Last weekend the world music elite ascended onto Richmond Park for the world famous Reading Festival. The older brother of the Reading and Leeds twin hosted over two hundred acts over what was an amazing spectacle for both the eyes and ears. But the question on everyone’s lips after the dust has settled, who were crowned the Kings or Queens of Reading?
IT’S FRIDAY AND IT’S TIME TO GET DOWN!
With the main stage not offering much unless you were an angsty teen, it was up to the other stages to get my groove on. My group of fellow festival companions started the day off at NME and were gifted with fantastic sets from Friends and Spector. However, their success on stage was battered into submission by the experienced veterans of Reading and Leeds, The Hives. The Swedish rock group arrived on stage in full top hat and tails, instantly whipping the crowd into a frenzy with their high energy songs and hyper stage presence. Welcoming crowd participation at every point their hit tracks “Hate To Say I Told You So” and “Tick Tick Boooom” created a set that will go down in Reading history as the day The Hives returned to the top of the food chain. Check out their killer set below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjWl5l8uAZE1
After a brilliant day of music the darkness made way for the main events. Choosing to stay loyal to the NME tent a five piece band from Brighton who have been creaping up lineups for the last few years povided what was to be a memorable nights entertainment. The Maccabees who were for the first time headlining a major festival stage are tipped by many to be one of the next big cult indie bands. Although clearly nervous, the “lads of indie” have three anthemic albums under their belt, and with a string of hits to match they had no trouble in getting Reading nestled in their wall of arms. Watch them entertain the masses below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqMRAtW4E2U1
S S S S S S S S SATURDAY SATURDAY
After the standard late night and little sleep, the whole of the festival awoke knowing that a certain bunch of American Idiots were going to be greeting Reading at 11am. None other than Green Day exploded into a jam packed NME tent declaring that the secret of them playing was not kept particularly well as basically the whole festival was their to see them. They quickly ran through their allotted time and openly refused to leave the stage. Even when dragged off the american three piece refused to leave and continued to bang out hit after hit ending the set with the crowd favourite Minority. Check out my favourite track Basket Case at the festival below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7bvWLGhnlk1
Now, Green Day are never going to be easy to follow and to be honest there was little else that impressed me about Saturday. But one band stood out for me as having not only a brilliant original sound but also the ability to produce music that makes everyone stand up and just listen. London based Dry The River brought the NME crowd to a state of complete amazement as they breezed through a thirty minute set of brilliant beautiful songs ending with the long version Animal Skins. Pure brilliance from start to finish. See their performance of “No Rest” below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gDJELLZIhk1
Lazin’ On A Sunday Afternoon
The final day of Reading was by far the most exciting with the best well and truly saved till last. Starting the day with the amazing “Of Monsters And Men” who reopened up the NME stage for the final time this year. They were followed up by the madness that is Django Django who proved you can never have too much bass as they shook the tent to its foundations. The final act i saw in the NME tent proved to produce one of the performances of the festival. The Joy Formidable stole the show for me, providing a perfect mixture of awesome hits from their album The Big Roar as well as bringing in a couple of new tracks into the frame, effortlessly mastering being the ideal Rock three piece. Check out now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8YJOYw2xlc1
Finally, there was only ever going to be one way to end Reading Festival and that was to be blown away by the two biggest rock acts in the world currently. The Black Keys and Foo Fighters Crashed onto the main stage playing hit after hit and bringing this years number one festival to a close. A more prefect ending there could not be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g89L5Z6YKOU1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o9avuvLmJc1
Now back home it’s time to get planning for next year 😀
Much Love x
