Leeds Festival

This was my first festival experience and to be honest, I was a little bit disappointed. I'm not yet ready to let this put me off festivals for life but I don't think I'll be going back to Leeds any time soon. I'm attributing part of this disappointment to not experiencing the whole weekend festival experience by just going for the day but was still expecting a good days worth of entertainment.

I think that the main reason for the day falling short of my expectations was due to the lack of atmosphere. The day got off to a very slow start and the crowd was almost non-existent for the first few performances. This was understandable as the bands were not huge names and people would be recovering from the previous night but I had expected a bit more than what I saw. The first decent audience heavy performance was from Vampire Weekend who managed to get the audience involved in a couple of the more popular songs, namely A-Punk. Beforehand, I had been to see Passion Pit who I am a big fan of however, the songs simply aren't designed to sing along with. For a start, they are sung several octaves higher than most people can comfortably sing at buy secondly, the lyrics aren't particularly catchy and memorable with the occasional chorus being chanted.

After Vampire weekend, I went to see The Gaslight Anthem. This was a much better performance and the audience participation was pretty good as well. I had heard loads of people mentioning that they wanted to go and see this band so I left Vampire weekend early in order to get a good spot and I was right to do so because the tent was packed. There was quite a lot of sing along as well which surprised me somewhat as I had obviously vastly underestimated how much of a following the band had achieved especially with the relatively low amount of radio play. I managed to catch Bloc Party's set from a distance as by now, the main stage was full to the brim not only for Bloc Party but people who had joined the crowd to see Radiohead, some of whom I suspect had been there all day to make sure they were right at the front for the headline act. I think I would have enjoyed the Bloc Party set far more if I'd have found my way into the crowd, not least because I wouldn't have been freezing, sitting on the grass watching the screens, straining to hear the sound through the bitter wind.

After that, I grabbed a bite to eat and tried to kill the hour and a half gap before La Roux. I'm not a bit fan of Radiohead and I really like La Roux so I had decided that I'd see her instead, despite the ridicule from my peers. I watched the Gallows set and some of AFI, not really taking much of it in but just passing the time with the occasional clapping along in time before I headed to the Festival Republic stage just after 9pm to get a good spot. I worked out that Lightspeed Champion was playing, partially recognising the him from an appearance on Never Mind The Buzzcocks rather than from the music, which I hadn't heard any of before. As he finished his set, The crowd surged for the front of the stage, barely leaving room for anyone to leave, there was a lot of kerfuffle and commotion until the time came when they were due on stage. Chants and clapping adorned any slight movement on stage that might have been a hint of their arrival but not until several rounds of this did they finally appear, 10 minutes late. Perhaps Elly had had quiff trouble, the one she sported was extra big for the occassion. Whatever the reason, all is forgiven; they quickly launched into Tigerlily followed by several other album tracks, and the crowd were loving it. Everyone was singing along to the choruses and lots more were singing along with the verses as well; it seems that they have amassed a very loyal following in the short period that they have been around. It was time for the killer track of the evening and as soon as Elly mentioned In For The Kill, there was no going back. The crowd erupted in to applause and everyone was singing along throughout. For the first time during the day I was having immense fun, this is what I had expected it all to be like but the fact that it hadn't made this bit so much more special. She played Quicksand which also went down a storm before finishing on Bulletproof, another huge hit with an equally huge audience response. It had made my day and I was now warm and on a euphoric high whilst I waited for my friends who had been to see Radiohead.