06:30 - My first alarm goes off, not that i need it. Despite hating mornings i leap out of bed enthusiastically like something out of a bad musical, expecting to burst into song at any time. My clothes for the day are laid out nice and neatly, i've even put my shoes underneath for gods sake, and i would be impressed with my organisation had it not been for the overnight bag next to the clothes. The empty overnight bag. Ah well, i've got time, we're not leaving until nine.
09:07 - Mum:"George, do you want some food wrapping up?"
Me:"We've got some."
Mum:"George, have you got the bags in the boot?"
Mum:"George, have you got the ke..."
Me:"WE'VE GOT EVERYTHING CAN WE PLEASE GO NOW?"
George:"I get the feeling you're keen to set off."
Me:"What gave you that idea?"
The middle seat is out of the car for extra room, the bags are in the boot and i'm bouncing up and down in my seat from excitement, so we eventually set off. Stopping by the Post Office, where the locals are running so slowly they might as well be backwards, like usual. My fingers are flying over my phone, texting two friends at once, one who's asking where we are and the other admitting she's only actually just got out of bed so i don't really notice where we are until we stop by Becky's house. George goes to knock whilst i open the boot, but we're both stuck for words when Oz and Becky actually appear, since Becky's bought one bag and Oz is holding, well, it's a holdall. For about sixteen people.
Me:"You know, the concert is for one night?"
Oz:"I had to pack everything!"
Becky:"Dad, it's massive! What did you bring?"
Oz:"Hair dryer, straighteners....." *cue sarcastic laughter from George and Oz*
Becky:"I've got my hairdryer and straighteners."
Me:"Oh good, i didn't bring mine, i thought you'd be relying on me!"
Oz:"Nah, what do i always bring with me Bex?"
Becky: *After much thinking* "Your skateboard?"
Oz:"No you moron! What do i always have with me?"
*Much more thinking and deliberating*
Becky:"You brought a pillow?"
Oz:"Finally!
Two people down, one to go, although up to Chivenor Becky's sister is riding with us, where i temporarily become her "seatbelt assisstant". She gets dropped off quickly, then we start climbing the massive hill Rosie lives on until we see her walking towards us. She chucks her "Naked Lady Bag" into the middle, and after about forty minutes we've finally got everyone, so we make our way towards the motorway, destination London.
12:30 - Fleet Services, meeting Cathryn. And eating, since Becky hasn't eaten since Wednesday and Oz announces that he's completely starving. Everyone is in agreement, we're hungry and we want food, so we march determindly inside, on the hunt for food. But there's a problem. We may have been starving, but we still found a good five minutes to argue over whether to eat at KFC, or the McDonalds next to it. Someone finally gets out a coin and it lands on tails, so we swarm into KFC and take over two tables. Then Oz goes to order food, leaving a table free. Rosie and Cathryn decide they need coffee, leaving me and Becky to watch two four seater tables. When our order comes through we realise there's no plates, or any sauces so me and Becky get delegated to go ask for some. There's a queue and we're excited, so we spend the time in the queue grinning like loons and chanting "Platesandsauce!" really quickly, over and over. As you do. It worked though, they gave us huge handfuls of Ketchup, BBQ sauce and bizzarely, 12 packets of mayonaise. We divide the food between everyone and eat like there's no tomorrow, although i can clearly remember myself protesting that i wasn't hungry ten minutes ago. That's the power of KFC, you've been warned.....
14:30 - We're allowed into our rooms. There's a mix up over names on the forms though, so we slouch on the settees and make strangers stand up, scope out the Ben and Jerry's machine in the hall and laugh awkwardly with the boy who walks in also wearing a Green Day shirt, not feeling confident enough to start a conversation with a stranger but feeling like the Green Day shirt means we can't just ignore him. The room keys get handed out and we rush into the room, Cathryn leaping onto the double bed and dumping her shit everywhere. Until we're told it's not our room. So we gather everything up and head down the hall to room 14, which is aparrantly our room, not 17. And repeat everything we did in the first room.
15:00 - Me and Rosie have done Cathryn and Becky's make-up since they can't do it themselves and i've nearly given myself a heart attack after leaving the tickets in the first room so we leave our bags and meet up with Oz and George, catching the bus to Heathrow airport and then going into the Underground to catch the tube. Time's moving fast but the ticket machine's are really weird so we're forced to queue up for our tickets, yanking them out of the cashiers hands and racing for the "dark blue line that will take us to Wembley." It's the first of two tube trains we're taking and Becky takes over the camera, taking picture of strangers shoes as well as about a million of Oz, in various zooms. Stops are counted down each time until we reach the one that says "Wembley Park (on the grey line now) and we jump off, getting all the way to the exit before fumbling for the tickets to work the turnstiles. The walk is short and we pretty much just follow the crowd, excitement getting more and more obvious as time passes. Me and George split from everyone else to go into the B or C entrance, getting a programme on the way in. At nearly four in the afternoon the shirts were already selling out but i risked it, not wanting to be carrying too much once we were inside. Walking into Wembley stadium was a huge rush, everytime my foot slapped the concrete step all i could think was "225 days of waiting, it's finally here."
Meeting up again was surprisingly easy, after a phone call we're all together in a group again, inching our way towards the metal barrier separating us from the golden circle. We don't get far, there's four people in front of me who are at least a foot taller than me, and they don't show any signs of moving. There's a couple of people who try to use the excuse "It's my mate's beer, can you let me through so i can give it to him?" (would've worked, if he wasn't drinking his "mates" beer at the same time) but everyone know's that nothing's going to happen vey quickly so there's no rush. We're not the only one's there that we know, so Becky rings Lojo, who's in the seating, to try and pick him out from the crowd. Cue many many pointless attempts at group waving.
Becky:"So you're sitting down now? Wave, so we can see you!"
Cathryn:"There's thousands of people here....hey, is that his coat?"
Becky:"THERE HE IS! I CAN SEE HIM!!!"
Rosie:"That was stupidly easy!"
Becky:"Can he see us? We're wearing Green Day shirts! I'm wearing black!"
Oz:"You just described yourself and 20,000 other people standing next to us, he's not going to see you."
Becky:"I've got my colourful Nikes on!"
Me:"Oh yeah, cause your SHOES will stand out!"
There's more waiting, and shuffling around, but suddenly Frank Turner appears onstage. It doesn't matter to me, since the people in front of me are still there and i can't see a thing, so we stand around and hum along occasionally, Becky calling "Thatcher fucked the kids!" after every song, meaning she wanted the song Thatcher Fucked The Kids Up to be played, but it doesn't and Frank walks off to applause and the background music starts again as Joan Jett sets up. There's a firm divide in our group, me and Cathryn are both excited for Joan Jett, Becky and Rosie both think she's shit. So we argue to pass the time until she comes out onstage with her band and i squint at the big screen as the opening notes of Bad Reputation are played. After her set George and Oz admit she was better than expected whilst Becky and Rosie admit she's got a good voice for her age, so me and Cathryn stand around looking smug, since we liked her music all along.
The drunk bunny wanders aimlessly onstage and i still can't see much at all, so i settle and wait for Green Day, hoping that when the songs get going i'll be able to move about more. There's a crackle from the speakers and it seems like the entire crowd hold it's breath in anticipation, waiting. When it's clear the static is the opening of Song Of the Century and not a malfunction, everyone cheers and sings along, some jumping up and down in the pit already. We shout out the words and the music dies down, before the stadium erupts when Tre Cool staggers down the catwalk, Mike Dirnt takes the left side of the stage and Billie Joe Armstong stand triumphantly on the amp, anything they wanted to say being drowned by the intense screaming and clapping from the 80,000+ crowd.
Song Of The Century tranfers seamlessly into 21st Century Breakdown and then the fiery Know Your Enemy is sang word for word by the crowd, who're jumping and screaming as if there's no tomorrow, which to be honest, there might as well be. Everyone knows that tonight is something else, and i'm not the only one who thought it was the best night of my life. When East Jesus Nowhere starts the screaming intensifies as we all know what's coming next. Sure enough, Billie Joe explains that he asked Jesus to clear the clouds for the gig, and after a long story that as it progresses is clear he's bullshitting on the spot, he admits he needs a volunteer to be saved, who comes in the form of a little boy who jumps onstage and hugs Billie around the waist, determined not to let go. Eventually he gets picked up and carried down the catwalk to be saved, fireworks exploding in time with the music. It comes out that he's actually from Ireland so he gets kicked off the stage back into the crowd and we've barely recovered from that when the shout "Do you wanna start a FUCKING WAR?" rings around the stadium, signifying the start of Holiday which receives an even bigger scream, energy levels miraculously recovering in seconds.
There's no such thing as a bad Green Day song, but i can't believe my luck when Billie Joe announces "I don't know when we'll be back so fuck it, the old stuff's better anyways." before performing Nice Guys Finish Last, Burnout, Waiting and Geek Stink Breath in quick succession. To top it all off someone in the golden circle is waving a sign asking Tre Cool to sing, so he leaps down from the drumkit, carefully takes hold of Blue and brightly says Hi, before singing Dominated Love Slave, with Billie Joe on the drums. This moves into Hitchin a Ride and then there's more old songs, Welcome to Paradise lyrics get changed to "For some strange reason London's feeling like my home...." and for When I Come Around, Billie sings "So go do what you like....I'm having sex with Mike!", grinning at the audience as the noise increases to incredible levels.
Next comes the customary medly of covers, including Iron Man, Sweet Child O Mine and Highway To Hell, before Brain Stew. It's a popular song so no one's really surprised that it appears on the setlist, but we're blown away when it's followed up by none other than Panic Song. Yes, Panic Song, you read right. Jaded completes the trio and then it's time for Longview, the teenage boy chosen from the golden circle being hauled up alongside Billie Joe temporarily becoming the envy of everyone else in the stadium. The crowd scream encouragement as he takes his run up and hurls himself into the crowd, before turning attention back to the band, who play Basket Case and She, then don hats and feather boas for King For A Day. Tre performs Shout a record breaking four times, then Billie takes over the bass as Mike Dirnt performs it as well, before another medly of covers. Teenage Kicks and Hey Jude are popular with the audience and the covers are broken up with a thousand hey-oh's, where Billie Joe looks at his watch and proudly annouces we broke the record set by Manchester three days ago.
The guitars transform to acoustic as 21 Guns is played, and the moshing is swapped for singing along to every single word, only stopping to admire the piano solo in the middle. After this it's Minority and the band go out in a blaze of fire, the stage dimmed but we keep screaming, because everyone know's it's far from over. Sure enough they reappear and American Idiot is about to start, before Billie Joe notices a Wall Of Death forming in the crowd. Giggling, he tells them "You're gonna have to spread out further than that!" around six or seven times before he's happy, and it's timed perfectly with the opening of the song. Then it's the nine minute epic of Jesus Of Suburbia, before Billie Joe walks down the catwalk with his guitar and performs When It's Time, finishing with some high notes and then running into Wake Me Up When September Ends. The trio of acoustic songs is completed, as it always is, with Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) and once all three regrouped on the catwalk with their hands in the air, we all knew it was finished. The fireworks blazed and the lights shut off, and then they were gone.
11:40 - We made our way out of the stadium on a high that cannot be compared to anything else, joining the queue for t-shirts and programmes, not feeling the cold bite of the air one bit. Until about twenty minutes later when we stopped sharing body heat with 80,000 people. We hurried towards the tube station and joined the huge crowd of people waiting for a train, walking past all of the knock off sellers, shouting out "Kerrang!" and "Rocksound!" whenver we recognised a blown up poster on sale. The crowd went quicker than expected and piled into the trains, watching the number of people decrease with every stop, until we were surrounded by just the few left getting off at the same stop as us. We were entertained by a drunk man sat next to us who kept sticking his head in the doors when they opened, before running at full force into the closed door, creating a crash so loud we would've been concerned, if he hadn't been drunk and we hadn't been too busy crying with laughter.
02:00 - We finally make it back to our rooms, after meeting a band called Fartbarf at Heathrow who claimed to know Jared Leto from 30STM and waiting for a taxi for the final leg of our journey. Of course we want to talk about what we've just experience and we do for a while, but we steadily drop until we're fast asleep in around half an hour.
07:45 - Rosie's alarm goes off for us to get up. One person swears, one person shuts it off, one explains that they don't give a shit what the time is, they're not getting up and the other doesn't say a word. She didn't even hear it.
08:00 - Becky manages to make it to the shower first, so we all decide to wait for her in bed. She doesn't take long but can't be bothered to dry her hair, so she sits around with a towel draped over her head like a nun. One by one we get up and dressed, throwing on clothes and gathering up our stuff so that we can leave after breakfast. We make our way down and get seated at "the kids table" after George and Oz request to be as far away from us as possible. It's free so we take advatange, stealing all the chocolate muffins and having cereal, fruit salad, toast and a cooked breakfast whilst having one eye on the TV to hear that Cameroon is out of the World Cup. Once we've eaten everything we go back and pick up our bags, throw them in the car and start the journey home.
We're much more quieter than on the way up because everyone's at least a little tired, so we play the enitre American Idiot album to eat up time. We start playing 21st Century Breakdown too but the static interferes too much so we switch to radio, turning it on seconds before American Idiot open the Sunday Skive on Radio One. Coincidence? Probably, but it was funny for a bit. We sing along to some really bad songs, remembering hits from Blue and McFly before that hour is up, and by now we're so close to home we just talk. One by one everyone gets dropped off in reverse order, and then we're home. Home from the best weekend of my life, ever.
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