I should probably round up those Reading blogs

by talking about Sunday and how it was good and how I had a Rolo milkshake and how that was really nice but cost me like £4. Or £3. It was around that kinda area. 

However, it's freezing and I can't be arsed so I'm just gonna go by a brief points system and line summing up what I thought. This also depends if I can remember who I actually saw, but fortunately I have this lovely poster to help trigger my festival memoirs.

XX Teens - 6/10. Bit meh for my liking, also spent it rather hungover and one of them just looked like he couldn't be arsed being there.

Cajun Dance Party - 7/10. They were alright, I was tired. The Hill, The View & The Lights remains awesome.

Johnny Foreigner - 9/10. They really are pros when it comes to crowd interaction.

Feeder - 5/10. Really only saw them as an alternative to Pendulum and while Just a Day's an anthem, they've made a loada crap over the years too.

Tenacious D - 9/10. Fucking hilarious, it was just completely awesome to see.

CSS - 7/10. I was tired and feeling ill, and wasn't really up for it when they played their crappy 2nd album stuff. Let's Make Love and Listen To Death From Above was top notch. 

Set of the weekend? Without a doubt, Justice. 

kthxbye I HAVE NO FOOD. BUY IT FOR ME.

The juxtaposition of Monday 27th October, '08

I've been waiting for this album ever since it's been announced. Of course I have. It's Los Camp! They're awesome and that's far from opinion. That's pure unadulterated fact, BUT I DIDN'T PRE-ORDER OR HAVE TIME TO GO INTO HMV AND PICK IT UP. Unfortunate. What is fortunate is that the lovely people at HMV Swansea had it stocked today when I went to get it - and even without going into the musical side of things, it's a marvel. Badges! Random drawing thing! Zine (I particularly liked the bee killing bin)! Bonus DVD thing! (I haven't actually watched this yet but I'm sure it's buff).

And then there's the musical side of things, from brilliant opener "Ways To Make It Through The Wall" to the completely unCampesinos!y "The End of the Asterisk" ending with my personal favourite from the album "All Your Kayfabe Friends" (I may be biased by the line "I seduced your ex-boyfriend to help you get over him, you found him more attractive, it helped you get over me"")

AND THE SMELL OF THE BOX. IT SMELLS DIVINE

So this must automatically make it a great day right?

WRONG.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=20230081&blogID=444155174

:'( 

Geuinely absolutely fucking shattered. Elle Milano weren't just a band, they were my joint favourite band with ironically enough, LC!. More than anything, I'll remember my phone conversation with them (Sorcha, you are eternally in my debt) which saw me freeze up for decent conversation what with being so awestruck. Their style, their perceptions on reality, their experimentation - their music will always be listened to. And even writing this a day later, I'm upset by the fact that I'll never see them live again and I didn't pay nearly as much attention as I should've the one time I saw them as a support act.

RIP ELLE MILANO (2004-2008)

One day I got bored in a library

It happened in the same week The Long Blondes split up, in which Kate Jackson ironically appeared the next day on Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Citing Dorian's health as the main reason the five-piece are no longer, most fans are holding out for Dorian's recovery - and perhaps a reprieve.

I on the other hand am none too fussed, but two years ago I definitely would've been. I remember a time when Someone to Drive You Home was pretty much all I listened to and the video for Giddy Stratospheres temporarily took over my disco brain.

But new-era Long Blondes? No. I remember the incredible sense of disappointment listening to Century for the first time. That's not the band I spent the last half of 2006 obsessing over. Their Couples album was such a disappointment, and when I saw them live this April there was very little old stuff played. No Giddy Stratospheres, I wasn't taken to them.

Still, if just for the early demos and the first album only it's still a pretty sad event - especially as its due to Dorian and his stroke back in the Summer.

I'm not even nineteen yet.

reading - saturday

The best day. By far. Like Juno, it both started and ended with a chair (start: me falling over a chair, end: passing out on a chair)

Not that we actually saw anyone until around two when we bought our watermelons and then went to see The Subways - and learnt never to take a fruit such as the watermelon to go see The Subways. It will be messy, and you'll look like you've stabbed someone. It was an alright set, but as much as a showman as Billy Lunn tries to be I ended up really quite bored in the middle of it. Their Young for Eternity stuff is by far their strongest, and Rock'n'Roll Queen is a godsend to end with.

And from the Main Stage is a dash over to the NME tent to see Mystery Jets, who are always impressive to watch. Unfortunately we had some twat behind us who decided to bellow over Hideaway, which was really rather unimpressive. Impressive - the fact Blaine and co. still end their sets with Zoo Time after Behind the Bunhouse - probably my two favourite Jets songs.

But if Mystery Jets are experts in psychadelic prog madness, Los Campesinos! are experts in crowd interaction ("it's nice to be in a tent full of people who don't like The Ting Tings" proceeded by a chant of "FUCK YOU TING TINGS!" was by far the highlight of my festival), beautiful (and doomed) lyrics and just generally creating an amazing atmosphere. Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats commences the enchanting affair (the fact that this song isn't even in their more recent sets is slowly, but surely, breaking my Scottish little heart) which rattles through their debut album to reach the thrilling climax of Sweet Dreams Sweet Cheeks, of which I remain in awe. Quite literally tearing up the Festival Republic stage, it's the best I've seen them.

After an argument with one of the Year 12 twats camping next to us over how Los Campesinos! are far better than The Enemy (seriously.), a few hours and Strongbows later it's time for Foals to take their place on the NME stage. After shoving a few people to get to the front (I simply followed Sorcha and her arms of steel), we managed to get an amazing spot as  The French Open began. After the girls left one by one to pee, it was me and some random girl who was camped next to us by the time Yannis jumped off the stage in the middle of Two Steps. Twice to play to his public. I touched his shoulder. It was awesome. As was the set, although after they finished the set with Olympic Airways I pretty much charged out of the tent due to the near-combustion of my bladder.

Nice.

Nicer? Justice. Amazing is the understatement of the century, despite having lost everyone in the process but finding myself back in a pretty awesome spot nearish to the front (although having my sunglasses taken by a girl who jumped on my shoulders for about 10 seconds wasn't a fun experience). There are no words to describe how amazing Justice were (which is probably why I'll have trouble making it as a journalist) so I'll just leave it by saying that was probably the greatest musical experience I've witnessed. Sorry Los Camp!

Drinking until The Killers you can imagine just how much I can't particularly remember of this set other than Mr Brightside and All These Things I've Done. Also, I can't be arsed writing anything else. What I remember was good. Uhm yeah, kthxbye

OVERDUE "y Reading woz da best wknd evaaa" BLOG: Friday

Almost two months ago was my first experience of Reading Festival (aside from watching coverage with my neighbour Kelly the year before, and us dancing around and calling it "Sunridgefest" cos it was on Sunridge Close yeah?), and it was a pretty swish weekend. Probably the best weekend ever actually, as where else can you spend five days drunk in a field while watching brilliant music and relaxing in sublime toilets ... ok, maybe not the latter but even the loos couldn't dampen my spirits. 

Friday was the day the majority of our camp got massively overexcited about Rage Against the Machine playing. I wasn't particularly bothered by this, opting instead to get really drunk with some random people in Red Camp who I was never to see again. 

The first band I saw were of course, the lovely Blood Red Shoes. Turning up a few minutes into the set didn't really work to our benefit, and we didn't realise the joys of going in at the side entrance of the tent so we had a pretty shit spot of people standing around doing nothing, and my friend Sorcha and I jumping about like idiots until we realised we looked like complete twats. They premiered a new song which was really rather snazzy, as well as going through the majority of their Box of Secrets album. Awesome stuff.

Opting to miss out on Dizzee/BYOP to go and get pissed for whoever we chose to see next, we ended up chilling out with Strongbows until about 4.30 when I dragged Sorcha and Lucia to come and see Florence and the Machine with me. We ended up missing her, but found ourselves in a good spot at the Festivaln Republic stage to see Esser next. It may just have been being pissed, but he was absolutely brilliant. Why isn't Headlock a huge hit of That's Not My Fucking Name proportions? We shall never know, but he's really one to watch.

In comparison, Ida Maria just doesn't match up. Mainly because you can tell the majority of this crowd are all waiting for one infamous song to be played, but also the rest of her songs are really quite lacklustre and I found myself getting really bored towards the end of her set. I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked's a song which really seems to get people going though, myself included. So it was good to end with.

And about an hour passes between Ida and MGMT, which I think a load of us came in at a few songs into the set. Whichever song Electric Feel was anyway. We were back being sober again, and back near the back again but to the side. The overall opinion on MGMT's set seems to be very divided. I've spoken to people who thought it was amazing, but the overall opinion from us near the back was a disappointed one. There's a massive lack of crowd interaction as well which doesn't seem to help. I imagine in a tiny venue they'd be absolutely amazing - festival, not so much.

The last band I saw were Late of the Pier in the Festival Republic tent, which was ... interesting to say the least. At the time of Reading, "Fantasy Black Channel" had just been released and it was pretty much the only thing I was listening to. I ended up going to see them on my own after three cans of Strongbow and ended up losing one of my favourite items of clothing, my Tartan Converses (lesson learnt), as well as managing to fall over. A very good set however, although it was really odd hearing the songs off the album being played out of order having listened to the album non-stop the past two weeks. They're really at the top of their game though, and definitely a band I need to see again.

But band of the day? Not technically a band, but Esser was just awesome. 

I forgot this existed ...

In this afternoon of incredible boredom, I have realised why it seems to be mostly uni students who have blogs - and that's because when you have absolutely nothing to do, you do something. You write. Write about what you know. What you love. In my case, music. My last post was at the beginning of August about Be Your Own Pet breaking up. Since then they've played their last show, and as someone who went and danced about like a twat I should inform you it was carnage.

I really don't rate Dingwalls as a venue. The stairs leading down to the stage? No, not my cup of tea when you have to climb through people to get back from the loo. And it's kinda impossible to find if you haven't been there before. It'd make a good bar (actually it wouldn't, I remember their lack of Southern Comfort) but as a venue it's just not that good. Especially when you've been used to going to gigs at Soundhaus (*sniff*) for so long. 

I'm on da radiooooooo now.