Reading Festival

Reading Festival this year was fantastic. Will & I, Steve & Kate, Ben Browning, & my friend Claire & her sister Laura had tickets for the whole weekend (although Will missed the Friday as he was still in Helsinki). Annabel came for the Friday, & Willem & his friend Tanya joined us for the Saturday. We were extremely lucky with the weather, the worst we got was a small amount of very very light rain on the Saturday night. It was also dry for the few days before the festival, so the fields were really good. It can be an absolute mud bath there... We were spoilt for choice for entertainment inside the arena. We had the main stage, the big NME/Radio 1 stage inside a huge tent, the lock-up stage playing heavy stuff, which turned into the dance tent on the Sunday, the small Festival Republic tent, & the even smaller BBC introducing stage. If you wanted a break from the music there was also the alternative stage which mostly had comedians playing.

The main draw on the Friday night was Rage Against the Machine who were pretty amazing. I saw the beginning & end of their set, & in between went to the NME tent to watch Babyshambles. It was a miracle that Pete Doherty 1. actually managed to turn up, & 2. was remarkably coherent! They actually put on a really good show. Other Friday highlights were Dizzee Rascal, who was extremely entertaining, The Wombats, & The Fratelli's.

Saturday night Will & I were in early to catch Collapsing Cities, who are a very very cool up & coming kiwi band, who were first on one of the small stages. They were awesome, & being so early in the day, it was really quiet & we could get right to the front, as seen in the photo below! If you fancy a listen to them, check out their myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/collapsingcities

Saturday was pretty full on, as there were loads of good bands playing. The Automatic were on the main stage pretty early & put on a great show. The Ting Tings were cool, but they were followed by Seasick Steve who, if the crowd reaction was anything to go by, was one of the hits of the festival with his brand of unique American blues. He really is worth a listen at http://www.myspace.com/seasicksteve The Killers were headlining the main stage Saturday night & they were fantastic & had the thousands singing along to their big hits. Will decided against the Killers & instead listened to Manic Street Preachers who were headlining the second stage. He thoroughly enjoyed them.

Sunday was a bit more chilled out as there were less bands that we were desperate to see. We bought a Sunday paper on the way in & had a lovely day reading it as we listened to various acts. I enjoyed the Plain White T's of 'Hey there Delilah' fame, it's a gorgeous song. Will & I both loved Cage the Elephant, which totally rocked the Festival Republic stage. I reckon they will get pretty huge in the not too distant future. The next highlight was Tenacious D, who put on a hilarious show with their 'comedy rock' For those that don't know, Tenacious D consists of Hollywood 'star' Jack Black of School of Rock fame, & a mate of his called Kyle Gass. They were very very entertaining! You can just about see Gass on the screen in the photo above performing dressed as a lizard (don't ask...). Following Tenacious D we swapped stages for The Last Shadow Puppets. This is the side project of Arctic Monkey's lead singer Alex Turner & the Rascal's Miles Kane, & they were absolutely brilliant. Finally it was down to Metallica to end the weekend in style. They put on a show worthy of one of the worlds biggest rock bands, complete with huge noise & fireworks. It was mind blowing! Will chose to end his weekend in the dance tent with Claire & Laura listening to CSS who he really enjoys. All in all it was a fantastic weekend, & I'm looking forward to next years festival already! Pre-sale tickets are released tomorrow morning...

After all the excesses of the weekend, & pretty much being on the go from midday to midnight for each of the 3 days, it was a good thing for Will that today was a Bank Holiday! We didn't end up getting out of bed until nearly midday, as we caught up on much needed sleep. I had rugby training tonight & wasn't really in any fit state for it, but due to the public holiday there were only 5 of us there. We did a bit of light fitness for an hour or so before calling it a day... This is now my last week of holidays, so I plan on making the most of them.