Express an opinion Bowman!

Edith Bowman appears to have the musical knowledge of a small child who has just wondered into a record store, this is what BBC3's coverage of the Reading Festival coverage has taught me. So here's an armchair viewers guide to the Reading and Leeds festival anyway, I could of just called it Reading as so far Leeds coverage has consisted of one song by Cage The Elephant. If you only learn one thing from reading this, and it's highly unlikely you'll learn much else, it's that watching festivals on TV is infinitely worse than actually being there. But then actual festivals never featured a red button...

Friday:
This day has the best chance of being the outstanding day, if only for it's combination of Queens of the Stone Age and Rage Against the Machine. In terms of TV coverage it was probably the most dissapointing, focussing mostly on MGMT and One Night Only with a smattering of Vampire Weekend. Now while Vampire Weekend appear to posses a certain degree of talent, A-Punk being so catchy and jangly that its impossible to remove from your head once you've heard it, but MGMT's schtick seems to be their wacky stage attire, as Electric Feel makes me feel like I'm walking through a supermarket listening to their own personal radio station and the set represented a whole range of instantly forgettable melodies. Apart from this we had Biffy Clyro putting in an enjoyable set comprising mainly of newer material, but that doesn't really matter as the new material is as powerful as their old material if a little more polished. Set opener Saturday Superhouse appearing to destroy most of the crowd.
Highlight of the friday visually was Dizzee rascal, although his set was only really viewable HERE thanks to Mr. Rascals foul mouth. But he certainly got the crowd moving with a lot of Boy in the Corner material, aswell as obviously his current number 1, sans Calvin Harris making a whole fuck-all amount of difference. His interview with Huw Stephens however was much more enjoyable as Huw seems to be so apprehensive even his questionable facial hair is trying to escape, and he can only ask tired questions about a rock festivals reception to Hip-Hop.
The Fratellis must hate Chelsea Dagger, there is no way for them to escape it and for the rest of their career they will be dogged by loutish football chants of it's uber catchy chorus. Still a lot of their material has always been a big sing-a-long from when I first saw them for free a few years ago up until the present day, and the main stage seems the perfect place for this type of behaviour.
Skimming over the Enemy (as I find them an irritating mix of Simple Minds and 90's britpop, minus everything that made those things enjoyable) we were finally treated to some of the Queens of the Stone Age set. As I missed them at Reading a few years ago I was interested to see what they did. However while I was impressed with what they did, a storming solo rendition of the first few verses of Go With The Flow which exploded into Sick, Sick, Sick, the BBC's coverage was not quite as impressive. Choosing to ignore perennial favourite Regular John and showing a rather reserved version of In My Head, get it together Mr. Broadcasting House.
Dissapointment of the day rests with Rage Against The Machine, whose music might well be as important as it was when it was first released but the band themself seem to be decidely less than that. Choosing to not allow filming of their show they are still fighting the evil corporate mechanations of capitalism, which doesn't seem to really worry them so much when accepting world tours in order to pay the bills. Their comeback was certainly not to coincide with any big political movement and their statements live now are tired and not really saying anything (proven by their attempts at satire by entering shows dressed as Guantanamo prisoners, which says what exactly?) It must be depressing when your music has outgrown you. Still I imagine the set was a blinder as their music is still highly enjoyable and would kick up a proverbial crowd shit-storm.

And that was the friday, I'm too finger tired for saturday now and sunday is fast catching up with me so I'll probably slam some more words about later. If you want to watch any of the perfomances go HERE, the BBC are hella efficient at putting the music up on there.

Sun and Trees,

Chris.

Another one bites the dust...

"Tombstone hand and a graveyard mind, Just 22 and I don't mind dying."

Bo Diddley
R.I.P 02/06/08

A sad day for all fans of filthy garage rock 'n' roll music, the type of bluesy fuzz later performed by such luminaries as The Sonics, The Kingsmen, Green Fuzz and later bands such as The White Stripes and The Hives. Bo Diddley's music bridged a gap between rock and roll and blues and with its loud abrasive guitar, his deep, smooth and filthy vocals and all this combined a distorted blues jungle beat that influenced thousands of bands. He was more rocky than people like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker but still retained a Blues edge with songs like "I'm A Man" (performed with Muddy Waters as a different take on "Mannish Boy", a lovely ballad where Bo professes he can and will pretty much fuck anything).
For anyone who hasn't heard his music thats about the best description I think I can give, probably best to check it out yourself paying particular attentions to songs "Can't Judge a Book by it's Cover" and "Who Do You Love?" as a good starting point. But god speed Mr. Diddley, may your musical with continue to delight thousands more young scruffy tear aways. Originality was also reported to have died a little today.




Also on a non-musical note Yves St Laurent died, and a million people with questionable morals and even more questionable hairlines wept heavy fake tears. I imagine in such a world they have wonderful coffins and everyone bitches about how they think that shade of lining is just so last year. Not I'm speaking ill of the dead, although they probably aren't going to have a pop back, it's probably just some deep seated jealousy at their massive expendable wealth while I devour microwavable greasy death. Also a recurring sad feeling in the pit of my stomach, when every celebrity death I hear about isn't Brian Connoly's.
Still we can't have everything we want.

Laughs and Pianos,

Chris.