Firstly, a thank you to the man who sold me a poncho for £2 in the car park, that lasted until I opened the fuc*king packet to put it on. Depending on which day you went, you may remember Ripcurl Boardmasters Unleashed 2008 in the future as being that day which was ‘very, very muddy’.

After the tragic news that my Reading Festival ticket did not really exist, I had one thing left to look forward to and that was Ripcurl Boardmasters. Overall I was not that impressed with the line-up for Unleashed this year, but there was 3 bands on the Saturday bill which I was very keen to see. Headlining were Gallows; with Ghost of a Thousand and Johnny Truant lined up to play before them, so I was prepared for an action packed evening. I was not prepared for the weather mind.

As we approached the festival the rain was pretty bad, but nothing compared to when we arrived just after lunch. Until about 6pm we stood mainly in the Jägermeister bar, hiding from the rain and speaking briefly to one of the guys from Johnny Truant until he ran away. The day was boring. It was tedious. We almost went home. It was only after the No Half Measures stage (sorry, but the only band worth mentioning on the main stage was Cage the Elephant, but they canceled anyway) had its structural problems sorted out, putting the festival 2 hours behind schedule, that things began to look positive.

The last 4 hours of the event made it all worth waiting for, because the sets which were played were immense. You could tell a lot of people had been waiting for Johnny Truant to come on, because when they started to play, the crowd finally kicked off. And that is when it began. I think initially the lead singer was pretty angry when the first handful of wet mud exploded against his clean white vest, but after a while he began to encourage it. The combination of hardcore metal/punk and mud slinging really gets a crowd riled up. Especially when they have waited all day for it. The ground was so sloppy by now that your feet actually disappeared under the mud.

Ghost of a Thousand I think owned the evening, with a really intense set. I think even though a lot people may not of known of them before hand, they generated a huge amount of energy. People were by now covered from head to toe in mud, due to either throwing each other into the ground or just getting it rubbed into their faces. When the Gallows came on, Frank Carter played the set in just boxer shorts to express his gratitude to the fans for sticking around for so long in the appalling weather. Unfortunately, due to an injury he sustained when slipping on mud, he had to cut the set short at 6 songs and was taken to A & E. To cap off the night, the still rowdy crowd pummeled the poor chaps taking the instruments off the stage with mud. What a bloody good night.

Below is the Official video for Ghost of a Thousand’s single Black Art Number 1.

Oh yeah, and I threw the socks and my favourite pair of shoes straight in the bin when I got home, they were beyond scraping. I struggled enough getting it out of my hair.

Now bring on Reading Fest! …2009.

Royzy (is half asleep and apologizes for his poor structuring of this post)