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By Oli Wade
So the plan was for several of us to go, but everyone except me and Jimmer had dropped out. He knows several of the NTU Rocksoc crowd and had found out about it from them. We caught the train at half past four, slightly disappointed that nobody else had turned up. Not such a hard place to get to - a change at Ely and a couple of hours later we arrived in Nottingham just as it was getting dark. It's not really northern, but it's getting there. However unlike Cambridge it has a rock scene outside the University/Rocksoc, which we were there to sample. Jimmer's memory led us straight to the Tap & Tumbler (passing many Sk8r kiddies) where we were due to meet his NTU friends. They didn't show up but the beer was cheep and good, and the jukebox fantastic. Apart from the few drunken football fans, a top place indeed.
Jimmer then tried to lead us to The Old Vic. We went up and down several hills, and into and out of several rock-looking places (perhaps worth a return visit). Finally we made it, arriving at 20:30. £2 for 6 (well 5½ for us) hours of good solid metal which went as follows:
| 20:00-22:00 | true metal |
| 22:00-23:00 | death/black metal ("the dark hour") |
| 23:00-00:00 | live band ("return to the sabbat") |
| 00:00-02:00 | true metal |
So we had much good British and Euro metal, with very little American stuff [= no Manowar!]. Maiden / Priest / Hammerfall / Stratovarius / Angelwitch / etc; not a Limp or a Linkin' in sight. With 3 types of Everard's beer (costing £1.70, £1.80 & £1.90) to accompany it, all who didn't turn up surely missed out. It was the first of its kind, but likely to be repeated in November and beyond, as it was well attended and a real success.
And 'Sabbat rocked mightily, even on the tiny stage. We were reminded of the Bloodstock festival, and that metal in Britain was not quite dead...
We met up with Jimmer's mates, and slept fairly well on the floor of their garishly coloured house. Getting up early (10:00) was a bit of a mistake as the 1st train back was at 12:45. Still, there was time to grab a fried breakfast and some bananas for Jimmer's nan.
All in all a grand day out!
