READING 2004

[~ MAR ~]

OMG!!! It rocked! But where to begin...

Arrived in Reading Thursday, went to site to get wristbands, wandered about aimlessly for a while, heard my first 'BOLLOCKS!!' in the brown camp.....ERM....had a pint......oh yeah. MET FAT REG!!! ;D Actually met Reg, Graham and Mariko. Nice to meet you guys. Graham you're hilarious!!

Friday: really pissed off because of all the rain. Of course everyone had wellies APART FROM US! UGH. The mud was 3 inches deep in places and that was just on the walkways. The camps were much worse. Bloody glad we weren't camping.

Goldie Lookin' Chain: Great band (err...group...err...troupe...collection?) to start off the festie. Highly entertaining IMO. Great laugh. 8/10

Taking Back Sunday: were okay...nothing special. 5/10

Reel Big Fish: Very enjoyable. They held the crowd, quite a big crowd too. 8/10

Hundred Reasons: Wow!! Seen them twice at Reading before but they've been great every time, and they were no different this time. 9/10

The Distillers: Only watched them due to having nothing else to do. They really really impressed me and we were all rocking out. Amazed at how many of their songs I actually knew. Crowd liked them too. 8/10

The Hives: Entertaining, and Pelle has such stage presence. 8/10 for Pelle.
Ash: Were fantastic!! 9/10

The Offspring: We were still singing Offspring songs the next day and I heard loads of ppl in agreeance at how good their set was. They rocked. 9/10

The Darkness: Umm...not really a huge fan. They were ok. I wanted to see them, and I did....for 30 mins. hehe 7/10


Saturday: Drier day, sun came out and blessed Reading. Mud dried up slightly....bonus!

Read Yellow and Bloc Party in Radio 1 tent: The only 2 bands we saw who weren't on the main stage. Read Yellow were really good, but all I kept thinking was how good the unsigned band I support would have sounded in their place. Tent soon got packed out for Bloc Party...forcing us to leave after a couple of songs. Jake got a bit claustrophobic. They were good from what we heard. 7/10

Thursday: Something a bit heavier...just what I needed. Were great!! 8/10

Franz Ferdinand: Rather good. 8/10

The Libertines: Ok...saw them last year though...left halfway through. 7/10


Kids got filmed for CDUK. How cool is that? Might be on the tv next Saturday at 11.30am.

That's all we saw on Saturday....had enough and spent the evening chilling in front of the tv. ;D

Sunday: The day we were waiting for the whole weekend. Sun came out a bit, and shined on all the muddy people.

Minus: Now that was some real metal at last. Most invigorating on a lazy Sunday morning. Just what I needed. And they were good too. 8/10

Thrice: Expected more of them than they gave to be honest, but that's being a bit unfair. They were quite good. Most enjoyable expectations aside. 8/10

The Rasmus: Well now...I can't really review them because I was at the time queuing to meet Lostprophets. Which I have to say I fucking queued over 2 hours for with the kids only to have some gorilla of a guy tell me no more people were going in, when we were like less than 20 people to go. GUTTED. And that was just the kids. I heard The Rasmus got mud bombed off the stage though. Shame I think...they deserved a go at it.

The Streets: Good as always. Mike Skinner is awesome in my humble opinion. Somewhat cheered me up. 9/10

Lostprophets: AHHHHHH.....wonderful, great, awesome. Love, love, loved it. ;D 9/10 (thought Ian struggled slightly in parts....lost them the 10/10)

Placebo: RAWR!!! Fucking awesome!! Brian Molko had the crowd rocking!! ;D 10/10

50 Pence: This is just my opinion but the guy didn't deserve such a vicious bashing.....although the people next to us were vastly enjoying themselves piss into bottles and throwing them. While I in no way condone such action it did make me chuckle a little bit. Respect to the guy for sticking it out as long as he did. The sea of obscene gestures was a never before seen phenomenon for me. Not sure whether to feel sorry for him or not. The whole thing was highly entertaining though.

GREENDAY: OMG!!!! How fucking glad am I we stayed for them. They were FUCKING AWESOME!! They even had my kids rocking out. Any band that can get Josh bobbing his head and singing along gets my vote immediately. They were the first all weekend. 10/10 (and the rest) BRILLIANT.

All in all had a great weekend. Can't wait to sort out my photos. They will be posted as soon as I get them on this pc.

It was cool to talk to you Ali P, and Davey (I believe). Nice to meet you Mellie. I'm still amazed you recognised me.

Funniest moments were listening to the people next to us rocking out to 50 Pence with a triangle and tambourine singing 'hari Krishna'. ;D and having a discussion about Pee Mates (don't ask guys).

See you all there next year then?

[S8N]

Bands what I saw and the rating what I give:

GLC: got the job done 7/10

Boom Boom Satellites: repetitive 6/10

Ikara Colt: need better songs 6/10

DJ Format: Highlight of the weekend for me 10/10

The (international) Noise Conspiracy: Missed most of their set but what we saw was awesome 8/10

Jurassic 5: Their Swing Set was just astounding. 8/10

The Wildhearts: The most experienced live band on the bill and it showed 9/10

Danko Jones: Seen the exact same show with the exact same banter 3 times now but hell, it was still Danko 9/10

McLusky: Wasnt that impressed, much prefer them on record. 6/10

Peaches: Didnt actually play any of her good songs at all 6/10

Offspring: Same as their 02 set really, but with a hell of a lot of confetti. 7/10

SFA: Didnt catch all of their set, because we were fools 9/10

Graham Coxon: Tried too hard to be nothing like The Darkness, once he got into Revolver and loosened up though he just got transformed into an absolute god. 4/10 for first half, 10/10 for second

SATURDAY

The Bronx: what the hell is it with everyone covering Neil Young? 8/10

Icarus Line: Something just awesome about them always 9/10

Har Mar Superstar: Was never a fan but new stuff was amazing 9/10

Franz Ferdinand: Were solid but unspectacular, first chance for a good sing along 7/10

The Libertines: Should have played more of new album, women at side of stage annoyed me greatly 6/10

Morrisey: He. opened. with. how. soon. is. now. 10/10

The White Stripes: Got a bit repetitive but covers of 'Maps' and 'Dead Letters' were inspired 9/10

SUNDAY

Minus: I was only checking them out cos Kerrang told me to 7/10

Thrice: Expected them to bomb, they didnt. 8/10

The Fiery Furnaces: Was really hopeful here, but they sucked 4/10

The Streets: Massive improvement on last year 8/10

Fingathing: Decks, double bass and an animator. rocking 9/10

Auf Der Maur: Was just amazing, completely won the crowd over 9/10

Green Day: Utterly predictable and dependable set, brilliant 10/10

Gutted about missing !!!, Von Bondies, 80s Matchbox, Thursday and Lostprophets.

[Nik]

Ratings you say:

Friday:
Goldie lookin' chain - 7/10
Do me bad things - 7/10
Reel big fish - 8/10
The wildhearts - 8/10
The hives - 8/10
The living
Danko jones - 10/10
Offspring - 4/10
The darkness - 9/10

Saturday:
Young heart attack - 8/10
New york dolls - 10/10
Morrissey - 9/10

Sunday:

Dropkick murphies - 8/10
Amplifier - 7/10
50 cent - 10/10 (you know why...)
Greenday -12/10

Oh dear god i''ve just realised that i saw no bad bands... SHIT!

[~ MAR ~]

Hmmm...you gave the Offspring 4/10...does that constitute a bad band?

I forgot to include Razorlight in my review....thought they were great. Wasn't expecting that. He blew it a bit by taking his top off though... 7/10

[Gary]

Hmmm...

Friday
Mr. Mojo - not bad, really repetitive though, 5/10.
10,000 Things - not my thing at all, 3/10.
Futureheads - pretty good, I didn't know much of their material, but good! 7/10
Fiery Furnaces - as good as when I saw them supporting Hot Hot Heat, 7/10.
The Streets - brilliant, 10/10
Lostprophets - not enough from the first album for my liking, I don't like their new stuff very much - 5/10.
Placebo - best band of the day, 10/10.
Supergrass - incredible, 9.5/10

Saturday
Missed GLC was drunk again.
Boom Boom Satellites - had no idea who they were, but they were awesome. 8/10.
Jurassic 5 - incredible again, the DJ jams in the middle were awesome, I definitely wanna see them in a proper gig, 9/10.
Ash - missed the first song, but they ruled so much! 9/10.
The Offspring - only watched them cuz a mate wanted to and I wanted to see the Darkness, pretty blah, 3/10.
The Darkness - fantastic, best band of the weekend, Love On The Rocks spliced with We Will Rock You = awesome! 11/10.

Sunday
5,6,7,8's - shite. I only saw them cuz everyone else did and I was too drunk to disagree. 1/10!
Thursday - same again, but I was even drunker and didn't hear their set. I just played air guitar instead. N-A/10.
Razorlight - beautiful, 8/10.
New York Dolls - I dunno, I passed out during like the 2nd song.
The Roots - brilliant, I love the Roots so much, fast version of the Seed 2.0 = awesome, 9/10.
Franz Ferdinand - so, so good, 9/10.
The Libertines - amazing again, but I wanna see them with Pete! 8.5/10.
Morrissey - just fantastic, 9.5/10.
White Stripes - yea, they were awesome, I was bummed about them missing last year, but this made up for it 10/10.

[PT]

thought i'd better stick down my review on the weekends proceedings so at least the dance tent will have been covered (fully-ish)

Friday

GLC – Comical start to the day, if not entirely able rappers, also a little disappointed they were only rapping over a DAT. Never-the-less a solid start. 6.5/10

Brave Captain – Nice enough, if a little unspectacular. Interesting beats. 6/10

Boom Boom Satellites – In all honesty I know I watched them but I can’t remember much other than they were distinctly average. 4.5/10

DJ Format and MC Abdominal – Top draw! Abdominal is on the top MC’s at the moment. Deserves far more exposure than he’s getting. Top draw set, hard to fault other than Format doing some dodgy miming. 8/10

Shystie – Saarf London Rude Girl, who is probably the fastest MC I’ve ever heard. The crowd took a while to warm to her, but her MC’ing ability can not be doubted. Good dancers as well, if maybe a little ‘street’ for your average Reading goer. 7/10

Jurassic 5 – Quality live act, not much else you can add other than near perfect and damm innovative. 8.5/10

LCD Soundsystem – not blown away to begin with, but gradually got better. Enjoyable live act, who seemed like nice people. 6.5/10

!!! – A tad pretensions and drugged out of their faces, but pretty decent live act. Wasn’t impressed by them walking all over NuMark as he was trying to set his decks up, and unnecessarily rude by announcing ‘some guy called Numark’s up next whoever he is’. 6/10

DJ NuMark – A great set, playing all the big hits you’d expect him to play and plenty of obscure stuff. Like during the J5 set, very innovative, also a great touch to see the whole J5 crew watching in support. 8/10

Roots Manuva – Despite some dodgy tracksuit and sleeveless parka, he played a barnstorming set. Knows how to work the festival crowd and proved why he’s the godfather of UK rap. 8.5/10

Saturday

The 5,6,7,8’s – hahahahahahahaha Japanese shouty punky stupidity. Quite entertaining. 5.5/10

Har Mar Superstar – I have to admit it the guy knows how to write funky disco-esq tunes. Good crowd interaction and funny as ever. 7.5/10

The Roots – Highly experimental set, far more psyedelic/blues influenced than I’d expected. Great individual musicians and an interesting set. Some of the solo’s lost the crowds interest, but hey if I was that good I’d show off. 7/10

Dizzee Rascal – My top act of the weekend. I’ve been waiting to see him for ages and he didn’t let anyone down. At time impossible to understand, but the sound is superb. Enjoyed two new tracks and thought he had plenty to say. 9.5/10

Sunday

Chromeo – My find of the weekend. They were blindingly funky and comical with it. There were two guys, one of whom only sang/spoke through a vocuda. It impressed me enough to want to go and buy the album. 8/10

Ivory – Expected more from Dizzee’s mate, but he didn’t really delivery. Bit rockier than I’d expected, and for some reason it just didn’t work. He’s stage presence was also lacking.4/10

The Streets – Not as much fun watching him on the big stage as it was watching him in the dance tent two years ago. But his witty remarks and the fact I like all his tunes was enough to impress me. 7/10

Buck 65 – Missed the start of his set due to the Streets. is a very unique act, Kept mucking up which track he was going to play from the DAT, and some of the scratching was a little awkward. Liked found it highly amusing he professed his love for crack. 7/10

Fingathing – Third time I’ve seen them, and this was the least impressive. Probably due to the fact Peter Parker admitted to being pissed. Still a great live act and are technically gifted musicians, and gave a good set despite being inebriated. 7/10

Radio 4 - Really wasn’t at all impressed, despite hearing some good things. Left the tent and went for a beer and spliff instead which was far more fun. 2/10

DJ Krush – Beautiful music, the most in-depth sound I heard all weekend. In parts maybe criticise him for letting the set drag. Joined on stage by a brilliant Japanese flute player. 7/10

TY – Dynamite set. Justified his credentials as a top live act and transferred his sound well to a largish stage. Stunning set and great fun to watch. Nice messages to the crowd and good crowd interaction. 9/10

Mike Patton and Rahzel – Was a little disappointed, but that was more due to the sound engineers fucking up, which angered Mike P immensely. Had to leave the tent as it was for some reason an angry crowd. Once further back the sound quality was much better. Rahzel’s vocal talents dwarf that of Mike P, but Mike P’s ingenuity more that made up for that. 7/10

[MrHoppy]

I like Green Day.

[Nik]

MrHoppy said:

I like Green Day.

Good for you!

[Digsy]

lol i like greenday too ;D

[Nik]

And good for you too

[Digsy]

and so, to clarify....we like greenday.

[Nik]

Not so long to the bowl shows now... can't 'kin wait.

[++kirk]

from what i can remember:
FRI

-wouldve seen glc but in the queue for the police box cos a friend had his wallet stolen, so instead i recreated their lyrics numerous times over the weekend

-reel big fish- werent that great, dont know loads of their songs but they seemed bored to me. 4/10

-the hives - ACE, i wish id heard more of their, at the time, new stuff before tho. 9/10

-danko jones- first time for me, superb 10/10

-the offspring - played their classics, but they played da huey (or whatever its called) so they get a 6/10

-dirty sanchez - genious, could actually see this year. disturbing fun 9/10

SAT

-a bit of razorlight- meh wasnt that bothere 4/10

-the white stripes- jack went on the tangents of a mad man and the covers were fantastic. bit far back tho 8/10

SUN

-futureheads - excellent kate bush cover was astounding- 9/10

- heard lost prophets from the camp- eugh, scream scream scream wail scream. shite -10/10 (thats a minus)

-that prick (half a dollar) - great fun, hands to the guy who threw the stool and the guy next to me with the golden turnip. 10/10

-Green Day - AWESOME, obviously. thats all i have to say. 11/10

an other bands that my memory fails me on