The Used successfully return to London after almost two years

The set list from the show at The Garage in London. August 5th, 2009.
Drummer Dan Whitesides holding up a t-shirt hand designed by a fan who travelled all the way from Sweden to see the band!
Jeph posing with a pen to make it look like a cigarette (he was just goofing around!)
Quinn looking suave

One of the most successful bands to come from Utah, The Used, returned to the UK for the first time since International Taste of Chaos 2007 and performed what frontman Bert McCracken described as,
"Probably the best show we've ever played in London yet". The band performed on Saturday August 1st at the first annual Sonisphere festival at Knebworth Park, then enjoyed the party at the Kerrang! Awards, before doing their own more intimate show in The Garage in Islington, London. I managed to get some shots of the guys hanging out after the show, where they signed autographs and chatted with fans about their eagerly awaited new album Artwork.

Bert making a silly face at me! (well, he was definitely in a great mood that night!)

Kerrang! Awards 2009

This year's Kerrang! awards took place a few weeks earlier than usual on Monday August 3rd, just a day after the Sonisphere festival. I was pleased with this new date for the event, as previous years the awards show has always been on the Thursday evening before the Reading festival at the end of August and I've had to leave for Reading in the morning the next day. This time I was able to stay up and enjoy myself. It was the usual fun and rock star laughs, but I wasn't the only one disappointed that Best British Band nominees Bullet For My Valentine weren't there and neither were Avenged Sevenfold and we were all expecting the bands who performed at Sonisphere to stick around for Kerrang. Both bands flew to the US for album recording commitments and could not make it. Metallica were still staying in London after their headline Sonisphere performance the night before. They were also expected to show up, as they did last year, but because it was James Hetfield's birthday and their wives and children were also with them, the only member of the band to appear was Robert Trujillo. Bands who were guests this year were Limp Bizkit, Lacuna Coil, Machinehead, Mastodon, My Passion, The Wildhearts, Taking Back Sunday, The Used, The Prodigy, Enter Shikari, Attack!Attack!, The King Blues, In Case of Fire, Buckcherry, Skunk Anansie, Fightstar and Bring Me The Horizon. Chester Beddington from Linkin Park stayed in London to accept his band's award for Classic Songwriter (the rest of Linkin Park had already flown to their next destination for another concert date). Guest presenters for the show were Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor and Scott Ian from Anthrax.



















Kerrang! Awards 2009 WINNERS were:

Best International Band - Slipknot
Best British Band - Bullet For My Valentine
Best British Newcomer - In Case of Fire
Best International Newcomer - Gaslight Anthem
Best Single - The Prodigy for Omen
Best Video - Mastodon for Oblivion
Best Album - Metallica
Best Live Band - Slipknot
Classic Songwriter - Linkin Park
Spirit of Independence - The Wildhearts
Inspiration - Machine Head
Hall of Fame - Limp Bizkit
Icon - Alice in Chains

More Sonisphere photos from Sunday August 2nd

Well, the Sunday of Sonisphere festival 2009 certainly made up for a disappointingly wet day the day before and I managed to charge my camera battery and had more luck in getting lots of photos of all the bands I watched.
The bands were not all on at the same time and didn't clash as with other festival line-ups, so I managed to watch almost every band on the main stage and second stage.
My highlights on Sunday were Saxon, Limp Bizkit, Alice in Chains, Mastodon and Avenged Sevenfold. I missed Buckcherry, as they were on rather early at 11.15 in the morning, but luckily I caught the band at the Kerrang! signing tent later that afternoon and got some great shots of the guys signing stuff for fans. Nine Inch Nails were rather dull, which was a big let down for fans who were eager to see Trent and Co. perform for the final time in the UK (so he is saying) and we expected a lot more action, but the set just dragged on and I ended up wandering back to the other stage to get a good view ready for Alice in Chains.
Despite having to rush off to catch a train back into London, I still caught most of Metallica's brilliant performance that night, although I still think they were better at Rock Im Park and Reading last year, they were still amazing. As I arrived at my hotel in London that night when it was almost 1.00am, Machine Head, Limp Bizkit (apart from Fred Durst who was elsewhere with his wife) and Mastodon were also all checking into the same establishment and the lobby was crazy and packed with all of us who had just come from the same place!
















To see all my photos from Sonisphere, please check out the gallery on my MySpace page here:

www.myspace.com/ontheguestlistbiz

Wet Saturday at Sonisphere and I forget to charge my camera battery...

What a wash-out and disappointment! Not only did I forget to charge my camera battery, it decided to die on it's ass while I was watching Taking Back Sunday, so no more photos from Saturday August 1st. The Used's brilliant performance made up for my lack of ability to get any photos and I dashed back to the hotel where I was staying to charge my battery and get some decent food and just missed a downpoor.

Did I bother to go back to the festival site...? Unfortunately I just couldn't be bothered. Rather annoyed that I've missed Bullet For My Valentine and Linkin Park, but considering I've already seen both bands several times before, it wasn't too upsetting.