Lineup 2015

[the wonderwhy]

Apparently Royal Blood played a new one, which I totally missed. Was it any good? 

[JSmurphy]

Hook, Line and Sinker

 

I thought it was a decent track but sounds very similar to everything they've released so far, which isn't a negative for me at all since I love Royal Blood. 

 

[thewayiam]

Whether it's much to go by I don't know but ATL have nearly sold out all their presale tickets, all gone for Standing anyway

[justanothername]

Apparently Royal Blood played a new one, which I totally missed. Was it any good? 

I liked it but it is nothing new

[rivalschools.price]

Quick sum of who I saw.

 

Friday

Mariachi El Bronx - Nice start to the day, particularly with the unexpectedly sunny weather.  30 mins was about all I needed though.  6/10Hunter & The Bear - Really did not enjoy this, dreary, safe sub-Mumford stuff.  1/10Drenge - My first time seeing them and I think they'd have been much better off in a tent. Oddly paced setlist as well but still enjoyable. 6/10

Bugzy Malone - 1Xtra tent was absolutely rammed.  He showed potential but didn't play a single track in full or command the stage.  3/10

Skinny Lister - Great vibes in the Lockup for these guys even with a lot of people expecting The Smith Street Band.  9/10

Misty Miller - Solid stuff but an almost empty tent and not as captivating as she is without the band. 6/10

Swim Deep - Thought they were average in the Festival Republic tent a couple of years ago and I heard some bad things about their Glastonbury set this year but this was something of a revelation.  New tracks sounded fantastic in that tent - great set. 9/10

Bear's Den - Great crowd, far too short a set, emotional stuff.  Have bands this high up the FR tent always had just 30 mins? Crazy.  9/10

Prides - Their album is piss poor but the gig was fun enough.  5/10

Alvvays - Excellent.  Was expecting the crowd to be similar to when I saw The Like in the FR tent a few years back but the crowd seemed far more familiar with Alvvays' (awesome) album. 9/10

Mumford & Sons - they smashed it. Passionate and intense - two words I would never usually associate with Mumford.  Marcus has become a great frontman and he felt every word.  9/10

 

Saturday

Hunck - Didn't think much of these.  3/10

Babymetal - Loved it, just great fun and totally captivating.  Set was the right length.  7/10

FIDLAR - Better on the NME Stage a couple of years ago, crowd a bit lifeless on the main stage but they're sounding great.  7/10

Foals - One of the UK's finest bands and they're absolutely ready to headline.  Tent not as busy as expected but I think that's largely because there was no "TBA" in the guides and your average Reading-goer isn't as observant as an efester.  I was expecting just half an hour of new stuff so that mini Greatest Hits set was a great surprise.  9/10

Slaves - Great but, having seen them twice already, it was a bit predictable. Also - where was Feed The Mantary? 7/10

Spector - Amazing how quickly their popularity has dropped - it was so much busier for them 3 years ago despite the fact they are clearly MUCH better now.  8/10

Circa Waves - Standard Radio 1 fodder but lively set, majority knew every track. 8/10

Royal Blood - the rockstar posing was a bit annoying and they've become VERY stadium.  It's to be expected though given the stages they're now playing.  Huge crowd and they pulled it off well given they only have 45 mins of material.  7/10

Catfish and the Bottlemen - They get a LOT of criticism but those are solid tunes.  I'm sure they'll end up going the same way as The Kooks et al but for now, this felt like a great festival moment.  Biggest crowd I saw in the NME tent this weekend.  9/10

Lucy Rose - She cut out a few of her popular but slower moments; presumably because she was playing to a Saturday night crowd before The Wombats but she was great.  8/10

The Wombats - Absolute chaos.  As the only indie option of the evening, it was always going to be rammed but I'm pleased that everyone was there to have a good time.  New tracks got as good a reaction as the older stuff which is so rare these days.  9/10

 

Sunday

The Sherlocks - The Courteeners/Arctic Monkeys similarities are embarrassing but there's a couple of good tunes in there.  4/10

The Skints - Enjoyed this more than I expected to, really tight live band, easy to get into whatever your musical preference.  7/10

Shura - Smallest crowd I've ever seen in the NME Tent - she should have been FR really.  Played well, good tunes. 7/10

Ghostpoet - Small, uninterest crowd.  Lost of chatters/posers.  For those paying attention, he was good but struggled to keep the attention of the casuals. 6/10

The Gaslight Anthem - Love this band  and was excited to give them a proper send off but they were so uninterested in being there.  Opened poorly and the setlist wasn't much more appropriate from there until the last few tracks.  Biggest disappointment of the weekend.  4/10

Kwabs - Great voice, tight band.  A nice soulful touch to the Sunday which is hard to find at Reading. He was billed for 40 mins but played less than 25 - what happened there?  6/10

The Maccabees - Crazy that they only had 50 mins but it was an excellent 50 mins.   They're probably on a par with Foals popularity/success wise so hopefully they'll creep further up the bill.  9/10

Jamie T - Crowd a lot tamer than expected.  He opened with Operation and very few people seemed to know it.  Last 4 or 5 tracks went off though.  9/10

Kendrick Lamar - HUGE crowd.  Everyone around me was into every word of every track.  He absolutely nailed it.  Where did the Seven Nation Army chant come from?  10/10

The Libertines - The crowd was half the size and had about 10% of the energy of 2010's.  Has the novelty warn of?  After Hyde Park, it was nice to see them under less chaotic circumstances.  Still suitably shambolic live.  Credit to Pete's vocals on You're My Waterloo. Perfect end to the weekend for me but I can understand why it wouldn't convert non-fans.  10/10

Shows how everyone doesn't have the same taste on here, I didn't watch any of the bands that you watched.We had a totally different weekend.

[rivalschools.price]

Apologies, I stand corrected.i watched Royal Blood.

[JSmurphy]

alt-J touring this Nov / Dec but no London date 

[ValJester]

alt-J touring this Nov / Dec but no London date 

I'm sure they will add one, Foals haven't released a London date yet either. I'm hoping for 2 or 3 ally pally dates for Foals

[huntyyy]

Foals are playing in Kingston on November 3rd

[krisskross]

Completely agree with these two; 

 

Friday

 

Skinny Lister - Great vibes in the Lockup for these guys even with a lot of people expecting The Smith Street Band.  9/10

 

Sunday

 

Kendrick Lamar - HUGE crowd.  Everyone around me was into every word of every track.  He absolutely nailed it.  Where did the Seven Nation Army chant come from?  10/10

 

Best sets of the weekend for me.

[charley]

I'm sure they will add one, Foals haven't released a London date yet either. I'm hoping for 2 or 3 ally pally dates for Foals

 

Why would anyone want a band to play there?? Terrible venue.

[rawaudioinput]

I really enjoyed The Prodigy at Alexandra Palace but then again I was so hyped to see them I probably would have been happy with them playing behind the bins of my local Tesco

[VCK]

Watching their highlights, is it safe to say that The Gaslight Anthem drew the worst Main Stage crowd in the history of the festival?

 

They're like the music equivalent of the TV show The Americans, everyone familiar with them knows just how good they are but feel frustrated at how they don't have the level of success or recognition that they deserve.

[DaveElNino]

By worst, do you mean smallest or most apathetic?

 

Against Me! definitely felt smaller - we stayed in the same place for both and had a decent amount of room for AM!, but people all around us for Gaslight.

[VCK]

By worst, do you mean smallest or most apathetic?

 

Against Me! definitely felt smaller - we stayed in the same place for both and had a decent amount of room for AM!, but people all around us for Gaslight.

 

It looked like both.

[Bisque]

Why would anyone want a band to play there?? Terrible venue.

[thewayiam]

Watching their highlights, is it safe to say that The Gaslight Anthem drew the worst Main Stage crowd in the history of the festival?

 

They're like the music equivalent of the TV show The Americans, everyone familiar with them knows just how good they are but feel frustrated at how they don't have the level of success or recognition that they deserve.

 

In fairness, the set they played was very poor, you can't blame a crowd when they don't play to it. When it's a fest, play your hits, save the rest for your own shows. Noel G is a bit of a dick but no statement has ever been more true.

Edited September 5, 2015 by thewayiam

[Chavmeisterdeluxe]

Gaslight's crowd at Reading on Main Stage has been poor every time. They always tend to be shoved on a predominantly indie day where a fair few people in the crowd are just waiting for whoever is next.

[VCK]

In fairness, the set they played was very poor, you can't blame a crowd when they don't play to it. When it's a fest, play your hits, save the rest for your own shows. Noel G is a bit of a dick but no statement has ever been more true.

 

True, but at least they threw in The Patient Ferris Wheel and American Slang. No Great Expectations though, which is inexcusable.

[VCK]

Gaslight's crowd at Reading on Main Stage has been poor every time. They always tend to be shoved on a predominantly indie day where a fair few people in the crowd are just waiting for whoever is next.

 

To be fair, the day they played in 2012 was very eclectic (BFMV followed by Kaisers!). But yeah, the other two times they've done the Main Stage, they've been thrown in amongst bands like The Libertines, The Cribs and The Maccabees, and maybe they'd have gone down better this year if they were on the Metallica day.

 

On a side note, it's odd that the Libertines day this year was almost like a carbon copy of the Libertines day in 2010.

Edited September 5, 2015 by VCK

[DomDom1984]

How many of you watched Spector? A personal favourite band of mine.

[thewayiam]

To be fair, the day they played in 2012 was very eclectic (BFMV followed by Kaisers!). But yeah, the other two times they've done the Main Stage, they've been thrown in amongst bands like The Libertines, The Cribs and The Maccabees, and maybe they'd have gone down better this year if they were on the Metallica day.

On a side note, it's odd that the Libertines day this year was almost like a carbon copy of the Libertines day in 2010.

I was going to mention that of 2012, it was certainly a rockier day.

[thewayiam]

True, but at least they threw in The Patient Ferris Wheel and American Slang. No Great Expectations though, which is inexcusable.

I don't think American Slang is that good a song really. When you look at a lot of setlists over than weekend from acts with similar set lengths and amount of songs, Gaslight didn't use their time well. Another one who didn't was Refused, missing out hits as well.

[dentalplan]

The Gaslight Anthem are an indie rock band though so I don't think they're being hard done.

[charley]

They are pretty MOR really, should fit in anywhere.