Juliette and The Licks

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Reading Festival 2005

Friday 26th to Sunday 28th August 2005
Richfield Avenue, Reading, Berkshire, England MAP
£125 for weekend (including camping) - SOLD OUT, £60 any day

Daily capacity: 55,000

We’d been asked to cover this and so headed over to catch their performance. I’d never heard of them and was thinking either they would be an inspirational new band or it was because they were attractive.

Moments later as Juliette appeared on stage with her blonde hair and bikini, I realised it was the latter. The music was bland cock rock about sexual frustration of something and she threw herself about on stage making lurid poses for the cameras.

Cameras? Hang on there’s a lot of them, and that’s a film camera not a broadcast/digi cam. Looking around the audience there’s a lot of guys in SONY jackets, micced up with expensive looking cameras.

There’s something going on here. A closer look at the lead singer reveals two things. The first it’s actually Juliette Lewis in blonde locks instead of her trademark black hair. Yes, if I’d bothered to read the programme I’d have known this. And second, it appears she’s miming – badly.

The fact she seems to be miming becomes more obvious as in her writhing she drops the microphone and there’s no dip in the vocals. The songs are frankly so clichéd it’s incredible, this must surely be for a film and not as the programme said because she wants to start a musical career. I do rather like Juliette Lewis and it’s a satisfactory letch as she leaps about, other than that there’s not much going for this band. Though the drummer and guitarist sound proficient but then they could be on a tape too, who knows!