Reading Festival – Day One – Reading

• 29th Aug 2009

Unlike the Northern lot, Glasswerk London arrived in Reading before 10am, before taking 2 hours to find the right carpark (a boat trip away from camping area!) then another hour putting the tents up. Have you ever tried hammering pegs into virtual concrete?

Anyway, we finally made it into the arena, just in time for a soaking as the once sunny skies blackened over in true English Summer style. We hustled our way into the nearest tent to watch AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT who I think had once sounded quite good on the radio yet live, left us bored and unmoved. Generic and bland, we moved onto check out the first of 2 bands playing Glasswerk gigs in the enxt few weeks. KASMS caused a moshpit in front of the Introducing stage which is always an achievement. Later on we were there to see Mancunians EVERYTHING EVERYTHING tread the same boards, and they played a stunning set keeping the crowd captivated by epic hits such as Sufragette Sufragette and Photoshop Handsome.

Back to the big tents for birthday girl FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE who significantly went up in our estimation (not that it was low before) by climbing the scaffolding almost to the ceiling, then later JAMIE T who is always a fun live act. He started 15 minutes late which meant we couldn’t see the entire set, but singalongs like Calm Down Dearest were enough to send the crowd wild.

The most hyped band of the day and also the most deflating was KINGS OF LEON. Amazing band with amazing songs we all know that, but not the first time a Reading headliner was the victim of poor sound when we really wanted our eardrums to vibrate with their ballsy rock. All the usual anthems caused mass singalongs but the band clearly felt they werent engaging their audience as they would have liked.

Still, top day all round and 2 more to go. But with a diet of warm lager noodles and a north-easterly wind, will both me and my tent survive?