You wanna rock 'n' roll, or you wanna throw stuff?
August 27, 2008 3:18 PM   Subscribe

Last weekend, (22-24 August 2008) saw the fantastic Reading Festival take place (dodgy timeline). Emerging from the National Jazz Festival in 1961, it mutated into the National Jazz, Blues and Rock Festival festival in the 70s, and on into the eclectic festival it is today. My personal faves were 1989 and 1992, but the best moment was seeing Meatloaf bottled off stage in 1988! Due to the combined force of the BBC and the interwebs, most of this year's performances - many complete - are available online for your delictation...

posted by the_very_hungry_caterpillar (19 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Ooh wow. I performed at Leeds and Reading this year (very fun they were too) but I didn't get a chance to see any of the other acts. Thanks for this - now I can see what I missed!
posted by RokkitNite at 3:43 PM on August 27, 2008


v cool indeed RokkitNite, can you reveal your true identity, or will you have to kill me!
posted by the_very_hungry_caterpillar at 3:45 PM on August 27, 2008


Great post!
posted by MrMerlot at 3:47 PM on August 27, 2008


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posted by Senor Cardgage at 4:48 PM on August 27, 2008


Could someone please let me know how I can save these to my hard drive (Firefox, Mac OSX)?

'ta very much.
posted by djgh at 4:50 PM on August 27, 2008


Great line-up. It's posts like this that make me sad to have left blighty. Any burning portaloo's this year?
posted by JustAsItSounds at 4:51 PM on August 27, 2008


Actually, don't bother. As always, Google is my friend.
posted by djgh at 4:55 PM on August 27, 2008


I suppose we'll find out who RokkitNite is when one of these performers releases a lush, impeccably produced version of "The Girl From Donkey Kong".
posted by Weebot at 4:57 PM on August 27, 2008


How dare the BBC try to tell me what is and isn't available in my area.
posted by sparkletone at 5:28 PM on August 27, 2008


Yeah, sorry. I didn't mean that to come across as insouciant and wanky as it did. I did the Alternative Stage. It was my first time at Reading and I was literally shaking on stage, but it was an amazing experience. And it was really inspiring to see and audience with a median age of about 18 in gales of laughter during John Cooper Clarke's set. The festival gets a bit of a bad rep as being brutish, but the audience there seemed lovely and open-minded.
posted by RokkitNite at 5:36 PM on August 27, 2008


Is it wrong that when I saw "Reading Festival" I thought this was about a group of authors going on tour to do public readings of their works?

Ladies and gentleman, give it up for Michael Chabon! Here comes an oldie but goodie: Chapter 12 of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh!
posted by Target Practice at 6:57 PM on August 27, 2008


None of the videos are available here. I really wanted to see the Fratellis & Vampire Weekend.
posted by mike3k at 7:27 PM on August 27, 2008


1988 at Reading was my first festival. Seeing Meat Loaf get bottled off stage was one of the highlights of my formative years. I've been to at least one festival every year since, though primarily for the music. The following year, or maybe the year after, I went to Donnington. Bottles weren't allowed but you could take in any kind of plastic container at all. The majority seemed to have several gallon sized containers that started the day filled with beer but by mid afternoon were mostly filled with piss. A good third of them were in the air at any one time. The most amazing thing about that weekend was I got hit on the head with a gallon of piss descending from fifty feet in the air just once.

In this context, a reformed Genesis not playing Glastonbury is one of the great missed opportunities. But then again, the lack of bottle fights is why Glasto' became my regular haunt - at least until the noise curfew.
posted by vbfg at 12:44 AM on August 28, 2008 [1 favorite]


Were Nirvana really 1992? I'm so over the hill.
posted by baggymp at 12:48 AM on August 28, 2008


Aye, me too. They played 1991 and were pretty much bottom of the bill. They headlined the following year.

Talking of '91, I remember getting asked about a thousand times why I was reading newspapers all the time. I think "Because the leader of the Soviet Union is under house arrest you fscking toilet!" was my standard answer.
posted by vbfg at 12:54 AM on August 28, 2008


I think Nirvana were 'guests' of Teenage Fanclub in 1991.
posted by couch at 5:06 AM on August 28, 2008


Goshdarnnit now I know how all you foreigners feel when NBC and such do the same thing on their streaming players.

Anyone know how to get these in the good ol US of A? I really need to hear me some Pendulum.
posted by daHIFI at 8:31 AM on August 28, 2008


vfbg: Was that the year with ACDC, Metallica, Motley Crue and Queensryche (of the ones I can remember)? If so, I was there that year and I remember the flying plastic containers well! I remember grabbing an empty one and standing there holding it on my head for protection. Good times. Oh yeah, and I also remember trying to put up the tent afterwards while totally pissed afterwards and spending one of the coldest nights of my life trying to sleep in a tent where the bottom of the canvas was at least 6 inches off the ground!
posted by salmacis at 11:09 AM on August 28, 2008


Very probably. AC/DC headlined, I remember that much.
posted by vbfg at 2:35 AM on August 29, 2008


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