Festival funkyness
Reading Festival 2005 update here at last!!!
Click the link below for a tale of 4 days in a field in darkest Berkshire on the last weekend in August...
Brittany and I arrived in Reading just after lunchtime on the Thursday and made the arduous trek from the station to the campsite, picking our way through the crowds of other festival-types that were lining the streets. This was Brittany's first festival and my first as being part of a couple, so we were both really looking forward to it. After wandering over to Orange camp (where I camped last year) and trying to call John on his mobile several times, we eventually ended up in Yellow camp after John called me asking why I hadn't called him (!) and directed us to where they were camped (you can see our tent in the poster of the Reading festival site in last weeks NME). The weather had been fairly pleasant so far that afternoon, but it was sod's law that when I tried to put the tent up we were caught in a gale and a couple of flash rainstorms, gah. I finally managed to set the tent up and Brittany and I sheltered inside, fairly warm and dry. After the rain stopped we had a drink with the others and then we left to get our wristbands and made a trip to Tescos to stock up on supplies: Haribo, Kettle Chips, Jaffa cakes, Lager, Cider, blackcurrant (can you see where this is heading? haha). When we got back to the tent we took the initiative of the others and made our own Snakebite and black, tasty. As the evening wore on, John and Dave got progressively more drunk than anyone else and shouted "Scream for me Reading!" at every available opportunity, haha. I just rolled my eyes and ate another jaffa cake.
On Friday morning everyone else from our group disappeared off into town to get a fried breakfast, Brittany and I just made do with cereal bars, juice, and milk... at £1.50 for a pint! What a rip-off! Still, I needed my morning calcium hit so I had to go for a pint of the white stuff. We got into the arena just after midday and after looking around some of the stalls we got near to the front at the main stage to watch our fist band of the weekend; Welsh chav comedy hip-hop group Goldie Lookin Chain. The GLC are a novelty, they're always entertaining and funny, but a couple of their song fall a little flat. Even so, 'Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do', new song 'Can I Fuck Your Sister?', and the bouncy sing-along 'Your Mother's Got A Penis' are the highlights and we start the day off happy and with stupid grins on our faces. :-p We stayed at the main stage to watch rock'n'roll journeymen The Wedding Present, who were decent enough but neither of us were that impressed. Graham Coxon was next up on the main stage, I was looking forward to seeing him but I didn't really know what to expect. Safe to say the former Blur guitarist deserves to be crowned the king of indie as he delivered a great set, and his dry sense of humour charmed the crowd: "This is a new song, it might be in the charts by the time it takes you to walk to China and back." he says of 'Standing On My Own Again'.
Brittany and I wandered over to a packed NME/Radio 1 tent to catch the 2nd half of The Subways, who were ok at best but I couldn't get into their messy racket of so-called tunes, and bassist Charlotte's screeching vocals sound even more awful live than they ever did on cd. Someone drag them back into unsigned obscurity... please! I almost walked into Radio 1 DJ stick-insect Jo Whiley by accident (I snubbed a "celebrity" haha, go me) as we made our way into the Carling Tent to see The Paddingtons, there are obvious comparisions with The Libertines clear for everyone to see, but hopefully this band won't suffer from the stigma of the London scene. They played a delightfully energetic set and previous single 'Panic Attack' was my personal favourite, this five-piece are definitely ones to look out for in the future. Back outside in the late afternoon haze we saw most of The Coral's set on the main stage, but I have to say I was a little diappointed with the Liverpool band and they seemed to be lacking the spark that I'd expected... maybe it was because we were so far back, I don't know. We made it to back to the NME/Radio1 tent in plenty of time to see my must-see band of the day: The Cooper Temple Clause, I'd been talking them up all day to Brittany and I couldn't wait to see them. The Coopers made a triumphant return to their hometown as they played a storming set inlcuding 'Promises, Promises', 'Been Training Dogs', 'Blind Pilots', and for the finale, an electronica version of 'Panzer Attack' that teased the crowd without breaking into the full rawk monster of a tune that we know and love. It was a brave move but it payed off and The Coopers leave the crowd wanting more, as always. Another one of the high points of the set for me was a new song called 'Damage', it's a cracking tune and it gives me great hope for the new album, simply amazing.
After The Coopers, we joined the massive crowd at the main stage in time for The Killers. It was the 3rd time I'd seen them live, they've got some great tunes and I was really enjoying their set... until during arguably their weakest song , namely 'Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll', they almost commited musicial suicide in my eyes by slagging off Idlewild: "It's indie rock and roll for me, Idlewild's all I need." Brandon Flowers sings smugly in retaliation to an off-hand comment by Roddy Woomble in the NME about The Killers being overrated. Get. Over. Yourselves. Stick to ranting about The Bravery, at least they deserve it, haha. Next we dashed over to the Carling tent just in time to see Charlotte Hatherley start her set. She put on a good performance and we were treated to the respective videos for 'Summer' and 'Bastardo' on a screen behind her when she performed those songs. But Charlotte surprised everyone when she indtroduced "special guest" Graham Coxon to the stage during 'Stop', it was definitely a 'were you there?' moment, great stuff. We watched the Pixies for a bit after that, but it was very very cold and so we decided to go back to the tent early. Legends or not, we weren't going to freeze to death for anyone. :-p
We were awake early again on Saturday and just laid in the tent, drifting in and out of sleep until dashing the Radio 1/NME tent at midday to get a good position for Editors. I'd heard a couple of their singles and thought they were good but not that special. However, they totally blew away the cobwebs and were amazing live; at all the previous festivals I've been to, I don't think I've seen such a good performance that early in the day. Buoyed by the terrific performance we'd just witnessed, we popped over to see Senses Fail (who happen to be from Brittany's hometown in Florida) on the Lock Up Stage, which was in the tent adjacent to where we'd just been. Their emo/punk sound completely contrasted to the moody, atmospheric music of Editors, but I enjoyed it a lot. Next we saw the 1st half of The Cribs in the Radio 1/NME tent and then the 1st half of Biffy Clyro on the main stage, who were also both very good. I dragged Brittany back into the Radio 1/NME tent to see Nine Black Alps, they'd impressed me during their performance as support band for Idlewild at the recent gig at Somerset House, and they impressed me once again, it was all good so far. We dropped into a bit of a lull as we saw some of Million Dead, who were pretty poor, on the Lock Up stage, and then Dinosaur Jr and The Charlatans on the Main stage, who were ok but not particularly exciting.
We saw 10 minutes of Adam Bloom's act in the Comedy Tent and then we managed to make it right to the front to see Caesars in the Carling Tent. They were so much better than I expected and an energetic set including 'Only You' and hit single 'Jerk It Out' sparked us into life again and made us look forward to the rest of the evening. We caught 5 minutes of Arcade Fire in the Radio 1/NME tent, but Brittany wanted to see Sleater Kinney as she'd heard one of their songs and liekd it, and we were soon back in the Carling Tent. What can I say? They were possibly one of the worst bands I have ever had the misfortune to see live, and we only stayed for one and a half songs. At a loss at what to do next, we headed to the Lock Up Stage to see Anti-Flag, Brittany said she used to like them but didn't know what they would be like now. By the end of their set they'd got us hooked; one song called 'Die For Your Government' in particular was screamo-punk rock genius, rarr! \m/ We stayed at the edge of the crowd at the Lock Up stage to see hardcore punk veterans Bad Religion who were as brilliant as I'd hoped, but we left halfway though make our way through the massive crowd for the Foo Fighters. We couldn't get any further forward than level with the sound stage in front of the Main Stage as it was absolutely packed. The crowd was buzzing and when the band broke into opening song 'In Your Honour', everyone went wild and there's a surge of 20 to 30 people in a line past us and the calmer section of the crowd in the push to get to the front. Brittany and I held our positions and enjoyed a great set of Foo Fighters' greatest hits: everything from 'Stacked Actors' to recent single 'DOA'. The Foos rocked Reading like no other, and Dave Grohl was met with rapturous applause and a roar from the crowd as he declared: "I fucking love Reading so much! I’ve been to so many festivals but this is the only one I love, the others suck!" We witnessed another 'were you there?' moment as Grohl swapped roles with Taylor Hawkins on ’Cold Day In The Sun’ and played drums for the "first time since 1992", that was a nice touch. They finished with storming performances of 'Enough Space' and then 'Monkey Wrench', it doesn't get much better than this, awesome!
Sunday was the last day of the festival *le sigh*, but we still had loads to look forward too (and a few surprises along the way). Firstly we decided to watch Alkaline Trio on the main stage, but we left before the end of their set as they weren't that great and we made our way over to the NME/Radio 1 tent to see The Rakes. I was dissapointed when I saw that only 3 out the 4 band members came onstage, and then guitarist Matthew Swinnerton announced that singer Alan Donohoe wasn't able to perform as we has ill. To appease the crowd, he said that they would be playing anyway and they'd have some special guests on later to help out, and that was met with a loud cheer from the crowd. The band did really well without their main vocalist / frontman, and Matthew's singing was impressive considering he probably didn't have that much time to practise. Towards the end of the set, Matthew indroduced the first special guest as "Russell from Bloc Party!", which was met with rapturous applause and cheering from the crowd. For the penultimate song, Matthew introduced the next special guest as "Paul (the singer) from Maxio Park!", which was met with an even louder cheer from the crowd. Paul then sang lead vocals on a storming version of 'Strasbourg', and I didn't think it could get any better. But then for the last song Matthew introduced "Gordon from Bloc Party and Donny from Towers of London!" onto a crowded stage for a chaotically magnificent performance of '22 Grad Job', the whole of The Rakes' set was another 'were you there?' moment, utterly brilliant. During the next two hours we got some food and water and tried to avoid listening to the shockingly bad Funeral For A Friend on the main stage, I tried to give them a chance but they were really awful.
Back in a packed NME/Radio 1 tent, Brittany and I were eagerly anticipating the arrival of Maximo Park. They were brilliant, 'Graffiti' and 'Going Missing' especially were amazing live, the angsty-ndie rockers are definitely one of my favourite bands right now. Next we decided to watch The Rifles in the Carling tent, they were pretty good and kept the day ticking along nicely. We were soon back at our favoured tent/stage, the NME/Radio tent to see the awesome British Sea Power. The stage was decked out with foliage of course and the band played a typically chaotic and brilliant set, climaxing in a wall of sound during the last song as a bear (a guy in a bear suit) wanders onstage and the band proceed to attack it in turn, singer Yan even attempts a drop-kick! BSP were at their eccentric best, and I loved every minute. We dared to watch 5 minutes of Marylin Manson from right at the back of the crowd in front of the Main stage before heading off to the Carling tent once again to see Engineers. I'd only heard one of their songs before but I thought they were pretty good, the best way I can describe their music is "intense indie", stirring stuff indeed. We went back to the NME/Radio 1 tent again(!) to see The Futureheads, who were ok, but we left after the first 3 songs, which all sounded the same. We went to the Carling tent again after getting a tip from Brittany's sister Abby, who told us to see Adam Green, one half of The Moldy Peaches. This guy was the embodiment of eccentricity, BSP have got some competition I tell you! Green's set was brilliant, he played everything from 'Jessica' (a scathing attack on Jessica Simpson), through to the amusing 'Bunnyranch' (where he got two girls to get onstage with him and hop around like rabbits), and he even played an fantastic acoustic version of 'What A Waster' by The Libertines. His performance was definitely an unexpected delight, and I was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did, having never heard of him before. Our last band of the weekend were the much-lauded Bloc Party in the NME/Radio 1 tent. Even though an idiot climbing one of the support posts 10 minutes into the set threatened to ruin everyone's night by causing the band to have to stop (a safety issue as the guy could've fallen, it brought back memories of when someone did exactly the same thing during Embrace's Saturday headline slot in 2000); diplomatic pleading from Kele and chants of "WANKER! WANKER! WANKER!" and finger-pointing from the crowd persuaded the miscreant to climb down. Normal service was resumed and the band played a triumphant set to a euphoric crowd to close the festival in style, fantastic!
This was possibly my favourite Reading Festival ever; watching great bands and having a special someone to share it all with, it doesn't get better than this... until next year! ;-)
Click the link below for a tale of 4 days in a field in darkest Berkshire on the last weekend in August...
Brittany and I arrived in Reading just after lunchtime on the Thursday and made the arduous trek from the station to the campsite, picking our way through the crowds of other festival-types that were lining the streets. This was Brittany's first festival and my first as being part of a couple, so we were both really looking forward to it. After wandering over to Orange camp (where I camped last year) and trying to call John on his mobile several times, we eventually ended up in Yellow camp after John called me asking why I hadn't called him (!) and directed us to where they were camped (you can see our tent in the poster of the Reading festival site in last weeks NME). The weather had been fairly pleasant so far that afternoon, but it was sod's law that when I tried to put the tent up we were caught in a gale and a couple of flash rainstorms, gah. I finally managed to set the tent up and Brittany and I sheltered inside, fairly warm and dry. After the rain stopped we had a drink with the others and then we left to get our wristbands and made a trip to Tescos to stock up on supplies: Haribo, Kettle Chips, Jaffa cakes, Lager, Cider, blackcurrant (can you see where this is heading? haha). When we got back to the tent we took the initiative of the others and made our own Snakebite and black, tasty. As the evening wore on, John and Dave got progressively more drunk than anyone else and shouted "Scream for me Reading!" at every available opportunity, haha. I just rolled my eyes and ate another jaffa cake.
On Friday morning everyone else from our group disappeared off into town to get a fried breakfast, Brittany and I just made do with cereal bars, juice, and milk... at £1.50 for a pint! What a rip-off! Still, I needed my morning calcium hit so I had to go for a pint of the white stuff. We got into the arena just after midday and after looking around some of the stalls we got near to the front at the main stage to watch our fist band of the weekend; Welsh chav comedy hip-hop group Goldie Lookin Chain. The GLC are a novelty, they're always entertaining and funny, but a couple of their song fall a little flat. Even so, 'Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do', new song 'Can I Fuck Your Sister?', and the bouncy sing-along 'Your Mother's Got A Penis' are the highlights and we start the day off happy and with stupid grins on our faces. :-p We stayed at the main stage to watch rock'n'roll journeymen The Wedding Present, who were decent enough but neither of us were that impressed. Graham Coxon was next up on the main stage, I was looking forward to seeing him but I didn't really know what to expect. Safe to say the former Blur guitarist deserves to be crowned the king of indie as he delivered a great set, and his dry sense of humour charmed the crowd: "This is a new song, it might be in the charts by the time it takes you to walk to China and back." he says of 'Standing On My Own Again'.
Brittany and I wandered over to a packed NME/Radio 1 tent to catch the 2nd half of The Subways, who were ok at best but I couldn't get into their messy racket of so-called tunes, and bassist Charlotte's screeching vocals sound even more awful live than they ever did on cd. Someone drag them back into unsigned obscurity... please! I almost walked into Radio 1 DJ stick-insect Jo Whiley by accident (I snubbed a "celebrity" haha, go me) as we made our way into the Carling Tent to see The Paddingtons, there are obvious comparisions with The Libertines clear for everyone to see, but hopefully this band won't suffer from the stigma of the London scene. They played a delightfully energetic set and previous single 'Panic Attack' was my personal favourite, this five-piece are definitely ones to look out for in the future. Back outside in the late afternoon haze we saw most of The Coral's set on the main stage, but I have to say I was a little diappointed with the Liverpool band and they seemed to be lacking the spark that I'd expected... maybe it was because we were so far back, I don't know. We made it to back to the NME/Radio1 tent in plenty of time to see my must-see band of the day: The Cooper Temple Clause, I'd been talking them up all day to Brittany and I couldn't wait to see them. The Coopers made a triumphant return to their hometown as they played a storming set inlcuding 'Promises, Promises', 'Been Training Dogs', 'Blind Pilots', and for the finale, an electronica version of 'Panzer Attack' that teased the crowd without breaking into the full rawk monster of a tune that we know and love. It was a brave move but it payed off and The Coopers leave the crowd wanting more, as always. Another one of the high points of the set for me was a new song called 'Damage', it's a cracking tune and it gives me great hope for the new album, simply amazing.
After The Coopers, we joined the massive crowd at the main stage in time for The Killers. It was the 3rd time I'd seen them live, they've got some great tunes and I was really enjoying their set... until during arguably their weakest song , namely 'Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll', they almost commited musicial suicide in my eyes by slagging off Idlewild: "It's indie rock and roll for me, Idlewild's all I need." Brandon Flowers sings smugly in retaliation to an off-hand comment by Roddy Woomble in the NME about The Killers being overrated. Get. Over. Yourselves. Stick to ranting about The Bravery, at least they deserve it, haha. Next we dashed over to the Carling tent just in time to see Charlotte Hatherley start her set. She put on a good performance and we were treated to the respective videos for 'Summer' and 'Bastardo' on a screen behind her when she performed those songs. But Charlotte surprised everyone when she indtroduced "special guest" Graham Coxon to the stage during 'Stop', it was definitely a 'were you there?' moment, great stuff. We watched the Pixies for a bit after that, but it was very very cold and so we decided to go back to the tent early. Legends or not, we weren't going to freeze to death for anyone. :-p
We were awake early again on Saturday and just laid in the tent, drifting in and out of sleep until dashing the Radio 1/NME tent at midday to get a good position for Editors. I'd heard a couple of their singles and thought they were good but not that special. However, they totally blew away the cobwebs and were amazing live; at all the previous festivals I've been to, I don't think I've seen such a good performance that early in the day. Buoyed by the terrific performance we'd just witnessed, we popped over to see Senses Fail (who happen to be from Brittany's hometown in Florida) on the Lock Up Stage, which was in the tent adjacent to where we'd just been. Their emo/punk sound completely contrasted to the moody, atmospheric music of Editors, but I enjoyed it a lot. Next we saw the 1st half of The Cribs in the Radio 1/NME tent and then the 1st half of Biffy Clyro on the main stage, who were also both very good. I dragged Brittany back into the Radio 1/NME tent to see Nine Black Alps, they'd impressed me during their performance as support band for Idlewild at the recent gig at Somerset House, and they impressed me once again, it was all good so far. We dropped into a bit of a lull as we saw some of Million Dead, who were pretty poor, on the Lock Up stage, and then Dinosaur Jr and The Charlatans on the Main stage, who were ok but not particularly exciting.
We saw 10 minutes of Adam Bloom's act in the Comedy Tent and then we managed to make it right to the front to see Caesars in the Carling Tent. They were so much better than I expected and an energetic set including 'Only You' and hit single 'Jerk It Out' sparked us into life again and made us look forward to the rest of the evening. We caught 5 minutes of Arcade Fire in the Radio 1/NME tent, but Brittany wanted to see Sleater Kinney as she'd heard one of their songs and liekd it, and we were soon back in the Carling Tent. What can I say? They were possibly one of the worst bands I have ever had the misfortune to see live, and we only stayed for one and a half songs. At a loss at what to do next, we headed to the Lock Up Stage to see Anti-Flag, Brittany said she used to like them but didn't know what they would be like now. By the end of their set they'd got us hooked; one song called 'Die For Your Government' in particular was screamo-punk rock genius, rarr! \m/ We stayed at the edge of the crowd at the Lock Up stage to see hardcore punk veterans Bad Religion who were as brilliant as I'd hoped, but we left halfway though make our way through the massive crowd for the Foo Fighters. We couldn't get any further forward than level with the sound stage in front of the Main Stage as it was absolutely packed. The crowd was buzzing and when the band broke into opening song 'In Your Honour', everyone went wild and there's a surge of 20 to 30 people in a line past us and the calmer section of the crowd in the push to get to the front. Brittany and I held our positions and enjoyed a great set of Foo Fighters' greatest hits: everything from 'Stacked Actors' to recent single 'DOA'. The Foos rocked Reading like no other, and Dave Grohl was met with rapturous applause and a roar from the crowd as he declared: "I fucking love Reading so much! I’ve been to so many festivals but this is the only one I love, the others suck!" We witnessed another 'were you there?' moment as Grohl swapped roles with Taylor Hawkins on ’Cold Day In The Sun’ and played drums for the "first time since 1992", that was a nice touch. They finished with storming performances of 'Enough Space' and then 'Monkey Wrench', it doesn't get much better than this, awesome!
Sunday was the last day of the festival *le sigh*, but we still had loads to look forward too (and a few surprises along the way). Firstly we decided to watch Alkaline Trio on the main stage, but we left before the end of their set as they weren't that great and we made our way over to the NME/Radio 1 tent to see The Rakes. I was dissapointed when I saw that only 3 out the 4 band members came onstage, and then guitarist Matthew Swinnerton announced that singer Alan Donohoe wasn't able to perform as we has ill. To appease the crowd, he said that they would be playing anyway and they'd have some special guests on later to help out, and that was met with a loud cheer from the crowd. The band did really well without their main vocalist / frontman, and Matthew's singing was impressive considering he probably didn't have that much time to practise. Towards the end of the set, Matthew indroduced the first special guest as "Russell from Bloc Party!", which was met with rapturous applause and cheering from the crowd. For the penultimate song, Matthew introduced the next special guest as "Paul (the singer) from Maxio Park!", which was met with an even louder cheer from the crowd. Paul then sang lead vocals on a storming version of 'Strasbourg', and I didn't think it could get any better. But then for the last song Matthew introduced "Gordon from Bloc Party and Donny from Towers of London!" onto a crowded stage for a chaotically magnificent performance of '22 Grad Job', the whole of The Rakes' set was another 'were you there?' moment, utterly brilliant. During the next two hours we got some food and water and tried to avoid listening to the shockingly bad Funeral For A Friend on the main stage, I tried to give them a chance but they were really awful.
Back in a packed NME/Radio 1 tent, Brittany and I were eagerly anticipating the arrival of Maximo Park. They were brilliant, 'Graffiti' and 'Going Missing' especially were amazing live, the angsty-ndie rockers are definitely one of my favourite bands right now. Next we decided to watch The Rifles in the Carling tent, they were pretty good and kept the day ticking along nicely. We were soon back at our favoured tent/stage, the NME/Radio tent to see the awesome British Sea Power. The stage was decked out with foliage of course and the band played a typically chaotic and brilliant set, climaxing in a wall of sound during the last song as a bear (a guy in a bear suit) wanders onstage and the band proceed to attack it in turn, singer Yan even attempts a drop-kick! BSP were at their eccentric best, and I loved every minute. We dared to watch 5 minutes of Marylin Manson from right at the back of the crowd in front of the Main stage before heading off to the Carling tent once again to see Engineers. I'd only heard one of their songs before but I thought they were pretty good, the best way I can describe their music is "intense indie", stirring stuff indeed. We went back to the NME/Radio 1 tent again(!) to see The Futureheads, who were ok, but we left after the first 3 songs, which all sounded the same. We went to the Carling tent again after getting a tip from Brittany's sister Abby, who told us to see Adam Green, one half of The Moldy Peaches. This guy was the embodiment of eccentricity, BSP have got some competition I tell you! Green's set was brilliant, he played everything from 'Jessica' (a scathing attack on Jessica Simpson), through to the amusing 'Bunnyranch' (where he got two girls to get onstage with him and hop around like rabbits), and he even played an fantastic acoustic version of 'What A Waster' by The Libertines. His performance was definitely an unexpected delight, and I was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did, having never heard of him before. Our last band of the weekend were the much-lauded Bloc Party in the NME/Radio 1 tent. Even though an idiot climbing one of the support posts 10 minutes into the set threatened to ruin everyone's night by causing the band to have to stop (a safety issue as the guy could've fallen, it brought back memories of when someone did exactly the same thing during Embrace's Saturday headline slot in 2000); diplomatic pleading from Kele and chants of "WANKER! WANKER! WANKER!" and finger-pointing from the crowd persuaded the miscreant to climb down. Normal service was resumed and the band played a triumphant set to a euphoric crowd to close the festival in style, fantastic!
This was possibly my favourite Reading Festival ever; watching great bands and having a special someone to share it all with, it doesn't get better than this... until next year! ;-)