Reading 2007 by Liam R and Claire The Karma Whore
Liam: When we left… well, we've finally come to the end of our Reading Odyssey but there is still one more day to go? Will any of the bands coming up impress me more than Arcade Fire? Will Claire wet herself at the sight of the Wentz? Read on…
Claire: It’s Sunday morning, and Liam has “mislaid” his house keys, I suggest he looks in the pile of crap that is over on his side of the tent… Keys found hidden in said pile of crap, he is also complaining his mouth tastes like an elephant has shit in it, all this before breakfast………We head into the main arena a little earlier than usual today, it’s our last day and we just want to make the most of it. Gym Class Heroes are on stage at noon , and I fancy an ice cream.
Liam: There seems a slow gradual movement in hip hop away from the "guns and hos and disses" mainstream gangster bollocks that's been polluting the charts for the last few years. Jurassic 5 and The Roots have had a modicum of success trying to get back to simple rhyming over beats and the latest to step up to the plate are the Gym Class Heroes, who were the second and final key ingredient in the theme tune to 'Snakes On A Plane'. They also happen to be the best choice for an early Sunday morning band, not playing anything too taxing and generally being a nice uplifting start to the day. It goes without saying that the scared ginger one from Fall Out Boy appears to do his bit on 'Cupid's Chokehold' which makes all the teenage girls scream in hope of an appearance by Lord High Lady Boy Pete Wentz, which even more obviously doesn't happen. Oh and to the lads in Gym Class Heroes, you really should stop putting emo bands in your videos, it might scare people away. Just a thought mind.
Claire: All weekend I have waited to see Fall Out Boy, and I’m not disappointed, obviously it’s because of the Wentz, and not even hearing him on Radio 1 earlier being a complete tosser can dampen my enthusiasm. He seems to be confused as to what “wellies” are, but says if you can get Dior ones, then it’s ok. See?? TOSSER! But let’s face it; most women still would, as he is so damn pretty it’s a crime.
Having to make the most of the Wentz experience by watching him on the big screens (I’m a total short arse) they seem to go from hit to hit, including “The take over, the breaks over”, “Dance Dance”, “Thks Fr the Mms”, “This aint a scene” but my favourite moment was when they did “Sugar, were going down” as I did the exact opposite and went up! Liam was mad enough to put me up on his 6ft 3 high shoulders, and it was breathtaking. I not only could see the Wentz leaping about pretending to play bass, (I’m sure he doesn’t play, and he is just there to look pretty) but I could see the whole of the main arena, and I was looking down on this huge throng of people with the sun beating down on me. It was a moment I will never ever forget, and every time I hear “Sugar”. I get goose bumps just thinking about it, so thank you Fall Out Boy for giving me a small moment in time that will stay with me forever, and I STILL have my FOB balloon, which I treasure, thanks to Sonia for getting me that, and before I start getting emotional…..
LOSTPROPHETS!!!! Now as excited as I was about FOB, these guys if I’m honest are the ones I really really wanted to see. These Welsh rock gods did not disappoint, Ian Watkins has a fantastic voice, and not only that, he actually made us piss ourselves laughing. Deciding he wanted to get the whole crowd to jump at the same time, his gorgeous welsh accent told us “If you do, you might get on News round or something” and “Jump, even if you don’t like us, and if you don’t do it, I may cry and I cant guarantee the rest of the set will be any good…” and my personal favourite line “Oh I’m sorry, I got distracted by a ninja?!”
“Burn Burn”, “Rooftops” and “last train home” were all performed, but my personal bests were “Town called Hypocrisy” and “Shinobi vs. dragon ninja” They were so fucking awesome I am having trouble putting it into words, these guys were in all honesty, my highlight of the weekend. I would have paid the £140 again just to see them alone, so that said, there’s only one more thing to say, and those who were there will now what I’m talking about….. “That’s not a circle, it’s a fucking oblong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Ian Watkins, I FUCKING LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
Liam: And as evening turns to night so the big guns come out to play. I only catch half an hour of Nine Inch Nails due to a scheduling conflict but the sound nothing less than fucking awesome. After buying a t-shirt for a friend, I say goodbye to Claire and charge off to the NME stage for a good old fashioned dose of raving courtesy of the LCD Soundsystem, and the escape from the general emoness of the day is refreshing. It should come as no surprise that the entire tent was turned into a steamy sweaty approximation of a night club, and when the people outside the tent are getting down like it's 1999 you know you're on to a good thing. Unfortunately due to even more scheduling hi-jinx The Hold Steady come out to their headline slot in the Carling stage to roughly 250 people. It's a fucking shame because they play rather wonderful bar room punk with a weathered edge, and if it hadn't been so fucking cold I would have stayed longer. As it was, I was shattered, pissed, in need of a piss, dirty and desperately missing sleeping in my own bed, though I have to give The Hold Steady's singer an A++++ for enthusiasm and can only hope that the Kings Of Leon were taking notes somewhere.
And so that does it for another Reading Festival. Sorry the Sunday write up has been somewhat short but there were other bands on that I could have written about but they barely swayed my interest to such a degree that I simply forgot they were on. I guess I could say that there were only three performances which I would gladly see again, and a whole lot of simply middling middleness, but when you go to a festival that's what you get sometimes. And besides, the company I kept for the weekend more than made up for some of the bilge being served up on stage so it's all good.