Foo Fighters and Led Zeppelin At Wembley & Then Silverstone

This article was written 15 years ago in 2008 when I was 23, so I ask you not to judge the writing too harshly! The text is as it was originally published.

The first thing I would like to do is thank Red Bull and Double Decker for their continued support this weekend. Had it not been for these two items, this post would most certainly not have been written tonight.

On Friday lunchtime I drove down to Banbury (my first 'real' outing in the new car - it's like driving a eiderdown when compared to the old beast) and met Dan and Dave at Wembley in mid-afternoon. Rumour had it there would be some 'special guests' (I thought the support act, Supergrass, would be good enough) but most people were thinking Paul McCartney. Dave suggested he'd heard Led Zeppelin might appear, but it was hard to believe, although I did mention as we passed through Gate M that the Foos do specify on their rider that there are only three bands they would ever be prepared to share a dressing room with, one of those bands is the aforementioned Supergrass, secondly Oasis and finally Led Zep. I didn't really expect it to happen.

Anyway, the gig was superb. Currin had never been to a proper rock gig before, and neither me or Dave had ever been to one in Wembley Stadium, so there was something new for all of us. It was insanely packed in front of the stage and as the two and a half hour set drew on, we all ended up closer and closer to the front. Eventually we all got separated. Dave told me after he got right on the barrier, whereas I was four rows back where the only way to keep upright was to jump as high as everyone else and the sweat was so thick it was like glue. Yes a lovely image, but it's hard to express how god damn brilliant it was. And then they announced Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were coming on and the crowd went even more wild. Of course, the presence of Robert Plant might have been nice too, but I'm not complaining; that's two for the price of one as far as I'm concerned.

I caught a train back to Banbury, then drove the remainder of the way, arriving in Lower Brailes at about half one. A long day. I stayed with relatives, then woke at seven to get back on the road and over to Silverstone for the Renault World Series.

It took me a little while to figure out that the Renault World Series is not just one super race, it's the name of the event, and all the various classes of Renault motorsport compete on the same day. Will managed to acquire the team buggy for long parts of the day and we spent a lot of time dishing out promotional material (well, our 'pit babes' did, but it's hard work watching, taking photos for the website and then restocking the girls with more flyers).

Being as Adam's Formula Renault races were at opposite ends of the day, there was a lot of time to kill between 9am and 5pm, but after qualifying third in both rounds, he snatched second place in both the morning and afternoon session keeping him firmly at the top of the championship.

I managed to acquire my first sunburn of the year, and was quite relieved to make it home at 8pm - a long, long day. Not much relaxing at all this weekend, but really extra special for all of the above. All I need now is roughly 16 hours of sleep.

This post was first published on Sun Jun 08 2008 originally on justbeyondthebridge.co.uk, my former personal blog

The author

My name is Andy Higgs and I am a founder, product management & design leader, occassional surfer and travel enthusiast based in the UK.

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