WE'RE FROM BARCELONA!

Long time no see blog followers. I couldn't remember my password for ages. I'm sure you've missed me.

Anyway. I just had pretty much the best week of my entire life at the Primavera Sound festival. The week started off horribly as I had to drag my case all the way up Jerningham Road. Now, I know it's not exactly Everest, but jesus fuck I hate that road. It was one of my worst walks/up down there yet (the worst was my 20 minute long walk down there after a night spent doing pills in a warehouse in Camberwell with 15 year olds). So I get to Brockley station. It's cold and wet. Jess and Gunning arrive the the holiday starts there. Except we have to get off at East Croyden and wait for another train. So, we're at Gatwick. Ravage some McDonalds. I thought this would be our last junk food binge of the holiday. How wrong I was.

After an uneventful flight we land in Barcelona. It's a surprisingly easy city to navigate and we manage to locate the road our hostel is on. It would appear to be a building site. Fearing the worst, the three of us are pleasantly surprised by how decent the hostel itself is. Whilst stood in the kitchen preparing some food, we're asked up to the terrace for 'red wine and spliffs' by an Irish guy. We head up there and meet Richie, Mikey and Gav, the dudes we'd spend the holiday with. After getting drunk and listening to shoegaze with them, we all headed into the centre of Barcelona. Barcelona had just won the Champions League (I missed the game but heard the city go mental when both goals went in), so we knew there'd be a good atmosphere in the city itself. Errrr, wrong. We turned up in the middle of a goddamn riot. Hundreds of people running around screaming, throwing shit, you know the deal. At one point, me and Gunning need a wee. So we stand in a doorway and have one. He finishes, walks off and then I hear people shouting at me too hurry up. I'm mid wee though, can't stop it. Unbeknownst to me, a riot van pulls in behind me, the cops jump out and BAM, I take a baton to the kidney, then one to the wrist. Ooof, good lord it hurt. On arrival at the hostel, in an attempt to heal my fucked up wrist, Jess places a slice of bread under a tap and places it limply over my wrist. I'm not sure what she thought it'd do.

The next day all of us hit the beach. Apart from men on the beach relentlessly offering 'AGUA, CERVEZA, FANTA' and occasionally 'HASHIIIISH, COOOOOKA' it was literally heavenly. Just perfect. That night we hit Primavera. After buying drinks tickets and food, me Jess and Gunning ventured to a local mall to buy bottles of very cheap vodka to drink before seeing any bands. We got through one pretty quick, hid some vodka and lemonade into a towel and stashed the final bottle behind a bin. We go back into the festival site and literally RUN down to the ATP stage to see Lightning Bolt. They were fucking amazing, literally jawdroppingly great. A lot of people, including me, threw their heads back, arms raised in moments of joy. Hearing 'Dracula Mountain' live was a dream come true for the 14 year old me. Plus, about 10 minutes in, I realised I was stood next to Dan Deacon. I got very excited by this and eventually got a photo with him.

Next up was Yo La Tengo, I think. I'm not a huge fan and we left early to find some substances. We failed and returned in time to get to the very front for Phoenix. Which was rad. They seem to be getting loads of good press at the moment. I'll admit, I used to be in the mindset that they only had one good song (that song being 'If I Ever Feel Better', which features on Erlend Oye's still 10/10 DJ Kicks comp), but they've grown on me in the last 6 months. Really enjoyed them and have a look on youtube for the video of them doing If I Ever... and listen to Jess' wonderful, soulful vocals.

My Bloody Valentine followed and they were, as expected, fantastic. Just a lovely wash of sound innit? When You Sleep was a highlight.

I think we got some more drinking in after them before heading off to sit down and admire Aphex Twin. His set was prettttttttttttttay wonderful, appreciated the almost minimal techno bits. If anyone knows what that SICK dubstep track he played was, let me know. Shit was off the hook, mad wobble. After Aphex, I headed back and thus missed Wavvvvvvvvvvvve's mental breakdown, which was a shame. To be honest, 'So Bored' aside, he was a bit shit anyway.

The next day was spent at the beach as well. We saw Bat For Lashes at 7. Didn't really rate her at all but she had a nice bum, so I didn't mind seeing her. After her, we got our drink on outside (god bless KoolRoff vodka). We were sat right outside the Auditori so we could see people going in. How we scoffed at the nerds RUNNING down the stairs to get to front to see MBV again. Yeah, suckers, we'll walk down in a minu.....OH JESUS THE QUEUE STRETCHES ON FOREVER. Well, it looked like it would. We got in after 20 minutes. Watching a gig sat down feels weird, but MBV were rad again. We made a dash out of there to catch the Mae Shi. Initially I wasn't feeling this as they've never done much for me on record. Turns out Jess made a good decision (her only one of the night) becuase they were hilariously good fun. I lost my camera after swinging my towel round my head. Some girl behind me kept trying to hide in my towel. I should have persued her, it could have been something beatiful.

The Mae Shi finished and we grabbed some more Estrella Damm before DAN DEACON!!!! came on with his ensemble. Good lord he was good. Organising danceoffs, making everyone correspond hand gestures to screams and stuff. I was loving his set until Jess tugs me on the arm and walks out of the crowd. It takes a minute to find her and when I do, she's lying on the towel half asleep. She's evidently gonna throw up at some point, so despite her protesttations I get her in a taxi back to the hostel. The whole time I'm watching the clock hoping that we'd arrive before 2:45 so I'd have a chance to get back to the festival by 3 and not miss Michael Mayer, who was pretty much the artist I was most looking forward to. We don't, and Jess proceedes to puke up a few bottles of vodka. Ughhhhh.

Saturday night was the last night of the festival and good lord it was good. We kicked things off early with Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. I would have loved to have heard Jules Lost His Jewels, but you can't have everything. They were joined onstage by The Vivian Girls. I fucking hate The Vivian Girls. We had a massive drinking gap between Ariel and Liars/Deerhunter. I saw Herman Dune between them and it was really lovely. The sun was setting and David-Ivar had a tear roll down his cheek into that massive Jewish beard of his at one point. Not gonna lie, I welled up as well.

Deerhunter were as sick as you'd imagine. Things went into overdrive after them. Sonic Youth were about to start. Me, Jess, Gunning are waiting for all the Irish boys to turn up. I'm restless, so im like "yo, meet me here after the Yooof, yeah Jess?". Seems simple enough. 10 minutes into SY, I get a text saying "josh im dying", I ignore it. Shortly after "josh im dead". Ignore that. At the end of the set, "on my way to hospital help me". Im thinking "nah, she means hostel" so don't worry too much and me and Gunning, after comandeering an iPhone to send her a text, head off for Black Lips. Half way through their set, Mikey bounces up to us out of nowhere, follwed by the rest of the Irish boys. I somehow miss the guy from Black Lips wanking on the crowd. Following them, we hit Jagermeisters and dance to DJ Medhi till 6am. He was great, even though every song sounded the same. So anyway, after a long, drunk Metro ride back to Badal, we roll into The Nest to find Jess sat up in bed. She HAD gone to hospital. The doctors fucked up, broke her vein or something. Not good.

The next afternoon when we all got up, no one was feeling too hot. So obviously we get a metro into the city for a KFC. This Boxmaster thing they do was new to me, and was recommended so I paid my 8€ for it. That was a mistake.

That night, me, Gunning, Gav, Mikey and Richie headed down to Las Ramblas for the Primavera afterparty where we saw a surprisingly great set from Tim Burgess. We headed upstairs for some banging techno from Juan B later on before calling it a night at about 7am. I fell in love that night too. If yr the hilariously beautiful girl from the Apolo who I asked for a lighter from, ring me bbz.

My memory has gone hazy at this point. We definitely went to the beach again and saw the Sagrada Familia, which was jawdropping. Oh shit, that was Monday. Yeah, we did that and then got drunk with the Irish boys in their room.

Getting the flight/train home depressed me immensely. I don't wanna be in New Cross. Anyone know if I can change my degree?