[Review] Reading Festival 2010

[Zell1010]

Concluding my festivalling for 2010 was Reading Festival in Reading, England (where else, duh).

This review will only be brief. I was working as part of the stewards up at Reading this year, and whilst I won't bore you with what happened on shift, I'll give you a couple of anecdotes

-On the Sunday night we found a guy sitting in a plastic garden chair in the middle of a road, in the furthest campsite away from where he was camping.
-We found about 250 small canisters used in things like hair straightners, presumably used for laughing gas.
-One girl trod in a hole that was filled with mud, and landed flat on her face.
-They made about 200 evictions alone in one night, in one campsite.

Weather made this festival worse in my opinion. On Wednesday they had 4 weeks worth of rain in 4 hours. We were stuck inside our tents for the whole day, and this rain made the ground soft, meshy and muddy. There was so much sludge around the campsites it was hard to walk.

Getting onto the bands. Best band easily were Weezer. Rivers Cuomo really went for it, and they covered MGMT's Kids and Wheatus' Teenage Dirtbag. Fantastic songs played (although no Keep Fishin'), sounded brilliant, got the crowd going. Just superb. Secondly, blink-182. These were the true headliners of Reading, cracking out all the old hits with the crowd singing along. Their usual banter was there too. It was great to see the three of them back together. Meant alot to alot of people. Having watched their set back though, it's good they have the charisma because, well, Tom isn't a great singer live imo. Thirdly was a tie between QOTSA and NOFX. The only band I saw who were in anyway bad was a band called Atari Teenage Riot. Just terrible. But as I predicted to my mates, Guns n Roses would be a disappointment and they were. Over an hour and a half late to the show, the crowd just booed the living daylights out of them. They got annoyed that at 12 they had to have a curfew on the stages and did a sit down protest. No one cared about them at all.

Overall Reading was a good experience, but the line up imo could have been better.

[Bobbyjames]

my review!

arrived at like 5am on the Thursday, the rain had stopped by that point but the campsite was a mess in places. set up camp, had a burger and started drinking. I was wasted by lunchtime and fell asleep.

so, the bands I saw:

Friday
Young Guns - not a huge fan of this band, but there was nothing else on. seemed a bit out of place on the main stage, would of preffered to have seen them on a smaller stage.
Crazy Arm - really love this band, though the sound wasn't that great for them this time round. awesome set though.
Billy Talent - good setlist, good crowd reaction, but I just don't like them that much on a big stage. enjoyed the set though!
NOFX - brilliant. one of the highlights of the weekend. just such a fun band live. they pulled off the main stage slot so well as well. great banter between them, and the black cameraman filming them.
Biffy Clyro - predictable post-Puzzle set as usual at a festival, though was great to see Jaggy Snake. good, solid performance.
Hatebreed - paint by numbers metal, all the songs kind of blended into one by the end.
Against Me! - awesome, another highlight for me! great setlist and a great performance. would love to see these again.

got bored of waiting for Axl Rose and his bum boys after 20 mins so went back to the campsite to get wasted again.

Saturday
The Walkmen - was a huge fan of this band a few years ago, and was great to finally see them live.
Random Hand - okish, got bored after a while though, I didn't know enough of the songs!
The Gaslight Anthem - as you guys know, I have so much love for this band. was a good set and held their own on the main stage. no pre 59' Sound songs though.
The Rats (Gallows) - no idea why they were playing under a different name. awesome though, first time seeeing these guys live and they ripped the tent up. huge crowd, going bananas. awesome. and I witnessed a guy crowd surfing in a wheelchair.
Frank Turner - incredible. mass sing along. great set with most of the classics. I can't recommend seeing this guy live enough.
Serj Tankian - really enjoyed this, he had a mini orchestra on stage with him this time round which made the set more enjoyable.
Cancer Bats - awesome, great crowd, great live band.
The Get Up Kids - amazing live, just sounded perfect. shame the crowd wasn't that big
NOFX (secret Lock-Up Stage set) - worst kept secret of the weekend, couldntt wait to see this after their main stage set. different set list, which included The Decline. awesome. awesome awesome awesome.
Bad Religion - pretty awesome show, great crowd. you can tell they're getting on a bit now though, would of love to have seen them back in the day!

Sunday
Motion City Soundtrack - sucked on the main stage. shame, they are a good live band in a small venue, but just couldn't pull it off on the big stage.
The King Blues - yawn, got boring very quickly.
Thrice - great performance, sound let them down.
Limp Bizkit - amazing, crowd went nuts!
Cypress Hill - was funny at first, but got boring very quickly, yet again.
Weezer - wow. just wow. band of the weekend for me. so, so fuckin good. Rivers was running about everywhere. I have to see these live again, if they wait another 5 years to come over here again I'm going to rape them all.
Paramore - was OK, good crowd with big sing-a-longs. Hayley didn't get her boobs out though.
Blink 182 - had so much fun, was amazing to finally see them. they are an awesome live band, apart from Tom. he's just fuckin useless. he can't sing, he can't play guitar and he's getting fat. he was a joke by the end of it. Travis was amazing though. all in all, great show, had a huge sing to all the songs and left with a aching throat.

overall, awesome weekend.

[Jake]

and he's getting fat.

He really is.

[Zell1010]

Ah man we should have had a TNS Reading meet up...

I'm not obsessed with meet ups...

I'm glad everyone thinks Weezer were the best band of the weekend.

[Jake]

Weezer were truly amazing.

I was gonna suggest i come rape bobby, but i forgot.

[Bobbyjames]

you could of easily taken advantage of me on the Thursday

[Jake]

you could of easily taken advantage of me on the Thursday

i can't even remember thursday. i woke up friday in someone else's tent with an empty bottle of bell's

[Zell1010]

What campsite were you guys in? I was working in Yellow on the sunday night/monday morning after blink... aka riot night

[Jake]

Red

[Bobbyjames]

brown. we left after Blink to avoid the carnage that is Sunday night. far too many dickheads for my liking.

[Jake]

brown. we left after Blink to avoid the carnage that is Sunday night. far too many dickheads for my liking.

Yeah we left as soon as we could.

I also just realised my legs are pretty beat up. I got tonnes of scratches & bruises... and a nice chunk out of my thigh :S

[Zell1010]

brown. we left after Blink to avoid the carnage that is Sunday night. far too many dickheads for my liking.

According to the seasoned vet's of working at Reading that I spoke to, they said that this year was the quietest night they had by a long way. Tbh it was. Like you guys alot of people left straight after blink. Only a few tents got set fire to in Yellow. You missed the Angry Mob too, which was less so of an angry mob and more so just walking between purple green and yellow. There was also the Friendly Mob, who were quite friendly

I don't envy the people cleaning up afterwards...

[Bobbyjames]

yea, I think more and more people are deciding to leave the Sunday night each year, because of the trouble that usually happens. from reading other forums, I've noticed more and more people are starting to camp over in white camp to get away from alot of the trouble.

I remember the "angry mob" from 2008 that waltzed through our campsite, it was just a group of NME lovin students walking around chanting and pushing bins over. very angry indeed!

[Jake]

yea, I think more and more people are deciding to leave the Sunday night each year, because of the trouble that usually happens. from reading other forums, I've noticed more and more people are starting to camp over in white camp to get away from alot of the trouble.

I remember the "angry mob" from 2008 that waltzed through our campsite, it was just a group of NME lovin students walking around chanting and pushing bins over. very angry indeed!

Yeah, i almost killed some annoying prick during Enter Skikari's set. He randomly punched 3 people before having his face ripped off... :S

[Zell1010]

Apparently during Pendulum, someone took a dump in a cup and threw it into the crowd, and it went all over someone...

[Bobbyjames]

that is the main problem I have with Reading, it seems to attract so many twats. yes, every festival has it's fair share of twats, but I've never encoutered as many at Download or Sonisphere as I have at reading over the years.

[Jake]

that is the main problem I have with Reading, it seems to attract so many twats. yes, every festival has it's fair share of twats, but I've never encoutered as many at Download or Sonisphere as I have at reading over the years.

Don't think i encountered any real violence at Download.

[Zell1010]

that is the main problem I have with Reading, it seems to attract so many twats. yes, every festival has it's fair share of twats, but I've never encoutered as many at Download or Sonisphere as I have at reading over the years.

Or Latitude

[Jeremy Kill]

Frick, you guys get to have all the fun!

[Zell1010]

Frick, you guys get to have all the fun!

I would say move to England, Jeremy, but it really is a dump