Capes, brooms, thongs, broken guitars, nakedness, and Gareth Gates… Stone Sour’s London show. Read it and hold your sides should they split with laughter. Stone Sour – London Astoria February 26, 2003 THE FAN – ‘Empathy’ from www.stonesour.tk The day started off for me as any other, I woke up…. I had jam on toast. I got a newspaper….. read it….. Fuck I was getting too excited! Anyways me and my friend Ben met my bro after he finished work, and we jumped on the ten past 6 bus to Oxford Circus. When we arrived at the Astoria – The line was beyond imaginable, it was so long, and I completely couldn’t believe how popular Stone Sour are. When I eventually got to the front of the stage I left my bro and my friend behind at the side near the bar. I was in no mood for talking, I wanted to go fucking crazy and listen to some fucking rock and roll!!! The first band, whoever they were… [RR sez: Winnebago Deal] actually rocked, but it was a shame no one else liked em really, I enjoyed their set, especially the last song! Then down came the ‘rock-starish’ banner of Saliva’s new album cover. Meh, I wasn’t looking forward to this……They played a load of songs, a lot of people seemed to like them, I didn’t, it was boring, I was getting hot, I was getting hurt for no FUCKING REASON. I was getting pissed off, Stone Sour were the god-damn remedy and I knew it. Josey Scott ended the set with the message -“blah blah Saliva will definitely be back”. But even though I thought the guy was a jerk, I’d certainly not wanna meet him in a dark alley – The guys fucking huge and he sports the biggest fucking forehead I have seen in my life!! It was inspirational to say the least!! Oh dear, now it was time for SS, and it was getting to me – bad. As the lights went down and the freaky Clockwork Orange music came on (which I whistled!! ), about 100 people just rammed forward and there was no turning back, it was gonna be brutal, and I was right….. Get Inside was the obvious opener, my knees just trembled so much and my hands were shaking, no fucking lie. I was so hot, and pent up with fucking aggression, I was going nuts to say the least. The guys were on top form as ever, leading into Orchids and Monolith, Cold Reader, Take A Number etc. Jim was great, he’s so fucking huge it’s unreal, Josh was confusingly very smiley during the set, he also sang every song – I was always so sure that he was the quiet one, weird? – Shawn fucking rocked as well!! I admire that mans beard so much…… :beard: Corey started talking about how music was being poisoned etc. He held up a poster of the British stammering pop-dimwit Gareth Gates. Which Corey had blatantly drawn a pentagram and a Jonathan Davis-esque goatee on! He ripped the piss out of GG, mocking his cover of ‘Spirit In The Sky’. So many people laughed, what an entertainer the GBM is!! The band also played Rules and Cynic, which absolutely RAWWWKKKDDD! but to my surprise, not many people actually knew the song – It was weird being the only one out of the 60 people around me singing the song like a nut!! Soon, Corey whipped out his guitar and played Bother, absolutely amazing, I mean, every single person sang, it was great, amazing. Near to the end of the set – the band played the rest of the album -‘Choose’ was particularly insane – the crowd loved that song. Corey also gave a shout out the guys in the balconies – some woman booed the people in the balconies and Corey said that she shouldn’t boo them – they just came here to WATCH the show- It’s not their fault they’ve got rickets in their legs! The guy’s fucking hilarious, an all-round entertainer! At the end of Tumult I crowd surfed – then members of Saliva came onto the stage and began ‘cleaning up’ – Josey handed Corey a broom and he held the broom upright as he sang the rest of Tumult. It was fucking great. So, to the least, it was the best concert I have ever been to. I love this band more than ever, and Id give anything to see them perform live again. Thanks for a great night guys!! Scott (Emp) THE ROADRUNNER REP – Paul We arrived at the venue close to the time the doors were supposed to open and there were so many kids waiting outside, we greeted the Street/E-team meet and greet dudes and handed out their VIP passes to meet the band. Once inside the venue and the dressing room we were all hanging out and chatting about the past shows and tonight’s sellout. Josh’s original plan for the day was to spend the day shopping in Camden, looking for an ultra rare copy of Metallica’s Black Album on vinyl, unfortunately he passed a rather nice Ibanez guitar and decided his fund’s were better aimed that way!! Next Corey burst through the door shouting “Fuck me!!!! Have you seen the queue, I’ve never seen anything like it!” Everyone agreed and I don’t think it helped the pre-show nerves!! I missed the opening band, whoops, my bad, but I did check out Saliva, mainly due to the fact I knew Stone Sour had something planned. It was the last night of a massive European tour, tradition calls for the last show to be a prank filled fun packed time for all and no one was disappointed!! During the second Saliva song Sol, a Stone Sour crew member, ran out on stage in his pants jumped around for a while and ran off… Funny but that wasn’t all they had in store. During Saliva’s final song “My Disease’ Corey strolled out on stage in a thong, fashioned from parts of a silver bead curtain (nicked from the dressing room), duct tape and a pink sock!!! Yes that’s right folks, he was naked apart from a Blue Peter style crafted thong!! No double sided sticky tape here though (Ouch, that could have hurt), wearing his hair in pig tails!! and carrying a sign exclaiming “I love Josey” Nice Corey, very nice!!!! *Note if anyone has any pictures of this, we would love to receive them by post or email – and we might even reward you for your efforts…. Stone Sour’s show started with the blistering ‘Get Inside’, the stage was a mass of moving bodies, and the crowd were just as rabid, lapping up every riff and every word that came from the stage. The band went through every song from their self titled debut, Blotter, Blue Reader and Inhale being some of the stand out tracks for me, along with a couple of non album tracks, highlight of the set still has to be ‘Bother’, the crowd sang as loud as ever and Corey was visibly moved by the crowd response. During Stone Sour’s final song, Saliva did get their own back, arriving on stage in bin liner capes, with brooms, water pistols and again in their pants (what is it with these American’s huh?? Do they always have to be naked??) Very funny stuff guys… The show finished with Josh giving one lucky fan his guitar and Jim and Corey destroying one of Jim’s guitars. Corey later told me that was a mistake, whoops, they broke a perfectly good guitar!! Too soon the absolutely blinding show was done, another great night out in London… here is to the next time Stone Sour hit these shores, in the not too distant future…