Ich Bin Reading!
Reading 2003
The main cast:
Myself.
Iain.
Craig.
Jo (lady)
Alan
Ally
Chris
Rachel
Supporting Cast:
Charlotte
Lau
Holly
Thursday:
Train journey was okay. We had a barbeque when we go there and I stole some burgers which made me feel a little grotty. Met a girl called Jo who was camping with us (she knew Alan and Ally who knew Iain and Craig who knew me, so...yes) and discovered a mutual love for Eddie Izzard quotes ("Are you drilling?") and Blur (we both agree on the love for "Sing") and she's a lot like weathered_tomb in a way. Mmmm. I went to bed early as I'm a giant wuss who lurrrrves his sleep. Even if it's sleeping on a bumpy grass floor with only a sleeping bag a tent for protection/comfort.
Friday:
I spend the day being vury tired. The day that I only want to see about 3 bands and also the day of Charlotte. So you can see why I might not of been looking forward to Friday that much. First band I see are a band that the programme has billed as "TBC" so I'm not sure who they are but they were okay for about 2 songs until their Darkness-esque cock rock became as interessting as their haircuts. I venture over to the Carling Tent which has a abnd called the Razorlights so it's a good thing I wasn't expecting much as they were only kind of okay. I venture back to to the Radio 1 tent for the guilty emo pleasure which were Saves the Day and was tre impressed, the lead singer also looks like me. I liked them, fuck you. After S.T.D (not THAT sort of STD) it was the total amboniation which was OK-fucking-GO. Utter wank. Charlotte texts me to see if I can "do her a favour." After 3 attempts to meet already due to crap signal and low battery and bad timing we meet before the Datsuns strut their leather, on the main stage, no less, and it turns out her mum packed her RANCID ticket not her READING ticket so had to buy a new Reading Friday day ticket and she asked me if I could lend her some money. Of course, I said yes, being the shmuck that I am, but fuck it, she was in a jam and I wanted to help her out, plus she fainted during Finch (I was going to say "well you shouldn't of seen such a sucky band," but that's probably not the best thing to say to someone who just fell ontop of loads of people in a pit.) Anyway, I see the Datsuns and was only midly impressed, can't really remember much apart from Lady and MF from Hell being the obvious stand out tracks, they've got a really good guitarist though. Anyway, after the Datsuns I sit with Charlotte and two of her recently found buddies (who we both agree on that the new Muse tracks are "fookin wonderful") and watch the most appauling, mediocre, piss hole that is the band called Staind, whose amp blew up and went acoustic for the rest of the 40 mins. "This fucking sucks" Arron Lewis saids after a track...we really couldn't agree more. I leave the main stage and Charlotte (who looked cuter than I've ever seen her, sunny weather seems to suit her) and see my friend Lau (who licked me and lent me her sun glasses.) We went to see Ladytron who were okay, if a little uninspiring, although Seventeen made me dance like a foo. Lau looked fit, sunny weather seems to suit her too. After Ladytron, Lau and her fella/friend/thingy Joe leaves me to my own devices and Electric Six who were soooooo fucking bad, what was worse was the crowd getting too into songs that they so obviously haven't heard before. They played Gay Bar and it was shit and then they added insult to injury and covered Radio Ga-Ga which was even worse. It's now 7.55 and the first proper decent band that I wanted to see come on, Interpol. The sun is setting which adds a nice atmosphere to the tent and rip through a set of "Turn on the bright lights" and a handfull of less Joy Division sounding new songs. It was glorious and I was on the barrier, a joyfull moment. Elbow next and they totally blew me away, I was not expecting them to sound that good, a solid band if there was ever one and the next album sounds amazing. They have wonky beards though. Speaking of beards, I couldn't spot the beardy guy from The Polyphonic Spree so I guess he must of had a shave. Anyway, you ever feel good about a gig? You come away with butterflies in your tummy, and you just want to hug everyone person you come across? No? Go see the Spree, amazing live, they weren't all Jesus-y all cultish which I thought they might of been, but no, everyone was jumping around, copying hand movements (I swear Tim DeLaughter is the only person in rock who can do any sort of obscure hand movement and get everyone in the crowd, and I do mean EVERYONE, to copy him) They played Soldier Girl and everyone was linking arms and jumping around. When they finished some guy asked me if I had seen them, hugged me and started to spew his love for them. There were people dressed in robes too and I became jealous.
Saturday:
My Saturday starts at 5.30am. Yes AM! When Charlotte asks me to walk her to the station. When I get to our meeting point I turn on my phone only to get a text telling me not to meet her at 5.30 but at 10.30 instead. When I leave Iain is still awake and when I get back Iain says to me "that was quick," my reply was "mumble mubmle 10.30" I can still hear his laughter as I drift back to sleep. Anyway, yes, took Charlotte to the station and was generally cute around her (yes I get the feeling she likes me, no I'll be damned if anythings going to happen.) Back to the bands, first band of the day are Stellarstarr* who I lurrrrve, they have a Pixies like sound and rock like a mutha. Next was My Morning Jacket who I fell alseep to (not really paying attention to Craig's advice about not falling alseep with contacts in, yuck it was gross) they were okay I guess, wasn't in the mood for country twang but could appreciate what they were doing. Next up was the hype machine overload which was Jet who called us "rawkin motherfuckaaaas" about 15 times, and generally acted like...uhrrr... rawkin motherfuckaaaaas. They were a bit samey, but their guitars were edgy and gritty, a Datsuns tribute band but with a sock in the trouser attitude. After Jet was quite possibly the greatest band of the weekend The Rapture who made me dance, and spaz out again, to their dirrrrty grooves of Ollio, Alienation and House of Jealous Lovers. People came away saying "everone is going to love this band next year," Next year? Everyone should love them NOW! I skipped over to the main stage for Doves who the audience didn't seem to tolerate and made me want to hurt them. The band rolled out everything they could and sounded sweet and soulful in the sun. Run back over to the R1 tent, see the last 2 songs of The Beach Boys sorry The Thrills and then its VOLTA time. Who were really dissapointing. Not their fault, they only had 45 minutes (which they did 3 songs!!!!) to do what they could, they crowd was bursting though, I heard bones I never thought I had snap and creak. Next up, Cooper Temple Clause who were bliding, and always have a good solid crowd. The band started off wonky but kicked it a new one with the new songs. Promises Promises, AIM, New Toys all sounding delicious. Yum. Next was the career high of Blur. Think Tank sounding perfect in the night, oldies like Tender being sung by 60,000 people , Parklife by Phil Daniels and Albarn on an acoustic (Tong, Coxon's guitar replacement not knowing how to play it) and the deafening finale of "This is a low," brought a tear to my eye and a leap to my jump. It would of been better with Coxon, we all knew that, but it was still an amazing set (2 hours, too, longer when I saw them at the Astoria) and a perfect way to end the perfect day.
Sunday.
I'm hungover and didn't realise I drank enough to get typsy. Jo reminds me about the Irish Meadow last night. Yucky. Today is known as "METALLICA DAY!!!!!!!!! so there's not one fucking band I want to see on the main stage with the exeption of System of a Down. More of which, later. The day starts with Cardia who are Ian Love from Rival School's new band and remind me of early Muse, but emo, so I'll coin a phrase and call them emose. They impressed me enough steal a badge off them after the gig. Next are Serafin at the R1 tent and were sickeningly baaaaaad. Too much zoip not enough omph. I fell asleep before The Raveonettes and was rudley awaken by people walking over me and clapping. I should of stayed alseep I would have had more fun that way. I leave four songs in and check out The Stills who musically took a giant shit on The Raveonettes and smeared in their Danish faces. Lovely songs, band wiffed of confidence too. The Stills end I run over to dance like a 80s pill popper to the NYC funk punk sounds of Radio 4 who may of had the song of the weekend in "Dance to the underground," with special guest Har Mar Superstar (complete with pink pants) on bongos. After that, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line disaster skull fucked me to death with their RAAGGGH! sounds of their album "Horse of the Dog," and there's nothing better than hearing 10,000 people in unison say "I WANNA FUCK YOUR MOTHER!" Next are Hell is for heroes who me and Iain spin each other round, quite bizarley, in the mosh pit and run into people, while immitating the drum sounds. Yes. Well. Iain leaves me to Hot Hot Heat and laughs at me, even though they might of been the band of the weekend if it wasn't for the guy wearing a hat infront of me. But yesssss, I lurrve their crazy yelping antics. Next is System of a Down and is a) brutal b) full of old bikers with devil tatoos c) dusty. My throat collected loads of dust that was rising from the ground and I nearly passed out so had to grab two bottles of water and return only to found that the pit was now a) more brutal b) full of kung fu kicking guys with rose tatoos c)eveeeen more dusty. But they were fun and made me feel like 16 years old again. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs refused to play Bang, Mystery Girl and Machine and instead played okay sounding new stuff but I still bounced around and screamed like the annoying guy you normally found at concerts. I then roam around for a while going between Metallica who had a wall of amps behind them to make up for the lack of good sounding new songs, before finally settling on seeing British Sea Power. At this point of the weekend my ears are hurting, my contacts are full of dust, my knees feel like they've been rippied out, stamped on and then put on backwards, but god almighty, I fucking enjoyed the hell out of B.S.P. They played nothing I knew and I think it was best like that, the smallest tent of the weekend and the smallest crowd of the closing night, the band played a set that was musically better than anything playing else and then had loads of tree branches and shubberies and fake owls on their amps. Marvelous. I leave the arena, return to my tent where the camping area has now turned into a fucking war zone with people blowing shit up, security confiscating glass bottles off people and people using steel bins and bowling ball pins (with themelves acting as the balls.) We all decided to go on a walk where we meet some guy slapping Iain's arse with a fake hand while yelling "Gay bar" at him, some dude who downed so much Vodka he forgot he's already met us about 3 times today (all in the previous 20 mins) and a girl called Holly. Who a) gives the nicest hugs in the world b) is hella emo c) has the nicest glasses d) scottish and e) is really nice. We hugged and swapped numbers after discussing Weezer (we both agree that they were the beeeeeest band at last year's Reading.) She informs me that her coach on the way back to Scotland caught fire and her ex boyfriend caught us swapping numbers and hugging. Ha!
Monday.
I sleep for 2 hours and then return home. I eat a pie. Then sleep for 18 hours. Everyone agrees we should do it again next year.
The main cast:
Myself.
Iain.
Craig.
Jo (lady)
Alan
Ally
Chris
Rachel
Supporting Cast:
Charlotte
Lau
Holly
Thursday:
Train journey was okay. We had a barbeque when we go there and I stole some burgers which made me feel a little grotty. Met a girl called Jo who was camping with us (she knew Alan and Ally who knew Iain and Craig who knew me, so...yes) and discovered a mutual love for Eddie Izzard quotes ("Are you drilling?") and Blur (we both agree on the love for "Sing") and she's a lot like weathered_tomb in a way. Mmmm. I went to bed early as I'm a giant wuss who lurrrrves his sleep. Even if it's sleeping on a bumpy grass floor with only a sleeping bag a tent for protection/comfort.
Friday:
I spend the day being vury tired. The day that I only want to see about 3 bands and also the day of Charlotte. So you can see why I might not of been looking forward to Friday that much. First band I see are a band that the programme has billed as "TBC" so I'm not sure who they are but they were okay for about 2 songs until their Darkness-esque cock rock became as interessting as their haircuts. I venture over to the Carling Tent which has a abnd called the Razorlights so it's a good thing I wasn't expecting much as they were only kind of okay. I venture back to to the Radio 1 tent for the guilty emo pleasure which were Saves the Day and was tre impressed, the lead singer also looks like me. I liked them, fuck you. After S.T.D (not THAT sort of STD) it was the total amboniation which was OK-fucking-GO. Utter wank. Charlotte texts me to see if I can "do her a favour." After 3 attempts to meet already due to crap signal and low battery and bad timing we meet before the Datsuns strut their leather, on the main stage, no less, and it turns out her mum packed her RANCID ticket not her READING ticket so had to buy a new Reading Friday day ticket and she asked me if I could lend her some money. Of course, I said yes, being the shmuck that I am, but fuck it, she was in a jam and I wanted to help her out, plus she fainted during Finch (I was going to say "well you shouldn't of seen such a sucky band," but that's probably not the best thing to say to someone who just fell ontop of loads of people in a pit.) Anyway, I see the Datsuns and was only midly impressed, can't really remember much apart from Lady and MF from Hell being the obvious stand out tracks, they've got a really good guitarist though. Anyway, after the Datsuns I sit with Charlotte and two of her recently found buddies (who we both agree on that the new Muse tracks are "fookin wonderful") and watch the most appauling, mediocre, piss hole that is the band called Staind, whose amp blew up and went acoustic for the rest of the 40 mins. "This fucking sucks" Arron Lewis saids after a track...we really couldn't agree more. I leave the main stage and Charlotte (who looked cuter than I've ever seen her, sunny weather seems to suit her) and see my friend Lau (who licked me and lent me her sun glasses.) We went to see Ladytron who were okay, if a little uninspiring, although Seventeen made me dance like a foo. Lau looked fit, sunny weather seems to suit her too. After Ladytron, Lau and her fella/friend/thingy Joe leaves me to my own devices and Electric Six who were soooooo fucking bad, what was worse was the crowd getting too into songs that they so obviously haven't heard before. They played Gay Bar and it was shit and then they added insult to injury and covered Radio Ga-Ga which was even worse. It's now 7.55 and the first proper decent band that I wanted to see come on, Interpol. The sun is setting which adds a nice atmosphere to the tent and rip through a set of "Turn on the bright lights" and a handfull of less Joy Division sounding new songs. It was glorious and I was on the barrier, a joyfull moment. Elbow next and they totally blew me away, I was not expecting them to sound that good, a solid band if there was ever one and the next album sounds amazing. They have wonky beards though. Speaking of beards, I couldn't spot the beardy guy from The Polyphonic Spree so I guess he must of had a shave. Anyway, you ever feel good about a gig? You come away with butterflies in your tummy, and you just want to hug everyone person you come across? No? Go see the Spree, amazing live, they weren't all Jesus-y all cultish which I thought they might of been, but no, everyone was jumping around, copying hand movements (I swear Tim DeLaughter is the only person in rock who can do any sort of obscure hand movement and get everyone in the crowd, and I do mean EVERYONE, to copy him) They played Soldier Girl and everyone was linking arms and jumping around. When they finished some guy asked me if I had seen them, hugged me and started to spew his love for them. There were people dressed in robes too and I became jealous.
Saturday:
My Saturday starts at 5.30am. Yes AM! When Charlotte asks me to walk her to the station. When I get to our meeting point I turn on my phone only to get a text telling me not to meet her at 5.30 but at 10.30 instead. When I leave Iain is still awake and when I get back Iain says to me "that was quick," my reply was "mumble mubmle 10.30" I can still hear his laughter as I drift back to sleep. Anyway, yes, took Charlotte to the station and was generally cute around her (yes I get the feeling she likes me, no I'll be damned if anythings going to happen.) Back to the bands, first band of the day are Stellarstarr* who I lurrrrve, they have a Pixies like sound and rock like a mutha. Next was My Morning Jacket who I fell alseep to (not really paying attention to Craig's advice about not falling alseep with contacts in, yuck it was gross) they were okay I guess, wasn't in the mood for country twang but could appreciate what they were doing. Next up was the hype machine overload which was Jet who called us "rawkin motherfuckaaaas" about 15 times, and generally acted like...uhrrr... rawkin motherfuckaaaaas. They were a bit samey, but their guitars were edgy and gritty, a Datsuns tribute band but with a sock in the trouser attitude. After Jet was quite possibly the greatest band of the weekend The Rapture who made me dance, and spaz out again, to their dirrrrty grooves of Ollio, Alienation and House of Jealous Lovers. People came away saying "everone is going to love this band next year," Next year? Everyone should love them NOW! I skipped over to the main stage for Doves who the audience didn't seem to tolerate and made me want to hurt them. The band rolled out everything they could and sounded sweet and soulful in the sun. Run back over to the R1 tent, see the last 2 songs of The Beach Boys sorry The Thrills and then its VOLTA time. Who were really dissapointing. Not their fault, they only had 45 minutes (which they did 3 songs!!!!) to do what they could, they crowd was bursting though, I heard bones I never thought I had snap and creak. Next up, Cooper Temple Clause who were bliding, and always have a good solid crowd. The band started off wonky but kicked it a new one with the new songs. Promises Promises, AIM, New Toys all sounding delicious. Yum. Next was the career high of Blur. Think Tank sounding perfect in the night, oldies like Tender being sung by 60,000 people , Parklife by Phil Daniels and Albarn on an acoustic (Tong, Coxon's guitar replacement not knowing how to play it) and the deafening finale of "This is a low," brought a tear to my eye and a leap to my jump. It would of been better with Coxon, we all knew that, but it was still an amazing set (2 hours, too, longer when I saw them at the Astoria) and a perfect way to end the perfect day.
Sunday.
I'm hungover and didn't realise I drank enough to get typsy. Jo reminds me about the Irish Meadow last night. Yucky. Today is known as "METALLICA DAY!!!!!!!!! so there's not one fucking band I want to see on the main stage with the exeption of System of a Down. More of which, later. The day starts with Cardia who are Ian Love from Rival School's new band and remind me of early Muse, but emo, so I'll coin a phrase and call them emose. They impressed me enough steal a badge off them after the gig. Next are Serafin at the R1 tent and were sickeningly baaaaaad. Too much zoip not enough omph. I fell asleep before The Raveonettes and was rudley awaken by people walking over me and clapping. I should of stayed alseep I would have had more fun that way. I leave four songs in and check out The Stills who musically took a giant shit on The Raveonettes and smeared in their Danish faces. Lovely songs, band wiffed of confidence too. The Stills end I run over to dance like a 80s pill popper to the NYC funk punk sounds of Radio 4 who may of had the song of the weekend in "Dance to the underground," with special guest Har Mar Superstar (complete with pink pants) on bongos. After that, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line disaster skull fucked me to death with their RAAGGGH! sounds of their album "Horse of the Dog," and there's nothing better than hearing 10,000 people in unison say "I WANNA FUCK YOUR MOTHER!" Next are Hell is for heroes who me and Iain spin each other round, quite bizarley, in the mosh pit and run into people, while immitating the drum sounds. Yes. Well. Iain leaves me to Hot Hot Heat and laughs at me, even though they might of been the band of the weekend if it wasn't for the guy wearing a hat infront of me. But yesssss, I lurrve their crazy yelping antics. Next is System of a Down and is a) brutal b) full of old bikers with devil tatoos c) dusty. My throat collected loads of dust that was rising from the ground and I nearly passed out so had to grab two bottles of water and return only to found that the pit was now a) more brutal b) full of kung fu kicking guys with rose tatoos c)eveeeen more dusty. But they were fun and made me feel like 16 years old again. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs refused to play Bang, Mystery Girl and Machine and instead played okay sounding new stuff but I still bounced around and screamed like the annoying guy you normally found at concerts. I then roam around for a while going between Metallica who had a wall of amps behind them to make up for the lack of good sounding new songs, before finally settling on seeing British Sea Power. At this point of the weekend my ears are hurting, my contacts are full of dust, my knees feel like they've been rippied out, stamped on and then put on backwards, but god almighty, I fucking enjoyed the hell out of B.S.P. They played nothing I knew and I think it was best like that, the smallest tent of the weekend and the smallest crowd of the closing night, the band played a set that was musically better than anything playing else and then had loads of tree branches and shubberies and fake owls on their amps. Marvelous. I leave the arena, return to my tent where the camping area has now turned into a fucking war zone with people blowing shit up, security confiscating glass bottles off people and people using steel bins and bowling ball pins (with themelves acting as the balls.) We all decided to go on a walk where we meet some guy slapping Iain's arse with a fake hand while yelling "Gay bar" at him, some dude who downed so much Vodka he forgot he's already met us about 3 times today (all in the previous 20 mins) and a girl called Holly. Who a) gives the nicest hugs in the world b) is hella emo c) has the nicest glasses d) scottish and e) is really nice. We hugged and swapped numbers after discussing Weezer (we both agree that they were the beeeeeest band at last year's Reading.) She informs me that her coach on the way back to Scotland caught fire and her ex boyfriend caught us swapping numbers and hugging. Ha!
Monday.
I sleep for 2 hours and then return home. I eat a pie. Then sleep for 18 hours. Everyone agrees we should do it again next year.