So I spent Sunday at the Reading Music Festival and on Friday, Saturday and Monday I pretty much just watched the TV coverage of the festival on BBC Three. The weather was hot and sunny all weekend and made this the best weekend of the summer in the UK. I enjoyed a lot of great music so I thought I would tell you what I experienced, what I saw and make you all very jealous. [b]The Short Version[/b] NIN and Smashing Pumpkins were fucking awesome and I had a great time. If thats all you need to know feel free to skip the rest of this very long post. [b]The Long Version[/b] I watched Friday's coverage on the BBC. Kings of Leon and headline act Razorlight were both excellent. Other standout performances came from Maximo Park, The Gossip and Gogol Bordello on the main stage. Two relatively unknown bands which really impressed on other stages were Reverand And The Makers and Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly. Good first day I thought. Saturday was not so impressive, largely because headline act Red Hot Chili Peppers were a big letdown. This is not just my opinion but the one held by the majority of people who were actually there. Even the BBC presenters said their set was "self-indulgent". A lot of extremely long instrumentals which went nowhere, a noticeable absence of classic tracks. There were also sound problems for those at the back, apparantely caused by Anthony Kedeis jumping on a cable during set opener Can't Stop (I say set opener, it was actually about 10 minutes after they came on) - so that did not help. It could just be that this was the last concert of their 18 month Stadium Arcadium tour and they were just tired, in need of a rest. Don't get me wrong, the guitar work of John Frusciante is incredible, but the crowd I think would rather have heard Under The Bridge instead of a 15 minute solo/jam session at the end of the set. The Chili Peppers had the biggest crowd of the weekend but I think a lot of folks left disappointed. Other acts on Saturday included Arcade Fire, everyone raves about them being great. I just don't see it myself, I have tried to like them because they seem really interesting and different, but I just don't get it. Bands who I did enjoy on Saturday were Bloc Party, Biffy Clyro and The Pigeon Detectives - this band have next big thing written all over them, a set cramed with catchy sing-a-long tunes, good stuff. But to be honest by this point I was too busy thinking about the Sunday when I would actually be there to care about the Saturday stuff. I had no problems picking up my tickets from the box office and did not even have to queue. Got inside the arena by 12.40, which was very impressive compared to last year. Saw a few bands that did not really do much for me. New Young Pony Club and The Sunshine Underground were good bands I saw mid afternoon. You can actually see me on the TV coverage during New Young Pony Club, they were OK, but a bit too electronic/nu-rave for my tastes. The first band I went up front for on the main stage was Funeral For A Friend. They are a Welsh rock group and were quite a good watch, my sister loves them so it was more to make her jealous than anything else. This set was remarkable because I saw an actual fight in the crowd, I'd never seen that before at a Festival. Not sure what it was about, I think the two guys involved knew each other somehow. One guy was a real poser, he really thought he was the shit, ya know what I mean. Shirt off, tall, short haircut, Kalvin Clein boxers sticking out the top of his jeans. He was the aggresor here, being a real asshole I thought to a shorter bloke, slightly fat and not really looking for a fight. Don't know what the problem was but a space quickly opened out round them as they grappled. All this going on while the band were on stage oblivous to this. So they break apart and the poser starts swinging punches hitting the other guys shoulder, the fat bloke knocks one punch aside and then throws one of his own. Pow! Down goes the poser, he gets straight up but he is beaten and he knows it. Then some random stranger jumps in, holds up the arm of the fat guy and declares him the winner as all the crowd around cheer him. The poser wants another chance but the fat guy says no more, he does not want to fight. Things return to normal and everyone goes back to watching the gig. I notice them talk to each other a little later on and shake hands, so yeah no idea what that was about but it was quite a surprising spectacle. Fall Out Boy were on next, ugh! I would only have watched them if they got bottled off. Sadly, they only had a few bottles thrown at them. Apparantely they made fun of the "War on Emo" thing and had some guy come out and smash a beer bottle over his head on stage. Nobody got bottled off though Angels & Airwaves on Friday and Panic! At The Disco on Saturday got a few thrown at them. The bass player of Panic did get a bottle in the head but was not knocked unconcious like the singer of the band did during last year's show. Other great performances I did not get to see on Sunday included The Maccabees and CSS from the Radio 1/NME stage and The Gallows from the Lock-Up Stage. The Gallows won Kerrang's! best British newcomer award and they really put on an awesome hard rocking show by all accounts - including the singer getting tatooed live on stage! Now that is hardcore. However I was in the Carling tent watching Kate Nash. This is the smallest stage at Reading and it was absolutely packed, thousands of people wanting to get inside, stood 40 deep outside unable to see. Crazy stuff, but she was booked there 6 months ago and since then had a number 1 single and a number 1 album. She was really good, nice piano led music including hit single Foundations which got a huge response. Somebody in the crowd actually threw a lemon at her! (This is because there is a line in that song "you think I must eat so many lemons, cos I am so bitter") It winded her a bit. I left before the last song because I could see Lostprophets had just come onto the main stage, missed some of it as I made slow progress through the crowd but got to the front for the most insane moshing of the weekend. This was the one everyone went slightly mad for - good stuff. Singer Ian Watkins really likes to talk a lot but he got the whole crowd jumping to Last Train Home and during Last Summer the whole front of the crowd sat down for the verse and then jumped up for the chorus, was a new one on me. They got the most enormous circle pit you've ever seen going for closing track Shinobi Vs Dragon Ninja, that was too much for me and I got out the way quickly. A great warm up for the awesomeness that was to follow. [b]Nine Inch Nails[/b] The setlist for NIN was: HYPERPOWER! The Beginning Of The End Survivalism March Of The Pigs Closer Burn Gave Up Me, I'm Not The Great Destroyer Eraser Only Wish Dead Souls The Hand That Feeds Head Like A Hole Hurt For the opening part of the gig, up till Me, I'm Not, the band played the stage with a dozen huge and very bright lights behind them, lots of energy, the guitarist jumped down and pushed the BBC camera about on the tracks at the front. Closer got the biggest crowd response. Then the whole stage went dark as a long keyboad intro to The Great Destroyer began. Next thing we can see is that a large screen has descended to form a backdrop with Trent Reznor in the middle with a laptop and other device in front of him, the guitarist to the right and a keyboard player on the left. They are some distance apart and a bright white light sillhouttes each of them. Looks like three bars of light. As the song picks up momentum the bars blur and shift like they are being effected by the music. If you know this track from NIN's Year Zero album you know the second half of it is like music made out of static and just loud bass noise. On the album it seems strange, but with the visuals here it was just incredible. Soon the whole screen goes static and seems like images can be seen in quick bursts and then it blazes with colour and back to static, all in time with the music. Nobody has ever seen anything like that on the main stage here, awesome. Then the lights go out again, the keyboards are taken away and the band disappear behind the screen. Now I've got to try and explain this screen to you. It is composed of thousands of small lights which when they are all on forms a solid image to the audience, but the lights are actually spaced apart on thin black wires so when the lights are off you can see through to anything which is illuminated behind the screen as if the screen was not there. As Eraser begins white comets of light begin to blaze around the screen, just a few at first (can't see anything through it yet cos there is nothing lite up behind) then over the next minute or two as the song builds up to its crescendo more comets of light appear until the whole screen is lite up with blazing white light. Then as the bass kicks in and the song really starts, from the centre of the screen the light peels away like an explosion and you can see Trent Reznor stood in what looks like the centre of a black hole with blazing white light surrounding him. Just an incredible visual, mind blowing. Later in the song the whole screen goes clear and you can see the full band there, then it does something else different, somehow the lights glow in one colour but you can still see through. So you can see red for a moment, then green, then blue and the whole time you can see the band bathed in this colour. BTW - none of this was shown on the TV and could not properly by picked up by the cameras anyway. Just incredible to be there and experience. The band are still behind the screen as Only begins, the screen goes static with just Trent Reznor visible, or only just at least. This was my favourite song of the set. Before the end of the track the screen goes back up out the way and the rest of Only and Wish are played like a normal gig. Next the did a cover version of a Joy Division track (Joy Division are the band who became New Order after the death of their original front man). The crowd go crazy for The Hand That Feeds and Head Like A Hole. The guitarist trashes his guitar at the end of that and the stage again goes dark. As the opening notes of Hurt begin we can see the screen is back down and Trent Reznor is stood at the centre playing a keyboard with white stars (or snow) showering down slowly behind him. He plays most of the song just on the piano, slowly with the crowd singing along. Some stupid people say "he's covering Johnny Cash?" Err, no dumbass, thats his song and with the style he played it here its like he is reclaiming it as his. As the song goes into the second chorus the guitars and drums come back in and the screen lifts up to reveal the band bathed in white light and the last crash of the guitars echo out. The band leave the stage and it goes dark, then the NIN logo appears on the screen and the crowd roar their approval. What a set! A pity they did not play anything from their great double album The Fragile, but it really was an awesome experience. For any other band the screen might just be a gimmick, but it was not overused here and it proved versatile and used in many different ways to enhance the music and visuals for the audiennce. The Smashing Pumpkins are gonna have to go some to top that. [b]The Smashing Pumpkins[/b] The setlist was (the ? means they played a track and I don't know what it was): Superchrist Doomsday Clock Today ? Tarantula ? Stand Inside Your Love Zero United States Bullet With Butterfly Wings Glass And The Ghost Children 1979 Death From Above Tonight, Tonight Thats How (My Love Is) Heavy Metal Machine Cherub Rock I am a massive Pumpkins fan and had never seen them live before. It did not disappoint (well only in that it did not go on for longer). Great show I thought, even though you could say they are not really the same band with the new lineup, they still rocked. The crowd went insane for Today, Zero, Tonight, Tonight and Cherub Rock. Sadly they did not do an encore, not sure they left themselves enough time for it. Would have been nice to see Disarm but I am happy with what they did. During Glass And The Ghost Children I had a really strange experience. They played it quite slow with the trademark whining guitars throughout and the whole crowd was stood transfixed, not moving. I just closed my eyes and it felt like I was the only person there, even though I was in the front section of a 60,000 strong crowd. Was an eerie and incredible moment for me. Before 1979 an image of the crowd appeared, there is a pretty girl on some guys shoulders and yes she flashed and got a huge cheer for her efforts. Billy laughed and said "ah just something about the English girls. A certain willingness to take her top off. Don't worry, we know American girls are sluts too." The crowd laughs, then he launches into 1979, just him an acoustic guitar. The whole crowd sings along with gusto. Then before the next track Billy Corgan says "I'd like to play a song from the new album Zeitgeist." To the muted disinterest of the crowd he replies "Eugh, not that. Yes, this is from my new record, fuckers". Not that could be taken as arrogance, but the crowd go with it and laugh. Ironic then that the song he plays is Death From Above which is not available on Zeitgeist, except the version available at Target stores in the USA (what a stupid load of shit that is, but I digress). Actually it is available as the B-side to Tarantula, but anyway the point is lost on the audience and its a soothing sounding song which was nice I suppose. By the end of Cherub Rock the crowd were chanting for more but sadly we did not get it. So in reflection I had a really great day. Which was the better performance, NIN or Smashing Pumpkins? I don't know they were both awesome. It was everything I hoped it would be and I loved it.