Reading Festival part 2

Saturday brings us another scorching sunny day, factor 50 is essential. I start the day with a visit to the toilets in the arena, a good judgement on my part as they’re relatively clean and smell-free. Feeling ten pounds later, I make it to the dance tent to se The Teenagers, a wonderfully foul-mouthed French dance pop act. The biggest cheer is reserved for ‘Homecoming’ which features a chorus of ‘I fucked my American cunt/ I loved my English romance/ It was dirty, a dream came true/ Just like I like it, she’s got nice tits’. Then it’s time for perenial festival band Brakes in the Radio 1 tent. Brakes have been playing this and every other festival since before time, let alone music festivals, began. Howeveer, it’s made them pretty good at what they do, the short jokey songs still go down well, and the proper tunes such as ‘All Night Disco Party’, ‘I Can’t Stand To Stand Beside You’ and the newer material all hit the spot. Eamon has grown as a frontman now, ably assisted by the White brothers and Alex from Tenderfoot.

The Noisettes are interesting to watch, just for the energy on stage but the tunes themselves aren’t up to very much. A short break later and we head to the main stage to watch The Shins, but the scorching sunshine and the need for sitting down renders them as background music, though they sound good from where we’re sitting. Then it’s time for the yearly highlight- Hugh Lennon and his hypno dog! One of our friends manages to get on stage to be hypnotised, and is put through the various stage- conducting an orchestra, riverdancing. At one point he’s given a cigarette and told it is a joint that will make him very high after 2 drags. However, 2 more drags and everyone in the audience will be revealed as police officers! The look on his face was priceless, as was the complete denial that he ever smoked. Eventually the hypno dog is brought on and all volunteers look in to his eyes and fall asleep.

Bloc Party have become an engaging live act, despite a weak second album, and an evening main stage slot sees them concentrate mostly on the hits- ‘Hunting For Witches’, ‘The Prayer’, ‘Banquet’ and ‘This Modern Love’ all sound good, before finishing with a racaus ‘Helicopter’. Aracde Fire follow, providing beefed up arrangements of ‘Funeral’ songs and some highlights from the less engaging ‘Neon Bible’, though still no ‘black light/black wave’ alas. The finale of ‘Power Out’/Rebellian (lies)/’Wake Up’ is stupendous as always.
Now it’s time to dance- !!! are the perfect band for this. There probably aren’t many bands with the drive and energy on stage that !!! possess, so watching them is always a treat. They’re followed by UNKLE, who are merely average- we only get ‘Lonely Soul’ from pysence fiction, meaning the majority is made up from their latest ‘rock’ record. A bit of a damp squid as a headliner, really. As I come out of the tent, the sound of dying, wheezing dinosaurs can be heard- yes, Red Hot Chilli Peppers are finishing with a joyful 2 hour improv funk jam. Run and hide!