This was such an epic day out – from the moment I woke up to the moment I crashed. Probably helped by a fantastic nights clubbing at The Electric Ballroom the night before with Dawn & Emily, and the fact that a bunch of us all met up in a pub (for breakfast…ahem) before we headed over to Finsbury Park.

One of our friends had also randomly met The Mission’s tour van in the early hours of the morning on his way back from the club – which was an experience that apparently left him fairly delirious (or stoned… not quite sure which ;p)

Anyway, this was my first open air gig and I can’t think of a better line-up at the time to initiate me. I had been a massive fan of The Mission for years, and had seen them several times elsewhere. New Model Army was another major band for me (still is) and one that I’d never actually seen live. Then there was also Killing Joke, Henry Rollins, and Bleach (whom were the only band I didn’t know).

Bleach kicked things off, and were pretty good from what I remember, as were The Henry Rollins Band. I was less enthused about Killing Joke for some reason (can’t remember why now) but New Model Army absolutely blew me away. They were phenomenal and I’m pretty sure I danced the entire set!

The Mission also played well, although they’d continued the trend of changing some of the arrangements on a few of their classic tracks which I wasn’t all that keen on, and detracted some of my enjoyment. Don’t get me wrong, they were still great fun, but they ended up actually being my second favourite band of the day after NMA :p