Reading Festival

HERE WE FUCKING GO.

Aye the Angles fillers are fucking up da flow a bit. They could easily play a set of wall to wall classix

LIKE WHATEVER HAPPENED. BANG!

BANG!

Gone a bit kareoke ere eh lol

Pulp looked top class again. Fuck I wanna see them again.

Had a top weekend at Reading, totally different feel to the place comparted to T in the Park, or even to any of the big outdoor gigs I've been to in England tbh, anyway...

Friday kicked off with a packed NME tent (as a result of the pishin rain) watching Pulled Apart By Horses. What a way to kick off the festival, always good value, the couple new ones they played had all of the deranged riff-beast qualities of their earlier stuff. 9/10

Islet were ok, a bit haphazard and clumsy but very watchable and impressive songs. 6/10

Then went to see Miles Kane who was better than I had expected, hadn't heard much of him since the Rascals, but his solo stuff seems to be far superior and he really seems a natural frontman these days. Remember Inhaler and Rearrange being tunes in particular. 8/10

Cerebral Ballzy's frontman was pretty drunk. "This is party, maaaan. A fuckin' paaaaarty" was about the only banter, being said at least once after about every whirlwind punk track dispatched ruthlessly by the tight-as-fuck band with the lyrics being slur-rapped by their frontman. This was no bad thing tho, suited their sound and style completely. Played about 20 tunes in half an hour. 7/10

After Ballzy'd finished, went to the Main stage to see Rise Against, who played some standard punk which was a bit self-serious. 510

Have wanted to see Deftones for years and was worried they might disappoint. Needn't have worried though, as Chino seems to be in one of his thin phases so was every inch an unstoppably energetic frontman. Played a good balance of their metal and shoegaze stuff, even unfortunate 2000 nu-metal crossover embarressment Back to School sounded semi-decent among such a strong set. You've Seen the Butcher, Be Quiet and Drive and My Own Summer were all fucking incredible. 9/10

The Offspring pulled a huge crowd, and were largely pretty boring (some of their songs, must be the newer ones, sound very Coldplay-ish bizarrely). That said, their last five songs were Pretty Fly for a White Guy, Why Don't You Get a Job, Want you bad, Kids aren't alright and Self-esteem, all of which are brilliant power pop and got the largest crowd of the day so far totally involved. They look old as fuck. 6/10

Noah and the Whale's best song is Five Years Time. and probably will always be if they continue down the "epic" route of slow-building 'Only By The Night'/Killers-esque take on folk. Need to bring back the fun. Tonights the Kinda Night and another song Love like an Orchestra were pretty good though. 5/10

30 Seconds To Mars are terrible. I'm sure you are as aware of this as I am, but either way I caught the final 20 minutes of their laboured histrionic actor-plays-rockstar rubbish as a mate wanted to see them. Real shite. 1/10

White Lies had packed the NME tent to the point where loads of folk were standing outside looking in. Was worried I wouldn't get to see Beady Eye from a decent distance. Once White Lies were finished however, the crowd about halved, unfortunate but true. Beady Eye were great, all the stuff at the beginning of the setlist is the strongest though, their set will get stronger with albums. Was just great to hear Liam's voice back on top form, and songs like The Roller and Standing on the Edge of the Noise sound about ten times better live than on the album. Four Letter Word is still as big an explosion every time I hear it as it was the first, and it was the perfect opener to a confident rock n roll set. 8/10.


Started out Saturday by watching Teenage Bottlerocket, who are far from teenage these days but still made a bouncy enough Green Day-ish noise without ever really having that killer pop tune in their set. 5/10.

Maybe in a couple of years, co-fronted by Earl Sweatshirt, with an excellent soundman and a niftier DJ than Syd, Odd Future will be the greatest live hip-hop spectacle available. Right now, they are flawed, but the highs they hit are real highs. Mellowhype started the set with 64, and French, Sandwiches and Go Mike G were all mega, and their banter and energy is unquestionable, but bookmarking their set with Drop and Earl just underlines how much better they stand to be. 7/10

Mariachi El Bronx are The Bronx's mariachi band alter ego, and their set was a nice middle-of-the-day change of pace with some ambling mariachi tunes with lyrics ranging Pablo Escobar, clowns and imprisoned friends. 7/10

Missed the start of Madness, but enjoyed hearing a Madness greatest hits set more than I thought I would, played a cover of I Chase The Devil also. 6/10

Jimmy Eat World started off a bit slowly, and the wind blew their sound about a bit, but about 4 songs in they came flying out of the traps and played loads of their best tunes, big singalongs for Sweetness and The Middle. Didn't do much on stage, but with their tunes that didn't matter. 8/10

Saw more than half of Glassjaw after Jimmy, and well, Glassjaw are a weird fucking band these days. Obviously talented guys, but I think they're enjoying their new stuff more than anyone else, jazz-hardcore weirdness that it is. Gillette Cavalcade and Ape Dos Mil offof Worship and Tribute was a redemptive last couple though. 7/10

Saw a bit of Bombay Bicycle Club, don't get the love for them at all, the singer looks like a thin David Mitchell and their tunes make Vampire Weekend seem like Pantera. 2/10

The Bronx played the best set of the weekend for me. Breakneck sleazy punk with a pop knack and warped storytelling and anthemics throughout their lyrics, they are the total package on record and live they were even better. Knifeman, Inveigh and Heart Attack American were highlights for me, although there wasn't even one slight disappointment in the set. Plus the crowd were great. I recommend the band and their live shows to anyone. 10/10

Missed the start of Pulp due to the Bronx being incredible, caught them halfway through Mis-Shapes. Mostly the same set I saw them play at Hyde Park, absolute tunes all the way, only difference this time was Richard Hawley coming back in to play some electric/slide guitar. Humungous headline show, Sunrise, Disco 2000, Underwear, This Is Hardcore and obviously Common People, all class. 9/10.

Fucked Up were my second favourite hardcore-punk-band-fronted-by-fat-cunt that I've seen all year next to Les Savy Fav, decent opening to the Sunday. 7/10

I was totally surprised by just how good Best Coast were. I like a couple of their songs but always figured a whole album/set would be annoying as fuck, but instead it was half an hour plus of shoegaze, pop and riffs perfect for the summer, charming enough banter aswell, real surprise. 9/10

Cage The Elephant drew a huge crowd, for reasons unknown to me. Their songs sound either like a hip-hop take on the Stones, or exactly like the Pixies, those are the concrete two types of tunes they have, and the Pixies ones are slightly better. Didn't quite deserve the massive crowd they got, but were inoffensive enough. 6/10

I saw Enter Shikari five years ago when they started out and they had a few good ideas and one killer song in Sorry You're Not a Winner, here in 2011 things are exactly the same. I always hope they'll bring a bit more of the Oasis influence into their sound (they formed as an Oasis covers band), but no, always just a predominantly bad trance/hardcore crossover. Sorry You're Not a Winner was top though. 5/10

Friendly Fires were ace, perfect for a festival. Some seriously white dancing from the frontman amused throughout and hula dancers came onstage for Hawaiian Air. 8/10

Interpol were the same as when I saw them in November, decent but always boring to watch. Most notable thing was that its the first time I've seen any of those sharply dressed cunts dressing down, Paul Banks had a trackie on. 7/10

Elbow should play more from their first three albums, but other than that, no complaint. 8/10

Left their set a bit early though, to see The Streets in what could possibly be their second-last gig ever Fit But You Know It and Dry Your Eyes were predictably received in a huge manner, but OMG and Heaven for the Weather got the rammed-full tent going as well. Going Through Hell has grown on me as well, always been a favourite live act of mine, gonna be really missed. 9/10

Before reading my take on things, folk will know whether or not they'd enjoy a Muse set. For me, it was every inch the overblown monster riff-fest I'd hoped for, all of Origin of Symettry was played, which was genius, and a second half of recent singles, which was a bit less impressive but still a pretty trim selection of hits. The band themselves don't have much presence and never have, but the flamethrowers/fireworks/jets of smoke etc although cliched are still a bit of good fuckin fun. Best time I've seen them, less likely to go and see them now that they've retired Origin, but glad I got to see and hear those songs played. 9/10

Good review Hepburn. I noticed as well from the telly that Paul Banks was sporting an adidas zipper, didn't seem quite right. Didn't make their set any more exciting though.

Seems Mike Skinner was on form again. His set at Glasto was huge. Really gonna miss him

Tbh though, it's a bit flat live

Their set is on iPlayers btw

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0146fq1/Reading_and_Leeds_Festival_2011_Pulp/

Is it? Never seem em live.

*grunge guitars* WHEN DID YOU FIRST REALISE, IT'S TIME YOU TOOK AN OLDER LOVER BABY. How can that fail? I just. don't. get. it.

Just bitter cos I found most of their album tracks a bit of a bore tbh. Didn't play Razzmatazz or Lipgloss either, the shithouses. Mate was there and wanked himself into a social network coma over them though, so who am I to comment, here at my little computer.

Well I suppose saying it's always flat is a bit harsh tbh, but it certainly doesn't go over like a Disco 2000 or Babies. It just gets a bit of half-arsed singing and a bit of head-nodding, with the sense that everyone can't wait for the next tune

See also: The Trees

Disclaimer - One loves both, though. What what

Btw, why's welshy gone?

Get fucked tapes!

Have Rob and Stuart from The Music been playing guitar/bass on all of this Streets tour?

Just watched the highlights of their set on the BBC website. Really wish i'd seen them more than twice. Caught them on their first tour and then doing Leeds Festival in 2005 and they were incredible live.

Aye, I saw them in Glasgow earlier in the year and they were both there, Rob Harvey doing loads of vocals.

At Reading, Rob was much more just backing vocals and guitars bar a couple of tracks. And he was wearing what looked like a blouse.

no vaccines or two door cinema club reviews.

should be ashamed the lot of ya.

Get ya face out big bollox and then you can use it to look down on others.

green day was HUGE last night.

looking forward to the chili peppers tomorrow ax man.