Onto the last day and things were still going rather well. The tent was starting to smell a little but I didn't feel too bad, and had just about slept well enough to avoid aggravating the leg I'd pulled on the previous night. I've recorded that I started the day off with a meal of sausage and chips, and decided to "go for it" by wearing a very loud airy shirt. Apart from somebody shaking my hand in recognition nobody made any fuss. As I read about upon my return, fashion was an important theme of the festival. Previously it had all been black clothes and a greebo look but this year Reading had brightened up. There was somebody dressed as a banana and a couple of guys going around as escaped prisoners. The best conventional clothing I saw was a guy wearing a Half Man Half Biscuit T-shirt, and old favourite Spider-Man was doing the rounds. Generally though there was an interesting mish-mash of brightly coloured clothes that were supposedly the "cutting edge of fashion." This no doubt was inspired by the large numbers of semi-chavs, who are also to blame for the ridiculously fast selling out of tickets. Another thing I noticed was that there were quite a few children walking around, but as under-13s apparently could get in for free this makes sense. Whether this is down to lazy or super-cool parenting though is another matter.

This was the "rock day" and therefore celebrating all the worst aspects of the Reading Festival. The main stage was choc-a-block with wank such as Pearl Jam, Placebo, My Chemical Romance, Less Than Jake and Bullet For My Valentine. In fact there wasn't anybody on the main stage I was more than remotely curious in watching (bar Slayer) so the day was dependent upon the strength of the tents. Things were made even more difficult by the fact that the NME Stage wasn't particularly strong either, featuring nothing more enticing than Maximo Park, Goldie Lookin' Chain and Tapes 'N' Tapes. In fact practically all my hopes were to rest on the Carling Stage, and I prayed that not everyone else would have the same idea as me otherwise I wouldn't be able to get within miles of it. Anyway, I have very little memory of the morning, apart from Nick making a particularly lame attempt to fizz up a cola bottle, so I may as well move on to the music.

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We were hoping for a hat trick of opening band quality and headed to the Carling Stage again to watch Twice Upon A Time. I'm not quite sure what the hell happened, as everything was set up perfectly OK but nobody came onstage! If there were roadies frantically going around trying to fix stuff, and coming up to the mic to apologise for the delay and to EXPLAIN what was happening we'd had understood. However, as we reached the time when the set should have "ended" we decided to walk off in disgust. Playing the Reading Festival should be the highlight of this bands career, and they couldn't be bothered to come onstage. I read upon returning home that they had really been looking forward to this set and that they eventually did come onstage, and in fact didn't mention this delay at all. As far as I was concerned though they had blown their chance by not hurrying the fuck up, and I wasn't prepared to wait around any longer. Possibly the biggest disappointment of the weekend, as Mr Fogg and The Race had both been very impressive.

I'd been hoping for a repeat of Saturday at Leeds 2000, where the "worst day" provided plenty of enjoyment but so far things were not going very well. We had been going out of our way to try and get as much sleep as possible but I was starting to feel lethargic now. We went over to the NME Stage to watch The Marshals and sat down far away. Apart from my walking closer to take the photograph we just weren't interested. They had nice hair but were just a bit dull, and they didn't have the energy to inspire us. They played to a suitably small crowd and at the end of this Ali lost faith and wandered off by himself to catch the main stage: I wouldn't see him again today. Although things hadn't been going that well yet I didn't think watching a band with a name like Killswitch Engage was the answer! In fact things were going to get better, and sooner than I expected.

I had no idea who Metric were, but my basic thought was that there was nothing to see elsewhere so we may as well wait around for the very hotly tipped Tapes 'N' Tapes who I'd anticipated would draw a huge crowd. I thought it was this crowd coming along now as the tent started to fill up. However, little did I know that everybody here had come along to see Metric! They proved one of the pleasant surprises of the weekend, and finally got things going after the false start I'd experienced. I forced Nick to stand up and move towards the stage, knowing full well that perhaps the golden rule of live music is the closer you are the more you enjoy yourself. Metric never quite surpassed their opening song, where the lady singer took a step back from her keyboard and swished her hair about every 30 seconds or so with infinite style and randomness. I just went "wow" and was instantly entranced. We continued to nod our heads to the rest of the songs and enjoyed the enthusiastic crowd and loud sound. At the end of the set they refused to leave on time and overran by a few minutes. This was indeed what the crowd wanted and it showed a rare bit of rebellion and attitude. Strangely enough punctuality was mainly excellent, with some bands (especially later on today) even managing to finish early.

Maybe I am the only person here who wants to check out hyped bands to determine what the fuss is about as, for whatever reason, the crowd thinned out after Metric leaving Tapes 'N Tapes to play to a much smaller audience. I find that baffling as there was nothing to see elsewhere anyway. They looked a bit geeky but played a fairly impressive set, probably better than Metric. They have a song called Cowbell and in one of the stranger turns of the weekend I encountered this word everywhere I turned, and I think there was even a banner going around with "cowbell" written on it. A bit of research and I can't find any justifiable reason for this beyond this song by this band. At this point I decided I had no interest in watching ĄForward Russia! who had been piss-poor at the Radio 1 In The City gig so I wasn't quite sure what to do. Nick decided to break away to catch whatever rubbish was on the main stage and I found myself at a loss for once. I would now be alone for the rest of the day!

I was surprised to discover that there was no-one on the dance stage until 6pm so that possibility was out. I was mildly interested in the Carling Stage but not quite enough. I decided I wanted to go to the lavvy so returned to the tent for what turned out to be the only time in the middle of a day. The toilets by now were in a rather disgusting state and clearly there had been no intention whatsoever in emptying them out before the end of the weekend. The only saving grace was that they'd been cleaning the seats properly! As usual I did the paranoia check that my belongings in the tent had not been nicked and decided to go on a wander in search of a cash machine. By now I was rather low on money but at the same time wasn't prepared to leave the site and go all the way back into town. I walked along the festival shops but as I didn't have much dosh I barely took a look. Everything was typically overpriced and not in the slightest bit tempting. As per usual, I'd been walking around for days without seeing a single dodgy T-shirt vendor, and my luck still didn't change. By the time I reached the festival cash machines I had lost interest in my wander and was totally unsurprised to see an absurdly long queue. I'd still like to punch the organiser who decides two cash machines is the correct number for 100,000 people!

I guess it was mainly their name that drew me over, but You Say Party! We Say Die! were poor by any standards. I may have heard some positive words of hype elsewhere and there was a fairly large crowd but I just couldn't stomach it. I had planned to watch their whole set but just couldn't be bothered. All I remember about them is they had a lady singer with strangely coloured hair. I had expected them to mirror their name and be interesting, loud and exciting but they were unfortunately none of these things. So bored now was I that I actually went to the main stage to check it out. Less Than Jake were on and were even worse than I'd anticipated. I certainly wasn't missing much here! I found their awfulness difficult to absorb, as I know they have some massive fans but just couldn't see why. It was just a weak combination of guitars and singing. I still think their banner was quite cool and it was also quite original of them to dedicate a song to the security staff but there's not much else I can say in their favour. For some reason when I was trying to identify which band did Chelsea Dagger my first thought was Less Than Jake, but I don't think in 1000 years they could ever write something that good. One song had a vaguely interesting introduction but it would be wrong of me to throw in any praise.

The main reason I was here though was to blow the last of my cash on some nachos. I'm very proud to say I ate them all without any spillage and it was no doubt the nicest meal of the weekend. The time was now around 4pm but I was simply too hungry to wait any longer. After eating them up it was back over to the NME Stage to watch some of The Dresden Dolls. Quite a few people were there but I can't say I'd ever heard of them. They were quite interesting though for one reason. The singer looked like the most stereotypical obsessive self-harming Manics fan I'd ever seen. I wasn't there long but I confirmed that they sounded exactly like they looked. I then think I wandered back to the Carling Stage to check out Semifinalists. I'm afraid my review must be rather limited, as I have no memory whatsoever of them! Then I hopped back to the NME Stage to watch Hope Of The States. In fact I'd been planning to stay at the Carling Stage but was sufficiently bored enough to return. I'm glad I was there as this turned out to be their last ever show! They sounded very intense with lots of crashing noises and strings but I found it difficult to get into. They played to a mid-sized crowd and I did think at the time that I'm sure they said they were going to split after their debut.

It was funny to think I'd planned a day full of wandering and once I got going I actually did even more wandering than anticipated! Good Shoes proved a high point of the day. They were playing the most captivating driven guitar sounds of perhaps the entire weekend. I stood towards the back of the Carling Stage staring open-mouthed and almost had to drag myself away kicking and screaming to ensure I got in for Goldie Lookin' Chain. In fact a few months later I would go and watch Good Shoes play a full set and when that review is up you'll get to hear a more reasoned opinion. On tonight's evidence though the sheer excitement I felt made me feel like I was watching Arctic Monkeys all over again. But I was now walking back to the NME Stage. I glanced to my left and observed Bullet For The Valentine had put up their logo but I was determined to be elsewhere. It was deeply frustrating that after a long spell of mediocrity I suddenly needed to be in two places at once. And I should note that Valentine encountered a hostile reaction from the crowd, as reported later on by Nick. No less than I'm sure they deserve, but with GLC and Good Shoes on the other stages there is no excuse for anybody to be at the main arena, and especially not if they don't even like the bands there!

I saw the ending of Hope Of The States who finished with a drawn out bout of noise and enthusiastic applause. The tell-tale signs were certainly there that this was their last ever show. Around this time the DJ put on Northern Lites, which was literally the only good DJ choice I remember from anywhere except the main stage. There was the massive crowd I'd expected, both due to the mediocrity of the main stage and interest in the GLC. They arrived onstage to the reception I'd expected. They then proceeded to prance around in typical fashion for their 45-minute slot. Maggot didn't seem to do very much, and it seemed like the main guy was P Xain. They comfortably switched vocals and despite their inherent silliness seem to have enough talent to captivate a festival crowd for years to come. As rap is a generally awful genre it is a strange fact that a joke band like GLC can comfortably rise to the top. They had some well-rehearsed banter and got me doing some stereotypical rap finger pointing and dancing. This was certainly the best part of the day so far! Goldie Lookin' Chain played everything except R 'N' B. Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do, 21 Ounces and Your Missus Is A Nutter sounded great but they were trumped by the awesome Your Mother's Got A Penis. The band quickly changed into fluorescent outfits for some reason and captured the mood of the festival perfectly by breaking into No Limit by 2 Unlimited. I have no idea where it began, but I had been singing this to myself for the whole weekend, so when GLC broke into it I was near hysterical with excitement! I just wonder who started it? I was now definitely in the mood, and I saw perhaps the greatest outfit of the weekend as somebody was dressed as a lollypop lady!

Fortunately I wasn't in much of a hurry to get out afterwards: There was a massive crowd hanging around outside the NME Stage seemingly caused by a bottleneck at the crossroads. Having learned my lesson well I walked over so I could approach the main stage from the left. I was very pleased to see how much quieter it was on this side. I was now prepared to watch the undisputed stars of the main stage Slayer! Sadly I missed the introduction, where according to Ali they just stood there for five minutes not doing anything with a look on their faces which said "we're Slayer, we rock!". They had a cool backdrop and were delivering some awesome ultra-hard riffs. I was amazed and saw a large portion of their set. So many "hard" bands end up disappointing me but Slayer were the real deal. One guy was fat and bald with tattoos and the singer looked like he'd spent his whole life going around being hard. They'd even loaded up the stage with extra speakers so they could blast extra noise at us for Gods sake! From where I was standing I couldn't see what the moshpit was like but Nick and Ali reported later on that it wasn't too bad. Towards the end of the set Slayer started to speak to us a bit, delivering the usual pleasantries which slightly punctured the mystique. I was also disappointed upon returning home to see some footage of them backstage laughing and joking. But, despite some slight lapses in their hardcore image, Slayer proved themselves the kings of loud. I can't possibly take them seriously, but I was very glad to be there, and if they can pull it off in broad daylight they can perform anywhere. Certainly a lesson to shite like Rage Against The Machine of how to be a true rock band!

Then I once again went back to the NME Stage to watch a bit of Broken Social Scene. Around this time I found a CD store but I didn't have the money to spend and for some reason was still in a desperate hurry. I can't say anything about Broken Social Scene though, except that I read afterwards that they'd blown the news about it being the last Hope Of The States gig. I was now at a bit of a loss for what to do. Over on the main stage My Chemical Romance were being bottled with water, piss and shit, before delivering their "we've always been outsiders" speech and apparently turning the crowd onto their side. Maybe I should had been there, but at that time I had no idea that MCR would grab a number 1 single by ripping off The Flaming Lips! Not that I'm converted: Welcome To The Black Parade quickly degenerates into by-the-numbers emo and the singer looks like a member of McFly! But I still wonder if they'd had impressed me mildly like P! ATD had managed to. But I did find a worthwhile use of my time by going over to the Comedy Tent for the first and only time. Apparently talentless obnoxious cunt Russell Brand had pulled out and been replaced as headliner by Mark Steel. For some reason this headline set had already taken place in the afternoon rather than late at night. I don't actually know for sure who I saw now but deduce that it must have been Angelo Tsarouchas, although have no memory of him being so plump or having Greek roots. I do know that he came from North America and was very funny. I was leaning against a pillar outside the tent while the crowd inside were sitting on the floor, seemingly showing no interest in the music going on around them. He told jokes about playing practical jokes and in a very strange turn dared a kid to join him onstage in a dare that they would both wave their private parts around. I was fortunate enough to be far away but this surreal stunt was hilarious, and on reflection this Angelo Tsarouchas was much more entertaining than MCR could ever have been.

In the background to all of this I was hearing Lethal Bizzle/Statik on the Carling Stage who were making an almighty noise and getting a real rave-up going on. When they'd left the stage and Angelo Tsarouchas finished it was over to watch who I hoped would be the highlight of my day - Klaxons, Larrikin Love and Hot Chip in quick succession. Although the only song I knew from this trio was the awesome Over And Over I had a good feeling, and was proved right even more than I'd ever hoped. Klaxons were wildly popular and I was unable to get more than a few feet into the tent. At this time I didn't know any tunes but I have since found out that they opened with The Bouncer then Atlantis To Interzone. Even at this distance I could tell this was something exciting. The crowd - all the way to the back - were going utterly mental and I couldn't quite believe the rabid energy coming from the stage. The atmosphere was helped as hundreds of glo sticks had been distributed amongst the crowd before and we even had a guy with a super-loud klaxon! Sadly after this astonishing opening couplet it seemed that the pace tailed off but as everybody was still reeling I doubt anyone minded. Apparently they played a rave cover of Not Over Yet by Grace too! NME have since referred to this set as a seminal moment in the early history of "new rave". Although this genre will probably fade away into nothing there is something unbelievably exciting about Klaxons. In fact I'd pick them out as exactly the sort of music I've had in my head for the last six/seven years that I would make if I was a musician myself! Apparently Gravity's Rainbow was the penultimate track but I'm only researching this later - at the time I didn't know anything. I do remember though that excitement levels did pick up yet again towards the end. What can I say? This was one of the most exciting things ever, and I've rarely experienced a more electric atmosphere.

The tent completely emptied after this and looked like a trampled mess. Having said that though it was perfectly possible to have come along and been able to hear Klaxons so everybody who wasn't here only had themselves to blame. I looked around for Nick and Ali who said they might pop along but they couldn't be found. Strangely enough they claimed to have been exactly where I was looking but just as with Arctic Monkeys on the previous day I find it hard to believe. I gave up searching so went forwards a bit. I'd been rather hoping I'd find them as I was by now unbelievably thirsty but couldn't afford anything, so wanted to beg steal or borrow some cash. Strangely enough I think Klaxons had finished early and things were now running ahead of schedule. I knew next to nothing about Larrikin Love but felt strangely excited. It seemed difficult to imagine the organisers would put somebody mediocre between two such awesome shows! Larrikin Love eventually exceeded all expectations. They played what NME describe as gypsy-pop which was an energetic and exciting brand of guitar music: Like a more exciting yet traditional progression from The Libertines. They had their entire family standing behind them and the singer even got his mum in front of the crowd. It was a packed stage and they were all jumping around to their excellent music. Although the crowd was smaller than for Klaxons it was still enthusiastic. Not much more I remember. Some guy in the crowd had a Sooty glove puppet, which Jo Whiley mentioned on the TV, and apparently "larrikin" is Australian for "hooligan". In the tent afterwards Nick and Ali revealed they'd been watching this set also and had thought it was really good stuff. Yes, they certainly were, but they were still the weakest band of this awesome trilogy of new live music.

I moved forwards even further to prepare for Hot Chip. Amazingly the tent emptied again as a different crowd came in. I now found myself in the proper moshpit but I was up-for-it after a long weekend of not moshing much. The bouncers were handing out a crazy amount of water so fortunately I got to quench my thirst. I had been struggling to breathe as I was so parched so this came just in time. In fact so much water was handed out that a rather crazy water fight got going. Mildly funny to get drenched, but not so funny to be hit in the chest by a surprisingly painful cup! Hot Chip took to the stage and got everyone dancing. They strangely feature a line of guys on keyboards, with the singer around the middle and a guy stage left who bounces up and down and yelps. The singer was wearing a cool skeleton T-shirt with "Halloween" written on the back, possibly being a reference to the film. I remember Boy From School really got the crowd going. There was also a chant around the middle of "turn it up", possibly suggesting sound problems for the people at the back of the large crowd. With The Rakes and Placebo being the alternatives I do wonder why anybody on the whole site would want to be anywhere but inside this tent! As the absurdly popular Kooks had finished there was also a large rush of people wanting in. As tuneful as it was Hot Chip are admittedly a slightly geeky bunch of guys and this was just about the music. And it was big finale of Over And Over that overshadowed everything else. It was bouncing along nicely but didn't seem to launch the show into top gear. However, a nifty false ending and they repeated the chorus, provoking the best moshpit of the weekend for me and a near heart attack for the guy with the expensive camera next to me. Laid back? I'll give you laid back!! Song of the day!

I had been planning to embark upon a tour of the headliners. I had Animal Collective, Pearl Jam, Maximo Park and 2 Many DJs to choose from, all of whom seemed mildly interesting. However by now I was exhausted and parched again. Excluding a few seconds of Pearl Jam in the distance, who I saw projected on the screen in the bar in the centre of the arena, I just dropped the plan. I decided that the best way to finish this wonderful weekend was Apply Some Pressure by Maximo Park. Maybe everyone else had felt the day had reached its natural conclusion, including whichever fools had lapped up every second of The Kooks. Or perhaps they anticipated trouble so wanted to return to their tents. But for whatever reason the tent wasn't particularly full. I felt privileged to be here, knowing that Maximo Park are capable of selling out mid-sized venues in minutes and that this was a rare opportunity to check them out. I stood towards the back and was struggling to keep my eyes open, but was determined to hear my final song before calling it a night. The band had a massive red banner with their name on it, and singer Paul Smith was wearing a white suit and hat. They come from Newcastle. They played Graffiti and Now I'm All Over The Shop, plus a few new tunes. My enjoyment was restricted by some silly bitch who kept bumping into me. I also for some reason found that my eyes were really hurting, and I was rubbing them, which was making things even worse. After a moderately energetic set, Maximo Park conceded that they'd now played all their songs so were going to finish with Apply Some Pressure. I was a bit pissed I'd been made to wait so long but Now I'm All Over The Shop was also a fantastic tune so discovering it may have made it worth my while. So that was it!! Fortunately my energy levels increased and I started to walk back towards the tent. By this point I was very tired, quite satisfied but extremely thirsty. And thanks almost entirely to the Carling Stage I had had a pretty damn good day in the end!

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Things weren't quite over yet though. I returned to my tent to find Nick and Ali had played an annoying practical joke on me and wrapped up all my belongings in masking tape. This was the last thing I wanted to deal with. I was pissed that all my water had completely vanished off the face of the tent so I had little choice but to drink my remaining three beers, which proved quite a satisfying alternative. I then had to spend a while getting the tape off my belongings. A mildly funny gag but I thought the joke was on them as they had been sitting in the tent missing fantastic music just to do something to annoy me. Fortunately though much of the anger was muted as I'd discovered that they had seen and enjoyed Larrikin Love and had indeed attempted to find me, so it was nice to see that my message of going to see the best bands had for once been heeded. I also heard how Placebo had been shit (what a surprise!) and at one point left the stage for technical problems, handing the attention over to a series of flashers on the video screens. Ali said that they'd gone to the comedy tent but it for some reason had closed in the late afternoon so after watching Larrikin Love (and once again standing supposedly very close to me) they had simply given up and come back. I was particularly surprised that Ali hadn't wanted to see Pearl Jam as I'd imagined he'd be very interested in them. Just why the hell are they headlining anyway? I mean, can anybody actually name any songs by Pearl Jam? I rest my case.

We also spoke about Slayer, with Nick foolishly trying to argue that they were not impressive! And it turned out that Ali hadn't bothered seeing GLC as he'd wanted to keep a good position on the main stage. I always love it how every single time it's always me who sees the best bands! We lit up the last glow stick and for reasons I can't recall it got left outside the tent and, within two seconds, we saw it being stolen by some passing Liverpudlian. It was raining a bit and, contrary to all the amazing music I'd been seeing, I found the song stuck in my head was She Moves In Her Own Way by The Kooks. I put on a cassette, I believe the one full of the bands here such as Maximo Park and The Cribs, but found myself more intrigued by the increasing noise from outside the tent. It appeared that the traditional festival riot was starting up! Things never quite got out of hand fortunately, but it seemed like proper violence or some fires could start at any moment. The fact that nobody mentioned this in any newspaper afterwards proves to me that the last night of this festival is traditionally crazy and that it's only up in Leeds where proper rioting and toilet burning takes place. In fact several times during the night I went to the toilets wearing my Wolves top, dodging in and out of the "rioters" without the slightest bit of trouble.

Particularly amusing was the group of people going around chanting "angry mob! angry mob!" which I guess was a reference to the new Kaiser Chiefs track. Less comedic was the guy who blatantly was urinating against the side of our tent: Now I was glad to be the piggy in the middle away from the sides! All the bins were either set on fire or overturned with guys drumming rather funky beats on them. The moment I really thought it was starting to hit the fan was when the lights went out suddenly. Everybody cheered and it felt like the apocalypse was now. As I found out in the morning, the extent of the carnage was the overturned bins and also that the toilet roll dispensers had been kicked to the ground. Amazingly the toilets were left intact: The advantage of them being four feet full of crap is that nobody wanted to get close enough to blow them up! I also remember guys going around trying to whore out the girls they were with, and maybe I'm lucky I don't remember much of the crazy banter going on around us. We were just trying to chill in the tent throughout much of this, and I think I'm the only one who dared to go outside. Maybe we should have been terrified but I was too tired and drunk so simply fell asleep. I woke up particularly early and was amazed to note how quiet it was. All the noise must have stopped in the early hours when I was fast asleep. Our tent was mainly untouched, which I take as a sign that the "riot" was good-natured, and also felt yet another twinge of smugness that I'd insisted we set up the tent a little bit away from the road. I think we'd never had got any sleep if we'd been in the thick of it or with the entrance facing the road.

A lot of tents had already gone, presumably scared away by the events of the night, as had all the food stores. I finally changed into my other pair of jeans and, after the final use of the bowl before I discarded it, thought what a fantastic shape I was still in. Usually I'd be smelly and crippled, but I could almost pass for a normal person! We made a bit of a mess getting the tent down and smashing it into the bag, but didn't want to waste much time. It felt sad leaving the campsite and seeing everyone else had already gone. My first festival for four years was now officially over. The cash machines were closed and quite securely locked away so I couldn't get any more money. Considering the mood of the previous night I'm sure they'd had been raided if they'd stayed open as normal. We set off walking back towards the train station and I was still looking around for that elusive T-shirt. I was eventually lucky enough to find a seller (I'd expected hundreds!) who was selling a beautiful one with a back print. I'd run out of cash but Nick was lucky enough to buy it for me on the promise of immediate repayment. At first I didn't like the lack of proper Reading logo but once I noted it said Reading in a Ramones style instead I was more than happy. I also checked it for spelling errors on the way back and found only about five amongst the dozens of bands listed. Finally a bit of professionalism from a dodgy vendor!

The train station had barriers set up and I was staggered to see they'd bothered to organise it to cope with large crowds. So well in fact that the queues weren't that bad. We missed a very small, overcrowded train on the promise that a longer one had been put in service especially for the festival goers. We sat alongside it for about ten minutes before asking somebody and finding out it was our train. Amazingly it was nearly empty, showing they may have over-planned and also that they should have bothered to announce where this train was going! I read a newspaper and inspected my T-shirt, keeping an unbearably close eye on my belongings yet again. Upon returning to Wolverhampton I took my tent back (finally after two years) and hung around. Fortunately I was in too good a state/mood to be too pissed off as two trains and one bus home were cancelled without reason. I walked endlessly between bus and train stations, wanting to kick the hobos asking for money each and every time: Are they incapable of not harassing somebody with very heavy bags walking very fast? I went to KFC and got some food down me, before eventually managing to get onto a bus and home. I cleaned myself up but know for sure I'd never been in such a good state after a fest. After V2000 I was almost paralysed for weeks, but within an hour of my return I was dashing around doing normal home stuff!

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And now it's time for a lengthy postscript to the review. I can't quite believe it has ended up this long. I'm quite confident that it is in fact the longest thing that I have ever written in my life. I did an incredible amount of things there and was "fortunate" enough to make very extensive notes about what I'd done on my return, which probably explains it. I generally am determined to include every detail I remember in each review, since if I miss something out the fact will be lost forever to my memory. Having to write all this has almost put me off going to a future festival, and there are also quite a lot of post-Reading gigs where I have fallen behind on writing up about them. It proved quite a shock to my system having to go back to work the next day. Next time I will book several days off to recover. Adapting to the mundanity of ordinary life so suddenly proved horrible. Previously it had been the summer holidays when I went to festivals so it was never an issue before. That's the great thing about writing all of this: When at Reading I was always living in the moment and after the event I had no time to reflect. This review has therefore been my only opportunity to relive the experience, plus I guess the 150 (50 representing each day) track compilation I made and the TV highlights.

I made the difficult decision to throw away my festival shoes I'd owned for years as they had been falling apart all weekend, and had only just managed to look after my feet well enough to prevent injury. All my stuff had the classic festival stench about them I can't quite explain - in particular my pillow - and had to be washed. It was around this point I discovered I had left Ł6 in one of my pockets: Deeply frustrating to know all this time I hadn't run out of cash! On the news Pluto had been relegated from the list of planets and I read about Saddam Hussein being forced to watch the South Park movie. On Tuesday I developed the photos (the best of which are all shown here) and, although my camera had a zoom function, few of the music shots were special and the saving grace was that the people shots turned out so nicely. I also had reasonable sunburn to contend with and was quite surprised to be laughed at for it: By comparison to V2000 this was nothing! I got through the whole of the workweek catching up on all the TV/newspapers and didn't have time to unpack or start to write up my notes for a few days. I finally took the wristband off on the Wednesday after it started to smell, abandoning the temptation to leave it there forever! And to make things even more hectic I went to see the wonderful Half Man Half Biscuit with Nick on Thursday. A masterstroke if I say so myself, as it kept the excitement levels up a bit to allow me to get back into the normal world.

The most significant act of reflection on my return was to watch the highlights of the festival on TV. I saw lots of costumes and incidents I remembered from first hand experience on TV which kept the memories fresh. Ali may want us to stay in a hotel next time we go but it just wouldn't be the same. We'd be more comfortable and ready for the music but we'd miss out on most of the excitement you get from camping. One thing I was shocked by was that despite all my efforts I'd missed so much. I've mentioned these bands as I've gone through the review, but in particular discovering The Fratellis, The Sunshine Underground, Gogol Bordello and Mumm-Ra only after the event was a shame: Next time I will have to make even more effort to research the new bands! Having said that though, what I did was pretty amazing, and nobody missed out any songs. The closest thing I can get to an omission is that Franz didn't play their cover version of Sexy Boy.

Fingers crossed it will not be another four years before my next festival. As usual it depends on the reliability of others much more than myself. The greatest thing is that all the "cool" bands got to play so I could finally check them all out, especially acts such as Maximo Park who I am intrigued by but was put off by their insane popularity. I can't decide who my top band of the weekend was. At first I thought Kaiser Chiefs, then I found myself leaning towards Franz Ferdinand. The point is that I now like them all more and feel I understand them better. One of these days I will have to give Glasto a chance, but I'm almost put off going by the snobbishness of the fans and of course its absurd popularity. Reading was far and away the best-organised festival I have ever been to, and I couldn't quite believe the moaning I read online afterwards. The sound quality on the main stage being awful? Bad toilets? No organisation?!?!? Not enough stewards? It's all total bollocks. This was so much fun I could barely drag myself back into the real world. If Glasto was really so much better then thousands would be refusing to leave the campsite for weeks afterwards! So finally I've finished. The festival now officially ends with the completion of this review on 14th January 2007!! Now all I have to do is review all the gigs I've been to afterwards and then decide if I have the stamina to write this all over again next festival!

SONG OF THE DAY: Hot Chip - Over And Over