Leeds & Reading Festivals This Weekend

No line up they ever do will come close to 2000. I wouldn't know how you fit in seeing everyone you wanted to see for your £80 bargain ticket. It's great looking down at the much smaller stages and seeing all the names that made it big like Peter Kay, Black Eyed Peas and Elbow. Radio 1 stage isn't that much worse than the main stages.

 

Best festival i've ever been to

 

2000 was a cracking reading, seeing RATM in an early evening slot was immense, this also meant i could go see shack and Ian Brown instead of stereophonics. Oasis were crap and it rained!

 

I think it’s partly down to what music is popular now a days, if it’s not rapping about killing someone or selling drugs then it’s tech beats. Boring.

Even Glastonbury’s line up was mediocre imo this year

 

I was there too. Was it the year after there was a riot and the site got evacuated?

 

There was a riot on the last night every year I was at Leeds. 1999 was actually the most mental from what i remember but it made the news in either 2001 or 2002 because the police turned up and tried to remove people because they were too close to the burning/exploding portaloos. I do remember watching about a dozen riot police running away from maybe 30 completely naked guys.

The best was in 99 though when a guy was running over the top of a row of burning toilets when the one under him exploded and he flew 10-15 foot in the air! Guy was so sh*tfaced he got up and walked away.

 

Me too. At 18, student, putting copious amounts of stuff into my system, getting to watch some of my favourite bands. I only did the Saturday. Good job too, considering I was like the living dead the next day.

 

TBH, that was a terrible line up and I'd given up on festivals by that time after going to 2-3 a summer in the early 90s. I can see possibly 2 bands on the main stage (Blink 182 and RATM) that I'd bother watching and maybe another couple on the Radio 1 stage (Utah Saints and Wannadies). I've seen Placebo a few times and they are boring live - got no interest in most of the others.

But, we can't all like the same stuff - life would be boring if we did.

 

Placebo, boring? You should try being underneath the giant guy in their band when he does his swan dive into the crowd!

 

blink remain my favourite band, and I still love Placebo. But I was really into Slipknot in that era also, plus Bowling for Soup were a decent live band. I enjoyed it anyway, what I can remember of it! No iPhones back then so very little evidence. Probably a good thing…

 

that's surprised me, there seemed quite a lot of other bands similar to blink and rage on that weekend

 

That’s great line up never bothered the vibe isn’t right drugged yo hand nicking and setting fire to tents I’d be arrested

 

Glastonbury line up was amazing you really have to look beyond the headliners

 

Probably had a fringe then ?

 

Slipknot one of best I’ve seen live. Unsurprisingly.

Bowling for soup was the first gig I ever went to.

 

Unlikely, but it was dyed purple on my 18th birthday which was a couple of weeks prior to Leeds. I’ve some photos from that somewhere. I expect it’d have just been some spiked purple mess. I was a mess full stop. Spent half my day in the union bar drinking pints for a pound and the other half in whatever nightclub getting drunk. How I passed my exams is a mystery.

Great days.

 

1999 was the year I went. The line up was impressive, really reflecting the time. Plus Peter Kay and Bill Bailey in the comedy tent as some relief. Three days of never sobering up. Probably not our finest hour. I think our rowdiness annoyed a lot. And to be honest, not my scene. Just about the only festival or gig I have ever been to.

On the other hand I have the feeling I got from the Leeds Love Parade etched into my body. Thank goodness for no mobile phone cameras.

 

I was there for that one. Started with Clearlake and Linoleum, then over to the Main Stage to see RATM, Placebo and Sterophonics, who were absolute dogshit that day - no crowd interaction and they might as well have just stuck on the CD and let it play. I also remember how laughably **** Slipknot were, but we were stuck there waiting for Placebo to come on after them.

Saturday was pretty much the Main Stage from Delgados (one of my favourite bands) onwards, while Sunday was mainly done in the second tent, other than to catch a bit of the Foo Fighters and Primal Scream. Still my only time seeing Grandaddy and Muse play live, and this was them after their debut album only, which is still my favourite one. As mentioned in the Oasis thread, I was absolutely done with them after being bored shitless during their Glastonbury set in 1995, so I'd have gone to watch anyone but them, and thankfully Muse were a worthwhile option.

Didn't Daphne & Celeste get bottled off the stage at either Leeds or Reading that year, in one of the most mis-calculated line up decisions ever?

We did the weekend via the buses from the city centre each day, so no need to camp. The final day campsite riots had become something of a tradition by then.

My daughter is going on the Sunday this weekend, and the line up for the entire weekend is utterly dire. The only act I'd be vaguely interested to see is Chappell Roan on the Saturday, and the day tickets are about £130 each from memory, which was pretty much the cost of a weekend ticket for Tramlines, with a far superior line-up.

 

My memory isn't the best, but I'm sure they came on after blink, but before Slipknot. It was a terrible slot for them to be honest. Pretty sure the bottles were full of p*ss too. They had t-shirts on referencing Eminem I seem to remember. He was meant to headline but was arrested on a gun charge? I think. Hence the dull Stereophonics.

I might be remembering things in the wrong order, I was 18 and out of my tiny mind from blink onwards to be fair.

 

You've recalled more than me, as I'd forgotten about the t-shirts, and had forgotten all about Eminem being the original headliner. I almost referenced 'bottles of piss' in the original post, so that bit I do remember. I just couldn't recall if it had happened at the Leeds or Reading appearance.