Usually you get three review posts from me for each day of the festival. But this year I am taking the lazy route. I will just be doing a single review of the whole shebang. Also it will be somewhat different from usual, this is born out of necessity as I just immersed myself in the music and the vibe and didn’t really bother to take notes. What follows is a departure from the norm for me and a bit of fun too. There is a list of the acts I saw and next to each there will be marks out of ten and one word to reflect my memory of that set. Some of these words may be obvious and others will be cryptic, if you want to know more about them please feel free to ask in the comments.
Day 1 – Friday 22nd August
Crossfaith 7/10 pretty
Red Fang 7/10 dervish
Rufus 8/10 nuts
Shambles In A Husk 6/10 shouty
Phil Nichol (comedian) 9/10 Eskimo
Deaf Havana 6/10 hair
Fat White Family 7/10 hype
Jimmy Eat World 8/10 veterans
Enter Shikari 9/10 banging
Vampire Weekend 9/10 headliners?
Jamie T 9/10 surprise
Bipolar Sunshine 7/10 happy
Metronomy 9/10 synchronised
Queens Of The Stone Age 9/10 party
Day 2 Saturday 23rd August
Jeff Leach (Comedian) 8/10 Ben
Marmozets 9/10 Heavy
Royal Blood 9/10 Bass
Peace 8/10 Magnificent
Hives 9/10 Entertainer
Foster The People 8/10 Kicks
Imagine Dragons 10/10 Thanks
Jake Bugg 9/10 Cool
Arctic Monkeys 10/10 Rocking
Day 3 Sunday 24th August
Glenn Wool (Comedian) 7/10 Canuck
Romesh Ranganathan (Comedian) 9/10 Brown
Billie Marten 8/10 Joni
Young Guns 9/10 Tunes
Papa Roach 8/10 Coby
Clean Bandit 7/10 Disco
Breach 7/10 Rave
Maverick Sabre 8/10 Soul
Schoolboy Q 3/10 Unauthentic
Kooks 10/10 Funky
Horrors 9/10 Pyramid
The 1975 10/10 Sophie
Disclosure 8/10 Fractals
To sign off I have a message for the festival organisers. It’s great that you switched the screens on the Main Stage to portrait view from their original landscape setting. However you need to fix the tech so that we can actually see interesting stuff on them. There were far too many shots of a singers ear, a guitarists arse or just a drum kit with no drummer in the picture. Also please move the fun fair back out of the main arena, it really doesn’t need to be there. All that aside this was one of the most enjoyable Reading Festivals that myself and my good friend Nick Horslen have been to. We have been attending them together for around 13 years and I went to my first in 1975. I’d love to hear what you folks thought of Reading and Leeds this year. Who do you think will headline next year? How about Iron Maiden or AC/ DC? I reckon Muse will headline. I’d like to see PIL on the bill too.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 