READING ROCKED. OH, HOW READING DID ROCK.
Best bands of the weekend were:
Unsurprisingly - The Foo Fighters, Iron Maiden & Biffy Clyro;
Surprisingly - GLC, Blood Brothers, Nine Black Alps & Death From Above 1979.
Worst bands of the weekend were:
Unsurprisingly - The Pixies, Marilyn Manson;
Surprisingly - The Killers, Million Dead, Dropkick Murphys.
I also felt that the Funeral For A Friend set was a bit lame but overall they were okay. The new stuff just isn't the same as the old. They've gone all over-produced and gay on me. Boo.
Fightstar were about the only band to get a bottling but the crowd really didn't have their heart in it and Charlie bravely played through it all. The egotistical twat.
We had about 12 in our little camping group this year. Two blokes and the rest girlies. Other friends were camped elsewhere and we met up with them throughout the festy. It was actually a nice quiet group and we had a lot of fun lighting campfires and talking shit about shit. I mostly split my time between seeing all the metal stuff with Jase and the poppier stuff with the girls. Worked out nicely in the end and managed to avoid all the rubbish bands. I really regret not catching the Editors and the Arctic Monkeys though, but they'll be on tour here soon.
The draught lager this year was a bit lacking - nothing like previous years. Thankfully, the five bottles of red wine kept me going over the week and Jason's wellies proved a good way of getting them in the arena.
Bought a "Maiden Rip Up Reading" t-shirt listing their previous Reading Festival shows - and the new one, a full 23 years later. Also sold my pack of fags (without smoking one!) for more than I paid for it. W00t!
On a much heavier note:
The riots on the last night were pretty widespread. Gas canisters in bins, trolley wars, that kinda shit. Explosions every few seconds. A tower security guy has left something that is worth reading on the efestivals forum.
Here's a brief excerpt:
"I look down to watch the security drinkin their F*kin coffee as my colleague fights his way through a riot in a steward-tabard trying to help this girl and he's gettin missiled, the tabard is like a target... I notice a Lad aged about 15 heading to my tower clutching his Crotch area. I'm 20 metres in the air and as he staggers towards the tower i can see the blood literally gushing from his lower chest/genitals. I see him collapse in front of my tower on to a camping chair and I'm lookin directly down onto him. I see my colleage (a 26 yr old grown man) go white in half a second, then the security guards panic, then i see the lad pull his t-shirt up and trousers down, he moved his hand off his groin and i saw the blood literally piss out all over the floor. His nuts were no longer there and there was a hole in his stomach. This lad saw this and just blacked out instantly and fell off the chair..."
I seriously might not bother next year. Do the ATP festival instead. It'd be a shame 'cos nothing beats the music at Reading, but still...
