Day 1 – Friday 28th August

Pav has been bugging me for years to come to Reading Festival. I suppose, as it is my local festival I should have made a bigger effort and I did go as far as to take the time off work last year (but never got tickets, so enjoyed just a weekend down in Bournemouth (Ironically posted, exactly a year since the date of this blog post). I only started going to music festivals very recently and it began with a dance festival back in May 2006 and it would take me over three years to finally build up to a full weekend event such as Reading. HiFi was held over two days but my friends and I only attended the Sunday date (it was over the late May Bank Holiday Weekend). My second festival was GlobalGathering in July 2007, which again, although only for the day was sandwiched into a rather crazy Rock n Roll weekend.

I am not sure where all the fuss came from but somehow, from the formation of my fan page on Facebook, it became a mission of the admins (all three) to get me to Reading Festival. At first, I was rather reluctant but when I soon realised that there was little I could do to stop the inevitable. To begin with, I took it upon myself to find my own ticket, with Pav sending me links to various tickets on sale on eBay. I was then offered a ticket by Scott, one of Pav’s work colleagues. Only to discover when I wanted to take them up on the offer via e-mail, the Scotsman had changed his mind and was now going to the festival. While annoying it was only a minor set back, at this point in time someone else was doing all the hard work for me. Although, in most cases (as is usual for me) I knew very little about it. Or if I did find out about any progress, it would be right at the end of the transaction. Preeti had taken it upon herself to find herself and myself a ticket for the weekend. Not an easy task in itself, then you put on top the tight budget I have set for the price ceiling I am willing to stretch to. It was nice to have someone else dealing with it all, even though I have never asked them to take such an initiative. I was happy to buy a ticket and sort it all out myself. Although of course, the chances of me going would have diminished, as I have been rather lazy when it comes to organising myself for such epic events. Tickets were collected on Wednesday 19th August straight after I had seen Preeti in London. She headed home and then to Amersham, while I went to meet my friend in Covent Garden. Photographs were uploaded to Facebook later that evening and the build-up began. My thoughts, however, we’re firmly on my holiday to Spain rather than three consecutive days to be spent in a field in Berkshire. I should make it quite clear that I took zero photographs over the cause of the weekend. (Well that is actually a lie, I took one shot on my camera phone.) I did not bother taking my camera with me because there was Pav, Preeti and Barry all taking photographs and it would just be a complete waste of time and then consume a good few evenings deciding which ones to upload to FlickR. Instead, I have decided to upload a select few favourites onto FlickR for each respective day of the festival from Pav’s photographs. The rest can be found on Facebook (if you are a friend). The adventure begins with as always a car journey, in this case, quite an extended one. I left Wycombe and headed to Reading direct? You must be joking, I had to collect Preeti from Hayes and then head back to Newbury first. Why the trip to my flat? Well, I had to drop off my clothes and check on the place after my holiday. More importantly, I had to update a webpage for a client, and I would have to just leave my PC running as it was taking so long. The intelligent thing to do would have been to queue up the files on my server and upload them from there. Nevermind, it was a rush and the heaven opens while Preeti was in Tesco’s getting last minute bits and pieces. Thankfully I had packed my wellingtons and could put them on when we got to Pav and Em’s. Khural by now was wondering what time we were going to get there so we headed out as quickly as we could. It must have been heading towards 1 pm, as we made our way back onto the M4. I got off at junction twelve in error by following the bright yellow AA signs for Reading Festival. It took me a while to get my bearings but I then got to Pav’s parent’s house in Emmer Green. From here, we moved all the gear into the trusty Rover 200 and headed into town and to St. John’s Hill. The rain had stopped but it was very well from the early downpour. The town was extremely busy with many people heading to the festival. Stalls were doing a roaring trade in boots, waterproofs and ponchos. We parked up and then had to unpack the car with all the goods before finally meeting up with everyone in the sunshine in the garden come patio area at the back of the house. Barry was there, with wife Lisa. Scott (another workmate of Pav’s) as well as our other host Emily. My Mum had made fresh samosas that morning which I had brought along. They went down a storm, with everyone expect Em. Barry Tuck enjoyed his samosas washed down with a nice helping of JD and Coke. The party weekend had officially started. We chewed the fat so to speak for a little while, in the sunshine of the back garden. Once the nervy introductions had been made, the mood improved and everyone was looking forward to the festival. As I had taken so long to get to the place, we decided or rather Emily decided it was best we made a move after the drinks. Then began operation Beverage. Using my collapsable chair, we had to put in several bottles of Magners. This was easier said than done but as we had two past masters at the art, I left them to it and stood by taking photographs. In short, the chair is turned upside down and the bottle placed on top of each other in a column fashion before tape is applied around the legs to secure everything in position so it there is little (if any movement). The whole package is then placed into the bag and thrown onto my shoulder. We were all set. Everybody grabbed their things and we headed into town.

It did look rather suspicious that I was the only person with a chair from our group. Was it a case of King Tery sitting on his throne? Making our way through town, we looked like several other people heading to and from the festival. At the train station, Emily wanted to go to the toilet and did say she would catch us up. However, being rather stupid as we all our, we stood by the entrance and waited. Several minutes past, but mainly because we were too busy talking and excited about the weekend. Eventually, Pav went to try and find Em while we waited by the main entrance, moving outside the Three Tuns pub. In the end we decided to just head to the festival and she could catch us up (or as would be the case, be waiting for us there). Before we even got around the corner, Barry and Preeti went back with Pav for a drink and to do a final check. Preeti managed to convince some poor guy giving away Rubicon fruit juice to pop down to us from the train station (a good five-minute walk) and give us all free drinks, just what we needed. All this standing around is thirsty work. Eventually, we got going again but we had killed over half an hour in this dilemma. We made our way down to the festival. Preeti stopped to get some Wellington boots at the local camping store (which must have had a profitable day) before heading to the festival entrance. It was when we got there we finally found Em who had been waiting for a little while for us. Pav got the wrath of her annoyance and frustration. I bought a programme. £10 is rather steep for a booklet and programme listing. We made our way into the queue, which was moving and not actually that long. Our tickets were checked before we went through to a tent to get our weekend wristbands. These were clapped in place by vice looking machines and the bands check to ensure they would not come off. We then headed into the campsite. I had not fully arrived just yet. It was a long walk through the campsite and in the distance we could see the funfair, with all the rides which would start later that afternoon. At the end of the campsite, you then cut onto a gravel path turning left and then travel for about two hundred yards before then taking the right turn into another field. This was the main road (if you can call it that) to the festival. There were lockers and charging points to charge up your mobile or mp3 player. There are various stalls selling clothes, food, camping gear, everything you would need for the weekend. At the end of the path, you take a right and can then see the entrance to the festival itself. There were not that many queues and we made our way through, having our wristbands checked and bags. With my chair bag, the security guy just patted the top and then let me go through. It was a good sign. We re-grouped once everyone was through the barrier. Now to find a spot, we headed towards the main stage. We set up quite far from the stage to the left of an ice cream van, which was to become the defacto meet up point if anyone got lost of the course of the weekend. I have no recollection of which band was playing but it was more important to set up camp so to speak before we could start to enjoy the entertainment. Pav tried to get hold of Foxy (who was under strict babysitting duties with his twelve-year-old niece). They did find us and minutes later there was a shower. Thankfully Preeti had kindly bought two ponchos when she had bought her boots, so I put it on and was protected during the short rain shower. Although I was unable to protect a little rainwater falling into my cider. Oh never mind, all part of the British summer festival experience. The rain shower lasted for a few minutes before the sun came out again. I reviewed my setlist to see which acts were coming up and which ones I could look forward to. (Writing this blog post so long after the event and having no notes to refer to means I cannot actually recall the bands I was looking forward to seeing and who I actually did eventually go and see.) If you do not know by now, I am a pure pop guy, I like your middle of the road, radio-friendly popular music. Indie music is not really my thing but I was here to give it a good chance and there were plenty of the acts from other genres I was looking forward to seeing. I do recall Funeral For a Friend being on stage quite early in the afternoon. I think it will be rather foolish and pointless for me to give a blow by blow account of the acts as they appeared on stage. It was too long ago for me to remember. If you were not there and missed the action on the Beeb, you can always read a review or check out the highlights on the BBC mini-site.

The sun came out and the atmosphere slowly built up and I actually started to enjoy myself. The weather improved, the sun came out and we were all in the festival spirit. (Some more than others but it was good fun). We spent the majority of the time watching the main stage only popping to the BBC Radio 1 stage for one act. Pav and Emily are big fans of Florence & The Machine, whereas I have no real view on them. They are okay I suppose, they are nothing to shout home about for me. It was just good to get up and check out some different music, as the sun was starting to set in the distance. They were very good, but only Pav and Emily were able to get up quite close to the stage, I was a little way back and to the right.

I must mention the cup collecting. A twenty pence surcharge was placed on all drinks and this could be refunded if you returned the beverage cup to a collection point. This became a bit of a challenge and I managed to collect quite a few over the course of the day. Some people went crazy and collected forty, fifty even sixty cups in crazy towers, trying to make their way to the collection point for payment. The task itself was made easier by the fact that most empty cups were left discarded on the grass, help yourself and most people did. It could become an obsession and get in the way when you realise at the end of the weekend that you spent more time collecting cups than you did watching live music! As the day drew into the evening and then night, we spent the rest of the day watching the main stage. Kaiser Chiefs were very good, warming up the closing act Kings Of Leon. However, we were unable to stay for the end of their set and all the controversy. Scott had forgotten his inhaler and was not feeling well, we suspected he was having (or about to have) an asthma attack. So we looked after him, packed up and headed to the medical tent. It was a bit of a walk but we grabbed Scott, to support him on the route. At the medical tent, a paramedic was called and Preeti decided to stay with Scott as he was going to be taken to hospital to be checked over. Pav and I headed for the exit, waiting for the rest of the gang to catch up. We walked back to the house, rather than get a taxi. I was really tired and was going to go to sleep quite early. However, Barry and co wanted to have puff of the Sheesha. Emily walked in moments earlier and went crazy for at them for smoking in the house and they were thrown into the garden along with the tobacco device. I did not witness any of this as I was down in the basement, getting ready to get changed and go to sleep.

Day 2 – Saturday 29th August
Saturday, the main day of the festival. It would be the busiest day of the three and I had high expectations. I do not remember what time I got up, but I remember jumping out of the shower and seeing that Ollie and Hannah had arrived. They were in the dining room talking to Emily, Pav was still upstairs getting ready. Ollie had brought along a box of Strongbow and we began the process again of loading the cider cans into my collapsible chair. Once we were all set, we headed into town and over to Caversham for the festival. It was perfect festival weather, sunny spells, dry, perhaps a little overcast but there seemed little likelihood of rain. It was busier and all of us apart from Hannah and Ollie got through as we had our wristbands. The queue for day ticket holders was quite long but we did not have to wait that long for the final two of our party to get through. Much like the previous day, we made our way into the festival itself and find a spot looking towards the main stage. It was going to be a long day but we were in good spirits. Plus, I knew what to expect now as I had kind of acclimatized to the festival venue. I knew where the toilets were, all the main tents, food bars and exits (safety first). Barry, Lisa and Scott arrived a little later, they had parked their car in one of the main car parks and caught the boat down the River Thames to the entrance.

We had quite a group join us now, Chris Witten, an old college (and school friend of Pav’s) as well as one of Pav’s muscular gym buddies, Anthony (who was given the nickname Scarface by BT). The atmosphere was rather chilled out, friendly and cheerful. In the evening I was most looking forward to Prodigy. Emily and Pav went over to see The White Lies in the BBC Radio 1 tent, this meant they were going to miss the start of Prodigy on the main stage. They disappeared off early to get a good view (right at the front) while the rest of stayed. It was a bit of a disappointment, mainly because of problems with the sound system. If we had been closer to the stage, I am sure the performances would have been excellent, but being so far away and relying on the gigantic screen and speakers did not help. When their set ended, Preeti and I walked towards the food stalls and got caught in a bit of a stand peed. People were just pushing and shuffling in all directions and got stuck in the middle. A young girl fell over and was almost trampled upon but her friends picked her up and got her out of the crowd. It was a frustrating and annoying place to be, trying to get out but not really moving in any direction at all. Eventually, Preeti and I got out of there and headed towards one of the food stalls. We got some food, Mexican I believe and then joined Pav, Em, Hannah and Ollie who were also eating. In the distance on the main stage, Artic Monkeys had started their set, they were the final act of the day.
Day 3 – Sunday 30th August The final day of my first Reading Festival and the atmosphere, felt slightly different as we entered the farm for the final time. Perhaps it was the expectation of the final day (Radiohead closing the show) or the sense of now familiarity with the place and setup. Or it could just have been a reflection of the weather, slightly colder, overcast, dull and grey. I am not too sure what it was but the party had changed. There was no Scott, he had not made it for the final day. Although it did take a while for Lisa and Barry to meet us. We had one mission, or rather Em had one mission, to get into the Silent Disco. It wouldn’t be easy, but with less traffic on the farm (Sunday I am told tends to be the less busy of the three days) we would have to see at the show finale what the queue was like. The thing with meeting new people is, you also get to listen to the music / bands they like and it gives you a chance to appreciate new music in a live environment. That is not to say that I came to Reading, without an idea of who I wanted to see. Far from it, but there are situations when you find new bands by surprise. Here is a case in point. BT wanted to see The Hot Rats. I wondered who they were and was given a full background on the band that was made up of former members of Supergrass. We headed to the tent towards the back of the main stage to see them. This was going to be interesting. We were actually very close to the stage, and the tent took a while to fill but even then there was plenty of room. I doubt many people who were not already fans were coming to explore but then I also do not know what acts were also playing at the same time. They were very good, I was impressed! Would I be rushing out to buy an album or even single? No, but it was great to experience a band in a rather intimate setting, even if in a tent in a field in Reading.

Emily, Pav, Preeti and I went to see deadmau5 but before hand we went to the bar. Preeti had disappeared into the mosh pit! She was difficult to spot, even with her blue Superman t-shirt on! I felt old for the first time at the festival, with a big gang of college kids (some perhaps only just school leavers) getting whipped up into a frenzy as the DJ came on in ‘character’. It was a very good set, and even I recognised the last few tracks! The tent was absolutely rammed and there was hardly any room to move, let alone dance. Some how the younger members of the audience made the room though! I now want to fast forward a few hours. Mainly because I cannot remember that blank space in my memory banks, plus the photos do little to remind me what actually happened. It was the build up to the final act. The band given the honour to close the festival. This year, it was Radiohead (but if you are reading this and have any interest in the live music scene, you will know this already!). Barry and his wife Lisa were big fans (both matching in their Radiohead t-shirts).

To protect the innocent and safe the guilty from great embarrassment, I am going to try and write the next part of this blog post with false names and anonymise what I can. This will not be easy, but I will try my best. The pivotal moment in for the events of the evening took place when Little Bo Peep asked to hold my hand. I refused, in perhaps rather harsh terms with a “NO” which resulted in a chain of events I will try my best to document. The reaction of Peep to this news was to disappear from the crowd and not been seen again for a while. Meanwhile, Claire Bennett came to be in a rather distressed state (very much the same as he had been throughout Heroes) to report a theft. Little Bo Beep had been into Claire’s handbag, taken out a Malborough Menthol and then even had the cheek to ask the members of the group for a light! I could understand how frustrated and angry Claire must have felt at that moment and even more so how difficult it must have been to remain quiet and not say anything. I then had to hunt for Little Pop Peep, which was not easy on the busy closing day with the main act playing. I did get a text message, to explain they were lost but that was not very helpful and the fact that Peep would not answer her phone. When I finally caught up with her she was by one of the food vans. Obviously I was not exactly very nice, but rightly so, it was way out of order and totally unacceptable behaviour. We went back to join the group to watch the final part of the set but it was not going to change things. I was the villian of the piece and this was made quite clear on the journey home to the Bennett’s house. I would never be forgiven but I knew at that moment, it was the end of a friendship. Just a shame it took another three months before it to fully blow over.