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Reading Festival 2007

Friday 24th to Sunday 26th August 2007
Little Johns Farm, Richfield Avenue, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 8EQ, England MAP
£145 for weekend (including camping), £62.50 for any day each day - Friday tickets only

Daily capacity: 55,000

The second day of Reading unveils the sole outing of the Dance tent, re-branded from punk and hardcore Lock-Up stage it exists as on the Friday and Sunday. Opening up it’s brilliant line-up is Parisian electro three piece, The Teenagers, a filthy mix of guitar fuzz and dance beats and a lead singer that looks like Brandon Flowers down the G.A.Y. ‘Homecoming’ with is salacious lyrics about an international lover’s tryst is a dirty wake up call to another day of blistering sun.

Crystal Castles follow, the Game Boy-with-a-drum-kit duo proving all the neighsayers wrong by putting on a tight performance, the likes of ‘Dolls’ sounding like an 8-Bit rocket launch.

Later, Foals continue to amaze over in the Carling Tent, with their puzzle pop antics sprawling forth across the speaker set. Foals have everything it takes to make it big except one thing – a few more decent singles. Their sound is great, just where’s the memorable choruses?

Back over in the Dance tent, Lethal Bizzle puts on the best show of the weekend, as the entire crowd jump up and down in unison for grime’s number one party player, running through his amassed collection of bonafide crowd-pleasing hits. From recent single to ‘Bizzle Bizzle’, More Fire Crew rewind ‘Oi!’ to genre defining classic ‘Pow!’, it’s straightforward hype that’s an indisputable highlight.



Datarock find it hard to follow in Bizzle’s footsteps, the Norwegian dance-funk outfit suffering from a massive crowd haemorrhage as people rush off to catch Arcade Fire’s festival retirement show (they say they’ll never play Reading and Leeds again, only time will tell). They still do their best to get people who stick around to dance, and with amazing single ‘Fa-Fa-Fa’ convince us we did make the right choice to stick around.

My Saturday at Reading continues still at the Dance Stage, with NY funk troupe and cult sensation, !!!, playing a too-short set to an eager crowd of now pissed-up gyrating punters. With most of their songs passing the six minute mark, one hour fails to give voice to some classic numbers, the epic ‘Hello? Is this thing on?’ noticeably absent, although the likes of ‘Heart Of Hearts’ and ‘Must Be The Moon’ more than make up.

Saturday headliners across the festival are not exactly inspiring choices – Hot Hot Heat, Unkle, The View or worst of all the abomination that Red Hot Chili Peppers have become. So rather than force myself to watch any of that guff, it’s back to the campsite for a night on the warm Carling.