Reading Festival Day 2 – Reading!
Another day, another whole heap of bands and best of all no rain. It’s hats and sunglasses weather and a big relief that I can leave my ill-fitting wellies behind.
BADDIES provided the early afternoon enoyment with their animated pop-punk. It’s always a good sign when a tent is much fuller at the end than at the beginning.
PATRICK WOLF charmed the crowd as always with people clammering to get down the front in an already packed NME tent. But maybe they weren’t just there for him, and had heard news of Dave Grohl’s new bands’ secret gig. THEM CROOKED VULTURES were easily the draw of the afternoon and almost as many people watched them on the screens outside as in the tent itself. Whether the songs themselves are the equal of the hyperbole surrounding the band members is open for debate, but nonetheless a great last addition to the billing.
THE PRODIGY were perhaps the pick of the day with Keith showing he’s lost none of his on-stage persona. Obviously the likes of Breathe and Firestarter were the big hits, but an hour long Prodigy set as main support really woke up the crowd prior to headliners ARCTIC MONKEYS.
When they were great they were great, and Alex Turner’s vocals are stronger than ever. ‘Dancefloor and the like had the crowd in their hands but the second half of the set seemed to exist primarily of chilled out slower songs off the new album. The quality was evident but even the encore left the crowd underwhelmed when they just wanted to jump around and dance!
Just one more day to go now…