Reading Festival 2013

Annoyingly I chose the wet day of the three to attend the Reading Festival. But having said that it wasn't all that wet.

I met a couple of Brummie blokes at the station and had a nice chat as we walked to the site. And that kind of set the tone for the day. Not an auspicious start weather wise. Leaden grey sky and I purchased my noodle lunch just as the rain really started. So no real alternative but to head to the NME stage, alias the biggest tent.

For the true tent lover

I arrived during the set of a pleasant enough band called Theme Park, but only saw/heard a couple of songs.

The first full set was from an American band Darwin Deez. Now I really really wanted to like this band. Quirky, intelligent, witty - their lead singer struck me as the most intelligent of the acts I saw all day. But at the end of the day you have to like the music. I didn't. Not bad, but I think the problem was that any of them could be playing on any different song. They felt a bit like they were all playing on their own. Maybe too clever to be enjoyable.

Much more enjoyable, even if maybe less talented, was Deaf Havana. An honest rock band, raucous and loud, with a good following in the audience. Now let me say something about the Reading audience. Notwithstanding that it is very young, it is also very knowledgeable. Pretty much everyone one sees, even if obscure to me, will have a number of fans in the crowd. But then I guess there are 80,000 to choose from.

I said an honest band. Their lead singer made a point of saying they played all their instruments and unlike other bands who just had recordings of music which they performed which was embarrassing. And I guess that would have fitted the next band, Modestep. No photos of them. By the time they came on I was down the front, and the drum and bass crowd that had now filled the tent were going mental. No way could I have got a camera shot. I was lucky just not to get nutted or elbowed. One issue with such a young crowd is they do get rather over-excited. Does that sound condescending? Good.

Awaiting Palma Violets I started chatting to this American guy who was touring Europe and took the opportunity to attend Reading. Neat. Anyway, we both enjoyed Palma Violets. The first band on the bill which I had seen before. Fine for those of us who like indie rock. A nice experience - they even got a couple of mates out of the crowd to join them at the end.

 This was the end of my solo festival. I now met up with friends and spent the rest of the evening with them. It also marked my return to the outside world from the tent, but not before some teenage lad just came up to me to say how much he loved the next act, Johnny Marr. I guess because I would be the only person in the tent of roughly the same age as Mr Marr!

Anyway, we started off by getting the end of the White Lies set on the main stage. I will see them later in the year. So onto the next at, the Foals. Not a band I had much liked or listened to before, but quite enjoyed this set. Its part of the value of spending time with friends at festivals. You get taken to things you might not otherwise see.

Then my personal highlight of the day - Chase and Status. Way back from the action, but by the sound of it the action at the front was excessive and they had to stop a couple of times to let things settle down. Those over-excited kids again. This is a great act. The quality of the songs tends to vary with who is on guest vocals. But the light show helps, and the music is quite exciting. Went down a storm.

 

 As you can see we were indeed far back, but very happy.

We then managed to get back into the NME arena to see the whole set of that remarkable young man, Jake Bugg. Generally seen as the new Bob Dylan. This isn't normally I thing, but he is just so capable. And a very nice chilled appreciative audience.

And so to the finale, Alt-J on this stage. (Not bothered with Eminem on the main stage.) Unfortunately, I had to get the last train home, so could only get the first part of their set, just three songs really. Sad, as they are an interesting band, and I was much enjoying the company of my young friends. But time for home.

Getting home was fun. Perfect timing. Or cutting it very fine. Just arrived at Reading station with a couple of minutes to spare, or would have been if it had arrived in time. As it was 10 minutes late, I proceeded to get the last tube out of Paddington, and then last one out of Kings Cross. Tight. But I got home by about 1:30am.