Reading/Leeds festival – did anybody go?

If so, share your best/worst gigs, hilarious festival stories etc etc

I was there for the whole weekend. It was great. I still kind of miss being there. But i can only look forward to the next one. Anyway. I saw most of the stuff i went to see. But obviously some bands play at the same time as each other. For example. I would have loved to have seen the manics. But they played at the same time as The Killers.

As for my favorite sets. I really liked Rage. But i was sure they would be great. Bloc Party were pretty good too. The whole speech about them splitting up was a little worrying. But we will see what happens. The Mystery Jets were awesome until they were stopped and sent off stage due to the bloody Ting Tings wanting to start on time! But the stagehands were barraged with missiles afterwards. So i felt a little better :p

Alexisonfire were good to watch. But i had not really heard much of them beforehand, so i didn’t really know what to expect. Avenged Sevenfold were ok. But they finished after only 5 songs. (Vocal strains) but still.

CSS were terrific. I really enjoyed watching them. Although i was a little pissed off at the time with some of my mates. So i couldn’t really express that i was enjoying it. For the sake of saving face!

I watched Feeder at the barrier with my mate Robbie. And they were amazing. They play at Leeds a lot and i thought they did a great job. The "get well soon" message they had written onto their drum skin for the plonker from Slipknot who broke his ankle was quite amusing.

I must admit i found it hilarious when this moron decided to try and climb to speaker tripod. He got halfway up. And people started chucking stuff! I hit him in the face with a half drunk bottle of coke. And i have to say i am quite proud! He came down when my mate Andy started shouting at him to show his cock!

The other funny part was winding my friend Lauren up about it. She and another person had been working for the Oxfam tent. Stewarding and such. I can’t be bothered explaining it fully,because i don’t know to be honest. But she got annoyed when we were laughing at it. Because she "was part of the team" HA!

Mettalica were awesome from what i saw. But i left towards the end to watch CSS.

I watched a comedian called Henry Rollins or something. He was American and he hated it! His whole act was basically slagging America off to us. Which is fine for picking up brownie points. But i didn’t buy it. I also wanted to catch Mitch Benn, but i never got round to it.

There was banter all around though. There were 9 of us there all together. And every night had some kind of memorable event. We were wandering through the different camping area’s at one point. And one of my mates just pushed another into a tent. As he got up..he felt someone”s face! he just legged it.

There is lots of other stuff i could put. More thoughts on other sets and such. But I’ll see if this thread gets a lot of action before i do. But to sum up. I had a weekend that I’ll remember forever. And heard some of my favorite bands at their best!

Looks like you’re the only other cool person here Flux, everybody else are losers, who would rather go to LAN’s than a festival, I bet. Their cheese puff covered fingers wouldn’t be welcome anyway =P

I started off my Reading weekend with a bit of Anti-Flag, but I can’t really take them seriously anymore (if I did at all…?) since they signed for Universal or whatever. They used to be all READING IS TOO COMMERCIAL, FUCK THAT and now look…lulz. They were okay to watch though.

Get Cape, Wear Cape. Fly. were quite good, never really paid them much attention, but I reckon I’ll probably pick up an album.

Saw some great sets by Friendly Fires, Justice, Foals, Cajun Dance Party and Mystery Jets. All very very good and definately worth picking up albums by that lot. I loved the final song by Friendly Fires – they just went bonkers and brought on a mini Brazillian carnival onto the stage, it was ace!

Justice and Pendulum were two amazing gigs. Justice for the bonkers dancing with random girls on drugs, and Pendulum for the all-out-mentalness of the set – I’ve never seen so many people go bonkers all at the same time before, great stuff.

On the BBC Introducing stage, caught a couple of neat little acts – Thomas Tantrum and Darlings of the Splitscreen. Will be keeping an eye out for those in the near future.

As for the headliners, Rage were ace, but the sound was pretty fucked on the main stage this year I thought. According to NME (lol!) it was due to environmental health wanting the sound capped at a certain level…RIDICULOUS. I saw the Manics over the Killers because, well…no fucking competition to be honest! And Metallica were just mind blowing. I’m not an overly metal/rock kind of guy, but I can safely say that Metallica set was probably one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen.

Festival antics were as follows:
– The guy wandering around the camp site behind police officers playing The Bill theme tune on a boom box;
– Setting fire to random items of my clothing…and bonging a sock D: ;
– TROLLEY TROLLEY TROLLEY and;
– THE MOB completely destroying one of the toilet blocks. Fucking lulz.

I wish I could have gone, if only for Metallica.

BUT NO, YOU HAD A LAN TO GO TO, CHEESE PUFF BOY

I blame expensive air travel.

All the good festivals are in the UK man 🙁

Apart from one in Japan which looks fucking amazing.

I forget the name though 🙁

All the good festivals are in the UK man 🙁

And the rest of Europe. :p Thing about the us though is that not so much about festivals (not that I know much about american festivals, !), but on single concerts there, there’s just an abundance of groups who just don’t come often in Europe!
Heh, and when they do come to Europe, I get all too excited for it and turns out to be not so good. x) I hope the Lightning Bolt gig here is going to be as fucking magnificent as I expect it to be, though.

I reckon maybe we should start talking about classic gigs we’ve been too, seeing as not as many people hike it off to Reading as I thought.

Well. I have payed for my tickets to go and see Ocean Colour Scene in Manchester. And Mystery Jets are coming too!

The first major gig i went to was the Chillis in Manchester. Chicks on Speed were plus special guests….they were truly awful. But then James Brown came on and pulled it back :p

What were other people’s first major gig?

The first major gig I went to was to see Jet when everybody was going mental for them. They were supported by this group called The Hiss, who were bloody excellent.

But then both bands just totally vanished from public view. Which is a shame, I thought Jet were alright.

I sold out and went to V instead. Blame it on Muse playing live. I can’t resist Muse.

Reading looked good though. If I’d had the cash, I’d have been there!

I would have loved to go to V!

The lineup looked awesome. I’d mostly liked to have seen The Verve, Muse, Alphabeat, The Hold Steady, Chemical Brothers and mostly Kings Of Leon!

Still, I’m glad I went to Leeds!

How were KOL, by the way? Did you have a good un?

Alphabeat are garbage D:

I don’t think so. I was skeptical when I first heard them. But I got their album, and It’s not bad. They are something fresh in my opinion. And to be honest, I have to listen to them all day via the radio at work. The cunt I work with insists on playing either Key 103 or Radio 1!

So I have developed a liking towards them.