Reading Music Festival

The Carling Weekend Reading\Leeds music festival takes place this weekend every year for the friday, saturday and sunday. This year around 80,000 people went to Reading, and the line up for one day at Reading, will be the line up for another day at Leeds. This year was my first Reading festival, and i only went up for the saturday. There are around 6 stages/tents at Reading in the main arena: the main stage, NME/Radio 1 tent, Carling Tent, Comedy Tent, Lockup Stage, Disco tent. This is how my first ever Reading went:

Arrived in Reading around half 11ish in the morning. Dumped stuff with friends, had some food then headed off to see first band, Flogging Molly. An Irish band with a mix of violins, accordians, gutiars and drums, they were really good and really got the crowd going. Next i spent some time in the comedy tent which had some great people on, then saw the beginning of the Futureheads set. Then i went off to see The Automatic play in the NME/Radio 1 tent. THey were awesome, and even did a duet with Goldie Lookin Chain doing a cover of Kanye West's "Gold digger". Then it was back to the main stage for the end of the Dirty Pretty Things set before feeder came on. They were really good, though i was too far forward in the crowd and got battered a bit by all the rushes and pushing in the crowd. Back to the comedy tent after that, before back to the main stage for Arctic Monkeys. These guys really got the crowd going and did an awesome set, but once again lots of pushing in the crowd even though i was further back this time. Next up on the main stage, and finishing the saturday, were Muse. My favourite band, and one the best live bands in the world. They opened their set with the following tracks:

Knights of Cydonia
Hysteria - crowd singing along
Supermassive Black Hole

Thats how they opened the set, it started excellent and stayed that way throughout, with great versions of Map of the Problematique, Feeling Good, Plug in Baby, Bliss, Newborn, Showbiz, Starlight, Invincible, Butterflies & Hurricanes, and the 3 encore tracks of Time is Running Out, Stockolm Syndrome and Take a Bow. Muse were amazing. They can play tracks incredibly well live, making them sound like studio recorded tracks when they are being played right there in front of you. Some of you may have heard about Muse's legendary Glastonbury 04 live performance, which i have a live dvd of. This was so much better than that. The crowd was amazing, almost all the pushing and shoving was gone as people were listening to the music. And loads of people were signing along to all the tracks. Unless you were there there is no way for me to adequately describe how good Muse were, and i think i can safely say Muse are now contenders for the best live band in the world.

We broke into the grounds after bribing a Scottish guard, but not much went to plan after that. The dog unit was especially ominous.

Ah yes you live in Reading don't you ferrets, how long before you got chucked out? Or did you hide in the tent city?

I don't live in Reading, I go to University there, and it isn't term time. We didn't get kicked out, just decided it was time to go explore the town some. Met a charming emo girl.

Well the town is full of students/emo kids/goths at festival time.

What's wrong with students?

Nothing(i am a barely ex-student myself), i was just saying the towns covered in students/emo/goths at this time of the year so you were bound to meet some nice people/girls.

I agree. Muse were amazing. Never got to see their encore songs though.

i was born in reading woot for me the line up off last years festival was way better though

Never got to see their encore songs though.

Did you leave before the encore then? and if so, why?

Damn! I'm jealous of you Lusted ... I was hoping to go to Leeds/Reading, but couldnt get tickets, then when the tour was announced I was away ... by the time I got back, it'd sold out. Muse are indeed meant to be one of the best live acts going at the moment it has to be said.

I'm off to Reading Uni in September actually...

Originally Posted by Stalins Ghost

Damn! I'm jealous of you Lusted ... I was hoping to go to Leeds/Reading, but couldnt get tickets, then when the tour was announced I was away ... by the time I got back, it'd sold out. Muse are indeed meant to be one of the best live acts going at the moment it has to be said.

I'm off to Reading Uni in September actually...

Studying what?

I'm jealous of you Lusted ...

I was hoping to go to Leeds/Reading, but couldnt get tickets,

I got my ticket the moment they went on sale, i'd planned in advance to go to this years Reading.

Ancient History

i thought you didnt get into uni starlin or was that someone else

I didnt get into my first choice (Newcastle)- got into Reading through clearing. Funny really. I was going to apply to Reading, but never did in the end.

Was there much alcohol consumption? :tacticalw

I never went to Oxygen, but I know lots of people who did, they showed me photographs of the aftermath. To be honest, it looked more like the Aftermath of the Battle of Hastings than a musical festival (When William and his army marched off after having a massive **** up to celebrate and thus left the field riddled with blue bags, bodies (actually passed out drunken prople) and beer cans for as far as the eye could see). Hence I have resolved to visit the next music festival that comes around ASAP, even if most of the music might be pish. :tooth:

Got back from Reading sometime on Monday, after a few nasty incidents involving que jumping in the car park on the way out.
Brain still hurts.

Memorable moments (and I use that word in its loosest sense, as I have massive gaps in my memories over the entire weekend):

Muse - Quite possibly the best band in the world at the moment. I cannot describe how good they were.

Pearl Jam - I'm more a fan of their older stuff, but they were fantastic. Eddie Vedder was so overwhelmed with the reception they got that he actually started crying.

Slayer - Not their best performance, and quite a short set, but still damn good.

Watching some guy on acid smearing his own excrement over himself near the Green campsite toilets was also pretty amusing.

But there were some pretty nasty things going on as well, like stupid little kids throwing full cans of lager randomly into the campsite. I saw a couple of girls get knocked out by that . Also, people exploding Gas canisters in other people's tents or running around setting fire to them. Not cool
I dont think i'll bother camping at Reading again, which is a shame because the actual event itself was pretty good. But their were too many stupid little kids who cant handle their drink and drugs.

Think I'll do Glastonbury next year instead.

Wow...never thought PJ would get such a good reception (glad they did mind) from an English crowd. Most of the people I know hate them (losers).

It's a shame about the madness at Reading though, since it normally has the best line up. Normally Leeds is meant to be a bit more ahem "civil". Last year people just went nuts and broke into a Carling lorry...free booze for everyone they say

I went to Reading last year.... mainly to see Iron Maiden, and it was an excellent weekend.

I wasn't all that keen on the line-up this year, so I didn't go. Hearing the good reports from people who went though has made me come to the conclusion that I made the wrong decision.