Reading Festival 2008
So, another festival is over. Not a great one this year in all fairness.
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Went to exchange my ticket for a wristband on the Thursday and found the signs for the exchange were absolutely dire. In fact we only saw one and the only place you could see it was AFTER you’d been through the exchange tent. Not good enough…
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Friday
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Got up late and really could not get motivated to get to the site. As a result missed Future of the Left and Barry Castagnola. Can’t remember why I missed Mitch Benn, but I did.
Missed Vampire Weekend too as they clashed with Queens of the Stone Age. Really gutted to hear that Vampire Weekend’s set was one of the best of the weekend as QotSA they weren’t all that great this year. It was alright, but I’ve seen them play better. Ended up going to see Does It Offend You, Yeah? with some friends even though I hate them (the band, not my friends). It’s safe to say I still cannot stand DIOYY. They may be local, but their on-stage banter is utter tripe and their music does nothing for me. Stayed around the Festival Republic tent for Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - MUCH more like it! They were genuinely happy that people had come to see them while Rage Against the Machine were playing. Not a hard choice for me, I’m in the minority of RatM haters. I cannot stand Zack de la Rocha as I think he’s way too hypocritical to be doing a lot of that political stuff on stage and his voice grates. I don’t mind their music, but it all sounds exactly the same. I hadn’t realised until I found myself singing along to “Bulls on Parade” on GHIII with the words to another of their songs… Walked back through the main road which handily was an actual road this year as they’ve moved it all about. Nice and mud-free which made a change.
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Saturday
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Didn’t have to get in that early on the Saturday which was a definite bonus. I did miss Milton Jones though which was a real shame. Wandered in through the Orange campsite using my new shortcut (15 minute walk - whee!) and choked on the smoke from the White CarPark fire. Saw some of Seasick Steve’s set, but the sound in the NME tent was really bad. I could hardly hear anything and further in there were too many idiots. I’ve seen him quite a bit over the last couple of years so decided to go for a wander. The shops are total trash these days which is a shame. Just as all town centres are becoming clones, as are the festival shops. Caught a bit of Jason Rouse’s set, did not laugh once. Found it completely unfunny, so sauntered off again. The people working in the arena were incredibly miserable this year. Makes me wonder if they’ve been given a huge paycut as everyone was happy last year. Even the people at The Fine Burger Co. practically threw my burger at me whilst having a bitch with each other in foreign tongues. I was really disappointed.
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Moved up to the main stage and met up with Janine for The Raconteurs. They mostly played stuff from their new album which I really love, but I much preferred them in the smaller tent. Stayed around for Bloc Party. Enjoyable, but a little dull for some of their set sadly. Went out to the Yellow camp bar with the free beer vouchers Simpson had thieved worked hard for.
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Sunday
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Didn’t get to sleep until 04:30 which well and truly scuppered plans to see Robots in Disguise, the headache didn’t help either. Got a text from my mate to say her tent had been trampled by idiots during the yellow camp ‘riots’ in the night, she’d gone back to her car this morning to find it was one of the ones in the big fire and was burnt out. Understandably as she was ill anyway and none of the bands had been that great so far she decided to call it quits and leave. As I understand it Festival republic paid for their cab fares home. I cannot believe this happened. They’re saying it was an accident, but I find it very hard to believe as the fire was reported by people in the campsite who saw the massive column of black smoke when the fire had already claimed a couple of cars. If it was an accident and started by a BBQ I cannot help but think it would’ve been reported much earlier on and caused nowhere near as much damage. I felt totally helpless as I couldn’t think of anything I could do to help her out. I don’t like bad things happening to my friends
I got to the main arena entrance while Hadouken! still had about 15 minutes left in their set. Unfortunately I then got trapped in a mass of people who decided they were going to stand still for the next 20 minutes… So I missed the only band I was desperate to see all weekend. They were fantastic last year and from what I’ve heard they were just as good if not better this year. To say I’m gutted I missed them is an understatement. Ended up meeting people outside the NME tent anyway and stayed there for Pendulum’s set. Would’ve been better had I been able to get in the tent I think. Still, was the first band I’d seen all weekend (except Dan & Scroob) that I was glad I got there for. After that I headed to the main stage for Tenacious D. OK, so they were filling a lot of time (silly bands pulling out at the last second), and yeah it was blatantly all scripted. It was still damn fun though. Enjoyed their set a lot. Wandered about some more, saw a few minutes of Metallica. Seen em loads of times before and I still don’t like them. Really just not for me. Found some people, failed to find some other people. Went back to the bar with the last voucher. Walked back through the smog that was Orange campsite.
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Bought my 2009 ticket this morning.
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(Excuse the pathetic dots everywhere, WP is refusing to let me use any line breaks).
Originally published at Chaos-23. You can comment here or there.