4. Sacred Reich – Ronnie James Dio stage - Friday, August 11th – very early afternoon 

It’s amazing the specific memories we store from our childhoods. I can remember the cover of “Surf Nicaragua” intricately in all its simplistic glory even though I never bought the damn thing. It stared out at me from the pages of Kerrang and made me decide that I was a die-hard Sacred Reich fan even though I had never heard a darn note of their music.

I finally did get to experience their frantic and irreverent take on thrash two years later when I used my earnings from my Saturday job to purchase “The American Way”. By this point I was declaring that Sacred Reich were my favourite band “EVER” to anyone who would listen. 

I look back now with the wonderful gift of hindsight, and I applaud my younger self for their taste and tenacity. Whereas others were sticking with the tried and tested confides of the big four, I seemed intent on heading into the open and choppier waters of thrash’s second wave. 

Most importantly this coming Friday is the first time the fifty-year-old that the teenage me has become gets to witness Sacred Reich live. Yes, they have been over numerous times since the inevitable reunion in 2006 but things have never worked out, until now. This is the moment. This is nostalgia on an industrial scale. I don’t really care if any of you care as for forty-five minutes I will be fifteen again. There will be tears.