Kerrang! Awards 2008 winners and photos of arrivals and departures

Below: Lacuna Coil vocalist Christina Scabbia arrives at the 2008 Kerrang Awards.



Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich while he was signing autographs for fans before the show.
Rage Against The Machine vocalist Zack De La Rocha signing autographs for fans.

Brian "Synyster Gates" Haner from Avenged Sevenfold and Matt Tuck of Bullet For My Valentine after the Kerrang Awards show (yes, they had already drunk quite a lot by then!)

Zacky and Matt from Avenged Sevenfold after the awards show, looking for an AWOL Johnny!
Below: Slaves to Gravity vocalist Tommy Greeson proudly showing off his K Award for Best British Newcomer.



30 Seconds to Mars members Shannon and Jared Leto and Tomo Millicevic before the show.
James Hetfield from Metallica looking like he was asleep standing up!

Lin Z from Mindless Self Indulgance chatting to fans after the awards show was over.





Slipknot members Corey Taylor (lead vocals) and Jim Root (guitar) arriving.
Alkaline Trio vocalist Matt Skiba outside the venue before the awards show.
Below: Trivium lead singer Matt Heafy talks to fans before the show.

Below: Trivium bassist Paolo Gregoletto signing autographs for fans outside the venue.

The 2008 Kerrang! Awards was the usual drunken and lively event it has been over the years and as usual, I was there to catch some of the action on camera as everyone arrived and left. Poor Johnny Christ from Avenged Sevenfold left the show before the rest of his band, and collapsed at my feet by the entrance to venue where the event was held, as he walked out! He had to almost be held up by people when he approached patient fans waiting outside! It was quite an amusing scene and I wish I'd captured it on video. Bands who attended this year were Metallica, Rage Against The Machine, Bullet For My Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, 30 Seconds To Mars, Funeral For a Friend, Slaves to Gravity, Black Tide, Gallows, Alkaline Trio, Cancer Bats, Mindless Self Indulgence, Elliott Minor, Bring Me the Horizon, Biffy Clyro, Trivium and Cristina Scabbia of Italian metal band Lacuna Coil co-hosted the show. Slipknot were forced to pull-out of their performance at the Reading and Leeds festivals because Joey and Sid both broke their ankles (which came as no surprise!), but Jim Root, Paul Gray and Corey Taylor showed up to pick up their K Award for rock Icons. System of a Down frontman and now solo artist Serj Tankian also made an appearance to present an award and Machinehead frontman Robb Flynn returned to the awards again this year to collect the award for Best Live Band.

The winners were:

Best International Band: 30 Seconds To Mars

Best British Band: Bullet For My Valentine

Best International Newcomer: Black Tide

Best British Newcomer: Slaves To Gravity

Best Rock Video: Coheed & Cambria for Feathers

Best Live Band: Machinehead

Best Album: Avenged Sevenfold for Avenged Sevenfold

Best Single: 30 Seconds To Mars for The Kill

Hall of Fame special award: Rage Against The Machine

Inspiration award: Metallica

Classic Songwriter award: Def Leppard

Rock Icon award: Slipknot

Video captures of some familiar faces arriving at the Kerrang! Awards 2008 can be viewed here:

www.youtube.com/sophiecalifornia

In a trendy hotel in London the night before the Kerrang! Awards...

The bar in a trendy West London hotel where I've stayed many times before in the past was packed out on Wednesday August 20th, as almost every band attending the annual Kerrang! Awards and Reading and Leeds festivals arrived in town and made the most of seeing old and new acquaintances and friends from other bands.

On the night before the Kerrang! Awards, Avenged Sevenfold did a headline show at the University of London Union venue and Alkaline Trio played a show at Camden Koko, but all the bands happened to be staying in the same hotel as us and joined in the usual late night bar frolics. Also in attendance were Taking Back Sunday, Bullet For My Valentine and various other known faces.

It's my birthday today and Madonna's birthday. Happy 50th Madge!

It's my tenth consecutive 21st birthday today! Ha!Ha!Ha! Many happy returns to myself and especially to Madonna who is 50 today. Yes, hard to believe that the queen of pop is half a century already, but lucky for her she can have the help of the best cosmetic surgeons to help her look the way she does now!
Perhaps when I am 50 years old I will also be able to afford a little bit of help with erasing the wrinkles and eye bags, but that's not for a long time yet (thank God!).

Next week is the annual Kerrang! Awards in London and the day after, it's the Reading festival. This year will be my 17th year at the festival, so obviously I am praying for the weather to be good. Photos, videos and reports of what happens next week will be on here the week after, as I won't have any time to update everything until I get home.

I'm still in Montreal, but fly back to London tomorrow evening. It's been a lovely day today and the best day this week, after an usually wet Summer in this part of Canada. The photo uploading from the Soundtrack of Your Summer show is taking me ages, so I am going to wait until Monday to finish uploading everything.

Soundtrack of Your Summer show last night at Metropolis in Montreal

Oh boy, I'm exhausted today. I went to see several bands last night, on the Soundtrack of Your Summer tour, with Boys Like Girls, Good Charlotte, The Maine and Metro Station.

I hadn't seen Boys Like Girls live yet and I was looking forward to seeing Metro Station, who have been talked about a lot in the press, mainly because guitarist and co-vocalist Trace Cyrus is the half brother of Miley Cyrus, star of Disney's hit television series Hannah Montana. Having read very good reviews of their shows, I was excited to see whether they lived up to the hype and after having seen them onstage at Metropolis last night, I know that fans going to the shows on the Simple Plan Canadian tour that starts next week will be in for a treat! As Metro Station are one of the bands supporting on the tour (they actually go straight onto the Simple Plan tour next week).

I last saw Good Charlotte at Brixton Academy in London back in April. Drummer Dean Butterworth told me that the band are going into the studio within the next month to work on their next record and hope to be touring again as soon as they can. He said "sometime around April next year" that they will probably be back touring Europe.

Boston quartet Boys Like Girls have gained a huge fan following recently and their live performance has plenty of audience participation and action along with catchy tunes. I am glad that this lot will be in the UK again soon to support Fall Out Boy.

Boys may like girls, but girls don't like boys - girls like cars and money... ha!ha!

For more information on these bands, go here:

http://www.metrostationmusic.com/

www.myspace.com/boyslikegirls

http://www.goodcharlotte.com/

I have yet to upload all the live shots I got from this show, as there are A LOT of them!
Once all of them are uploaded, they will be featured in the Member Galleries under SophieRockshots here:

http://www.virtualfestivals.com/

There are also some live video captures of the bands mentioned which can be viewed on my YouTube page.

Back in Canada and it's raining, but Bullet For My Valentine were awesome last night!

I'm back in Montreal, which is where I was exactly this time last year. The only thing is, last Summer it was beautiful sunshine and this year the Quebec Summer has been a disappointment, with rather a lot of storms and non-stop afternoon rain. I really did think I could've spent all day outside after this morning, which was hot and sunny, but no chance!

Last night I went to see the No Fear Tour show at the Metropolis in downtown Montreal, featuring Bullet For My Valentine, supported by Cancer Bats and Bleeding Through. I was such a fool not to check my e mails just before I left, because I actually got a photo pass left for me and never read the e mail from the promoter on time to tell me that the pass would be left for me at the Metropolis box office. Bullet For My Valentine's tour manager kindly got me on the guest list, but this was two hours before the doors even opening and he didn't yet know I was on the list for a photo pass. Situations like this are so annoying. To think that I could've got lots more great live shots of the bands on last night and I missed the opportunity entirely. Still, at least the No Fear Tour comes to the UK soon anyway, with Lacuna Coil also added to the line-up, so I won't miss out on photographing that.

I did manage to get some live video captures of Bullet For My Valentine and some rather amusing shots of Jay James being beseiged by fans by the tour bus after the show. Shame on Matt Tuck for not bothering to come out and get a few things signed and photos with the fans who waited patiently outside afterwards! I hope things work out better for the Soundtrack of Your Summer show at the same venue this coming Thursday, when Good Charlotte, Boys Like Girls and Metro Station are playing.

Six video snippets of Bullet For My Valentine from Montreal can be viewed here:

www.youtube.com/sophiecalifornia