(Untitled)
- Artists:
- Bloc Party »
- The Killers »
- Mystery Jets »
- White Lies »
- Foals »
- These New Puritans »
- The Ting Tings »
- Santogold »
- Skeletons »
The Sunday morning acidic hangover is here and so too is the rain but that's as good an excuse as any to delay braving the outdoors and run-down on day two at Reading.
In the past few years Saturday at the Festival has established itself as the "indie-rock" day. Last night's headliners, with their cod-Springsteen, New Order half-inching, The Killers, seemed perhaps a little out of place, sandwiched between Rage and 'tallica. Equally out of sync with the festival's roots were the most TopShop of pop, The Ting Tings, guitar-miming along and doing a bit of karaoke to their backing tracks. Despite both of these bands (better known for which adverts they're on than their albums) riling the traditionalists, there were several thousand carefree arms in the air to make these acts feel right at home.
One of Saturday's early highlights was also of a pop persuasion, with dancers, decks and Ray Ban spex. Santogold had the tent in a whirl right from the opening howl and thud of 'You'll find a Way'.
Also in the Radio 1/NME tent, which was crammed for much of the day, was the dink-dink plinks of Foals who've come along-long way in the space of a year and seem more and more like the real deal in front of big crowds, with their epic arty-party pop. Similarly, Mystery Jets, drew huge crowds for their off-kilter pop, which rattled the tent from front to back.
Brand new bands were cutting their teeth and airing their wares too. Stand-outs included the reincarnated Thisgirl, who've gained a keyboard player and acquired a more direct approach at shaking your ass as Skeletons. Conversely, the much-hyped White Lies, with their New Order/Duran Duran meets Editors/Interpol attempts to enthrall with dark-pop failed to fire on all the promised cylinders.
Band of the day? Probably Bloc Party who played a mixture of the hits and tracks from their new album Intimacy and had a huge main stage crowd, playing just before The Killers.
More words and photos from our team at both sites are forthcoming this week but for now, here are Simon Shackleton's shots of These New Puritans, yesterday at Leeds.
A view of Leeds festival site from the big wheel

Check back on Tuesday for DiS' full rundown of events and follow, mobile signal allowing, our roving review via twitter.com/drownedinsound.
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have you actually been to Reading before?
killers and ting tings hardly against the grain, in fact pretty much equates to the tradition set by Mean Fiddlers brief stint as curators of peddling Label shit for better money.
I lost the point a decade ago when they started getting Lazy with the main stage.
Seriously? How much money is it going to really take, I mean really to get ACDC to headline sunday?
That would be worth the 600% markup on ticket prices since I first went
thats guy's
got pretty sizeable nostrils
'thats' isnt a word
twat
Whhy?
Conversely, the much-hyped White Lies, with their New Order/Duran Duran meets Editors/Interpol attempts to enthrall with dark-pop failed to fire on all the promised cylinders.
WHY did they fail to fire the promised cylinders? :(
You can't say they do and not say whyyyy.
p.s
and what were the promises within these cylinders? Hmm?
"Band of the Day" Bloc Party?
Hahaha do not make me laugh. Their set this year was even worse than last year's, which must have taken some doing.
Los Campesinos! absolutely ruled the day, they make all the others look like talentless also-rans.
Also, too much Ting Tings column inches, why are you even giving these mediocre also-rans the coverage that they so clearly don't deserve?
Also also, the huige crowds for Mystery Jets mysteriously evaporated after Two Doors Down, which came several numbers from the set. What is wrong with people?
this is wrong
white lies were ace at leeds
so were los campesinos
Jeffrey Lewis was amazing on Saturday
Justice were brilliant too.
on the sat
Bloc party were great, but the corwd was incrediby vicious. Never been so crushed.
And the killers were great as well, esp under the gun.
was gutted
they got took off early at Leeds. They weren't to pleased either.
I loved the Mystery Jets Reading set.
It was really atmospheric and pretty damn exciting. It was also aided by the fact that the rather lovely Keith Murray joined them on stage for a bit :P
am i the only one
who thought bloc party were so much poorer than usual.
Why was the volume so low?
Why was the crowd so boring?
Under the gun?!
Nooo! bugger it should've spent £200+ for that alone.
Also since when were the Killers known for which advert their music's been on rather than their albums? what utter dogshite.
Nike advert.
Masses of people only know them for that.
Agreed
on all points
especially Justice
er
that was Ting Tings, obviously
AC/DC turned down a bigger fee than the RHCP got for last year
And the RHCP fee was the biggest that Festival Republic ever paid a headliner for Reading / Leeds.
AC/DC turned down £1.5million for Download as well - they want to put on their own show, rather than be a draw at someone else's
Yeah
At Walmart!
I couldn't help
but read that as Keith Allen...
They've played 'Under The Gun'
All 3 times that I've seen them live, I started to think they knew it was my favourite. Just catch them next time they tour, they'll probably keep doing that one.
you probably wont read this but..
"Masses of people" only know them for a Nike advert? What rock have they been living under?
I don't even know which advert you're talking about which supposedly masses of people only know them for.

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