Rock of Ages Festival

Well... it wasn't really a festival as you'd normally imagine a festival to be. To me, a festival is something brightly coloured, sunny, outdoors, daytime and crowded. This was quite possibly the exact opposite.

After picking Aaron up on my way home from work and meeting Keith in Nandos for dinner at the O2 (again!) the three of us trekked off to Canning Town in search of this Rock festival.

We've been to the nicer parts of Canning Town. Its got a nice modern tube station on the Jubilee Line. It's one stop from Greenwich. It boasts a massive exhibition centre, The Excel.

But head off in the wrong direction and you find yourself in dimly lit industrial areas on the Thames, with junk yards, a variety of stenches and roads full of pot holes, which don't deter the buses from speeding through at a rate of knots anxious to be far from there. It was this side of Canning Town that the three of us found ourselves wandering through looking for the elusive Bridgehouse 2 venue.

It was so well hidden we took a couple of trips around the block and were on the verge of giving up and going home before we noticed a tiny sign tucked away announcing that the upstairs of a small building was to play host to this event. We were cold, somewhat uncomfortable being out on the streets and tired of wandering about, so we headed off up to the top floor.

What we found was free tickets for the rest of the weekend because the band we had come to see (SPiT LiKE THiS) had pulled out, a crowd of abut 30-odd people, mostly band members and small bar.

The festival had more of a local pub feel to it, which actually was quite nice. We perched ourselves on some bar stools and settled in to be entertained. We had time to see three bands before having to succumb to "last train" mania and rush back to the Station. There are reviews and pics on Keith's blog.

First up were Trashtown Thrillers, who were a fun, earthy, energetic band to get things going with.


I liked all the bands we saw but my favourite of the evening had to be Cato Street Conspiracy, who were up second. They took forever to set up (which Keith and I got a little grumpy about) but were definitely worth the wait.


Couldn't help but think their lead guitarist was a relative of Rimmer (Red Dwarf).



Last but not least were Kitty Hudson, musically good, visually odd! You could be forgiven for seeing on Bass guitar, The Kurgan (Highlander), lead vocals a short, young Paul Weller, drums, The Big Show and Guitar, Neville Longbottom of Harry Potter fame.



It was a fun night even if the venue was in a dodgy area. Not convinced we'll use the free tickets for the rest of the weekend, especially as we are heading off to see Dragonforce in Southend tomorrow night.