Can you feel the love Reading?! Two of many people dishing our free hugs over the weekend
Most early afternoons there was no music that we really wanted to watch so we would just perch ourselves in the alternative tent where over the weekend we saw comedians such as Josh Widdicombe, Russell Kane and Stephen K Amos. Friday we began our music day with Kodaline who were great and managed to fill the NME/ Radio 1 tent until it was overflowing. We stayed in the NME tent and watched Deap Vally. I've been listening to a lot to this Californian duo over the last few months and I was really excited to finally see them live and they certainly did not disappoint. A set filled with energy, great guitar rifts and heavy drum beats. Later that day we also watched Frank Turner and Bastille who attracted a massive crowd and one of my Friday highlights which we saw before the night's headliners - Green Day (!!!) - were teenage Irish rock 'n' roll band The Strypes. They performed on the smaller Festival Republic Stage but they still managed to pull in a very sizeable crowd. From the moment they walked on stage the energy was massive and by playing classic blues covers as well as songs from their new album Snapshot they attracted both young and old festival goers alike.
But the Friday belonged to one band and one band only and that was Green Day. Both myself and Nicola have loved the American punk-rock band since they released American Idiot back in 2004 so seeing them live after almost ten years was nothing short of AMAZING. They kicked off with 99 Revolutions and went on to play all the classics from American Idiot to Basket Case and to the marathon that is Jesus of Suburbia. The band also managed to fit the whole 1994 Dookie album in before Billie Joe Armstrong left the crowd to go back to their tents after a beautiful solo acoustic performance of Good Riddance (Time of Your Life). Oh, and they also threw in some of AC/DC's Highway to Hell which was pretty awesome. Absolutely great :)
Still reeling from Green Day's performance the night before we got out of our tent's with a slight headache after quite a rough night in the little pop up tent we were sleeping in, (RE: man falling on our heads) we pumped ourselves up for another day at Reading fest. We caught the very end of what seemed like an actual mental set by Palma Violets in the NME tent before we watched Johnny Marr get the crowd excited by playing some Smith's songs. Just before Marr finished his set the tent began to overflow as people tried to find a good spot to watch the next band that was about to take the stage - Imagine Dragons. From the first bang of the massive drum, the Dragons were insane! They finished their set with their big hit Radioactive and I can not wait to watch their performance back on iplayer because it was awesome being there and I'd love to see what the crowd looked like as the men from Las Vegas rocked the tent.
After Imagine Dragons we bought ourselves some Gourmet Burger Kitchen burgers (yes they had a burger van there and it was very reasonably priced) which were absolutely delicious - so delicious that I had the same thing for dinner on Sunday night as well! We ate our burgers while listening to a bit of Chase and Status before we went to see the spectacular Jake Bugg. The man is just too cool. He rocked the tent even with just his acoustic guitar and everyone was mesmerised by his 60's bluesy/country/rock 'n' roll voice. Unfortunately we had to leave before we got to hear Lightning Bolt because we had to fight our way through the ginormous crowd to get a good spot to watch Saturday's headliner Eminem. Eminem is a legend - like Michael Jackson was for pop Eminem is for rap and it's very cool that I can say that I have seen the man live but he was far from my favourite performer of the weekend. It might have something to do with the fact that we could barely hear him over on stage right because the speaker wasn't working so for most of the set it sounded like he was raping in a box but like I said it is very cool to say that I've seen Eminem perform Stan with Dido!
We slept until 11:30am on Sunday! This is the miracle of the weekend - we went to bed just after 2am and had (on and off) almost 9 and a half hours sleep - MENTAL! Sunday's headliners, Biffy Clyro, were the band both Nicola and I had been looking forward to watch all weekend so it was great that we'd had a decent rest in preparation for it. We spent most of our day by the main stage watching The Lumineers, the classic punk rock band - Fall Out Boy - who were really great and we also saw the Editors before getting ourselves ready for Biffy! We decided to watch Nine Inch Nails before Sunday's headliners came on stage and I was really surprised how awesome they were. I'd heard of them and had noticed a lot of hype surrounding their new album but I'd never heard their songs. They are a metal band with a lot of aggressive shouting and I loved it! The most funny thing I saw was a man carrying his 5(ish) year old child out of the crowd as she had fallen asleep watching NIN - she fell asleep watching a heavy metal screaming band!
When Biffy Clyro came on stage both Nicola and I did not stop smiling and I still don't think we've fully recovered from how incredibly amazing their performance was. Simon Neil is just something else isn't he! Many had questioned Biffy's credentials as headliners but the Scottish band slapped all the doubters in the face as hits such as The Captain, Black Chandelier, Biblical, 57 and many others got the crowd going crazy. After setting his guitar alight after a massive version of The Captain Biffy came back on stage and closed out the show with a magical version of Mountains. Wow - that is basically all I can say. Green Day were Amazing but Biffy were just incredible. Mon The Biff!
Reading is such an awesome festival and I definitely think it's my kind of festival. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed my time in V fest the week before but I LOVED my time in Reading. My type of music and my type of people. It's strange, whenever I tell people I've been to Reading fest they always ask what the crowd was like expecting me to say aggressive etc. because it's a rock festival but despite the tattoos, leather and piercings they were the nicest people ever - much nicer than the V fest crowd. I have already booked a hotel for Reading 2014 (because camping is too much - I am now suffering from a bad cold!) and I will be taking my Mam with me to her first ever Reading fest and her first rock festival since she went to Download when she was a teenager. An amazing weekend! See you next year Reading Fest :)
Most early afternoons there was no music that we really wanted to watch so we would just perch ourselves in the alternative tent where over the weekend we saw comedians such as Josh Widdicombe, Russell Kane and Stephen K Amos. Friday we began our music day with Kodaline who were great and managed to fill the NME/ Radio 1 tent until it was overflowing. We stayed in the NME tent and watched Deap Vally. I've been listening to a lot to this Californian duo over the last few months and I was really excited to finally see them live and they certainly did not disappoint. A set filled with energy, great guitar rifts and heavy drum beats. Later that day we also watched Frank Turner and Bastille who attracted a massive crowd and one of my Friday highlights which we saw before the night's headliners - Green Day (!!!) - were teenage Irish rock 'n' roll band The Strypes. They performed on the smaller Festival Republic Stage but they still managed to pull in a very sizeable crowd. From the moment they walked on stage the energy was massive and by playing classic blues covers as well as songs from their new album Snapshot they attracted both young and old festival goers alike.
Deap Vally
The Strypes
The Mighty GREEN DAY
Still reeling from Green Day's performance the night before we got out of our tent's with a slight headache after quite a rough night in the little pop up tent we were sleeping in, (RE: man falling on our heads) we pumped ourselves up for another day at Reading fest. We caught the very end of what seemed like an actual mental set by Palma Violets in the NME tent before we watched Johnny Marr get the crowd excited by playing some Smith's songs. Just before Marr finished his set the tent began to overflow as people tried to find a good spot to watch the next band that was about to take the stage - Imagine Dragons. From the first bang of the massive drum, the Dragons were insane! They finished their set with their big hit Radioactive and I can not wait to watch their performance back on iplayer because it was awesome being there and I'd love to see what the crowd looked like as the men from Las Vegas rocked the tent.
After Imagine Dragons we bought ourselves some Gourmet Burger Kitchen burgers (yes they had a burger van there and it was very reasonably priced) which were absolutely delicious - so delicious that I had the same thing for dinner on Sunday night as well! We ate our burgers while listening to a bit of Chase and Status before we went to see the spectacular Jake Bugg. The man is just too cool. He rocked the tent even with just his acoustic guitar and everyone was mesmerised by his 60's bluesy/country/rock 'n' roll voice. Unfortunately we had to leave before we got to hear Lightning Bolt because we had to fight our way through the ginormous crowd to get a good spot to watch Saturday's headliner Eminem. Eminem is a legend - like Michael Jackson was for pop Eminem is for rap and it's very cool that I can say that I have seen the man live but he was far from my favourite performer of the weekend. It might have something to do with the fact that we could barely hear him over on stage right because the speaker wasn't working so for most of the set it sounded like he was raping in a box but like I said it is very cool to say that I've seen Eminem perform Stan with Dido!
We slept until 11:30am on Sunday! This is the miracle of the weekend - we went to bed just after 2am and had (on and off) almost 9 and a half hours sleep - MENTAL! Sunday's headliners, Biffy Clyro, were the band both Nicola and I had been looking forward to watch all weekend so it was great that we'd had a decent rest in preparation for it. We spent most of our day by the main stage watching The Lumineers, the classic punk rock band - Fall Out Boy - who were really great and we also saw the Editors before getting ourselves ready for Biffy! We decided to watch Nine Inch Nails before Sunday's headliners came on stage and I was really surprised how awesome they were. I'd heard of them and had noticed a lot of hype surrounding their new album but I'd never heard their songs. They are a metal band with a lot of aggressive shouting and I loved it! The most funny thing I saw was a man carrying his 5(ish) year old child out of the crowd as she had fallen asleep watching NIN - she fell asleep watching a heavy metal screaming band!
Having a chillax watching Nine Inch Nails
When Biffy Clyro came on stage both Nicola and I did not stop smiling and I still don't think we've fully recovered from how incredibly amazing their performance was. Simon Neil is just something else isn't he! Many had questioned Biffy's credentials as headliners but the Scottish band slapped all the doubters in the face as hits such as The Captain, Black Chandelier, Biblical, 57 and many others got the crowd going crazy. After setting his guitar alight after a massive version of The Captain Biffy came back on stage and closed out the show with a magical version of Mountains. Wow - that is basically all I can say. Green Day were Amazing but Biffy were just incredible. Mon The Biff!
Reading is such an awesome festival and I definitely think it's my kind of festival. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed my time in V fest the week before but I LOVED my time in Reading. My type of music and my type of people. It's strange, whenever I tell people I've been to Reading fest they always ask what the crowd was like expecting me to say aggressive etc. because it's a rock festival but despite the tattoos, leather and piercings they were the nicest people ever - much nicer than the V fest crowd. I have already booked a hotel for Reading 2014 (because camping is too much - I am now suffering from a bad cold!) and I will be taking my Mam with me to her first ever Reading fest and her first rock festival since she went to Download when she was a teenager. An amazing weekend! See you next year Reading Fest :)
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