Chatsworth House

I left home at about 2.30pm and just leisurely drove along the M25 and up the M1 to Chatsworth House. I was surprised at how far off the motorway the house was but it did give me a chance to drive through the Derbyshire Dales which are really pretty. There was a big sign at the entrance to the house saying "No ticket no entry" and they did check that we had tickets before they let us park.

As I didn't get there until just before 7.00pm I parked near the back of the car park (which made exiting faster). I opted to listen to Hurricane Party from there. I could still clearly hear every note they played at a comfortable level. I then walked to my seventh row seat which took about 15 minutes so that shows how loud Hurricane Party were!

This was one of the concerts where TicketMaster had reallocated me (without having the common decency to inform me first) from the front row to the seventh row. I forgot to check which was supposed to have been my seat but the people I did ask had bought theirs through TicketMaster about two months after I bought mine so presumably after FanFire had been unable to sell their $400 packages - so why were the seats not offered back to those who had been moved?!!

It turns out that I had sold tickets for friends via E-Bay to the girls in the next two seats so we had a nice chat...and I was told off for not wearing a MLUKFC badge (I'm not sure I even have one!).

As I wrote in my review it was a good concert and the audience were far better than at Leeds Castle as they stood the whole gig. I actually took quite a few photos too! I was really lucky as I had my camera on ready to take a still picture when Kasim played a very brief bass solo so I caught that on video!

I left once it finished and walked back to the car. Rather than joining the exit queue near where I was parked, I drove across the field (I need a 4 X 4 for the tour!) towards the gate so I was out within 20 minutes of the end of the concert! I think that the band or at least Meat Loaf had left straightaway as a huge cheer went up when one bus pulled away (when I was still near my seat) and that was lead by police cars with flashing lights.

As I'd had a lie-in this morning, I found the journey home quite easy and got in at about 2.30am. I hadn't had to stop for any catnaps and I'd managed to do the whole trip on less than one tank of petrol so I was pleased with that.

Mileage today: 389 miles
Tour total (in my car) –5, 471 miles