Leeds headliners Kings of Leon keep the crowds at the main stage
Leeds Festival 2009 review
Wednesday 2nd September 2009
Saving the best till last was definitely the adage for this years Leeds Festival. Up to Sunday evening the main stage area had been sparsely populated, its teenage population preferring instead to visit the tent stages or even the dodgems. That all changed at 9.30pm on Sunday. Kings Of Leon's arrival had been highly anticipated for a number of reasons. News had reached Leeds of Caleb Followills mini outburst at Reading where he was unhappy with the sound and forbade the BBC to broadcast the last quarter of the show. I was also interested to find out how well received the older material would be as a criticism had been levelled that the younger fans only knew the popular songs from the latest album.
Five songs in and the answer to both questions were clear. With songs such as 'Mollys Chambers' and 'Red Morning Light' being lapped up by the crowd Caleb told them "Just Five Minutes in and you've already blown Reading to Hell." He commented that it was good to see a crowd that hadn't come for just two songs.
Indeed although when it did come 'Sex On Fire' received an amazing and worthy sing along so did the follow on song in the set 'The Bucket'. Arguably the best sing along of the night was reserved for 'On Call'.
Caleb announced that this was the last show in the UK for some time but added his thanks that the UK followers had started the Kings of Leon explosion. If Caleb left with a tear in his eye so too did many of the fans. The biggest tear though was possibly in the eyes of the BBC who discovered like Channel 4 the previous week when Oasis no showed at Chelmsford, that throwing your eggs just into the southern basket isn't always the best policy, the ground won’t swallow you up if you escape past Watford!
It also cemented Kings of Leon into biggest bands in the world today category. When you consider Caleb's comment about rocking it five songs in and compare to the fact that after five Radiohead songs most of the crowd had gone elsewhere.
I was very cynical about the Leeds line-up this year but thanks to KOL a lot of that will be forgotten, but hopefully it won't happen again.
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