After getting over the embarrassment of remembering the antics of the night before, we set to work on trying to make ourselves look human. An hour later, we resigned ourselves to the fact we were destined to have crap hair and make up for the rest of the weekend, and consoled ourselves by having a liquid breakfast and then eating the 30 jumbo sausages we had barbequed on Thursday night, (mmmmmm, salmonella, nice!).
Once Caroline had calmed down from getting overly excited about the line-up of the Concret Jungle Stage, we headed off ready for some real rock and roll (as we would define it), in the form of The Pattern, and The Libertines, . The Pattern didn’t disappoint. Sexy as fuck, and ready to rock us into submission with some seriously kick ass tunes. Although, we hadn’t seen them before we were instantly enslaved to their groove. They played a number of quality songs, including 'She’s A Libra', 'Fragile Awareness' and our particular favourite 'Thunder Us'. This band so impressed us, that they've now officially been given the title of our new favourite band! I’m sure their parents will be so proud!
Next up was The Libertines. The first band we had really been looking forward to seeing. They had a bit of a bad start; Pete had trouble with his microphone and then Carl had trouble with his amp, and whilst it was being fixed poor little Pete just stood there looking scared shitless. But after that, things went swimmingly. Ignore everything NME said about them. There wasn’t a 15 minute break while the amp was fixed, and it was only one song Carl sat out on, not two. NME knows nothing - hOOchy* is a fountain of knowledge!!
Pete was being a cheeky minx and kept knocking his mic stand over, and as soon as someone came and picked it up, he knocked it over again. How rock and roll! But he was also being all polite and missed out some of the swear words in the songs. Bless 'im!! They proved that despite their setbacks they could still rise to the challenge, (Oh how rude!). Carl jumped up and down wildly like a whippet on hot coals, and Pete tainted the air with hues of rock star splutter, (Don’t ask!) whilst somehow looking incredibly sexy (in a S&M kinda way!), wearing a pair of jeans held together with black tape.
After all that, we had to go back to the tent for some serious recuperation in the form of a bottle of Scotch Whisky and a heated debate over whether or not Carl had a pointy nose. Then to stop all the arguments we had a nice little game of badminton, (badminton set £1 – courtesy of the pound shop!). It would have been a good idea if it weren’t for the fact that there were all these tents lying around everywhere in the way – I mean who would have thought it - honestly! So we had to give up this idea. And Unfortunately, we had eaten all the Malteasers, so a game of Malteaser football with a straw was out aswell. Therefore, the only natural thing to do before our next dose of rock'n'roll, was to play some more drinking games. But somehow we managed to accidentally get high on some nail varnish remover and consequently miss loadsa bands we wanted to see; Yeah Yeah Yeahs , A , The Hives , Less Than Jake , Bouncing Souls , Vex Red, Lightyear , Jesse James , The Beatings , The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster....crap.
Eventually we dragged ourselves away from our tents, and went our separate ways to see different bands. Rival Schools, as usual hit the spot, with Walter Schriefels as usual supplying the music with endless energy and giving it his all. At the same time but at a different location Caroline was sunbathing whilst listening to Sum 41, and making new friends with a burger, which had decided to stick to her foot! (Mmmmm, we should have saved that for later incase we got a bit puckish. Yummy!). It hurts me to say it, but Sum 41 were surpirsingly good, and not as Blink 182 as you'd expect. This will now make it so much harder, (but not impossible), to laugh at them.
Tim Wheeler was about to show his cute ickle face. Unfortunately this meant missing The Cooper Temple Clause , which under any other circumstances we would have been mightily pissed off about, but seeing as Ash were playing against doctors orders after their tour bus crashed in America, we felt it was only right to be there for Tim in his hour of need. Rick, (who had cracked ribs after Charlotte landed on him – bitch!), and Mark both played with a neck brace on. All together now... aaaaahhhhhhh!! Charlotte had apparently hurt her arm, but we think she may have just been putting it on to get a bit of sympathy. Anyway, Ash were okay-ish, not exactly amazing. They played mostly stuff off 1977, as well as their most recent singles. Not the best we’ve seen them do, but under the circumstances....
Next up, we decided to head back to our tent in search of food like hunter gatherers (imagine female versions of guy on TV advert before Corn Flakes, and you might be close!), completely forgetting that Saves The Day were on. Doh!! Was looking forward to them. Then we heard that Alkaline Trio had cancelled and our day was completely ruined. Although, we probably would have ended up missing them as well! So many bands, such little memory.
On our way back into the arena, we met a few crazy kids. One group of people insisted on giving us free hugs, and another guy wanted us to sit on his purple blanket! Dontcha just love festival go-ers!!
The biggest problem with the Reading Festival this year was that there were so many clashes. There were either loadsa bands on at the the same time which you wanted to see, or none on for hours. Today was the worst, we wanted to see all four of the healine acts, and it took us ages to decide on which to go to. So, after having to make the biggest decision since what flavour crisps we would have for breakfast, we eventually decided.
One of these was Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Now, listen up children. There was something interesting about this band related to their fans, which we would now like to share with you. Aren’t we good to you? Specifically, this was their lack of a mosh pit and mini moshers. Not that we are complaining. Death to mini-moshers as far as we are concerned. Alas real music lovers exist, we thought. The non-violent kind! There was also definitely a certain air of calmness and serenity in the tent. Which I did not expect, especially when you consider that
The other headline act who was fortunate enough to be witnessed by hOOchy*, was the The Foo Fighters , who were, as always, fantastic. Probably not as good as they were a few years ago, but Dave Grohl and co were still pretty amazing. The majority of the songs played were off their first album, which made a change from that they usually do. They finished off with Everlong, and let off some pwetty fireworks. The only downside of the whole thing was being in front of some 20stone psyco-mosher-man who felt it necessary to put his hands on my shoulders whilst jumping insanely. Some people have no respect for their elders!
Rocking or Shocking?
Rocking.
4/5
All the fun of the fair!
Go to another day of the festival.........
Friday ......
Saturday ......
Sunday
