Arctic Monkeys (with live video)

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Reading Festival 2009

Friday 28th to Sunday 30th August 2009
Little Johns Farm, Richfield Avenue, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 8EQ, England MAP
£175 for a weekend ticket, £70 a day ticket - SOLD OUT

Daily capacity: 55,000

A slightly reduced crowd remains after The Prodigy for headliners Arctic Monkeys fronted by long-haired Alex. They break straight into their new material and a cover of Nick Cave's 'Red Right Hand'. With two hours and only three albums, one only just out, the new material isn't known by much of the crowd, but at least 'Brianstorm' gives the crowd a chance to get involved.

It's a rather sedate set to follow The Prodigy. A high-energy version of 'I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor' brings in more festival goers, but it's not sustained - the songs keep the crowd and it's entertaining, although chatter makes clear that many can take or leave the first hour of the set. 'Scummy Man', and 'Ricochet' lifts the down beat mood of the new material.

Overall this isn't a big hitting headliner for Reading, tonight's performance is distinctly middle-of-the-road, and low-key. Give me some ballsy tunes any day to music played by a lounge pub cover band of that rock band that used to be Arctic Monkeys. Shockingly bad!

You can check out Arctic Monkeys doing 'Crying Lightning' at Reading Festival for yourself - just play the videos below!