Birmingham NEC: Hellfire Festival

It was weird playing at the Birmingham NEC.
It's absolutely massive. The car-parks are so big, we got lost trying to find the access doors.

My first real rock show was seeing KISS at the Birmingham NEC as a kid, and since then I've seen some of the best shows ever at that venue, so playing there was very surreal.
Megadeth (Rust In Peace tour 91)
Slayer (Decade Of Aggression 91)
Pantera (with Megadeth in 92)
Aerosmith (Pump tour 1989)
Sabbath, Maiden, AC/DC and a lot more over the years.

Both Nick and David Bermudez were having visa problems this time, so it was my first show standing in for Nick on Guitar. Luke Appleton was taking care of bass duties.
SAXON were headlining the festival, so it was good to catch up with them again.

The setlist: (although not necessarily in this order)
The Man Who Would Not Die

Smile Back At Death

The Launch

Futureal

Alive

Kill And Destroy

The Clansman

Man On The Edge

Voices From The Past

Robot

The Music Live 2009 show was also happening at the NEC, and I admit that my favorite part of the day was getting to meet and chat with one of my favorite guitarists in the world - Scott Gorham from Thin Lizzy.

The stage-management was quite funky, and never where you expected to find them, so we didn't know what was going on from one minute to the next.

Our on-stage time was anywhere between 3pm and 9pm, so we hung out and waited for something to happen.

Eventually, we got our stage-time, and I seem to remember that there was a bit of a breakdown in communication in regard to the backline, but it worked in our favor in the end.

They had a pile of spare Marshall 4x12s just lying around backstage, so Jay and I 'borrowed' as many of them as we could for the show.

My mum and dad turned up for the show too, and I could see them waving throughout the set, which was very cool indeed!
Definitely a surreal experience, but one I'll remember for a very long time!