This is a very long overdue article (let’s put it at about the end of September as when I was originally going to post), with all the photos and shenanigans I got up to at “Warhorns Festival 2012”. Warhorns is a yearly viking / folk / black metal festival, held in York at The Duchess bar & pub. It brings together some of the best local and international talents, both well-known and undiscovered, for a weekend-long celebration of music, drinks, and good times.
I was invited along by my mates John and Elliot (of Alestorm, who commissioned me to do the tour t-shirts), on a pretty spur of the moment Tuesday afternoon. The morning of the following Friday, we were up bright and early, and on an early train to York, to get up to some metal shenanigans. Me being me, I was up to go hours beforehand – I am an excitable person, it is truly something to behold. I had already made a dash to the pound shop to get important train journey supplies (crisps, energy drink, Mars bars) and get back in time for meeting up with everyone else to get to the station.
When we got on the train, already, I met a whole new group of people who were traveling with us. Having never met any of them before, I was incredibly amped up. This was going to be a highly eventful weekend. After having a natter with a few of them, I found out one of them had come all the way from America for the event (and was also performing), some of them performed with Alestorm, and others had some damn amazing gigging stories to tell.
(JOHN)
ERMAGERD! DYBBUKS!
The first thing we did upon arriving in York (after having a bit of a kerfuffle with misread train tickets) was find the nearest Wetherspoons pub and have a well deserved pint. Being the inaugural pint of the weekend, a toast was made to “shenanigans, and may there be many a tale to tell afterwards”. I think this was a pretty apt prediction on our parts.
This was actually the first weekend-long festival I had attended since starting Uni back in late 2011. So that called for an extra celebratory drink, and another hearty bowl of chips – because damn it all, if there is one things that Wetherspoons gets right, it’s their bowls of chips!
(CHRIS)
“TO SHENANIGANS, AND MAY THERE BE MANY A TALE TO TELL AFTERWARDS!”
After that, we soldiered on through York, taking a good extra hour or so to find the venue. We just could not navigate those narrow winding streets very well at all! During that time we decided to have a gander in a few shops and various places, including an unbelievably packed antiques shop, where we saw an empty (and previously used) coffin up against one of the walls. There were even bicycles and chairs hanging from the ceiling in a very daunting affront to health and safety…
ALL SEEMS A BIT “BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS” IN HERE, GUYS…
The most important order of the day by far, was snagging ourselves some honey-mead from one of the local off license shops. Being York, the stuff was beyond plentiful. I’d never had it before in my life, so when I got to drink it for the first time out of a genuine bullhorn, I was ecstatic. One thing ticked off the bucket list! In all honesty, it was like drinking liquid Werthers originals with a bit of a kick in it. It was not bad at all!
LIQUID WERTHERS…OH SWEETNESS!!!
After an hour or two setting up, and drinking the delicious mead, John, Chris, a few other people and myself decided to check out more of York town centre whilst we were there. First of all, we got ourselves these amazing homemade hotdogs from one of the many food courts in the centre of town (which we returned to, several times over the course of the to days that we were there – it became a running joke amongst our group). Then we went through a few more shops. There’s nothing quite like the sense of smugness you get, walking through town with some well known musicians!
We had a little walk past York Minster – a glorious and truly beautiful old building – on our way to one of the fantastic little pagan shops down one of the alleyways. I must have taken hundreds of photos of the building, but narrowed it down to these two, which I feel capture all of my favorite bits of detail in it’s design.
YORK MINSTER
I always love going into Gothic / pagan shops, wherever I go on my travels. Where I live, there are practically none left! There is always something in one of these particular types of shop that catch my eye, and on this occasion, it was some fantastic statue work propped up on one of the desks. It was a stone slab, which was crafted in order to look like a fossilized fairy / faerie skeleton. If I had the money at the time – and space in my bag to take it home – I would’ve bought it there and then.
FOSSILIZED FAIRY ART
We all split off in our little individual groups further into the afternoon. Chris went off with Elliot and their gang, some of the other musicians went off to set up, and John and I decided to check out “One of the most haunted pubs in Britain”: The Golden Fleece. The prices of drinks were ghastly…£3+ for an alco-pop? Horrifying!
Once we had bought our abhorrently over-priced drinks, we had a little meander through the pub. All across the walls, there were framed parchment scrolls and newspaper articles about all the different ghost stories of the city. One which particularly caught my eye (and has since contributed to my latest project at University) was the story of the “Barguest” – a black dog of English lore.
THE “BARGUEST” STORY, SEEN ON THE WALL OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE PUB, YORK.
We actually made a few new friends in the pub too! Perhaps it was because of my recent stint into having bright blue / green hair, perhaps it was because of the way we were dressed / how we spoke. Either way, it was nice being spoken to in such a friendly manner by absolute strangers. The people of York are generally so lovely (the ones I have met, anyway!). We also made a few very peculiar friends whilst we were sat at the bar too…what do you guys reckon?
(JOHN AND I)
THIS GUY WAS SAT ON HIS OWN – SO WE DECIDED TO TRY AND CHEER HIM UP!
(JOHN)
WELL INTO HIS 5TH DRINK OR SO OF THE AFTERNOON, JOHN FINDS A SHOULDER TO CRY ON WHILST HE DROWNS HIS SORROWS…
So, after all of those drinking shenanigans and making friends, it was off to the venue to go rock out to some metal. The first band on, were the Scotland-based folk metal band “NORDEROBRING” (http://www.facebook.com/Norderobring). They are a thoroughly lovely bunch of people, might I add!
They came onstage dressed in their folk gear, complete with blue wode paint. Their onstage presence is really quite intimidating, but getting to chat with them afterwards in the backstage area, they are an intelligent and very pleasant bunch. It was a blinding performance overall – I only wish I would have got to the front row to get some better pictures of them!
I was actually invited by the fabulous Nico of VALKYRIAN MUSIC (http://valkyrianmusic.com/) to help interview them on the second day of performances. By help, of course, I mean I held the camera for him whilst he did the interviewing, haha! You will be able to find the article and interview on the official website!
NORDEROBRING
Later on in the evening, about 9PM onwards, there was some space between bands for us all to mingle and have a chat. During that time, I got talking to the lovely American fella that came with us on the train to the event, Michael. As it turned out, he was as a big a fan of DIR EN GREY as I am, and we spent a good long time ranting about gigs we had been to and albums, etc, etc. John managed to get this decent photo of us before everyone got absolutely hammered from the cheap drinks. I was well on my way here though, as you can see!
(ME AND MICHAEL)
RARRRRGGGHHH!!!
I think “CRYPTIC AGE” (http://www.facebook.com/crypticage) were my favorite band of the weekend hands down. Well, it was between them, and “CELTACHOR”, certainly! The lady fronting the band, what a performer! Her keyboard skills were astounding! Luckily for this performance I was able to get right to the front and centre. She interacted really well with the audience, and had everyone moving along with the music.
I managed to get some pretty decent quality pictures of their performance, not to mention the video footage I acquired as well! (Which I will be uploading after this article!). Truth be told, I went almost a bit “fan-girl” when they came off stage. I went up to the singer and complimented her performance – being all bashful and a lot drunk!
CRYPTIC AGE
Of course, with all the drinking and merriment that went on over the course of the evening, there were a number of fallen soldiers and casualties of war, who could not out-drink the competition. John was the first man down, having started falling asleep around half way through the evening. Needless to say, we took this as a perfect photo op.
(JOHN)
MAN DOWN!
(MICHAEL & JOHN)
“WAKE UP, SOLDIER!!!”
After the events of day one had drawn to a close, we all decided to go out and celebrate around York – which was all going to be a completely new experience for me! We all went back to where we were staying (crash-space courtesy of the lovely Alex and Kayleigh), got suited and booted, and went for a long saunter into the heart of York’s nightlife. We ended up at a nightclub called “Mansion” which I have heard being talked about by several alt. friends back home. What a place! Fantastic layout, adequately priced drinks, and a lovely set of bar staff!
I don’t even think I bought myself one drink that night – everyone who was in our group (and who we met up with at the club) was incredibly generous and high-spirited. By this point our friend John had woken himself up and was getting well into the throw of things. That was more than could be said for our companion Chris who fell asleep in one of the booths in the seating area…time for a revenge photo-op by John!
(JOHN & CHRIS)
“SAY CHEESE!”
The next day, we were up bright and early to get to the venue and sort out the gear / set-lists / stage times and so on. The sun was glorious that day, but I don’t think many people in our party were too appreciative of it. The after-party the previous night was certainly a blinder to say the least. One of our mates apparently managed to wind-up underneath a pool table in a hostel the next morning with no recollection of what had happened. I think the two pictures below will explain exactly how we were feeling the next morning after our shenanigans…
(JOHN)
SAD FACE…
(ME)
LOOKED AT HOW HUNCHED I AM…THE HANGOVER SHAKES CERTAINLY AREN’T PLEASANT!
One band which thoroughly impressed me – out of the entirety of the weekend – was “MORLICH” (https://www.facebook.com/MorlichBand). Taking into account how young one of the members was, I was quite baffled, and had to go up to the lad afterwards and let him know just how impressed myself and John were at his and their performance. I even bought one of the CD’s which they were selling off at the merch stall – top notch!
MORLICH
Another greatly impressive band from that day’s line-up were “SHALLOW INTENTIONS” (https://www.facebook.com/Shallowintentionsuk) who were on after “MORLICH”. Absolutely loved the themed outfits sported by them and several of the other bands which played during the event.
SHALLOW INTENTIONS
Did not, however, see the entirety of their set as John, myself and a few others had not eaten all day and were dying for some quick food. We ventured into the town centre to see what the vendors had to offer, and we returned to a firm favorite – an old man which we had affectionately dubbed “The Hot Sausage Man”. This is because he did top notch full sausages in hotdog buns with brilliantly crispy onions and sauces. Ever since, whenever I have been to York, I always make a point of getting food from him and his magic cart.
(ME & JOHN)
WE DO LIKE A BIT OF HOT SAUSAGE!
Had some time to hang out with NICO of VALKYRIAN MUSIC (http://valkyrianmusic.com/) when we got back. Was awesome having a catch-up with him – it had been practically two entire years since we last bumped into each other! How time flies! Had a bit of a pal around with a few of the members of “NORDEROBRING” too. What pleasant guys! Another one of our lovely friends Philippa was there as well, and we spent a while talking about art and freelancing which was absolutely brilliant. She gave me quite a few useful tips on self-promotion and recommended some decent printing companies in the local area which I could go to!
(ME)
OH DEAR…STILL ROCKING THE HUNGOVER LOOK!
(ALASDAIR, NICO & PHILIPPA)
“WAHEY!”
“CELTACHOR” (https://www.facebook.com/celtachor) had me absolutely blown away from track one. A Blackened Folk Metal band hailing from Ireland, they had a fantastic stage presence – I did not look away once throughout their entire set. Their music created an immaculate soundscape which had me enthralled from the get-go. Not enough words to describe how much I bloody loved the bones off of these guys. The moment when the vocalist pulled out a flute was utter brilliance!
CELTACHOR
I was left to stand by myself for a while and look after mine and John’s shifty bottle of “rum and other magic” whilst he went to get ready for “RAVENAGE’s” set. Had a nice continuation of the chat from earlier that morning with NICO, and we managed to wrestle ourselves a cracking front-and-centre spot in front of the stage. SCORE!
“RAVENAGE” (https://www.facebook.com/officialravenage) have to get the award for best entrance, talk about mad build-up! (I managed to get a fairly decent video of it which I will upload on here after publishing this!) There was a lot of mad frantic movement during their set though, which was fantastic for the audience, but the photos mostly turned out shite. Haha! They played a lot of their well known tracks which really made for a cracking set!
OH, HEY THERE JOHN!
RAVENAGE
Of course, by the end of that days shenanigans, we all had to call it quits. Man down. defeated. John, Lee, and myself said our goodbyes to all of our mates, the musicians, and the awesome friends we had made during the weekend. We walked across York at about 10 PM (scary stuff) to the train station (after quite a to-do trying to actually figure out which direction we were going in) and waited for the next train back to Hull.
Of course, I had to get myself a massive, massive cup of tea to take on the journey with me, having started to feel the repercussions of my hangover once again. To be fair, we were all looking pretty worse-for-wear. The young bearded gentleman who served me in the little kiosk at the station was very pleasant considering how late it was. If his employers ever read this: Give that boy a raise!
We followed John’s suggestion, and went to the carriage right at the back to sit in. “Oh, don’t worry, it’ll be quiet in here and we can have a pleasant journey home,” he says, but not a few moments before the rowdy bloodiest hen party and a group of pissed up lads came and joined us. Bumped into a friend from way back in Secondary School whilst we waited for the train to set off though which was nice!
(JOHN & LEE)
“SIT AT THE BACK HE SAYS…IT’LL BE QUIET HE SAYS!”
(ME)
“DON’T SAY ALCOHOL. UGH.”
AbbieSTABBY 