Reading 2000

Thursday
I arrived at the train station at about 10am only to be confronted by loads of festivals goers. We all piled on and of course there's going to be fukin no seats left, so for just over an hour I was forced to stand in a space that is meant to be occupied by about 2 people, with about 8 slipknot fans. Not only this but every time the train stopped I had of get off the let people off and on. This entirely pissed me off and my fukin legs went too sleep on the way. Once I got off the train I had no idea wear to go so I just followed the massive crowds, the wrong way at the start. But first all the fukin cop shop decided to sniffer dog us for drugs, my mate who is no drug taker apparently had drugs on him according to the old bat who searched us. So we were held up about 5 mins trying to explain to the bitch that my mate was clean. Anyway watching my mate shit his pants was quite a laugh anyway. Once on the campsite we pitched our tent and the word "Bollox!" seem to be the word an awful lot of people were shouting including ourselves, apparently it's a tradition on something like that.

Friday
The first acts started at 12pm, so we got down there for that time. The first act on the main stage was 'Ooberman' were they good? Well about as good as 'flightcrank' 'Twisted' they were fukin awful. Next I saw 'Boss Hog' who I had never heard of before the festival. A woman who was fukin gorgeous fronted them (in tight leather I might add). They played some great songs that I wouldn't have a clue what they called; however they sounded great and brought a bit of energy to the festival. I couldn't be arsed to see the 'Doves'. So I waited for ADF to come on, many people had told me they were just average and were nothing special. I would disagree and say they were great and really got the crowd going wild for the first time. They played the hit 'new wave new life' and really kicked it off on stage pounding drum and bass beats. Next up was Limp Bizkit who to be honest didn't seem that loud compared to ADF. But despite this they kicked ass and the mosh went fukin wild for songs like 'Breakstuff' and the MI2 theme tune 'take a look around'

Next acts were the headline acts. Dave Grohl and the 'foo fighters' turned up and played a great set. The crowd was really into it and in my opinion he's got a great voice in fact many people I spoke to thought his voice was better than Kurt cobains. hmmmmmmm. anyway they kicked ass and really brought a tremendous amount of fury to the stage. Whilst watching the foos I spotted a rather large figure at the back of the stage, then it dawned on me that it was Leeroy Thornhill I think anyway. About 2 minutes later I saw Keith Flint shake the hands of the one of the 'primal scream'.

They were up next and for me this along with RATM was the highlight of the festival, they brought something different to the festival and made the crowd buzz like a fukin large bee. Bobby Gillespie and Mani fronted the band very well, and bobby's voice surprised me and sounded very good. They opened up with a fukin killer of a tune 'Swastika eyes' which made the crowd mental as fukin slipknot, of which I reckon along with Kowalski was the best songs of the whole set. They also played 'pills' which Liam Howlett played at fabric recently. Speaking of Liam Howlett, he was backstage watching the gig with that new bird of his. Dressed in the same gear as he always is!!!!!!!!!! I'm sure he's a millionaire, maybe the album stress has got to him and he forgets to change his clothes?????!!! Primals ended with 'loaded' I think which was kind of break beat like and very good to dance to. But already the crowd were geed up for Oasis, who came on at 10pm many people hate oasis so I say, but in my opinion deep down they are fans and really love them. I loved the set and Liam G. was sober for a change and sounded great on the vocals. The best tune of the night was 'cigarettes and alcohol' closely followed by 'champagne supernova'

Saturday
This was supposed to be the not so good day, and in the end it was. The first band I saw on the second stage was the ' the get up kids' who to be honest were quite good. They kind of remind me of 'green day' sort of. And they got the tent actually going quite a bit. Next I saw a band that everyone was saying was going to be the next big thing it was 'JJ72'. They weren't bad either and they played their new single called 'oxygen' which went down really well. For next load of bands I had to miss cause I had a shortage of money. Blame this on Bacardi and the fukin bar they had at the festival. So I missed 'idlewild' which pissed me off ;((((((

Finally I saw 'beck' that was good for 5 songs in my opinion he played 'devils haircut' and 'new pollution' amongst others to start with, then for some reason they went shit and started fukin doing shit kind of weird stuff. So I fucked off and decided to see 'embrace 'instead of 'Pulp.' The second stage was packed and everyone was rocking and singing along to the songs that they played. Including 'come back to what u know' and I think 'save me' were the highlights.

Sunday
This was probably the best day out of the 3 I spent there. My Vitriol opened the main stage and I went to watch because of the good things people on the net and media had been saying about them. And to tell u the truth they were completely right. They seemed really cool sound wise and the singer was also very good. They played a cool song called 'always your way' and were a good build up for the bands to come later on. Next up again because of the reputation I saw 'Manchild' in the dance tent at about half 2. They definitely rocked and u can obviously hear the prodge and chems influence in there music. They played the tune with Kelly Jones on vocals amongst others including 'rockin the place' I have no doubt that soon we will see this band headline a dance tent in the near future at different festivals.

Next up were Daphne and Celeste. Nuff said.

After this blink 182 entered on to stage, I found them rather funny in between songs. But there music was very flat in my opinion they need a second guitarist/bassist to boost the sound on stage. After this RATM followed they rocked the fukin place down. They played a really full on set and the best tune was the last one. After about 50mins of pure full on rock, 'killing in the name' this set was along with the primal scream was the best set of the weekend. Tom Morello just takes the piss on the guitar he is too good!!!!

After this I saw 'slipknot' I bottled it and decided to stay away from the main mosh area! To be honest they are just a racket, and RATM are about 3 times as good in my opinion. The band were quite funny on stage, especially the geezer who plays the drums who wears the mask that always makes him smile. I fuked seeing placebo (well I saw the last 15 mins and it wasn't too good)

Finally Stereophonics came on and played a great set to close out the festival. Kelly Jones who has worked with Manchild recently, has a great voice and the band as a whole gelled wicked on stage. The best track was the one with tom Jones at the end. Bust also 'just looking' and 'traffic' were also great songs.

by The Click

[click here for neko's review and pics]