Go to Reading Festival

We’ve been lucky with the weather for the past few years but this year it was really windy, pretty cold and occasionally wet.

I got injured on Saturday. I got caught up in the horrendous crush after the Prodigy on Saturday night – people were literally going in all directions and there were frightening crowd surges. I thought I may go under at a couple of points but managed somehow to stay on my feet. Unfortunately my crutches were caught by the crowd and pulled this way and that – one crutch even lost the ferrule that is stuck tightly on the end. I came out nearly 20 minutes later feeling really shaken and felt I may have pulled some muscles in my back or arms so I went back to my tent and laid down for the rest of the evening’s shows and got up when people started returning at the end of the night. Alcoholic muscle relaxants were then consumed.

There was an amazing thing that happened in that crowd of tens of thousands – when I was struggling to stay where I was (ie upright and vaguely moving in the direction I wanted) – a security guard appeared out of nowhere and managed to get me out to the disabled exit that I was headed to. I had taken nearly 15 minutes to get about 50m from where I started but he got me the final 50m in just a few minutes more – people were actually letting us through fairly easily whereas previously we had both struggled in the crowd. I can’t imagine just how low the chances of him passing by me were but boy was I really happy to see him.

The next morning my right shoulder was feeling a bit tender and during the day got stiffer and stiffer. Once I couldn’t lift my arm enough to drink my can of Kopparberg (again as an attempt for muscle relaxation) I decided that perhaps I should seek medical attention and went to the Festival Medical tent and saw a triage nurse quickly who referred me to the physio. Unfortunately there was quite a wait with others injured the night before (but the night before the medical tent was apparently chocka full of injuries). I got some good advice and exercises from her for a shoulder wrench (nothing torn) on the same side as the crutch with the missing ferrule – possibly related as it takes some force to pull one of those off? It did mean no more alcohol (because of painkillers), mostly resting the arm and only using one crutch for the rest of the weekend which really hampered carrying anything like food! It also meant missing one band when I was in the medical tent that I really was looking forward to – Broken Records. Hope to see them some other time.

I saw:

Friday

1. Sonic Boom Six – hadn’t heard them before but they were good live
2. Manchester Orchestra – really liked this set
3. The Virgins – nah
4. The Flatliners – nah
5. Tim Minchin – slightly self-indulgent set but not badly so – he always is fun live
6. Streetlight Manifesto – good set
7. The Aggrolites – really great bouncing reggae set that I loved
8. Leftover Crack – nah
9. Bouncing Souls – OK but not amazing as I’d hoped
10. Fall Out Boy – sound was bad as the wind was strong and in the wrong direction (ie towards the stage)
11. Placebo – ditto they also looked good on stage
12. Jamie T – better than I expected (but my expectations were low)
13. Faith No More – sorry guys you were disappointing :(

Saturday (the best day of music for me)

1. Mariachi El Bronx – a great way to start the day, very uplifting and novel for Reading to have this style of music
2. Delphic – I quite liked them but the howling wind was making me so cold I couldn’t stay the whole set
3. Detroit Social Club – a good set (away from the wind) and look forward to seeing more of them in the future
4. Snuff – what more can I say but this was the band I was most excited about seeing, punk-style covers galore including Florence & the Machines and the BBC Cricket theme tune! They didn’t disappoint and got the crowd going well too
5. Them Crooked Vultures – a SECRET set that stole the show this weekend – the hard rock super-group line-up included Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age and they rocked! Glad I heard the rumour :)
6. Mad Caddies – they put on a great show and got the punk stage more lively than any other band I saw – always a great show and they didn’t disappoint
7. White Lies – oh this set was really great and I would have been happy if it went on longer
8. The Prodigy – was curious and the set was OK but I’m not really into them too much (then got injured – see above)

1. Bear Hands – didn’t think they were bad at the time but cannot remember at all what they sounded like – unmemorable :(
2. Titus Andronicus – nah
3. Jeffrey Lewis “Watchmen” lecture – really interesting and given much food for thought
4. The Living End – nah
5. Frank Turner – he put on a great show and the set really worked
6. Vampire Weekend – great set and it worked on the main stage
7. The Gaslight Anthem – nah
8. White Denim – OK
9. The Rumble Strips – really good show
10. AFI – nah
11. Lostprophets – a good but not great show but a rocking way to end the weekend

Well, I slept not a lot, I drank not as much as I expected and I nearly puked at the sight/smell/vibe of the toilets on many an occasion.

Highlights of the weekend were: Dizzy Rascal; Glasvegas; Fratellis; Justice and CSS. Manics and Serj Tankian also good, as were Editors. Automatic and Lethal Bizzle are definitely not for me, or British Sea Power.

I must say I preferred the tents to the main stage by far. Not sure if that was due to the sound quality or just the niceness of a cosy setting compared to all that expanse for the main stage.

This was my second Reading, seperated by many years. I don’t know if I can cope with 4 nights camping again but would definitely go for the day as it’s only as hour away from my house.

The sound was pretty rubbish all weekend on the main stage which was a shame.
Sound in the tents was much better.

I saw:

Friday

1. Future of the Left – nah
2. Pete and the Pirates – good live set and songs – played a much bigger tent than last year
3. John Cooper Clark – punk poet- not amazing but interesting
4. These New Puritans – nah
5. Serj Tankian – interesting set but poor sound didn’t help his voice get across well
6. Biffy Clyro – always great live – they rocked again :)
7. Jack Penate – just needed to find somewhere to eat but set was better than I expected
8. The Fratellis – the sound was poor but we still sang and danced – yay :)
9. Vampire Weekend – my best band of the weekend – I want to see/hear more from this lot
10. Queens of the Stone Age – not bad live set – esp the version of No One Knows
11. Pennywise – didn’t enjoy this much – the listing was wrong and I thought I would be seeing Less Than Jake but stayed anyway
12. Less Than Jake – good set and reasonable crowd despite clashing with Rage Against the Machine

Saturday

1. The Automatic – great set with singalong tunes – didn’t disappoint
2. British Sea Power – how did this band get onto the main stage? – they were boring but would have probably done better in a tent
3. Fucked Up – quite good punk but unnecessary nudity from the singer (please no more fat hairy man bum) :(
4. The Ting Tings – OK
5. Editors – blinding set despite poor sound
6. Black Kids – OK
7. The Raconteurs – OK but not as good as expected
8. Bullet For My Valentine – cheesy metal set which I couldn’t take seriously – good pyros though
9. Manic Street Preachers – OK
10. Elliot Minor – nah (unless you’re 15 years old)

1. Beans on Toast – musical comedy – OK
2. Henry Rollins (spoken word) – one hour wasn’t enough
3. Lightspeed Champion – nah
4. Dropkick Murphys – OK
5. Emmy the Great – she’s great
6. Feeder – nah
7. The Rascals – they rocked
8. Cage the Elephant – best ‘heard 1 song on the radio and wanted to hear more’ band of the weekend – I want to buy the CD now, oh yeah need more of this
9. Tenacious D – a good show – as expected – with a great Who cover
10. Metallica – good fireworks at the end but some of the set was so pedestrian that I fell asleep watching them

Only one more day until I head to Reading, try to work out how to pitch my tent, and only two more days until the fun, frivolity and music starts!! WOOHOO!!

i’ll see you all this year :)

...so I’m going to do it. I am going to try and enjoy the camping as much as I can, and I’m not too familiar with the music but I aim to have a wild time with my friends.

I’m only going down for Sunday as the rest of the lineup isn’t that appealing to me; well not worth camping 2 days for. Still should be an amazing time I’m planning to drive down there, then me and my mates are crashing in a hotel; it’s a 4 hour drive which we don’t want to be doing after a mad day of raving, moshing and partying! Does anyone know if the car park will be open on Monday and if you can buy parking tickets there? There are no parking facilities at the hotel, we are on mopeds so might be able to squeeze somewhere near the festival site.

Seriously amazing atmosphere. This years lineup is possibly the best ever. Went for a walk round the camping at 2am last year, took us 4 hours to walk all the way round and saw so much crazy stuff happening at that time. If you go I would definately say take a midnight walk after the bands!

went in 2007 which was the best time of my life! hopefully will be awesome again in 2008.

I’ve just bought my tickets for Reading 2008! Very exxy but I think it will be worth every pence.