We had officially landed, arriving at the Weekend White car parking area just as it was starting to get dark, and just as it started to drizzle… Unloading the car with the weekend’s essentials (tent, beer, sleeping bags, beer), we headed towards the ticket/wristband exchange and obtained ‘the’ wristband which would be our key for the weekend. As we trekked across Gavin’s Bridge through the white, brown and purple camping areas, the mud was absolutely relentless and the repetitive slogging was really starting to affect the ol’ quadriceps. Bags started falling off shoulders, wheels on holdall luggage started getting stuck, mud started making its way into every nook and cranny known to man. We finally arrived at the orange camping area some 30 minutes later and coincidentally, amongst the thousands, managed to find ourselves setting up camp across the ‘road’ from our friends. Once the tent was up and first beer of the evening opened, we headed to our friends, who would also be our fellow camping neighbours’ tents to huddle around their campfire and officially begin festivities for the almighty Reading Festival!
Took a little trip to Tesco first thing to stock up on essentials (a lot of beer was consumed on the Thursday evening!) which is superbly, or should that read strategically situated right next to Richfield Avenue and its fields where the festival is held. The place was absolutely riddled with festival goers, and the floors were slowly but surely turning into a mudslide. No hassle for Tesco though who were seriously going to make a mint from this annual experience. After the necessities were purchased, we headed back to the campsite and through to the arena just as it was all opening up for their first day of fun, frolics, and awesome bands!
After relaxing and chilling out in some rare sunshine, we began the hustle between the main stage and Radio 1/NME tent and decided to mooch around outside the Radio 1/NME tent, where it was decided that this would be one of many meeting points (along with the Mr Whippy van at the main stage). Thanks to the external screens we sat outside, still basking in the warm weather and sunshine, and had a little watch of New Young Pony Club. I didn’t get to catch much of their set, especially as there were numerous rounds of booze to be bought, but they really got the crowd up and moving and eruption soon ensued when the band’s popular track “Ice Cream” came on. The next band myself and others of the group checked out were Two Door Cinema Club. I had listened to them on MySpace before now following a recommendation from a friend and am I glad I did. The band had the whole of the tent, which was bordering on full considering this was an act playing at 3:30PM on the first day, up and dancing and even chanting the band’s lyrics. You can see that they are young, especially the lead singer Alex, and are fairly new to the music scene. Watching Alex beaming with gratification and genuine appreciation, it was obvious that he was loving every single moment deservedly. I danced myself silly to their whole set and knowing only a handful of their songs, sang as much as I could along with my friend who I owed this moment to for introducing them to me.
I later flitted over to the main stage with my other half and some of the crew to check out Biffy Clyro. I was really psyching myself up for them (despite having seen them numerous times before), considering they are one of my favourite bands, and also having a bit of a thing for front man Simon Neil, but I digress. The usual melodic backing music they have played out just before they come out on stage was delivered, followed by a massive roar from the crowd, which was then followed by a very questionable looking Simon entering onto stage – bleach blonde hair and beard!! After welcoming the crowd with a bit of sheepish “hello” the band kicked things off with “Golden Rule”, which the thousands of observers went mental to. After getting over the initial shock of Simon/Kenny Rogers/Captain Birdseye/Slim Santa (!), all was forgotten as the band went on to deliver a rapturous set including some of their best material.
After a quick dash to check out Mumford & Sons’ set over at Radio 1/NME, which I was a little bit disappointed with, probably because we couldn’t get into the blasted tent; were surrounded by the inevitable ‘Peaches’ (you know, the ones who have flowers dangling in their hair, wear lots of bangles and don’t actually pay any attention whatsoever to the bands – ‘scenesters’ if you will) and also missing Queens of the Stone Age for the privilege, we headed back over to the main stage to check out Guns & Roses, because you have to, don’t you? Well, suffice to say the band were pretty awful and probably weren’t too far off being bottled, due to an infamous late appearance (58 minutes to be precise) from Axl Rose. We headed back to the campsite not long after this…
Day 2 was always going to be my favourite day. Loads of good bands I wanted to see and it all kicked off so early. Highlights included Futureheads (brilliant), Mystery Jets (quite pleasing) and Gaslight Anthem (fab) all kicking off the main stage from 12:45PM. I also decided to check out Dizzee Rascal on the main stage with a few of the crowd…who was surprisingly better than I anticipated! I had already seen a bit of his set at Reading 2 years ago, but having viewed the whole of his set this year I found it really quite fun, and Dizzee was definitely lapping up the love from the crowd (as we were lapping up the man himself).
THE band I had been waiting for all day though were the main stage’s headliners, Arcade Fire. Their stage set was made up of a screen in the centre of a backdrop which looked like art work from ‘The Suburbs’, the band’s latest offering, and when the entourage of Arcade Fire came onto stage starting their set off with “Ready to Start”, the whole place was just unbelievably electric. Performing an array of tracks from their 3 albums, the band really were giving us our money’s worth. I probably would’ve paid my ticket price for them alone! The crowd weren’t silent at all throughout – either cheering for the group or singing along to one amazing song after the other. The 1½ hour set flew by in no time at all and I was gutted when it was over, though very happy and extremely satisfied when walking back to the campsite chanting “ahhh, ahhh, ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhh, ahh”, the opening of their last song “Wake Up” along with the remaining thousands also heading back.
By Day 3 my body was definitely starting to feel the effects of constant boozing and eating junk. There wasn’t much on the agenda for today apart from We Are Scientists, another of my favourite bands, whose set wasn’t due until later on in the evening just before the headliners in the Radio 1/NME tent. After watching Joy Formidable, who I could give or take to be honest and I wasn’t too impressed with the guitar smashing at the beginning of the set, we plodded around from stage to stage trying to avoid the spontaneous heavy downpours of rain showers. My partner and I found ourselves in the Alternative tent, which showcases new, old and current comedy talent. We found ourselves sat down amongst others inside the tent as if at a school assembly, patiently waiting for good comedians to come on. Having caught the last 10 minutes or so of up and coming comedian Barry Castagnola, who was very funny, we caught Edinburgh winner Russell Kane whose set was awesome. Being in constant stitches throughout without even a sign of a break definitely wins my vote (I love a man who can make me laugh). Chilling out in the comedy tent for a while was definitely a nice alternative to tent and stage hopping to see some mediocre band just to pass the time whilst waiting for an actual good band to blow you away. After ending our funny afternoon with the entertaining likes of Rufus Hound and Tom Stade, and the not so funny but quite cringe worthy Charlie Baker preceding them, we made our way over to the main stage to watch Weezer. Front man Rivers Cuomo, looking like he hadn’t aged a day after hitting the mainstream chart with the band more than a decade ago, was superb to watch and the definite highlight of their set was the hilarious performance of MGMT’s “Kids” intertwined with a blonde wig wearing rolling around in the mud rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface”. They ended their set with Buddy Holly, which definitely took me back to my nostalgic days of sixth form. We managed to catch a bit of Paramore, which had every little scenester bopping along singing the melodic tunes word for word and grabbing onto their nearest friend, aka ‘Peaches’, before darting over to catch We Are Scientists. Even though not actually headlining the Radio 1/NME stage (they were second to Klaxons), they actually topped off the evening for me. OK, I may be biased because I think they are awesome, but honestly where else can you watch a band belting out some really amazing tunes (we won’t really discuss ‘Barbara’) combined with a live comedy act all at the same time? Genius. Frankly, I could go on and on but I don’t think I need to…plus I won’t ever stop! We Are Scientists = amazing-ness crammed into just short of an hour set.
Not that you can gather from this write up, but the line up wasn’t as impressive to me as other festivals occurring this year or even Reading festival when I went a couple of years back. However, I’ve never had a better time. Of the bands I did see live, or at least most of them, I enjoyed every single second and cannot wait for the inevitable mud sloshing, booze flinging, lost voices, freezing nights and boiling (hung-over) tent mornings of next year.
My-Yen Tang
