The adventure started out early...even earlier than usual! Hopping a plane from Manchester to Madrid required a 3 am start. I confess, I didn't sleep...too giddy!, but there's time for that when your dead. Everything ran smoothly, if not mostly boring.... Aeroplane travel has not featured in this blog thus far, so it's nice that it gets a mention but on the whole, it's pretty tedious. Aside from all the waiting around, it's just all very clinically sterile and lacks the majesty of a good ol' fashioned train ride. To give credit where it's due, the take off is pretty special, even though I understand the physics, it still amazes me how a several ton tin box can float into the air like that...the Wright brothers must have been thinking 'WTF...it's working!' when they first did it.😋. Actually, I did enjoy the views when landing too...Madrid has got some amazing plateaus surrounding it. Also, my nearside passenger was a pretty scouse lady who was very easy to talk to (well they generally are...ay!), so all in all, it was a pretty good journey as far it goes.

Clinical necessities out of the way, we got out of the airport and jumped on a metro to the centre of Madrid. This makes it sound easy 🤣 but in fact, the Madrid public transport system is a dizzying array of connections and if you don't know what your doing, it's easy to end up circling the city for eternia. Luckily, I'd bumped into an old colleague who happened to be taking her mum to the festival...I should probably say, her mum was taking her, because her mum was all over this!... Armed with a map and a level of organisation that makes my heart flutter, she sorted us out and had us on our way to the centre in no time. On arrival in Madrid, our first job was to collect our festival wristbands. This required an hour's queue in a blisteringly hot Madrid Calle (street), where the temp spiked at a not so cool 39 degrees. Needless to say, by the time we got into the endlessly chiq UMusic and collected our merch, we were very happy (if not a bit soggy) as the picture below will testify.

So after all that debacle, there was only one thing to do!...beer time! Me being me, I had already scoped out the nearest craft beer bar and so we trotted 10 min down the road to Brew Wild Beer n Pizza bar on Calle de Echegaray. It did not disappoint. 15 lines. Pretty good range, some nice IPAs, TIPAs, good pizza and the bar itself is a rustic looking effort with disused Tun lids dangling from the roof and a downstairs cellar converted to a cavernous hideaway for beer suppers and the like....very cool. The service was top class and the barman (who thankfully spoke better English than my Spanish) knew his stuff...case in point...when pressed on if there was any Spanish brewers that did a good stout (I think he could sense my cynicism)... He pulled out an absolute banger that wasn't even on the board yet. 'Post Mortem' by Laguar brewery in Bilbao, Northern Spain- an 11% imperial pastry stout- sweet but perfectly balanced, with strong licorice/ prune undertones that linger on the tongue- perfect...I was put right in my place as I hastily swallowed my cynicism along with this gem.... Even TIPA loving Phil was impressed!!

Once we were suitablely refreshed (and a little dizzy), we treated ourselves to a Cabify (Spain's version of Uber) back to where we were gonna be staying....student digs on the outskirts of Madrid, a place called Aravaca. Located in a quiet area, they are used as tourist accomodation once the students have gone home for summer. As far as student digs go they are pretty decent, with basic facilities, pool and communal area but mainly...the rooms had air con!... Oh sweet relief.

After a quick check in and rest our legs for an hour or two, we hopped a taxi to the south end of Madrid and after an easy entry...we had arrived....MadCool 2026!...get in. The festival itself isn't massive, you can easy get around the 4 stages in 15 mins and despite some initial concerns about sound bleed, once you get near enough, the sound quality was actually mint. As the temperature started to drop (slightly), fresh Mahou in hand (they fresh pour the £5 pr pint beers here...yes please) and we settled in to watch the formidable Wolf Alice- I had found my happy place!! I have seen Wolf Alice before but I must say, I really appreciated this time how incredibly talented they are as a band and they have a sensational and improving back catalogue. The crowd felt the same and as the gorgeous lead singer Ellie felt the warmth (both literal and metaphorical) of the crowd, she 'had a moment'- as my festival colleague buddy put it- I must admit...so did I!!🥲

After this fantastic start, we were on to 'War on Drugs'. This old school lot seriously know what they are doing with soaring melodies that build and build to almost ecstatic proportions like some sort of tantric musical voyage. The drummer remained surgically on point, like a human metronome and i was definitely feeling the trance like vibes as the cool Madrid breeze kicked in and I supped on my second pint😋

Then it was on to the ever-enduring, ever-delivering, ever long (pun most definitely intended) Foo Fighters!!!. I have seen these guys a few times before and so knew exactly what to expect but it was a decent performance even by their standards. Dave was loving it, new drummer llan Rubin knew he was getting it right and the crowd responded in kind. Even though this was the most packed crowd, the 'stage left' trick never fails (if you don't know this bit of weird but true festival pop psychology, you need to go to more gigs) and we positioned ourselves in a good sound/vantage point and still had room to bust out moves....overall, so far, there has been a spacious/respectful element to this festival crowd that I'm kinda enjoying.

The Foos played an over 2 hr set of wall to wall bangers (well, why not?), however, we had to leave early as my good buddy wanted to catch Moby on the other stage (this clash appeared unnecessary but only a small quibble). And this was definitely the surprise delight of the night. I have not seen Moby before and was relying on the sound advice of my mate Phil in being dragged away from Foos but so glad I did! What a dynamic sound! Lots of recognisable tunes but reworked for live performance, with synths, acoustic drums, guitar, electric double bass, violins, etc -all working harmoniously to create a beautifully textured orchestra. The vocals were amazing and full of emotion and who knew Moby could play guitar so well!!.. what a talent. Me and my buddy had a right old boogie!... And even after a 3 HR journey back to our accomodation (yes we definitely need to get better at that 😅), I was still smiling when I crawled into my pit at 3 am this morning (for those of you counting, that's nearly 2 days awake- this is SAS shit, people!!). Yes I may very well be hallucinating at this point but I don't care, because if you ask me....We Are All Made of Stars 🤩