Start off my Reading Festival 25/8 day
with a trip to The Tiscali V.I.P. Session who had a selection of artists
performing exclusive acoustic sessions. Managed to catch Sam a.k.a. Finest
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly perform the last two songs of his set. Have
to confess that I've read a short interview in Word Magazine featuring Sam
the Superman Wannabee and ex Silverskin member, but had never heard his
music. From the 2 songs I heard, comes across as a kindred spirit of Thom
Yorke, by that I mean, if Sam was in Radiohead
and wanted to do a solo album, then it would probably come out like The
Eraser, beautiful guitar melodies,
intelligent lyrics over beats concocted on his laptop.
Unfortunately, when it
came time to interview him after his set, his manager told me he, and I
qoute, "needed his rest" unquote. I look at my watch it's
1.45pm. What the F*ck!! Doing a 4 song acoustic set in the early
afternoon, does that really take it out of an artist?!
From
what I saw after his performance and his interview with www.tiscali.co.uk/reading
he didn't stagger to a darkened room to rest his weary head. Get Cape's
manager had the testicular fortitude to take my phone number down and
promise to ring me for me to do an interview with Get Cape, when Sleeping
Beauty awoke. B*llocks! Of course, during the day, Get Cape's manager
developed Alzheimer and pretended he had never met MV: C of CC and his
promise to me. What he really was saying when he look into my my big brown
eyes and promised me an interview with Get Cape was this "You're not
the BBC, XFM, MTV, NME or any of the big boys so you interviewing my boy
is like Tottenham beating Arsenal..it ain't happening".
So
be it.
14:10pm Yeah
Yeah Yeahs take to the stage, this is before they take to the
main stage with Karen O dressed as a a
villain from the Batman TV Series.
Starting
off with Golden Lion, The Bob that is Karen O,
with eyes closed, sings with yearning and passion while her bandmates
provide a shuffling backbeat and delicate guitar playing. She then goes
into toe tapping mood as she loses herself into the next two songs.
Acoustically, when they perform, The YYYs
are very reminiscent of Crosby, Stills, Nash &
Young, very West Coast. Perfect for a commune of brainwashed
followers of a cult who demand you give up all contact with your family
and have sex, as and when, the leader demands.
They
finish off with Cheated Heart, song delayed by Karen breaking into
a fit of giggles as she and Nick try to to get the timing of the intro
right. After a few aborted attempts, off they go and it is easily the best
performance of their 4 song set, as they retain the passion that they
poses and use to effective intent for the album version.
I take off to the main stages and catch
the superb Gorgol
Bordello tear the stage down! And I mean down! Audience were in
the palm of their hands from the 1st note. Gypsy punks from NYC via
Eastern Europe rock! It's official.
With
the next act, Hundred
Reasons due to perform at 4pm but now scheduled to perform at
9.15pm (reason: no gear appearantly) at the Tiscali V.I.P. session are The
Guillemots who take to the stage @ 18:15pm.
Lead
singer and bastard adopted love child of Dave Lee Travis & David
Bellamy, Fyfe Dangerfield and co kick things off with Made Up
love Song # 43 and prove decisively from the get go, that they're a
band who can rock ' n' roll hard acoustically as well as when they plug in
their electric guitar, bass and drums.
Fyfe
even freestyled off the top of his head for an impressive minute and some
change when someone from the crowd shouted "push it" when the
door was open. Jay Z, L.A. Reid,
Jermaine Dupri and all the other big shots looking for the next big
thing. He is here. He is in a band called The Guilemots and more
importantly….he rocks the mic with aplomb!
After they do a rip roaringly fun version
of Trains to Brazil. They finish off with the musical version of a
money shot - Annie, Let's not Wait.
Getting the crowd to participate in
setting the song off by clapping their hands, the Gs get energetic, upbeat
and lively as they move the crowd with purpose. They even ended their set
with an all as one jump movement that would have made Busted proud.
Top 3 performances @ Reading 25 / 8 / 06:
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