42 replies to this topic

[VCK]

2009 and 2011 seem to be getting a lot of nominations for this title. Whilst neither line-up is the greatest ever, they both have some strong bands playing, the problem being that they're full of repeat bookings and the days seem to be too mixed up in both instances (Reading finishing on a day chock full of Indie? KOL and Kaisers following Placebo, Fall Out Boy, Deftones and FFAF? What? ) I think these two have earned disdain because they don't keep with the traditions of the festival.

For me, 2007 wins this dubious award. The year that landfill Indie and angsty Emo both reached their peaks, the Main Stage was filled with bands who had only been around 5 minutes. Below the Top 2 of each day there was seriously no strength at all. Some good bookings in Smashing Pumpkins, NIN, Arcade Fire and RHCP (despite how crap they were it was a coup getting a band of that size to headline), and despite how I thought they were too high at the time I'll include Interpol. Aside from that it was a really weak line-up that occurred in between two of the best line-ups I've seen in my time going to Leeds.

What do you all think?

[rexclark]

2009 easily for me, there was hardly any acts I wanted to see in the end. 2011 is far better IMO.

[Banana Co]

2008 for me. I thought the headliners were great for 2009 and there was so many good bands elsewhere. 2011 is great for me because to me all headliners are exclusive this year and I love a lot of bands. Whilst it may not have many big draws it still appeals to me.

Edited by Banana Co, 27 July 2011 - 08:24 PM.

[The Mean Bean]

06 and 09 were both as bad as each other

[Dan R]

Of the years I've been going I definitely feel 2009 was the worst. The days had no flow to them, and there were very few strong bookings. Whilst the headliners were all huge, they were all pretty unimaginative.
2008 was the strongest too imo, opposite of the reasons I thought 09 was bad (bar the fact the headliners were still huge)

Edited by Dan R, 27 July 2011 - 09:49 PM.

[MEGABOWL]

2007 for me.


Headliners of Razorlight, an awful RHCP set and "Smashing Pumpkins" (BC and some session musicians) and not the strongest undercard ever. Easy.

[the_mars_volta]

2009 was pretty terrible, as was 2007.

[VCK]

To be honest I don't think many people would have complained about the 2009 line-up if it looked something like this:

Kings Of Leon
Bloc Party
Lostprophets
Fall Out Boy
Brand New
The View
New Found Glory

Arctic Monkeys
Kaiser Chiefs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Maximo Park
Vampire Weekend
The Courteeners
Eagles Of Death Metal

Radiohead
The Prodigy
Placebo
Deftones
Funeral For A Friend
Enter Shikari
The Living End

With Ian Brown swapped with Lostprophets.

I think that would have been a more "traditional" Reading line-up in terms of ordering, and I know people on here would just be salivating at that Top 4 on the Radiohead day.

But hey, what's done is done, 2009 is in the past and I had a cracking weekend, and saw great performances by Radiohead, The Prodigy and...erm...Kaiser Chiefs

Edited by VCK, 28 July 2011 - 05:04 AM.

[mrtourette]

2006.

[Benj]

2004, by a mile- Shit Headliners (Well Green day were OK I guess, shite compared to 02 though), shit undercard, not helped at all by the shit weather.

Razorlight were easily the best band there performance wise, which says a lot.

[Benj]

VCK, on 28 July 2011 - 05:03 AM, said:

and...erm...Kaiser Chiefs

They were properly ace that night!

[swede]

Benj, on 28 July 2011 - 08:32 AM, said:

2004, by a mile- Shit Headliners (Well Green day were OK I guess, shite compared to 02 though), shit undercard, not helped at all by the shit weather.

Razorlight were easily the best band there performance wise, which says a lot.

Where you at Reading or Leeds. 2004 at Leeds was great, apart from The Darkness. White Stripes on the Sunday is still one of the best things Ive ever seen, up there with The Who at IOW a few months earlier. Everyone I went with expected Green Day to play loads off American Idiot which wasnt even out then and it was great when they came out and did a greatest hits set. The Friday was a random day but I really enjoyed the fact there was no flow or trend to the day as I have a bit of a wide taste, and Morrissey did it for me on the Sunday, opening with How Soon is Now. I had a great weekend that year and saw some great performances but it is all objective dependent on musical taste really.

Edited by swede, 28 July 2011 - 10:28 AM.

[mrtourette]

Kasabian, White Stripes and Morrisey were really good at Reading, made the mistake of choosing Supergrass over Green Day and they were pretty disappointing.

[jump]

2007, I just remember being bored most of Sat, not alot of big bands worth seeing aswell as the horrible display from RHCP but there was 5ish bands back to back on Lock Up one day which was brilliant and NIN/Arcade Fire who stole the shows from the headliners on their days.

[mattl]

It's a close call, Reading 2004 had an absolutely shocking undercard (Goldie Looking Chain, The Rasmus and The New York Dolls? Surely a crime against music!) in addition to the not-so-brilliant headliners (Green Day as the only exception) lead it to being a bit of a weak festival line-up.

However, Reading 2009 edges it. Only because of the ridiculous line-up in 2008 raised expectations to unreachable levels. Looking back at the original announcement there was 4 bands I actually had any preference in seeing, then proceeded to purchased the ticket through sheer peer pressure.

Far, far too much of "indie" occupying high slots on the main stage, the NME stage (bar a few select acts) was a veritable "Who's who?" of terrible and a Sunday which was very, very tame.

Had a great weekend though, pretty much saved by the stellar lock-up line-up.

[Benj]

swede, on 28 July 2011 - 10:28 AM, said:

Where you at Reading or Leeds. 2004 at Leeds was great, apart from The Darkness. White Stripes on the Sunday is still one of the best things Ive ever seen, up there with The Who at IOW a few months earlier. Everyone I went with expected Green Day to play loads off American Idiot which wasnt even out then and it was great when they came out and did a greatest hits set. The Friday was a random day but I really enjoyed the fact there was no flow or trend to the day as I have a bit of a wide taste, and Morrissey did it for me on the Sunday, opening with How Soon is Now. I had a great weekend that year and saw some great performances but it is all objective dependent on musical taste really.

Reading, the line up was simply not to my taste, there was very, very little, I was slightly bothered about seeing, Im not a big White Stripes fan at all, Morrissey was OK as far as I remember, Green Day were alright, just not half as good as the couple of years previous when they supported Travis.

It nearly ended things for me that year, luckilly I returned in '05, which remains one of my favourites and nothing since has sunk anywhere near as low as that 04 year, line up or weather wise for me.

[Benj]

mattl, on 28 July 2011 - 10:52 AM, said:

It's a close call, Reading 2004 had an absolutely shocking undercard (Goldie Looking Chain, The Rasmus and The New York Dolls? Surely a crime against music!) in addition to the not-so-brilliant headliners (Green Day as the only exception) lead it to being a bit of a weak festival line-up.

I remember after the Rasmus were bottled off there was litterally about 2 hours down time as a band pulled out of the Carling Stage or whatever it was at the time and the comedy tent had nothing on (can't remember what was on in the NME tent) but I remember literally having nothing to do for 2 hours and not being able to sit down due to the weather, which added to the shiteness of the weekend as a whole

[JohnsonWHU]

Benj, on 28 July 2011 - 08:33 AM, said:

They were properly ace that night!

I agree! I was only hanging around waiting for KOL, but Kaiser Chiefs produced a great set and KOL, well...

[Dukeeyyy]

2009 wasn't very good, too soft. There were some good bands like Radiohead, The Prodigy etc but most of that year was way too soft. This year is good because there are a lot of good bands, it is just the Saturday headliner (MCR) that ruins it for me, but with bands like The Offspring, Rise Against, Muse, Pulp, The Strokes, Madness, 30 Seconds to Mars, Elbow, Interpol, The National, Two Door Cinema Club to name but a few, makes it a strong lineup. 2006 wasn't the best year, 2 of the headliners (Pearl Jam and Muse) were good, but Franz Ferdinand was a questionable booking. 2007 was fairly weak, but there were some good bands in that year.

[swede]

Dukeeyyy, on 28 July 2011 - 11:27 AM, said:

2009 wasn't very good, too soft. There were some good bands like Radiohead, The Prodigy etc but most of that year was way too soft. This year is good because there are a lot of good bands, it is just the Saturday headliner (MCR) that ruins it for me, but with bands like The Offspring, Rise Against, Muse, Pulp, The Strokes, Madness, 30 Seconds to Mars, Elbow, Interpol, The National, Two Door Cinema Club to name but a few, makes it a strong lineup. 2006 wasn't the best year, 2 of the headliners (Pearl Jam and Muse) were good, but Franz Ferdinand was a questionable booking. 2007 was fairly weak, but there were some good bands in that year.

It was Franz Ferdinands headline set that year that actually changed my opinion of them, I thought it was great.