We The Kings, The Academy Is... and Gym Class Heroes in Oxford

Well, I was a fool and didn't check whether I had a photo pass left for me anyway, despite not receiving the e mail to confirm it, and it was there at the box office waiting for me all along! I know, so annoying, but I still got some snaps anyway. Below: Travis McCoy with fans.

What a waste of a photo pass ! I never even got to use it and get good quality photos because I didn't know it was even there! The same thing happened to me with Bullet For My Valentine in Montreal.
Below: We The Kings vocalist Travis Clark outside Oxford Academy

This weekend, I returned to the place where I used to live in my late teens and first got the taste for music journalism, writing for an Oxford university newspaper music section.

Oxford has changed a lot since I lived there. The main city centre now has a huge Primark store, Starbucks and Coffee Republic weren't around in the mid-1990s and what used to be The Zodiac where I saw lots of bands is now called The Carling Academy. It was a double Decaydance band weekend, with The Academy Is... on Friday night and Gym Class Heroes last night. The most irritating thing that happened on Saturday was not even realizing (until after the show and way too late!) that I was on the guest list all along with a photo pass waiting for me. We never actually received the e mail confirmation that it was all okay. This has now taught me a lesson that I must always ask in future, as that photo pass was sitting waiting for me to collect it and never got used, therefor I got no good live shots of We The Kings or The Academy Is... I did still manage to get some videos of the bands and my friend Gabriella couldn't resist getting photos with all the band members we spoke to after the shows.

A poignant moment was shared during Gym Class Heroes set, when frontman Travis McCoy spoke of a plane crash which happend in the United States the night before, when Travis Barker and his friend Adam Goldstein (a.k.a DJAM) were both badly burned, but four other passengers on the private jet all died. The evening didn't end without incident, as the GCH tourbus draw the attention of two local Oxford cops who decided that "something smelled funny" that was coming from inside while Travis enjoyed a smoke! Luckily, the band were just given a warning and nobody got busted!

To view videos of performances by We The Kings, The Academy Is... and Gym Class Heroes, go here:

www.youtube.com/sophiecalifornia