Emotions Run High @ Farewell Gig

After announcing his departure from Seize The Day earlier this month, drummer Chris Cribbett performed to the best of his ability on the 17th November of this year at White Rabbit.

Taken by me

From the very first moment their Pokemon intro sounded out from the speakers of the venue, everyone was ready to get a little emotional but more importantly giving Seize The Day the support they need and to show that we all still care for them no matter what future decisions are made within the band. Seize The Day played fan favourites such as "When The Lights Go Down" and "Save It For Your Facebook Status" but in all honesty every song Mike writes are great; even if they do have strange names and are about completely odd things e.g. "I Thought You Were Buying Me Something Nice"-a quote from a zombie video game.

Taken by Stephen Lewis Simmonds

It wasn't a huge crowd that gathered to see Cribbett’s drumming skills for Seize The Day one last time, nevertheless it consisted of people who the band care deeply about and to those who took time out from their alternative plans to come down and be part of an emotional goodbye to a brilliant drummer. No moshing occurred but two individuals had a laugh all the way through Seize The Day's set and fell to the floor while hugging each other-everyone looked at them with the same 'WTF' appearance on their faces, which soon adjusted to the positivity in the room; after all it was a farewell gig for a member of Seize the Day.

Taken by me

I felt like some sort of professional photographer standing alone near the front of the stage snapping away at any given moment, which proved the best thing to do as I caught many random poses and facial expressions on either Liam, Booth, Mike or Cribbett on camera rather than just being a member of the audience where I may have missed small details.

Taken by me

The four guys had a major laugh on stage as the original line up of Seize The Day, everyone in White Rabbit at this moment cheered and if like me, got a tad bit teary but now after a complete final performance together it was time to part ways. At the closing stages of the night, Mike Norton, Chris Booth, Liam Wood and Chris Cribbett all huddled together in the centre of the stage to have a massive hug as a band and then posed for friend and photographer Stephen Lewis Simmonds’s camera. I think we can all agree it won’t be the same without the hairy beast on drums but with Louise Male as temporary percussionist the band will go on until they have found a permanent candidate to fill in his big shoes. 

Taken by Stephen Lewis Simmonds

ALERT! Black Veil Brides Play Exeter University

It’s Friday 7^th October 2011, the day I’ve now been counting down to for over 4 months; I’m finally seeing Black Veil Brides live in Exeter playing their second show of their first ever European headline tour!

For the whole day I've been very reluctant towards my work due to being more preoccupied with the thought of meeting one of my all time most loved bands of this generation: that is the epic Black Veil Brides.

The temperature dropped quite a bit when outside the Exeter venue and as typical English weather, it started drizzling on the Black Veil Brides army that surrounded me but it didn’t seem to bother them, which made me think “I have a great feeling about tonight”. Something made the long wait in the cold and rain outside the Lemon Grove that bit more bearable; Ashley Purdy (bassist of BVB) stood inside entrance waving and smiling to everyone, which got several screams and teary eyes, even from the guys in the crowd but I missed this. However, I saw him looking out the window a short while after and again he smiled and waved to the massive group of us that were stood outside freezing our butts off, but I like to think his actions were only to me...what, a girl can dream can’t she! Finally, as darkness enclosed over the Lemon Grove, the BVB army gained entry into the lovely warm venue, which was very appreciated after standing outside for what seemed like forever. At last, the night can commence.

2 support bands are playing tonight and to be part of Black Veil Brides European tour is such an honour and would have probably placed so much pressure on to Yashin and My Passion but they seemed to handle it alright in all fairness.

The 1^st support act on stage is My Passion. Before I turned up to the gig tonight I had a negative opinion about them that was obtained by others, which even left me writing on Twitter, "My Passion on Kerrang! Tv...eugh kill me now" but I watched them for the entirety of their set and my opinion suddenly morphed into a much more positive one and now I can't wait until I see this band again when they support Madina Lake in November this year. My highlight of My Passion's set was when I was so near to touching frontman Laurence Rene's hand and now I think I've developed a crush towards their bassist Simon Rowlands (such a hottie). They performed "The Mess We Made With Our Lives", which got a positive response from the crowd because we were jumping to the beat of the bass drum (Jamie Nicholls) and everyone was screaming for Laurence's attention.

The 2nd and final support act tonight is Yashin and having previously seen them a year ago as headliners in Plymouth, they showed me they can still kill it even as support for a fantastic "new(ish)" American band. Just before Yashin came on stage though, I had to get a bit of air as I would've fainted as a result right there and then-I found out soon after people already had collapsed due to heat exhaustion, but when I returned, no word of a lie the crowd doubled in size, leaving me to lose the people I came here with and only finding them before the first riff of Jinxx's (guitarist of Black Veil Brides) electric. This meant I stood to the side throughout Yashin's performance leading me to miss Harry shirtless as it was ripped off ferociously by members in the audience; hopefully my dear friend Lewis wasn't involved in that. Yashin played a brand new song tonight for everyone called "Runaway Train", which got cheers and screams for being so damn good and as always to round off their set, Yashin performed their cover of Britney Spears' hit track "Everytime" before exiting the stage in order for preparations to begin for the main attraction at the Lemon Grove tonight.

I'm finally back in the company of my friends and now I can deeply enjoy the rest of the night. The atmosphere at this present was electrifying with fans excited for anything to happen-even if a banner got moved on the stage or the lights went down completely way before anyone important entered the stage, cheers and woops could be heard throughout the entire ocean of people because we were all so stoked for the night that laid ahead. With CC's drums set up without a fault, Jake and Jinxx's guitars tuned note perfect and Ashley's bass is ready to bang some heavy beats. The night is young and is prepared to be ripped to shreds by the worshipped members. All of the lights are switched off inside the entire of Lemon Grove, meaning one thing and one thing only...BLACK VEIL BRIDES ARE ENTERING THE STAGE!

The crowd went into automatic up roar with genuine excitement and enthusiasm when the starting riff was played of "Set The World On Fire". No matter what the song, every single person in this room tonight was screaming out the lyrics back to Andy Biersack, especially during tracks such as "Knives and Pens", "Rebel Love Song" and "Sweet Blasphemy". Christian "CC" Coma played a pretty epic solo from what I could hear rather than see as I 

Taken by Abi Read

was stood behind a tall, fat, sweaty guy with my face at armpit height; safe to say I wasn't feeling to good after. When the American band disbanded off the stage after their 'final' song, the audience were chanting "we want more, we want more" repeatedly. They were back on stage at the Lemon Grove to play "Fallen Angels" as their encore and during most of its entire content I couldn't help but watch the mosh pit building up to the right of me; I noticed the whole pit was made up of dwarfs, which made me laugh so much and made me say "I wonder if I join them will they realise I'm not one of them"; even though I'm short I don't think they would have appreciated it as much.

Finally, after the last beat of the drum was played and last vocal was sung, Black Veil Brides exited the stage on an almighty high after their 2^nd show of their first UK headline tour. Even though I love this band to pieces, tonight they disappointed me a little because as well as not being able to have any sight of them throughout their whole show hardly anyone could hear Andy Biersack sing his heart out. This fault was due to the sound techs not doing their job properly so for this I don't blame Black Veil Brides it just makes me want to see them again to actually get to see what they are made of and when I found out they're coming back to the UK in March/April next year I decided there and then that I'm going to the Bristol show.

After the gig finished I didn't get to meet the headliners because a mate of mine didn't want to wait around for them even though they came out 1-2 hours after the venue closed up for the night but I got to meet every member of My Passion, which was a bonus and now I love them because they make great music and they are all fantastically nice guys to hang out with. Also, they all commented on my height and saying that I was the shortest 17 year old they had ever seen-someone of course who hasn't got dwarfism etc. Below is a photo of me and Jamie Nicholls-the drummer of My Passion

Sad News! STD's Drummer Leaves Band!

After having been diagnosed with Crohn's disease since he was 19 years old, Chris Cribbett has drummed virtually all of his life without any problems. That was until October of last year when he was hospitalised for some time, meaning Plymouth band Seize The Day went on hiatus until their drummer was back in a good healthy state again. This was a tough time for Chris, his friends, family and girlfriend but through love and willpower from others, he quickly recovered and continued where he left off and got back into the swing of things.

After months of rehearsing and preparation, Seize The Day were ready for their comeback gig, which got a huge response from their fans who went absolutely mental on that early June night and gained lots of encouragement from the support bands that performed alongside them. However, just after 6 months of being back on stage with his band Chris has decided to take a step down from behind the drums to spend more time with loved ones and finally get his degree!

I spoke to the drummer himself briefly earlier this week and the following are a few questions I asked him,

Me: "How did the final band rehearsal go?"

Chris: "It was epic! Very emotional but we manned up and just had a really sweaty man hug," he also added that "just because I'm leaving the band doesn't mean I don't still love these guys."

Me: I’ve heard Seize The Day have entered to be in for the chance of supporting McFly on their upcoming UK tour in March 2012, is this true?”

Chris: “Yeah course! The guys want to see if people other than Plymouth-based fans would appreciate the music we write so what better way to do it than to support a band who kind of started of like us.”

Me: “So if Seize The Day did get the slot to support them in Plymouth Pavilions and they didn’t have a permanent drummer would you step back into the reins just for that show or would you deny the chance of that happening?”

Chris: Hell no, I would not pass that up, it’s an opportunity of a lifetime. Say if Seize The Day were to play in the Pavilions as support for McFly I mean seriously when would that ever happen again. So in a short answer yes I would.”

So here it is, Seize The Day play White Rabbit on Thursday 17^th November, it’s £3 entry but I can tell it’s going to be one hell of a night and a moving one at that. I understand that this is the same night the Christmas lights are turned on in Plymouth but there’s something seriously wrong with you if you’d rather see Ronan Parkes (runner up from BGT 2011) than Seize The Day’s epic final performance as an original line up that has been the same since their formation in 2009. 

C’mon guys what the hell are you waiting for and get down to White Rabbit tomorrow night and show your love for these awesome boys and tell them that all the hard work and stress they have put into this band has totally been worth it. Even though I know it’s not the end of the world as we know it and it’s just a slight change in the wind I think I’m bound to cry or at least get teary eyed. I wish you the best of luck for the future Chris and you better finally complete your Psychology degree. J