Leeds Festival 2010 review
Going to try and do my very first festival review, I also plan on finishing it before jeffthelion does his, HA! Also, I need to do something to distract myself from the pile of stinking post festival washing in the corner of our bedroom... I would wash it, but Michael has been predictably inconsiderate in acting like he's the only one who went to a festival this weekend, and has been using the washing machine and all available drying spaces all day. Ho hum, on to the review...
THURSDAY 26th August.
A painful 6am start after little sleep due to excitement. I met my brother and his friend (who I sold my spare ticket to) at the coach station and we met my festival partners in crime Jim and Ste there. The coach journey to the site was hitch free, which is a first! It was raining on the way to Leeds, but thankfully when we arrived we just had the odd little spots of rain. We had our tents up by 11am, and by 3pm, when Jeff and Michael arrived, Ste was on his 8th can of beer of the day. The rest of our odd collection of fellow campers arrived over the course of the afternoon - Lisa and her sister Sam, and Michael's frankly terrifying looking father, John, and even more terrifying looking cousin cousin Matt. It was like our little campsite had its own bouncers! Jim accidentally called John "bastard hard Dad" to his face later on, but thankfully their scary looks were just a front for two very friendly men. The rest of Thursday passed in an incredibly drunken haze, various friends and acquaintances popped over to our camp to say hello. I was nicknamed "Poundland" after a drunken misunderstanding from Jeff, a nickname which unfortunately seems to have stuck. And considering the catchphrase from last years Leeds fest has become a commonplace saying amongst a much wider group of people than those who were in on the joke in the first place, I fear the name may be here to stay. I passed out somewhere around 2am, I think. I was enormously drunk, probably the most drunk I've ever been at a festival. It was a good laugh, and I'm glad everyone in our camp got along so well (particularly in the case of Lisa and Jonny...).
FRIDAY 27th August.
I'm fairly certain I was still drunk when I got up. Cheerfully, everyone seemed happy to laugh off drunken stupidity from the night before, and after helping each other fill in some of the blanks from the night before, I was eager to get on with enjoying the festival proper! The first band I watched was The Walkmen (5/10) on the main stage, based on the fact I really like one song by them. They were okay, a pretty forgettable set really, though that might just be because I was hungover. We then headed over to the Lock-Up stage to watch Random Hand (6/10), who were cheerfully bouncy, though they encouraged a rather frightening looking circle pit around one of the pillars in the tent. I enjoyed it, but I find their music a little samey after a while. We hung around in the Lock-Up tent to watch Cerebral Ballsy (?/10), who were astonishing, terrible and amazing all at the same time. I've put ? because part of me wants to give them 10, and part of me wants to give them 0. The singer was incoherrent, hammered, and unintentionally hilarious. I think he was also having some sort of breakdown. Towards the end of the set, he started singing into a beer can, thinking it was a microphone. He introduced most songs as being about "skating, fighting or something." He then encouraged the crowd to "go out, get fucked up, start a fight and maybe get a pizza." We laughed about it for the rest of the festival.
We then headed back to the Main Stage to watch the wonderful Gaslight Anthem (7/10). I don't think the main stage slot fitted them quite as well as last years NME stage slot, as quite a lot of their atmosphere was lost on a crowd who seemed to know two songs at most. Still, it was an enjoyable performance from one of my favourite bands of recent years. We hung around to watch Modest Mouse (4/10)start an extremely boring sounding set, before heading off to the NME tent to try and shelter from a brief but heavy rain shower, and to try and get a good spot for Frank Turner. We got there early enough to catch all of Kids in Glass Houses set (4/10). The crowd seemed to consist mainly of barely legals bouncing around to their famous songs and standing totally still for the rest of the set. Their music isn't for me, really.
Getting there early seemed pointless in the end, as most of the people there cleared off to watch The Cribs, making it fairly easy for us to get a decent spot for Frank Turner (7/10). This is the 4th consecutive Leeds Festival we've seen him at, and the 6th Festival we've seen him at overall, and his performances are normally one of my highlights. Last year especially, as the tent was absolutely rammed. Maybe his exhausting touring schedule is finally taking its toll, as he lacked some of his usual live spark. His set list was solid and enjoyable, but it just felt flatter than usual, and I was a little disappointed.
Next up in the NME tent was Serj Tankian (6/10), who also pulled a surprisingly small crowd, I thought he would be a bigger draw for Leeds Festival goers than Dizzee Rascal, but apparently not. Serj said early on in the set that he was feeling very unwell, and it showed. Although his voice was amazing as always, and he was wearing a retina buring bright white suit, and had an fabulous string section to back him up, it still had the feel of a man going through the motions so he could get back to bed with a hot drink.
Nothing on any of the main stages really appealed after that, so we ambled over the the Festival Republic Stage to watch The Black Angels (1/10) who were absolute gash. I'd forgotten that I'd seem them live until I looked back through the laminate. Next up on the same stage were Atari Teenage Riot (2/10). I've quite liked some of their stuff which has popped up on last.fm, but live they were dreadful. Tuneless noise at an unbearable volume.
To round up this mixed day of music I opted to see Pendulum (2/10) because a) I wanted to watch Jeff and Ste dance like idiots, b) no other headline act appealed to me and they were on the stage nearest to the exit. We couldn't get even close to the tent, so we had to make do with watching a screen from the un-enviable vantage point of outside a chicken van. Putting on a band that normally plays arenas in a small-ish capacity tent, when the main stage head liners (Arcade Fire) clearly aren't a big draw was an idiotic decision from the organisers, as the whole area around the NME tent where Pendulum were on was mayhem. Me and Michael opted to leave halfway through to set up a fire back at camp. I should have watched Bad Religion instead. The gathering back at the campsite was much more subdued than the night before, with most of us opting to go to bed somewhere between 1-2am to sleep off the last of the hangover.
SATURDAY 28th August.
Feeling much clearer headed, I decided, and successfully managed to smuggle half a litre of vodka mixed with Werther's Original into the arena. I'm glad I did, as drinking it saved me whole load of money over the course of the weekend, though I didn't get drunk again, as I offered it around to people who, when they had their own drinks, seemed unwilling to return the favour. Oh well. Thankfully this didn't apply to most people, and Jeff, Jim and Ste bought me the few official drinks I had all weekend. Anyway, the first band I saw on Saturday was Motion City Soundtrack (6/10) on the Main Stage, who I really enjoyed despite not really knowing much of their stuff. I intend to investigate their back catalogue. We then headed to the NME tent to watch The Joy Formidable (7/10) who I know of thanks to last.fm again. I enjoyed their set, especially the bit where their tiny singer took over 5 minutes to smash up her bass guitar! I'm not sure the rest of the people who followed me to watch them enjoyed it as much, though I know for definite my brother did, and I was happy to see him openly embracing new music.
We headed on back to the Main Stage to watch Thrice (3/10). I can't remember their set at all, really, so it can't have been especially bad or good. Me and Michael then decided it was time to watch some comedy, so we headed over to watch some comedian who's name I can't remember (6/10) as he doesn't appear in the official line up. Abandoman were scheduled to be on so I guess he was a last minute replacement for them. Anyway, whoever he was was okay, fairly standard jokes, and nothing too risqué that it couldn't appear on Live at the Apollo. Next was Stephen K Amos (9/10) who drew a deservedly enormous crowd. He was hilarious, and I'd urge everyone to go and see him live.
Cheered by an hour or so of good comedy, I went back to the Main Stage to watch the equally funny but for entirely different reasons Limp Bizkit (0/10). How in the world they drew such a large crowd of people who seemed to love them I'll never know, as they are utter shite, and Fred Durst is a complete tosser. We stayed where we were to watch Cypress Hill (4/10) who were up next. They were underwhelming.
After that, we headed down to the front of the main stage to try and get a good spot for Weezer (10/10) who were by far and away my favourite band of the festival. At first the crowd seemed to be made up of people waiting for them to get their set over with so Paramore could come on, but I'm pretty sure most of them left as Weezer converts. It was one of the greatest festival performances I've ever seen, and I'm glad I was near the front to witness it. Rivers Cuomo is an absolute star!
Paramore (8/10) came on a bit late, I'm guessing it was because of sound problems as they seemed quieter than Weezer, and Hayley's voice was barely audible at times. Still, they were one of the bands I was most looking forward to watching (shush!) and I wasn't disappointed. Hayley was bouncy and full of passion, and despite the poor sound quality from the speakers, it was still obvious they were giving a solid performance.
Rounding off the day were Blink-182 (7/10). The rest of the group opted to get closer to the front of the stage, but due to my aversion to gig wankers me and Jeff stayed put at the side of the stage. Lots of pushing and shoving meant that Colin Murray had to come on stage and tell everyone to move back, as people at the front were getting crushed. I was getting really nervous about it kicking off when they came on stage, but it turned out that they played an odd set of songs that only about 40% of the crowd seemed to know, with a few hits mixed in. Tom was arrogant and made rubbish jokes about his band mates mum's on stage, and it was pretty obvious that the tension that caused them to split is still there. The encore started with an awesome drum solo from Travis, who was strapped to a revolving stage, and drummed upside down for a short while. Apart from that is was a fairly average performance that didn't leave much of an impression, apart from the huge bruise on my left knee from one of the gig wankers I was trying to avoid.
We headed back to the tent to have another quiet night around the camp fire that ended at about 3am, when the cold finally got to all of us.
SUNDAY 29th August.
Hangover free, but starting to feel the effects of 3 nights in a freezing cold tent, I was quietly pleased it was the last day. Again, I managed to smuggle Fox's Glacier Mint infused vodka into the arena, and again failed to get drunk as some people I was with seemed to think I'd done this solely for their benefit. It was probably for the best, in a way.
The first band of the final day were Young Guns (5/10) on the Main Stage, it was an okay set, better than I'd expected but still not a band I'm ever going to be a huge fan of. We stayed around for A Day To Remember (3/10) who are not my cup of tea at all. I waited patiently for them to finish their average sounding metal silly-ness, and headed down to about 5 rows from the front of the main stage to watch Billy Talent (8/10). They gave an extremely enjoyable and solid performance, and pleasingly my brother loved them, and named their set as one of his favourite shows of the weekend.
After that I pushed my way to the barrier for Gogol Bordello (9/10), who were fabulous. I've seen them live a few times, but being so close to the main stage with such a clear view of what they were all doing made this my favourite performances of theirs. I didn't realise how much of their live sets is missed off when you can't see what all of them are doing at the same time. All members of the band seem to work in perfect harmony with each other, all as energetic and mental as Eugene, though he is by far the most charismatic. They come a well deserved second place to Weezer in my list of all time favourite festival performances.
In stark comparison, The Big Pink (1/10) who we watched next on the NME stage were utter crap. Self indulgent and lacking any sort of interest, people were heading out of the tent in droves, and I was left wishing I'd watched NOFX instead.
We headed back to the Main Stage to catch Lostprophets (6/10) who I'm not a big fan of on record, but live I think they put on an entertaining show. They seemed to be going through the motions a little though, there wasn't the usual interaction with the crowd which is normally why I enjoy their live show. There were big sing alongs though, so that sort of made up for it. We stayed put to watch Queens of the Stone Age (6/10), who I find a bit average really, but their live show was good, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to.
Next up was a stroll over to the Festival Republic Stage to watch The Sunshine Underground (8/10) who pulled a surprisingly large crowd, though sadly there were a lot of gig wankers in there. Still, it was the best show I've ever seen them play, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And... To round off the festival we went to watch the band everyone was talking about - Guns n' Roses. We'd missed about 2 songs (Welcome to the Jungle being one of them, which was the only song I really cared about hearing live, oh well.) The set was bearable, not nearly as bad as some of the official reviews seem to be making out anyway. Axl is fat now, but still seems to think he's the lithe Axl of old, which is a shame. They played a mixed set of old and new, over ran on time (which surprised no one) so let off all the pyrotechnics, ticker tape and fireworks pretty much at once which overwhelmed the song they were playing at the time (November Rain, I think), than Axl started shouting about how they'd been lied to by the promoters and screamed "Fuck You" at them, which seemed childish and pointless.
We headed back to the camp, and sat around as much as we could bear to talk about our highlights of the festival. Thankfully the freezing cold wind seemed to keep most of the potential rioting in check, though I did hear the familiar pop of gas canisters on fires occasionally through the night. I headed for bed at 1, as I had to be up at 6 again to get the coach back to my lovely warm bed, shower and bathroom.
MONDAY, 30th August.
Our journey back started with the usual end of festival madness from Jeff, Jim and Ste, as we found a carrier bag of poo and used underpants left outside our camp. For reasons known only to themselves, Ste and Jeff decided to photograph and swing the bag around, resulting in a splatter of some random persons shit on my bag and coat sleeve. Delightful! I realised that mine and Jeff's tent was totally knackerd on Thursday, when I just about managed to put it up, thanks to liberal use of duct tape, so me and Jim had a jolly old time smashing it to pieces on Monday morning. The usual daft chatter and endless poo jokes continued until we were safely back in Manchester, where the painful 6am start seemed very much worth it when I was washed and fed and ready for bed by 11am, when the rest of our camp mates were only just packing up back in Leeds.
I realised as I wrote this that it probably came across as if I didn't have that good a time, but I did. There were some fantastic live performances this weekend, as well as some appalling ones, but I think that's the case for most festivals. Although I was a little bit irritated at the time that a few people were treating my vodka smuggling efforts as some sort of gift to them, it was in no way annoying enough to ruin my festival, because they probably did me a favour. And although it was a shame that most nights we had to go to bed earlier than normal because of the freezing cold wind, the hilarity on Thursday more than made up for it.
Our camp site was made up of a diverse bunch of people, most of whom had never met each other. In fact, not one person knew everyone we camped with before Thursday. Yet we all got on well, and I think strong friendship bonds have been made (especially Jonny and Lisa, who now seem to be romantically involved) and I would camp with all of them again without question. There were some parts of the weekend where I was considering whether or not to buy a ticket for next year, but on Monday, when me and Jeff were reflecting on the weekend with much laughter, I realised that I definitely want to go back next year. For all the small irritations and physical hardships (I'm writing this in bed, feeling extremely sorry for myself as I have a post-festival cold, which probably explains why I'm feeling harsh towards some people) I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and can't stop smiling when I look back at the weekend.
And most importantly, my brother enjoyed himself, and wants to go back next year too. So now I've converted my entire immediate family into festival goers, it's time to start dropping hints about them buying me tickets for next years festival season to make up for it...
THURSDAY 26th August.
A painful 6am start after little sleep due to excitement. I met my brother and his friend (who I sold my spare ticket to) at the coach station and we met my festival partners in crime Jim and Ste there. The coach journey to the site was hitch free, which is a first! It was raining on the way to Leeds, but thankfully when we arrived we just had the odd little spots of rain. We had our tents up by 11am, and by 3pm, when Jeff and Michael arrived, Ste was on his 8th can of beer of the day. The rest of our odd collection of fellow campers arrived over the course of the afternoon - Lisa and her sister Sam, and Michael's frankly terrifying looking father, John, and even more terrifying looking cousin cousin Matt. It was like our little campsite had its own bouncers! Jim accidentally called John "bastard hard Dad" to his face later on, but thankfully their scary looks were just a front for two very friendly men. The rest of Thursday passed in an incredibly drunken haze, various friends and acquaintances popped over to our camp to say hello. I was nicknamed "Poundland" after a drunken misunderstanding from Jeff, a nickname which unfortunately seems to have stuck. And considering the catchphrase from last years Leeds fest has become a commonplace saying amongst a much wider group of people than those who were in on the joke in the first place, I fear the name may be here to stay. I passed out somewhere around 2am, I think. I was enormously drunk, probably the most drunk I've ever been at a festival. It was a good laugh, and I'm glad everyone in our camp got along so well (particularly in the case of Lisa and Jonny...).
FRIDAY 27th August.
I'm fairly certain I was still drunk when I got up. Cheerfully, everyone seemed happy to laugh off drunken stupidity from the night before, and after helping each other fill in some of the blanks from the night before, I was eager to get on with enjoying the festival proper! The first band I watched was The Walkmen (5/10) on the main stage, based on the fact I really like one song by them. They were okay, a pretty forgettable set really, though that might just be because I was hungover. We then headed over to the Lock-Up stage to watch Random Hand (6/10), who were cheerfully bouncy, though they encouraged a rather frightening looking circle pit around one of the pillars in the tent. I enjoyed it, but I find their music a little samey after a while. We hung around in the Lock-Up tent to watch Cerebral Ballsy (?/10), who were astonishing, terrible and amazing all at the same time. I've put ? because part of me wants to give them 10, and part of me wants to give them 0. The singer was incoherrent, hammered, and unintentionally hilarious. I think he was also having some sort of breakdown. Towards the end of the set, he started singing into a beer can, thinking it was a microphone. He introduced most songs as being about "skating, fighting or something." He then encouraged the crowd to "go out, get fucked up, start a fight and maybe get a pizza." We laughed about it for the rest of the festival.
We then headed back to the Main Stage to watch the wonderful Gaslight Anthem (7/10). I don't think the main stage slot fitted them quite as well as last years NME stage slot, as quite a lot of their atmosphere was lost on a crowd who seemed to know two songs at most. Still, it was an enjoyable performance from one of my favourite bands of recent years. We hung around to watch Modest Mouse (4/10)start an extremely boring sounding set, before heading off to the NME tent to try and shelter from a brief but heavy rain shower, and to try and get a good spot for Frank Turner. We got there early enough to catch all of Kids in Glass Houses set (4/10). The crowd seemed to consist mainly of barely legals bouncing around to their famous songs and standing totally still for the rest of the set. Their music isn't for me, really.
Getting there early seemed pointless in the end, as most of the people there cleared off to watch The Cribs, making it fairly easy for us to get a decent spot for Frank Turner (7/10). This is the 4th consecutive Leeds Festival we've seen him at, and the 6th Festival we've seen him at overall, and his performances are normally one of my highlights. Last year especially, as the tent was absolutely rammed. Maybe his exhausting touring schedule is finally taking its toll, as he lacked some of his usual live spark. His set list was solid and enjoyable, but it just felt flatter than usual, and I was a little disappointed.
Next up in the NME tent was Serj Tankian (6/10), who also pulled a surprisingly small crowd, I thought he would be a bigger draw for Leeds Festival goers than Dizzee Rascal, but apparently not. Serj said early on in the set that he was feeling very unwell, and it showed. Although his voice was amazing as always, and he was wearing a retina buring bright white suit, and had an fabulous string section to back him up, it still had the feel of a man going through the motions so he could get back to bed with a hot drink.
Nothing on any of the main stages really appealed after that, so we ambled over the the Festival Republic Stage to watch The Black Angels (1/10) who were absolute gash. I'd forgotten that I'd seem them live until I looked back through the laminate. Next up on the same stage were Atari Teenage Riot (2/10). I've quite liked some of their stuff which has popped up on last.fm, but live they were dreadful. Tuneless noise at an unbearable volume.
To round up this mixed day of music I opted to see Pendulum (2/10) because a) I wanted to watch Jeff and Ste dance like idiots, b) no other headline act appealed to me and they were on the stage nearest to the exit. We couldn't get even close to the tent, so we had to make do with watching a screen from the un-enviable vantage point of outside a chicken van. Putting on a band that normally plays arenas in a small-ish capacity tent, when the main stage head liners (Arcade Fire) clearly aren't a big draw was an idiotic decision from the organisers, as the whole area around the NME tent where Pendulum were on was mayhem. Me and Michael opted to leave halfway through to set up a fire back at camp. I should have watched Bad Religion instead. The gathering back at the campsite was much more subdued than the night before, with most of us opting to go to bed somewhere between 1-2am to sleep off the last of the hangover.
SATURDAY 28th August.
Feeling much clearer headed, I decided, and successfully managed to smuggle half a litre of vodka mixed with Werther's Original into the arena. I'm glad I did, as drinking it saved me whole load of money over the course of the weekend, though I didn't get drunk again, as I offered it around to people who, when they had their own drinks, seemed unwilling to return the favour. Oh well. Thankfully this didn't apply to most people, and Jeff, Jim and Ste bought me the few official drinks I had all weekend. Anyway, the first band I saw on Saturday was Motion City Soundtrack (6/10) on the Main Stage, who I really enjoyed despite not really knowing much of their stuff. I intend to investigate their back catalogue. We then headed to the NME tent to watch The Joy Formidable (7/10) who I know of thanks to last.fm again. I enjoyed their set, especially the bit where their tiny singer took over 5 minutes to smash up her bass guitar! I'm not sure the rest of the people who followed me to watch them enjoyed it as much, though I know for definite my brother did, and I was happy to see him openly embracing new music.
We headed on back to the Main Stage to watch Thrice (3/10). I can't remember their set at all, really, so it can't have been especially bad or good. Me and Michael then decided it was time to watch some comedy, so we headed over to watch some comedian who's name I can't remember (6/10) as he doesn't appear in the official line up. Abandoman were scheduled to be on so I guess he was a last minute replacement for them. Anyway, whoever he was was okay, fairly standard jokes, and nothing too risqué that it couldn't appear on Live at the Apollo. Next was Stephen K Amos (9/10) who drew a deservedly enormous crowd. He was hilarious, and I'd urge everyone to go and see him live.
Cheered by an hour or so of good comedy, I went back to the Main Stage to watch the equally funny but for entirely different reasons Limp Bizkit (0/10). How in the world they drew such a large crowd of people who seemed to love them I'll never know, as they are utter shite, and Fred Durst is a complete tosser. We stayed where we were to watch Cypress Hill (4/10) who were up next. They were underwhelming.
After that, we headed down to the front of the main stage to try and get a good spot for Weezer (10/10) who were by far and away my favourite band of the festival. At first the crowd seemed to be made up of people waiting for them to get their set over with so Paramore could come on, but I'm pretty sure most of them left as Weezer converts. It was one of the greatest festival performances I've ever seen, and I'm glad I was near the front to witness it. Rivers Cuomo is an absolute star!
Paramore (8/10) came on a bit late, I'm guessing it was because of sound problems as they seemed quieter than Weezer, and Hayley's voice was barely audible at times. Still, they were one of the bands I was most looking forward to watching (shush!) and I wasn't disappointed. Hayley was bouncy and full of passion, and despite the poor sound quality from the speakers, it was still obvious they were giving a solid performance.
Rounding off the day were Blink-182 (7/10). The rest of the group opted to get closer to the front of the stage, but due to my aversion to gig wankers me and Jeff stayed put at the side of the stage. Lots of pushing and shoving meant that Colin Murray had to come on stage and tell everyone to move back, as people at the front were getting crushed. I was getting really nervous about it kicking off when they came on stage, but it turned out that they played an odd set of songs that only about 40% of the crowd seemed to know, with a few hits mixed in. Tom was arrogant and made rubbish jokes about his band mates mum's on stage, and it was pretty obvious that the tension that caused them to split is still there. The encore started with an awesome drum solo from Travis, who was strapped to a revolving stage, and drummed upside down for a short while. Apart from that is was a fairly average performance that didn't leave much of an impression, apart from the huge bruise on my left knee from one of the gig wankers I was trying to avoid.
We headed back to the tent to have another quiet night around the camp fire that ended at about 3am, when the cold finally got to all of us.
SUNDAY 29th August.
Hangover free, but starting to feel the effects of 3 nights in a freezing cold tent, I was quietly pleased it was the last day. Again, I managed to smuggle Fox's Glacier Mint infused vodka into the arena, and again failed to get drunk as some people I was with seemed to think I'd done this solely for their benefit. It was probably for the best, in a way.
The first band of the final day were Young Guns (5/10) on the Main Stage, it was an okay set, better than I'd expected but still not a band I'm ever going to be a huge fan of. We stayed around for A Day To Remember (3/10) who are not my cup of tea at all. I waited patiently for them to finish their average sounding metal silly-ness, and headed down to about 5 rows from the front of the main stage to watch Billy Talent (8/10). They gave an extremely enjoyable and solid performance, and pleasingly my brother loved them, and named their set as one of his favourite shows of the weekend.
After that I pushed my way to the barrier for Gogol Bordello (9/10), who were fabulous. I've seen them live a few times, but being so close to the main stage with such a clear view of what they were all doing made this my favourite performances of theirs. I didn't realise how much of their live sets is missed off when you can't see what all of them are doing at the same time. All members of the band seem to work in perfect harmony with each other, all as energetic and mental as Eugene, though he is by far the most charismatic. They come a well deserved second place to Weezer in my list of all time favourite festival performances.
In stark comparison, The Big Pink (1/10) who we watched next on the NME stage were utter crap. Self indulgent and lacking any sort of interest, people were heading out of the tent in droves, and I was left wishing I'd watched NOFX instead.
We headed back to the Main Stage to catch Lostprophets (6/10) who I'm not a big fan of on record, but live I think they put on an entertaining show. They seemed to be going through the motions a little though, there wasn't the usual interaction with the crowd which is normally why I enjoy their live show. There were big sing alongs though, so that sort of made up for it. We stayed put to watch Queens of the Stone Age (6/10), who I find a bit average really, but their live show was good, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to.
Next up was a stroll over to the Festival Republic Stage to watch The Sunshine Underground (8/10) who pulled a surprisingly large crowd, though sadly there were a lot of gig wankers in there. Still, it was the best show I've ever seen them play, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And... To round off the festival we went to watch the band everyone was talking about - Guns n' Roses. We'd missed about 2 songs (Welcome to the Jungle being one of them, which was the only song I really cared about hearing live, oh well.) The set was bearable, not nearly as bad as some of the official reviews seem to be making out anyway. Axl is fat now, but still seems to think he's the lithe Axl of old, which is a shame. They played a mixed set of old and new, over ran on time (which surprised no one) so let off all the pyrotechnics, ticker tape and fireworks pretty much at once which overwhelmed the song they were playing at the time (November Rain, I think), than Axl started shouting about how they'd been lied to by the promoters and screamed "Fuck You" at them, which seemed childish and pointless.
We headed back to the camp, and sat around as much as we could bear to talk about our highlights of the festival. Thankfully the freezing cold wind seemed to keep most of the potential rioting in check, though I did hear the familiar pop of gas canisters on fires occasionally through the night. I headed for bed at 1, as I had to be up at 6 again to get the coach back to my lovely warm bed, shower and bathroom.
MONDAY, 30th August.
Our journey back started with the usual end of festival madness from Jeff, Jim and Ste, as we found a carrier bag of poo and used underpants left outside our camp. For reasons known only to themselves, Ste and Jeff decided to photograph and swing the bag around, resulting in a splatter of some random persons shit on my bag and coat sleeve. Delightful! I realised that mine and Jeff's tent was totally knackerd on Thursday, when I just about managed to put it up, thanks to liberal use of duct tape, so me and Jim had a jolly old time smashing it to pieces on Monday morning. The usual daft chatter and endless poo jokes continued until we were safely back in Manchester, where the painful 6am start seemed very much worth it when I was washed and fed and ready for bed by 11am, when the rest of our camp mates were only just packing up back in Leeds.
I realised as I wrote this that it probably came across as if I didn't have that good a time, but I did. There were some fantastic live performances this weekend, as well as some appalling ones, but I think that's the case for most festivals. Although I was a little bit irritated at the time that a few people were treating my vodka smuggling efforts as some sort of gift to them, it was in no way annoying enough to ruin my festival, because they probably did me a favour. And although it was a shame that most nights we had to go to bed earlier than normal because of the freezing cold wind, the hilarity on Thursday more than made up for it.
Our camp site was made up of a diverse bunch of people, most of whom had never met each other. In fact, not one person knew everyone we camped with before Thursday. Yet we all got on well, and I think strong friendship bonds have been made (especially Jonny and Lisa, who now seem to be romantically involved) and I would camp with all of them again without question. There were some parts of the weekend where I was considering whether or not to buy a ticket for next year, but on Monday, when me and Jeff were reflecting on the weekend with much laughter, I realised that I definitely want to go back next year. For all the small irritations and physical hardships (I'm writing this in bed, feeling extremely sorry for myself as I have a post-festival cold, which probably explains why I'm feeling harsh towards some people) I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and can't stop smiling when I look back at the weekend.
And most importantly, my brother enjoyed himself, and wants to go back next year too. So now I've converted my entire immediate family into festival goers, it's time to start dropping hints about them buying me tickets for next years festival season to make up for it...