Go to Reading Festival

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.

went in 2006 and 2007, saw great bands, was at first mildly traumatised by the whole hygiene situation but second year round i was hardened to it :-) Camped with a bunch of rowdy guys, came home swearing like a trooper… Totally worth doing even if I did get festival flu after both times.