Reading Festival 2009

Yes, I know this was way back in August, but I've been busy, OK? I needed to collect my thoughts. So stop judging me! In fact, if I'm honest, I don't much appreciate your attitude of late. Go on, clear off! Get out of here and leave those pilchards behind, on the table!

Sorry about that, he shouldn't give us any more trouble. Anyway, this year marked the 11th anniversary of my first visit to The Reading Festival. How did I celebrate this auspicious occasion? By, err... going to The Reading Festival again. Now, I haven't attended every last one in the previous decade but I have noticed some marked changes. Don't worry, I won't be harping on about how for the cost of a day ticket nowadays, you could have got a weekend ticket in 1998. Or how commercial it has become (it's always been bad for that), or even how “this all used to be fields” (it's held in fields for goodness' sake). No, the changes I'm talking about have come around in just one year.

The Reading Festival 2008 was excellent. Great bands, great atmosphere. Now, whether you like the acts is a matter of personal taste, but whether you enjoy them can be something that's reliant on many variables and that's where I feel this year's fest let us down. Broadly speaking, this can be divided into 2 categories: Audio Quality and Band Attitude.

Audio Quality
Let's face it, if you're watching an enormous, open air concert, the sound quality is never going to be the best. For those of us who want to actually hear the music, we're left with two choices: Watch a band on one of the smaller stages where you can get closer and the tent provides better acoustics, or fight your way to the very front of the main stage. Both of these are problematic though. The best bands don't play the smaller stages and not everyone is up for the crushing, elbow session that is your average mosh pit.

So what's the solution? Well, Festival Republic are kind enough to provide us with satellite speakers. What are these? Imagine the main stage. It has massive speaker sets either side of it, yes? Well, set further back into the crowd are another set of speakers that repeat the same sound at the same time. So if you're chilling further away with your Tuborg, you still get a quality sound experience, without having to worry whether the wind will change direction and it will seem like you're listening underwater. Now, in 2008 there was another set of speakers, even further back. So you could even enjoy the band from afar whilst you eat your £4.50 portion of chips. However, this year, the extra set were nowhere to be seen, meaning there was a massive 'dead area' where if you weren't very near a speaker, the sound was washy and vague. The volume level itself wasn't high enough this year either, despite claims that this was to be the loudest one yet. This sucked big time for me.

Although admittedly I may just be getting more deaf every time I go...

Band Attitude
Terrible, terrible, terrible. Not many things annoy me more than stuck up 'artistes' acting above their stations and festivals are rife with them. The absolute worse perpetrators at this year's shindig were the headline acts. On Friday it was the Kings of Leon, who have taken their drastic restyling too seriously methinks. They played a very mediocre set but then had the gall to act pissed off when they weren't getting much of a reaction from the audience. Here's a clue, if your fans are annoyed, don't have a go at them- play better! They also refused to allow the last part of their set to the broadcast, although the TV audience probably benefited from that more than the band did.

Saturday it was the Arctic Monkeys, who I was very much looking forward to seeing. But northern scallys they are no more. Oh no. They have transformed themselves into heartfelt, ballad singing poets, who now spend more time trying to break America than they do writing any more good songs. All the old charm is gone. Even the quality first album tracks were performed without the venom they used to have. There was a feeling that they were now above us, like they didn't need our little festival. Goodness knows what they're like at Leeds.

Finally, Radiohead closed the whole festival. Now, I'm open about not being a fan, so it's not for me to comment on the performance itself (which I'm assured was very good) but the whole pomp of the stage set was pretty annoying. Plus it frustrates me when bands play videos or use heavy effects on the giant video screens, rather than for their intended purpose of letting us see the acts close up. So if you're far away, you're forced to squint at tiny figures on stage, whilst the enormous TVs play some wanky kaleidoscope for hours. Still, last year, Metallica had fireworks and gun shots and all sorts, but that was heavy metal baby, a real show. Not some lazy eyed, whining git from Oxford. Sorry, couldn't resist. Anyway, I went to see Lost Prophets after three songs.

What was amazing was the contrast between the headliners and the 'almosts' who opened for them. Kaiser Chiefs and The Prodigy were excellent (I swerved on Bloc Party after getting my fingers burnt last year). You could see the hunger, the talent and the real audience connection that these bands had, which was totally missing from the headline acts, in my opinion.

The saving grace for this year was the unannounced super group- Them Crooked Vultures, Grohl, Homme and Jones. This had the best of all worlds, audio quality was great thanks to them playing a smaller stage and their attitude and songs were excellent, a real highlight. I can now say that I've seen ¾ of Led Zeppelin live. Which is the best it's going to get, thanks to Bonham's penchant for lunchtime double vodkas (sleep well, sweet prince).

So overall, this year's Reading Festival was a mixed bag. Festival Republic seem to be cutting costs whilst putting up prices and some bands act like they don't want to be there. Luckily, it's still mostly about the music and thank goodness for the smaller bands and stages for reminding us of that.

To be honest though, I haven't ruled out the fact that I might just be an ageing, deaf, miserable arsehole.

Thoughts?

Steff Parry.