Jooks Reading Festival Report

[Jook]

In order from Worst to Best....enjoy

The Fiery Furnaces - Radio 1 - Sunday - 0/10 BWAHAHAHAHA. You can't be serious?

Pink Grease - Carling - Friday - 1/10 Utter shite. Like The Darkness meets Slipknot meets Nursey Rhymes. Yuck.

Agent Blue - Carling - Saturday - 2/10 Bollocks.

The Cribs - Carling - Sunday - 2/10 Shit. I can't believe they got good write-ups.

New York Dolls - Main - Saturday - 2/10 When half the crowd fall asleep you know it's time to stop..

Kaiser Cheifs - Carling - Sunday - 3/10 Ugh...not too good.

Goldie Lookin Chain - Main - Friday - 3/10 Am I the only person who doesn't get these?

The Futureheads - Radio 1 - Sunday - 3/10 Don't see what the attraction is to be honest. Shit.

Read Yellow - Radio 1 - Saturday - 3/10 Pretty shite really.

The Distillers - Main - Friday - 4/10 Pretty fucking awful live.

Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Radio 1 - Sunday - 4/10 Pathetically inoffensive.

Franz Ferdinand - Main - Saturday - 4/10 Bollocksy Bollocksy shitty shite. Boring as hell.

Ordinary Boys - Radio 1 - Saturday - 4/10 Bleh. Pretty shit.

Yourcodenameis:Milo - Carling - Sunday - 5/10 Better than I thought they'd be. But still shit.

The Hives - Main - Friday - 5/10 BOOOOORING. Every song sounded the same, not that good.

Hundred Reasons - Main - Friday - 5/10 Meh, not that great, they were okay, nothing special.

Bloc Party - Radio 1 - Saturday - 5/10 The biggest disappointment of the weekend. I love them on record, but they didn't cut it live.

Pretty Girls Make Graves - Carling - Friday - 6/10 Meh, average. Not bad, nothing ground breaking.

Infrasound - Carling - Friday - 6/10 Not too bad.

The Streets - Main - Saturday - 6/10 They were okay, not brilliant.

Ash - Main - Friday - 6/10 Very....'so what?'. Disappointing. Har Mar getting naked almost saved it, but they weren't very exciting.

The Von Bondies - Radio 1 - Sunday - 6/10 Not too bad, enjoyed them, but some of the stuff was quite shit.

Terra Diablo - Carling - Friday - 7/10 Not too shabby. Fairly good, they were tight, very well organised.

The White Stripes - Main - Saturday - 7/10 Huge disappointment. I've got every one of their albums, so I should be familiar with all there songs, but they all ran together. The only highlights were 'Apple Blossom', 'Seven Nation Army' and 'St.James Infirmiary'...they slaughtered 'Maps' by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Har Mar Superstar - Radio 1 - Saturday - 7/10 Perhaps the busiest the Radio 1 Tent got, he was suprisingly good. 'DUI' was class.

Soulwax - Radio 1 - Friday - 8/10 Rather good. Dodgy setlist, and it lulled a bit in the middle, but alltogether it was fucking great. 2 Many DJ's and Any Minute now were brilliant.

The Stills - Radio 1 - Sunday - 8/10 Suprise hit of the weekend I think, they were very good.

Madrugada - Carling - Sunday - 8/10 Great band. I'd never heard of them before, and they were fantastic.

Super Furry Animals - Radio 1 - Friday - 9/10 Amazing. I had no idea how eclectic these were. Even a 15-minute inturruption from Goldie Lookin' Chain didn't spoil it.

The Libertines - Main - Saturday - 9/10 Very enjoyable. Every song sounded like it should've been released as a single. Random stand in guitar guy did quite well.

Auf Der Maur - Radio 1 - Sunday - 9/10 I was shocked at how good they were. Mellissa said it was her 10th anniversary of playing live music, as she debuted at Reading 1994. Very enjoyable.

The Secret Machines - Carling - Sunday - 9/10 Shame, they had sound problems, and if they didn't then they would've been the best band of the weekend, they were fucking amazing.

The Subways - Carling - Friday - 10/10 One of my favourite new bands, they were great, really enjoyed them.

The Departure - Carling - Friday - 10/10 Fucking great. Second time I've seen them, they were even better this time, they were brilliant. Next year they'll be on the main stage.

Morrisey - Main - Saturday - 10/10 Just brilliant, a true showman. Amazing. 'There Is A Light' was the best song of the festival, he's funny as fuck too.

Placebo - Main - Sunday - 10/10 Great stuff. They started early so I missed the first two tracks, but they were fantastic.

Razorlight - Main - Saturday - 10/10 Absolutely fantastic. In 20 years we will be talking about Johnny Borrell in the same way as we do about Morrissey and Mercury now. Fucking amazing.

Graham Coxon - Radio 1 - Friday - 10/10 Fucking brilliant. He was so full of energy and angst, I went out to buy his latest album on the Saturday morning he was that good. He also took the piss out of the Darkness a lot, which was cool.

Supergrass - Radio 1 - Sunday - 11/10 Wow. Just wow. I reckon they were held back at the end, I was sure they were going to do an encore, as they still had 'Alright' and 'Richard III' to play...still though, amazing. I was in the second row with a rather attractive girl shoved up in front of me, which made the experience even more enjoyable . They were simply incredible, the 3rd best live band I've ever seen.

Biggest regrets: Not going to see the Rasmus or Fiddy. Camping in Green....puddles ahoy. Missing the start of Placebo.

[Guest Angry Baboon]

Soulwax - Radio 1 - Friday - 8/10 Rather good. Dodgy setlist, and it lulled a bit in the middle, but alltogether it was fucking great. 2 Many DJ's and Any Minute now were brilliant.

[Jook]

I wanted to see the Rasmus and Fiddy cos they got booed off, and I thought it would've been fun.

As for Soulwax, they were good, but they lacked something live.

And Carl was singing for the 'Tines.

[Guest Angry Baboon]

That still doesn't explain Placebo young man!

No supper for j00

[Jook]

Pah, Placebo kick arse you barstardo.

[Guest PlagueUK]

50 got a few boos in Leeds be I thought he was great and I don't even really like him that much. There were a few groups around booing him but everyone was kicking off at them. Saying whats the point in coming to see 50, wasting their time when they could be in another tent.

I missed the Rasmus cause they were on too early. So I don't know if they got boo'ed off. I also missed the Lostprophets which i wanted to check out again cause by the time i got there on friday after workand was putting up my tent and having to sit outside and drink by bottles of alcohol cause they said no glass, even though there were no signs up telling you this and I wasn't going to carry it all the way back to the car.

Second day we got there early and saw GLC, Taking back Sunday, the crowd went mental and loads of fucked up idiot fans started a thrash circle thingy and started throwing punches into fresh air only for them to start hitting people by accident on the circle edges, thus when they came near the edges people were pushing them over and hitting them back, then Reel big fish came on and everyone went mental for them.

The once they finished everyone left and hundred Reasons played to pretty much no one, Went for dinner and cam back to catch the end of Distillers, full of fanboy goths drooling over their idol. Absoloutly crap to be honest.

The hives were next and I thought they were awesome, never really been into them but the played a great live show, and the lead singer was hilarious, he went on about having the crowd in the palm of his hand then proceeded to go on about how we must all stand and watch him drink some water etc went on about how great they were etc and the crowd were going nuts for it..

Ash were next. Saw them when they were supporting the Chillis in Edinburgh, same as they were there, same set, same flaming guitar to come on stage with.

Got to the front for the offspring only for all the dickheads at the top of the hill to star throwing crowd surfers into the air at us, and pushing forward as hard as they can so of courseonce that started they'd push form one side so the other side would push, so I got out of there and sat and watched from the back, and to be honest they were good, but didn't seem to give a crap, look as if they were up there doing there job and that was it.

Then of course it was the Darkness, i thought they were absoloutly great, played great, did a great show and really got the crowd going, pretty much the whole camp and all day ticketers were there. Had great banter in between songs and that, and even had a inpormptu we will rock you song, well I say that but they were playign a massive riff and Frankie got the crowd doing the WWRY clap so of course everyone started signing it so they started playing it while we singed.

Then Sunday we caught the end of 5,6,7,8s started watching the Young heart attacks and I was quite impressed but it started pissing it down thus everyone left. Then after that we went and checked out the carling, concrete jungle and radio one stages and pretty much everyone who we saw were crap.

We saw other bands but I can't remember which ones

Overall great weekend and as soon as tickets come on sale I'll be buying mine again.

Edit: It's true, from what I caught of Placebo they were great.

Edited August 30, 2004 by PlagueUK

[fourstarfizzle]

We heard it was pretty bad at Reading weather wise, as in lots of rain. The sun was cracking the flags for the majority of the time at Leeds, a little rain yesterday, that was it.

I reckon Morrissey should have headlined last night, he was amazing at Leeds. Although Dillinger Escape Plan got band of the festival for me, they had their set cut short because they made kids climb the tent columns. I managed to get organise a Wall of Death during Thrice too which was ace.

[Jook]

Am I going insane or did Squancho and PlagueUK both post in this thread in the last hour or so?

[Guest Angry Baboon]

You double posted, foo.

[Jook]

Whoopsiedoodle.

Oh well, if someone could kindly delete this for me then

[fineintent]

2 Many DJ's rocked, Soulwax seemed flat. Odd I know.

So I was impressed by:

- Shystie. I really expected nothing, but she had a live band and was really awesome.

- Roots Manuva. I was at the front for this and was dancing like crazy when 'Dreamy Days' came on. Was joined on stage by Charlie from J5

- Dizzee Rascal. Fucking amazing. Freestyled in between songs.

- J5

- DJ Newmark

- DJ Format

- 2 Many DJ's

- The Roots

- Hundred Reasons. A lot better than I expected.

- Thrice were really, really good.

- Greenday. Excellent, got the crowd involved and they were the only headliners I liked.

- Franz Ferdinand were pretty decent, only stayed for half their set though.

- Avenged Sevenfold and Coheed and Cambria were pretty good on the concrete jungle.

- Razorlight amused me for a while.

- The Streets. Mike Skinner was hilarious, my favourite performance by far.

- Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys filled my void for Celtic-Punk.

- The Bronx came on, as always, as a car crash. Awesome.

In short, the dance tent was the place to be.

There were some pretty disapointing bands - Taking Back Sunday, Funeral for a Friend, The Libertines and Soulwax all lacked something - but overall I had a pretty good time. The comedy tent was also good for a laugh, some Welsh guy was heckled beyond belief.

The bottling of 50 Cent was extremely pointless, if you don't like someone - don't go watch them. I'm not a fan, so I didn't watch. What's the point of chucking shit at someone? He dealt with it pretty well, and I'm sure most people there have more respect for him after he continued to play despite being bottled to high heaven.

[YI]

I reckon Morrissey should have headlined last night, he was amazing at Leeds. Although Dillinger Escape Plan got band of the festival for me, they had their set cut short because they made kids climb the tent columns. I managed to get organise a Wall of Death during Thrice too which was ace.

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[Guest Small Blue]

Merged.

[fineintent]

Biggest regrets: Not going to see the Rasmus or Fiddy. Camping in Green....puddles ahoy. Missing the start of Placebo.

[Jook]

Biggest regrets: Not going to see the Rasmus or Fiddy. Camping in Green....puddles ahoy. Missing the start of Placebo.

I just noticed that.

Dude, Green rocked. We were in Green D opposite the Oxfam tent, occasionally going over to Green E to see some other mates. It all dried up come Sunday. Where were you?

←

[Johnny Drama]

i had an amazing time at leeds 50 cent was wicked as were greenday. I was dissapointed with hundred reasons and taking back sunday not too great live. Reel Big Fish were cool. Unfortunatly the Rasmus managed all their set at leeds

[fourstarfizzle]

Greenday played the same set they played 4 years ago, with the exception of American Idiot.

[supergrass]

Jook you are now officially ten times cooler for spreading the word of how good Supergrass are. I got to one of their 10th anniversary gigs, possibly the best thing I've been to.

Didn't agree with some of your ratings, but ITV2 have been showing highlights (starting last night), so I'll watch closely and see if you were right.

Glad you enjoyed it.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

hah hah I went to see Ladytron play in Carling Academy, Birmingham earlier in the year and they were being supported by.....PINK GREASE! Surely the worst excuse for a group in the history of the entire world! Must try harder!

[SaNtY]

For me Greenday and The White Stripes were the best bands at the festival (I was at Leeds).

Greenday were F'N Amazing!!!!

Plus I love the White Stripes, and to me they didn't dissapoint.