Reading/Leeds

[Stevie B]

I loved the rumour about the Foo Fighters playing in the BBC Introducing tent under the name FF'ers.

[GA!]

I loved the rumour about the Foo Fighters playing in the BBC Introducing tent under the name FF'ers.

400 people showed up to see the FF'ers at Leeds just in case apparently.

[Stevie B]

I just laughed at the people who actually believed that the Foo Fighters would play on a little stage like the BBC Introducing Stage. I know that Kaiser Chiefs played unannounced at Leeds last year, but there is a rather big difference in someone like Kaiser Chiefs playing, and Foo Fighters playing unannounced.

How annoying was buttscratcher though

[GA!]

I just laughed at the people who actually believed that the Foo Fighters would play on a little stage like the BBC Introducing Stage. I know that Kaiser Chiefs played unannounced at Leeds last year, but there is a rather big difference in someone like Kaiser Chiefs playing, and Foo Fighters playing unannounced.

How annoying was buttscratcher though

What the fuck was buttscratcher? There was a flag at the main stage and some chanting here and there about it.

[Regia]

I saw a bit of QOTSA's set on bbc three.

Were they really that out of tune?

[GA!]

I saw a bit of QOTSA's set on bbc three.

Were they really that out of tune?

Actually, there were. I was disappointed with QOTSA, they blew their wad by playing 'No One Knows' and 'Feel Good Hit...' first and then played an extended version of 'Misfit Love', which is a crap song in the first place.

[YI]

By the way, I think I spotted YI during the Gaslight set. Bloke, empty beer cup in one hand, wearing a brown and purple stripy shirt (I think), near the front, only put his arms down in between songs. Yes?

Unfortunately, no...I had a freshly shaved head (the night before), white Henley's polo and camo shorts on (May have had a beanie on, I can't remember). That guy in the stripey shirt, did he have a beard, and was there a couple of proper FITTIES near him, cos I kind of tagged along with that 'group' for Gaslight, if that's the one...so right area, just wrong person. My voice was so fucked after that set.

Anyways...the best I can remember.

FRIDAY

The Shoes (Dance Tent) - Fucking awesome, Daft Punk styled goodness. Looked like father/son.

Eureka Machines (BBC Introducing) - Pop-Punk band. Okay I guess for a 'local band'.

Mindless Self Indulgence (Main Stage) - Caught a wee bit, they were fucking TERRIBLE. Like, so fucking bad. I've seen them live twice now. And they're fucking terrible.

Robots In Disguise (Dance Tent) - FUCKING AWESOME! FUCKING SEXY AS FUCK! One of them has a fucking unreal arse.

Alexisonfire (Main Stage) - Good, but not the best of atmosphere. Really not the place for a band like this to play.

Feeder (Main Stage) - WHOOOOOOO!!!!! YEAH!!!! FUCKING EPIC!!!

The Bacchae (BBC Introducing) - FUCK ME! She's gorgeous. FUCKING GORGEOUS! FUCKING GORGEOUS! Not a bad band either.

Simian Mobile Disco (Dance Tent) - EPIC! Banging tuneage. Epic atmosphere...pulled me a bird...she 'lived' nextdoor...with her brother.

The Cribs (NME/Radio 1) - BRILLIANT! Was well far back, but we befriended some Scottish guy, and the 3 of us screamed, danced and rocked the fuck out. Was brilliant!

SATURDAY

Anti-Flag (Main Stage) - One of my mates wanted to see them, eugh. Wish I'd seen Future Of The Left. Was on a total downer from the partying the day/night before.

Get Cape Wear Cape Fly (Main Stage) - BLOODY SPECTACULAR! And he had his bit political message without shoving it down our throats and being tacky about it like Anti-Flag did.

The Loved Ones (Lockup) - WHOO!! Nice set. "The Inquirer" unfortunately doesn't sound anywhere near as badass live is it 'should'. Lots of first album stuff, which was nice, as it shits on the 2nd.

Taking Back Sunday (Main Stage) - To be fair, I only caught the last two songs. Very, very, meh. Not the atmosphere of a small venue, which is what a band like this needs.

Dizzee Rascal (Main Stage) - Again, sounded awful. And I like him. After 2 songs I couldn't stomach it anymore, couldn't find my mates, so just pissed back off to the Lock-Up...

The Briggs (Lockup) - They're a solid band, nothing spectacular, who played a solid set, nothing spectacular. I probably think more of them now than I did going in.

Frank Turner (Lockup) - At this point, set of the fucking festival. This man is an absolute legend. Was singing my heart out. Fucking brilliant. The place was PACKED too.

H20 (Lockup) - At this point, set of the fucking festival. Was amazing the 'little girls' obviously showing up for those "ft. Platnum" guys and quickly running off when face melting hardcore punk kicked off. INSANE! Big circle pit (which I generally hate), but was made instantly more awesome by the fact the singer got down off stage and fucking finished the rest of the set down there. The perfect blend of heavy and catchy.

The Maybes? (BBC Introducing) - What happened a few times of the weekend, I wandered past the BBC Introducing and got distracted. This time not by fanny, but by a groovy as fucking bassline. What followed was a 10-minute epic of a song that blew me away ("Promise" if you check out their myspace). Awesome post-rock stuff, groovy as fuck. I couldn't help but dance like a proper twat.

Babyshambles (NME/Radio 1) - I was going to go see Pennywise, but I was so arseholed I just went where I was taken...then lost everyone...and somehow ended up front and centre. AMAZING!

SUNDAY

The Blackout (Main Stage) - Eugh. Again, a friend wanted to see them. To be honest, I wasn't that bothered by them. I despised them at "Give It A Name", here I could at least tolerate.

The Automatic (Main Stage) - Fucked off after "Monster", I forgot how dull they are.

HiFi Handgrenades (Lockup) - Not a great turnout, but they fucking rocked the place. KILLER TUNES! Great band.

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM (Lockup) - YEAH!! YEAH!!! FUCKING YEAH!!!! BAND OF THE FESTIVAL!!! Only complaint, if I had to make one...too much 'new material'.

Fight Like Apes (Festival Republic) - Meh, not big on.

Twisted Wheel (Festival Republic) - FUCKING EPIC! Had no idea who they were, but they blew me away. Seriously, such a fucking good set. Had a great turnout and everyone was into it.

White Lies (Festival Republic) - I'm so stoked for their album now, as their tunes were all killer. Not a great follow on from the last band, as they're more moody and slow whilst Twisted Wheel were full on bordering hardcore punk at times.

Los Campesinos! (Festival Republic) - Insane crowd. Epic band. No 'new' material. No 'old' material, either. Just stuff from their album. But all the fucking best tunes. FUCKING BRILLIANT! The singer is so fucking gay, hahaha.

Bloc Party (Main Stage) - Starting with "Mercury" weren't a great idea. Setlist was great though. Their other new tune was fucking good. Getting the new album now. Fucking brilliant. Should have headlined.

Alkaline Trio (Lockup) - I only heard "Calling All Skeletons" and "I Lied My Face Off". I heard they did a lot of new shit and were dissapointing because of it.

The Killers (Main Stage) - The crowd were pretty fucking bad IMO, and were far forward. Pretty good. Solid setlist, missed a couple of songs I liked. The new song they did, "Spaceman" or whatever is going to be big. That chorus is fucking HUGE!

...I wanna go back. I sent texts to Jouzy on Friday (Due to him bugging me to actually call/text him/give him my number or something ) and looking at my "outgoing texts" the next day...they made NO FUCKING SENSE! Brilliance.

I went around a lot in a beanie, singing "Pro-Geordie" football songs...best I can do to describe myself.

Edited August 25, 2008 by YI

[Dan]

Buttscratcher is off that episode of Family Guy.

If you heard someone chanting it around main stage or Red camp it was probably me or a friend or one of the guys from the tent next to us.

Proper enjoyed Leeds, I'll post some ratings when I've recovered.

I have slept 22 hours straight since I got back, just woke up

Edit:

Right, I've had a bath and now I've got some rating to do.

Friday

Really enjoyed Friday. Hadouken! & Pendulum in the tent kicked arse.

Mindless Self Indulgence 5/10

Alexisonfire 7/10

Hadouken! 10/10

Avenged Sevenfold 3/10

Pendulum 9/10

Tenacious D 8/10

Metallica 7.5/10

Saturday

I enjoyed Saturday, not as much as Friday though, Biffy & Enemy fucking rocked though.

Taking Back Sunday 7/10

Dizzee Rascal 7/10

Serj Tankian 6/10

Biffy Clyro 8.5/10

The Enemy 8/10

Goldfinger 6.5/10

Vampire Weekend 8/10

Less Than Jake 7/10

Rage Against The Machine 7/10

Sunday

Missed most of Sunday as the idea of KFC & Sainsburys was too appealing so me & my mates went for a drive. Really Enjoyed the 3.1 bands I seen. Flux by Bloc Party was fantastic.

Bloc Party 8.5/10

Bullet For My Valentine 8/10

The Killers 9/10

Elliot Minor (Only Caught the last song) 7/10

Edited August 26, 2008 by Version Dan

[Gazz]

Frank Turner (Lockup) - At this point, set of the fucking festival. This man is an absolute legend. Was singing my heart out. Fucking brilliant. The place was PACKED too.

Fuck

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM (Lockup) - YEAH!! YEAH!!! FUCKING YEAH!!!! BAND OF THE FESTIVAL!!! Only complaint, if I had to make one...too much 'new material'.

Fuuuuuccckkkkk :(:(

And nobody so far went to see Pip? K is gonna be beside himself...

[Face Turn!~]

Woo. Amazing Reading this year. Band wise it was better than last year; Rage Against The Machine were simply awesome and made my festival alone, but some strong acts from The Music, Pendulum, Tenacious D and Metallica solidified it for me.

I was a little let down by QOTSA, as i consider them to be one of my top 5 bands and the sound was pretty terrible and i was right slap band in the middle front. It's funny because then Rage came on and played a CD quality performance, it was incredible. Biffy Clyro too was another band i was let down by, playing a set full of fillers from their new album and barely even touching their older, much more popular stuff.

I was pumped for MGMT and was quite near the front after Jack Penate left the stage. Suddenly the crowd turned into a crushing and swaying frenzy and not long after i lost one of my shoes and my foot proceeded to be used as a footmat for every fucker in my crowd to the point where i thought i broke my foot. My friends helped me out and i went back to campsite to find a replacement pair of shoes and to get a whole lotta beer to dull the pain. I still got to see Electric Feel though!

Buttscratcher failing to replace the Bollocks chant was one of funniest things at the start of the festival but by the end i had grown tired of it. 3 mornings i was woken up to a Buttscratcher chant, the worst being at 8 am, just one hour after getting to sleep to someone right outside my tent:

"Knock Knock

Whose There?

...

BUTTSCRATCHER"

(Followed by about another 50 people repeating it).

Also, anyone here who were in either the Orange, Yellow or Indigo camps, how did you get on on Sunday Night with the 'Angry Mob' which consisited of a huge gatherment of GCSE kids causing a riot, ripping the toilets to pieces and setting them on fire before moving onto peoples tents. As much as im partial to a bit of choas every now and then this year was just too far and im shocked at the lack of Security prescence whilst peoples tents were literally being set on fire with people in them. Somewhere in yellow a 5ft girl was dragged out of her tent and pushed towards the fire and left to watch these cunts blow her tent up with a gas canister. I think the saddest thing i saw was a Father of 2 kids having to sit up all night guarding his tent because some clowns decided to stab through his tent with a sharp metal rod, almost severing his 10 year old kid.

Still despite this, it did little to tarnish my festival experience. Bring on '09.

[Stevie B]

I agree with you abou the Sunday Night Riots, people really got out of hand this year. Sunday night just isn't what it used to be.

[GA!]

Quick reviews...

FRIDAY

Alexisonfire - I really liked them. The bloke with the beard has a great voice. The 'actual' lead singer though was about as pointless as the bird from Young Heart Attack was four years ago.

Plain White T's - So good, I spent my time mesmerised over the floating condom balloons instead. The lead singer looks like Dobby the House Elf and the drummer look like a fatter version of Mark Henry circa 2002. End.

Dropkick Murphys - Excellent. They were bollocks in 04, but this time they toned down the fact they're fake Irishmen. During the set, some grey haired cunt used his legless kid in a wheelchair to push forward so the could get closer to his favourite band. Truly sickening.

Avenged Sevenfold - Not that good, but obviously they were ill so its not their fault. Bringing on the extremely fit girl for their final song was a big plus.

Feeder - Fucking awesome, although from where I was standing, everyone just wanted to hear 'Just A Day' and 'Buck Rogers'. Pricks. Personally I was more ecstatic that they played 'Insomnia', 'Lost and Found' and 'Tracing Lines'. Apparently Reading got 'Shatter', which is a bit disappointing.

Tenacious D - Their film was crap, their albums aren't funny, but live they're fantastic. It was so entertaining, I laughed from start to finish.

Metallica - Set of the weekend, gig of my life. After my wristband snapped in 03, preventing me from continuing my weekend including seeing Metallica, this was well worth the wait. Everything was awesome from 'Fuel' to the new songs to the cover of 'So What'. Awesome, awesome, AWESOME!

SATURDAY

Taking Back Sunday - Boring.

Dizzie Rascal - Fairly entertaining. It was the first of two bands of the day that was far more packed than expected, and I was right near some midget cunt who needed a 10m radius to jump about. I found it funny when the tease of bringing out Calvin Harris turned out to be just another faceless rapper.

At this point I was going to see Serj Tankian, but I was feeling ill from the heat after seeing Dizzie. As it turned out, Tankian played EVERY song from his album minus my favourite one (Beethoven's Cunt), so I'm glad I gave it a miss. The picture on NME.com also indicates he dressed like a complete cock.

Biffy Clyro - Great, but I think I've turned into one of these hardcore early Biffy fans as I thought the set was way too Puzzle-centric. Outside of Puzzle they only played '57' and 'Mountains', omitting stuff like 'Glitter and Trauma'. Even worse they played 'A Whole Child Ago' but not 'Semi-Mental'. Still awesome though.

Queens of the Stone Age - Disappointing. They blew their wad with 'No One Knows' and 'Feel Good...' being played first. And while we got 'Do It Again', Reading got 'Millionaire', which is even more annoying.

Rage Against The Machine - Good but my friend had this genius idea of being in front of the middle barrier, meaning we got crushed when De La Rocha pleaded with everyone to take a couple of steps back. From 'Bombtrack' (song 4) until the end, I couldn't even move my hands it was that bad. Also apparently another friend of mine who I didn't camp with fell over and dislocated his shoulder. Unfortunate. Anyway, the song choice was good as I prefer 'Renegades of Funk' to 'Wake Up'.

SUNDAY

Gaslight Anthem - From now on, GA will stand for 'Gaslight Anthem'. I totally agree with YI that they played too much new stuff (I never got around to listening to their second album before the set) - but the fact that the lead singer looked happy throughout due to the number of people that turned up made me smile throughout. Probably the third best set of the weekend.

The Subways - Shite. They tried too hard to get the crowd into their set. People only listen to them because they want to shag the bassist, the end.

Then I spent a lot of time hanging around with my sister and my friends because at this point, I was too knackered to stand around watching bands I knew fuck all about. If I had more energy, I would've gone back to the Lock-Up all day as it was nice and cool in there.

The Raconteurs - Boring, boring, boring. Instead of playing their exciting songs like 'Five on the Five', they played fiddle-centric bollocks like 'Old Enough'.

Manic Street Preachers - Totally awesome, second best band of the weekend. They deserved more than an hour as they didn't even scratch the surface of their good stuff. Having 'A Design For Life' as the final song of the festival was fucking cool, especially as it has the lyric 'this is the end' in the final chorus. The Manics should have headlined the main stage without a doubt.

[YI]

Dan, where abouts around Red were you? As there was a guy somewhat near me who looked a a canny bit like you, although to be fair, that seemed like a popular haircut to have.

I wish that cunt down the bottom with his bit DJ set would have changed his fucking setlist up a bit. Friday I went down Duracel, then ended up wandering around white camp with a bunch of randoms drinking John Smiths. Saturday I went down to that DJ stage thing down the Red/Orange intersection, was canny fucking quality.....went down again Sunday, was the same fucking shit he'd been playing all week...fuck that.

As for the 'angry mobs' I didn't find it that bad. There were a few GCSE kids trying to 'do it too' near us, starting a fire near our tent and flinging the fire about. But when about 15+ of us (from surrounding tents etc) all got up and stood together having a bit banter, and they realised we were all 'blokes' (even most the women ) they soon moved the fuck on.

To be fair, yeah, a canny few fires and shit, but nothing seemed to get out of hand around me, and I even managed to comfortably get a bit of shuteye around 4/5, so no problems.

The mud on Thursday was a proper cunt. On the way to putting up my tent, I wrote off a pair of trainers.

Gaslight Anthem were just too fucking good...the setlist was something like;

Great Expectations

Wooderson

The '59 Sound

Old White Lincoln

(something else...I think)

Casanova, Baby!

Stand By Me -> I'Da Called You Woody Joe

Angry Johnny & The Radio

We Came To Dance

Say I Won't (Recognize)

The Backseat

They also did one or two interludes like "Stand By Me" where they went into other tunes...and no "Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts" despite numerous requests of it.

And I didn't realise just how many people were there for them until I left (as I was at the front). It was pretty much DEAD for HiFi Handgrenades so the fact Gaslight drew in/kept that good a crowd had me chuffed.

I'm so gutted I couldn't make it down to Manchester to see them tonight.

Edited August 26, 2008 by YI

[Iain76er]

As reviews seem to be the way to go:

Friday

Jubilee- S'alright. Went to see them because one of them was in Nine Inch Nails once. Trent seem to have got him into those drugs thingys.

Phil Jupitus- Only saw a little bit. He said 'cunt' a lot. Pretty funny.

Dizzee Rascal- Shit. Awful sound quality. I've never felt so middle class in my life.

Serj Tankian- Pretty good. Only knew the 'hits'. Apparently so did everyone else. Had some sound issues too.

Biffy Clyro- Fucking insane. Loads of little kids where left crying from the moshes. Really hurt my knee, which left me having to be selective about who to mosh to from now on.

Queens Of The Stone Age- Really, really dull.

Pennywise- Thought these would be Less Than Jake. They weren't. They were rubbish.

Rage Against The Machine- SO FUCKING AWESOME. Possibly the best thing ever. Didn't play Down Rodeo though

Saturday- Lameday

The King Blues- Awesome, awesome, awesome. Chants of 'One more song' for ages afterwards. Roadies were booed for removing their equipment. Go buy their album already and their new one in October.

Cancer Bats- Didn't have any roadies. What I expected.

Flogging Molly- Good fun.

Bullet For My Valentine- Awful.

Manic Street Preachers- Average. They played Pennyroyal Tea. I've never felt so working class in my life.

Sunday- I Have No Idea What Time Bands Are On Day

Guy before Henry Rollins (Pork & Beans or something?)- Pretty funny. Had a song about crashing on the M4. Told a story about playing that song then crashing on M4. There was a crash on the M4 this morning >_<

Henry Rollins- Funny guy. Fuck Bush & other left wing sloganeering.

Dropkick Murphys- Alright. Brought out loads of people I don't know.

Mindless Self Indulgence- The guitarist is a funny guy. The singer is quite good during song. Banter is waaaaaayy too scripted. No one was moshing for this. Ruined it, it did. Never felt so old in my life.

Feeder- Feeder-like. They played Blew.

Tenacious D- Same old schtick they've been peddling for the last 10 years. You've seen one gig of these guys you've seen them all. Change it up guys. Probably the worst band of the weekend.

Metallica- SO FUCKING AWESOME. Possibly the best thing ever. Was never a big fan of Metallica until then. Went absoulutely apeshit for So What.

I was told Plain White T's were bottled off. Were they?

Edited August 26, 2008 by Iain76er

[GA!]

The mud on Thursday was a proper cunt. On the way to putting up my tent, I wrote off a pair of trainers.

Same here. Then it turned out nowhere had wellies in size 10 until 6pm Thursday night, which was then changed to 2am. In the end I bought some wellies off a bloke selling them between stalls for £20. Well worth the money in the end considering I was camped in Blue Valley.

[YI]

Pennywise. Shit!?!?!?!! HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Fuck wellies, my other trainers made it through the days no problem.

Edited August 26, 2008 by YI

[Rich]

What a fucking weekend, was awesome, not going in to much detail (as some is well hazy) but I can die happy having seen Rage now, Metallica were awesome Biffy were great but since I am a hardcore Biffy fan that was always going to be true, but I agree with GA sentiments on the set being "Puzzle-centric" and I took enough substance to keep me happy all weekend, was fuckin great! Despite the fact I basically saw noone on Sunday due to a mixture of apathy and bolloxedness (yes that is a word )

A grade weekend!

[YI]

I LOVE HER!!!

The Bacchae, my new favourite band.

Okay...in order of awesome...top 5;

1. The Gaslight Anthem

2. H2O

.....fuck it's too hard, there was soo much AWESOME SHIT!!!

Oh, I also rang Jouzy on Friday night/Saturday morning...I was off my fucking tits...I have zero recollection of it.

Friday, I might have met the coolest motherfucker ever. Scottish, was awesome during The Cribs. He used to be a proper punk-rocker. He'd heard of Strung Out, liked a shitload of awesome bands, we talked about old school Alkaline Trio, Pennywise, Bad Religion etc...now he's proper into his indie...and had heard of Parka and stuff. Then he gave us drugs. Best guy ever!

Edited August 26, 2008 by YI

[supergrass]

A slight review of the bands I saw, of course some clashed so I didn't see the entire sets - for most I did.

FRIDAY

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - Pretty good, better than expected and renewed my interest in him.

Dizzee Rascal - More for the novelty of it all, but it wasn't that bad. Not really my thing.

Florence & The Machine - First "wow" set of the weekend, one of my favourites of the 3 days.

Biffy Clyro - Suitable soundtrack to Friday's dinner.

Jack Penate - He did the songs I wanted to hear, he danced like an idiot, all boxes ticked.

MGMT - Thought it would be epic, was quite bored. Prefer them on CD to the live show.

Queens Of The Stone Age - It dawned on me I'm not as big a fan of QOTSA as I thought. Enjoyed some, but not most.

Rage Against The Machine - Took in the 30 mins or so before Babyshambles came on and returned for Killing In The Name Of.

Babyshambles - Great. Singing and dancing along to I Wish was another highlight of Reading for me.

SATURDAY

The Subways - Wasted so much time trying to get the crowd interested. Just play the songs!

Dirty Pretty Things - One of my favourite bands at the mo, enough to get tattooed the other week anyway to show my allegiance. The crowd weren't as into it as I was to be honest, but I loved it from start to finish.

We Are Scientists - Stayed down the front after DPTs and enjoyed the show. Glad they played a lot of 1st album.

The Raconteurs - First time seeing Jack White live under any band-name. Good experience.

Bloc Party - Aren't they in this slot every year? Best year yet though, pretty good.

The Killers - Another band I didn't enjoy as much as I hoped I would. Felt like it was lacking something.

SUNDAY

Alexisonfire - Don't know anything about them. There seemed to be a shirtless man hanging around who doesn't do a great deal.

Plain White T's - Couldn't be bothered to move so watched it. Did well to ignore the early bottles and play their set.

Lightspeed Champion - Last show of the year, glad I caught it. Star Wars medley was again thrown in for good measure.

Emmy The Great - Wish her material was easier to come by, mellow set which contrasted somewhat with the next act I saw.

Crystal Castles - Enjoyed the 'show' more then the music. Decent enough but didn't make me a fan.

Feeder - Kept the girlfriend company as she wanted to see them. Played mostly hits, had a singalong and some food.

Tenacious D - So surprised by this one. Thought I'd hate it, ended up laughing quite a lot.

Glasvegas - Left Tenacious D early to see them, would be in my top 5 performances I think.

Metallica - Unfair as it's not my thing and only saw about 30 mins of it.

The Cribs - Perfect way to end the night. Lost my voice, danced from start to finish about half way back in the tent, then ran off for my camp gear and train.

Having grown sick of Sunday nights at Reading over the last two years I decided enough was enough and got my bags and left after The Cribs. It took 40 mins of running to make it to the camp site (Purple) and then to the station for my last train, however I made it. Felt good to wake up in my own bed on Monday and not my ever deflating airbed.

Edited August 26, 2008 by supergrass

[K]

I was too drunk on Friday and Saturday to see any bands except DLS & Pip.

Was good fun though.