acoustic to then becoming a lot more layered with vocals and more instruments that gradually fizzle out towards the end of the song where the song goes back to being acoustic like it was at the start. I think this a perfect song to end the album with and I also really like this one too.

This album is a marmite album , you either love it or hate it but I don't mind it.
I think this album might possibly be one of my favourite albums of the year so far. I really wasn't expecting to like the album but I think I've listened to it at least 5 or 6 times now which is a lot of times but when its a good album I think you tend to listen to it more than once for a few weeks or in my case , a few days. So there you have it an album review that I thought i'd never be writing !

Speak soon ,

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, by chloeamies123

100 Songs for a Road Trip

Theatre Review - Grease

Isle of Wight Festival 2017

My 10 Favourite Bastille Covers

Isle of Wight Festival Line Up 2017

The Sunday Mixtape's Vol 1

Harry Styles Album Review

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100 Songs for a Road Trip

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