Reading festival roundup...

This is from weekend before Nigeria...

After an exhausting week in Amsterdam, we (Juliet Tim Ian and Andrew) traipsed from Gatwick to Farley via Reading (to drop off our bags) and then, joined by Harry (juliet's brother) back to Reading.

The first surprise was the smallish size of the fields; the whole festival was much more compact than V-festival, which sprawled for kilometers. The crowd was also much less gritty-northern-beer-drinker and more hipster (also, more teenagers). I suspect that this was because of the festival's close proximity to London.

So we got there around 5pm, which was later than I wanted to get there (I had been a bit antsy all afternoon, rushing people). But the only notable bands that we missed were Gogol Bordello and Guillemots.

The first band we went to see were Belle +Sebastian, whom I was completely unimpressed by. Andrew had been raving about their live show for months, but the problem is that live or recorded, they sound completely wishy-washy...Soft, no edge or interesting-nes, just sugary melody.

Then the yeah yeah yeahs came on the main stage, which was mildly entertaining. Music is rather crap (hmm, I'm being pretty critical in this review) but the lead singer wore neat sparkly iguana like outfits and masks.

Then came the Kaiser-Chiefs, who have a few good songs but resort to obnoxious crowd ordering (raise your hands. Dance. Lower hands. Raise them again. Simon say...) and formulaic songs with far too many 'woaahs'.

But Franz Ferdinand saved the day, with a blistering headline set. Tight playing from start (Michael) to encore (outsiders), and neat flourish of guest drummers during the encore. Good songs, good show. Not spectacular, but fun. We had a great view -- maybe four rows back, and we managed to more or less stay together through the surge and sway of the crowd (packed like sardines, you often don't have a choice about where you go...like being battered by human waves. Although it was tight, the crowd was peaceful, not frenzied. We did, however, lose Tim and Ian after a surge toward the end of the set, but we were reunited when the crowd dissipated.

After that it was a long walk to the taxi, and then back to Farley, where we all promptly crashed to sleep.
Next day we woke up 'early' and made our leisurely way to Reading by 2pm. We setup our yellow blanket some distance from the main stage and lounged in the sun all afternoon (the weekend was mercifully rain-free). Tim and I wandered around chatting to random people, and Ian went off to meet up with a cousin who lives in Reading (which set the stage for the only problem of the weekend).

Vaguely listened to The Cribs, who sounded good, but we didn't really pay attention. Ran into the crowd to watch The Futureheads, who were v. disappointing. I had been impressed by their second album, but live they just weren't interesting or entertaining -- instead they did obnoxious crowd-commanding (ego trip).

Dirty Pretty Things, the followup, were the perfect antidote to the futureheads, playing stomping, raw versions of their songs with no-nonsense. Got in close and had a great view in the crowd.

After dpt finished, we failed to meetup with Ian, because of a combination of bad planning (Ian didn't want to make a plan ahead of time), bad thinking (my on the spot plan of 'icecream stand' proved flawed...there were six in the main area alone), and bad luck (cell phone network was down). After a while of guarding icecream stands, we gave up (it turns out that he never got the message and instead was waiting by mexican stands).

So, sans Ian, we headed off to see Clap Your Hands, who weren't on the main stage but were on a tent stage. The show wasn't as fantastic as the concert in march -- the tent was too big, the atmosphere wasn't the same (no light-man!), but it was pretty good nonetheless.

Back to teh main stage to catch The Streets, who were thoroughly mediocre...ironic hip hop doesn't work so well in a festival. Lots of crowd bossing. which Tim and I disobeyed and were chastised by a cute girl "are you british? Do you speak english" -- even if were foreigners, it was pretty obvious that the whole crowd was crouching...We just chose to disobey. At least he finished with "Fit But You Know It".

After he finished, we immediately plunged into the crowd to get a good spot for the Arctic Monkeys. The crowd was absurdly dense, making the Franz Ferdinand crowd look like a midnight subway carriage. Forcing our way through the wall of people, we got to a good spot maybe 8 rows back. When the arctic monkeys came on it was absurd...The crowd went crazy, wildly bouncing up and down against each other. We were surged a bit back where things were a tiny bit more calm, but still hectic,and we formed a box where we bouncing for the whole show. It was great, the crowd was enthusiastic (knew all the lyrics to every song) and the band were more 'tight' and full than on the album. Threw Juliet up into the air...

We had to recover for a few minutes after the show, but soon we were ready to go, running around full speed, then grooving outside The Fratellis tent show. Tim chatted up some teenage girls (and I'm being generous).

The final show we saw was The Raconteurs, on a tent stage not the main stage. They were a great way to close the evening, with Jack Black's (of White Stripes fame) ridiculous solos and great coves of other bands' songs, including Nancy Sinatra's 'bang bang', 'teenage kicks', and bowie's It ain't easy. More throwing juliet into the air. There was an obnoxious dancer next to us...she was so bad it made me want to throw up. Doing cheerleader moves completely out of tune with the music...I've never seen anyone that bad. But she didn't bother us, and we had a great time.

Then it was all over and we wearily made our way to the taxi area, where we met up with Ian shortly after I nearly got in a fight with a couple of piss-drunk poles who were harassing Juliet -- Tim and Juliet both jumped up too, but another, older, polish guy pulled them away.

Back at Farley, we didn't do anything but Tim, Juliet and I chatted and relaxed until nearly 3am, still full of energy fro the shows...