Leeds Festival 2009 Review

The drawing to a close for another summer and another August bank holiday weekend can only mean one thing; Leeds Festival at Bramham Park near Wetherby. £5 cheeseburgers, overflowing toilets, shouting abuse at Scousers, riots, drunken behaviour and nudity. A standard weekend for me and my mates, only with live music and camping. A spin-off from the older Reading Festival, this was the 11th time Leeds has been staged, to provide all of us unfortunate to live North of the m4 with something to look forward to. This year was the fourth time I've been to the festival, but it was one of the most anticipated, as the line-up had far more depth than previous years, in my opinion at least. 

Friday got underway with FIGHTSTAR on the main stage, although not a massive fan and only knowing one song, they did a good job of getting the ever-eager first morning crowd going. A personal highlight was the sign held aloft by a fan reading "Bring back Busted." After the essential journey to stock up on beer and Maryland cookies we returned to the main stage for the performance of St Albans finest: ENTER SHIKARI. Last time I saw them live they were on the on the NME/Radio 1 stage and had an evening slot, which is far better for a decent atmosphere and performance, so they did relativity well to engage a crowd looking to perfect tan lines in the mid-afternoon sun, rather than to join in with a wall of death. However even the hard-core moshers at the front were left a little disappointed by the lack of human pyramids as seen in previous shows. "Juggernauts" was a highlight though. The main stage then hosted IAN BROWN and MAXIMO PARK. Ian Brown was looking like he'd seen better days, but the older audience definitely enjoyed his set and for all Mancs, his opening lines could not have been better; "Who here is from Leeds", cue crowd cheering, "Fuck off". Class. Maximo Park and Paul Smith especially, were as charismatic as ever, but the majority of the set was spent trying to stock up on beers. THE PRODIGY were given the second closing slot on Friday night, behind the Arctic Monkeys, the question was should they have headlined? Probably. They were unreal from the off. Gunning through crowd favourites "Breathe", "Omen", "Smack My Bitch Up"and "Voodoo People". Mosh-pits were crazy, people were naked and flares were alight. The highlight track for me was "Warrior's Dance" when the whole place went so crazy the Met office probably had a reading on the Richter Scale. Unbelievable. I didn't see the Arctic's but friends said they were disapointing, plugging the new record, which isn't always a crowd pleaser when headlining a festival. RISE AGAINST on the Lock-Up were as loud and gun-ho as ever, but the crowd wasn't quite as involved as when I last saw them, so slightly disappointing, but in reality it was never going to compere to 50,000 people rocking to The Prodigy, who were without question the band of the day.

Feeling slightly worse for wear on Saturday, and deciding to chill out at the main stage for the first couple hours of the day. NOAH AND THE WHALE of "Five Years Time" fame earlier this year, were actually surprisingly worth a listen, which I did not expect, and begged the question why release your worst song as a debut single? Then it was over to the NME/Radio 1 tent for the hilarious performance of LETHAL BIZZLE. I don't mean that as in he amused me, but the sight of 1,000's of  white teenagers, all looking like they fell over in Topman and had definitely been brought up in nice suburbia with a sedan on the drive, singing along to "Fuck tha Po-Po", well it's hard not observe the cynical humour in that. The Nirvana remix was enjoyed by myself though, RIP my Ray-Bans. They were fake so it's all good. Next up was FRANK TURNER. Lyrics written with such a quiet, delicate level of intelligent observations of a 20something lifestyle, accompanied with an acoustic guitar, was thoroughly enjoyable. Check out "The Ballad of Me and My Friends" for a sample. BRAND NEW were given an afternoon slot on the main stage, and much like the performance of Enter Shikari, failed to get going, due to the time of day and the blasé and aloof audience. However, my most-anticipated band of the day were another band from the East Coast and were due on the NME/Radio 1 stage at 18.15. Dragging my friends to the tent trying to convince them that they actually were good, and not another band I'd hyped up excessively or that they wouldn't be "really angry" to quote one of them. THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM were on top of their game. They possess everything that I appreciate both in a band and a live performance. Onstage charisma, tight as a unit live, original songs that sound good live and a certain levelheadedness and genuine gratefulness towards the crowd, with a lot of times goes unsaid. New Jersey's finest had done themselves proud. Check out highlights, from Reading (The BBC can't be bothered to send anyone North it seems), here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/gaslightanthem/

BLOC PARTY made an effort on the main stage to top that, and their set was impressive, but I wasn't too enthralled, I had seen the my band of the day already. The Beatles would have had to reform and do a duet with Elvis of "Bohemian Rhapsody" in order for me to care who was playing after The Gaslight Anthem.

Sunday is always a strange day at a festival. You can't wait to have a shower after camping for 3 nights, but you want to make the last day count. Sunday was my most enjoyable day, which was an unexpected albeit nice surprise. After watching successive unknowns MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA and THE VIRGINS, both worth a youtube, THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT performed the NME/Radio 1 stage. To be fair, I was nursing the mother of all hangovers, and as much as I tried to stay awake it wasn't happening, so I can't really comment. It's a good job I'm not a music journalist. But, I was awake for the one song I knew "Sometime Around Midnight" which tells the story of an ex-girlfriend, complete with depressive solemn violins and dark lyrics ("Then she leaves with someone you don't know, she looks right at you and bolts") I can't really relate to the genre of "music-inspired-by-not-having-the-girl", so it passed me by. It really is a good job I'm not a journalist, because I'm far too emotive in my music taste. The rest of the set was dull enough to send me into a sleep. iTunes' single of the week a few weeks back was a great song by THE TEMPER TRAP called "Sweet Disposition" so we gave them a listen on The Festival Republic Stage. It was a good set, and quite obvious that many people were only there for the one song as they left after it had been played, which is a little discourteous. JACK PENATE was next on the NME/Radio 1 stage. This was repaying the debt which I had incurred dragging my friends to The Gaslight, because I really don't see what the hype is with him. Each to their own though, and at least he played "Be the One" which is quite a tuneful number, the rest of his stuff sounds the same. After him I went solo to see BOUNCING SOULS who I had never seen before. They were great. I only knew half the songs, such is the size of their 20 year strong back catalogue, but the ones I did know were fantastic. A highlight of the show was the lead singer jumping up on the barrier and singing "Manthem" in its entirety about 6 inches from me. Eye contact was made and maintained. After a quick bite to eat it was to the main stage for Leeds' own KAISER CHIEFS. A tradition at Leeds Festival is for everyone to always see the main headliner on a Sunday night. Three years ago, there was a big question as to whether they should have got the top spot instead of Franz Ferdinand, that question was again on Ricky Wilson's mind as he prefaced "Oh My God" with "Maybe one day we'll headline this fucker". However, despite the chants of Yorkshire and the battle of the Kaisers vs the Chiefs, if he wants to headline this festival he will need to write some more decent songs without using "Woahhhh" or "Naaaa" as a pre-chorus. He got the crowd going and poured his white rose heart and soul into this performance, but on comparison with the headliners, they looked like schoolboys. KINGS OF LEON made Leeds Festival 2009 their own. I have never really listened to them that much, putting it down to various reasons. I will now. They have successfully converted me, which not many bands (if any) have ever done, that they are worth listening to. They maintained a supreme aura of authority as well as humbleness throughout the entire performance. They know they're good, you know they're good, they know you know it and thrive off it. Just exactly when did a band have this much song diversity and successfully pull it all together perfectly for a live performance? My only criticism would be to learn the difference between gratitude and excessiveness, musically though they were simply breathtaking, and were the highlight of the day without a shadow of a doubt. 

As for Leeds Festival itself, a great weekend all round, and thank you to everyone who I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with. A special mention must surely go out to Poo Girl who fell into a toilet trying to retrieve her handbag, a la Slumdog Millionaire. Gutted. Four times seems excessive and five straight is too many. Bring on Glastonbury 2010.