Live at Leeds : Day One

• 25th Aug 2007

Jamie T does a Bob Dylan. The bassist and acoustic cockney rapper has gone full electric now. With full backing band, the Mercury Music nominee is now full-on punk. Unlike when Dylan brought out The Band there were no boos of outrage nor screeches of discontent. The songs, largely from Panic Prevention, are quicker and the sound is bigger. Ideal for the huge NME tent, packed out with people and almost as many outside sitting on the grass, watching on the big screens, not unlike Henman Hill at Wimbledon. Best of the Brits

So if you haven't seen it on the TV. It's fucking scroting. The weather came good. Amid the mayhem, tent thefts, Trent Reznors new haircut, The Pipettes playing in the background it's a mad frantic heatwave in the north. Reports from Reading are of flooding but very little gets through.

We started out yesterday with Kate Nash but it proved impossible to get anywhere near the tent, never mind the stage. The tiny pretty Kate Nash was a welcome intro to a musical.

The main theme of the music so far has been the American dominace of the festival and the politics they bring with them. Who said there was no revolution in rock'n'roll anymore?

Smashing Pumpkins open with the American national anthem, Hendrix style, over-bashed, ever-prentious. Corgan pulled it off with aplomb, his Gibson screeching out over the heads of thousands as the Pumpkins headlined the first night with a set including Zero, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Tarantula, Bummer and Disarm.

The musical highlight of the first day was without doubt a straight fight between James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem and Frank Carter's Gallows. North American Scum continuing the anti-US theme of giving a big middle finger to the imperialist administration.

Gallows may claim their songs 'ain't about nothing special' but it doesn't seem to matter as we watch Frank Carter climbing the tent rigging for the peak of Orchestra of Wolves and launching himself into the baying pits. By far the most rock'n'roll moment so far. Carter IS the new Johnny Rotten.

The alternative stage brought to us an American comedian with more Bush jokes than anyone could handle. I'll dig out his name for the final review.

Big shout for the CSS climax of 'Lets Make Love…' blew everyone away completing a rousing performance from the electro Brazilian maestros.

As the Pumpkins closed with a fifteen minute rendition of Heavy Metal Machine the lights went out on an awesome display of quality music on day one.