No Rock And Roll Fun

READING-LEEDS FESTIVAL LATEST: Well, we thought the one piece of soothing balm about the not-very-comic acts turning up at the first day's events was that at least Goldie Lookin' Chain's set couldn't be crashed by anyone less amusing than the presence on stage. Proves what we know, as dead man's Jackass team Dirty Sanchez joined GLC. In Leeds, The Darkness had one of the toughest gigs of their careers - technical screw-ups left them struggling with poor sound at the start, making it an uphill task to win over the northern audience. Apparently the big hit and the fireworks eventually did the trick. Back in Reading, no such trickiness for Morrissey, who came on and did How Soon Is Now. How Soon Is Fucking Now. This is the festival which hasn't got endless live telly coverage, dammit. Although it's true that Jack White did say the band might never play Reading again, he wasn't really hinting that they're about to split, but just once the White Stripes had headlined, what point was there in returning?

Melvin Benn appeared on the ITV News Channel last night - via Meridian Tonight - claiming that while "other festivals" have their attractions, Reading is the best for music - nothing to do, of course, with "other festivals" only calling on his company to marshall bouncers and build walls rather than programme the entertainments. It's a nonesense, too, of course - Glastonbury also had Morrissey, and it didn't have the White Stripes, but it managed the farewell from Orbital; Paul McCartney; the ludicruous Oasis set... it's not even really possible to compare the two; it's like someone who runs a big wheel pretending that his rides are better than Alton Towers. Which isn't to say we don't respect Reading: we do like a festival that's in walking distance of a mainline railway station (when the trains are actually running), and it's a great number two.

Still, good policy booking Razorlight - they gave an airing to a new song, Keep The Right Profile and looked pretty cool. Despite all the rumours, Pete Doherty didn't join the Libertines down at Reading - and many of the songs he appears in were left out, so his ghostly presence in Music When the Lights Go Out didn't even make it.

Maybe Mean Fiddler are actually smarter than we thought: the Australian Herald-Sun reports that they seem to have either cracked cloning or time-travel:

Among the dozens of acts on the bill were retro rockers the Darkness, the White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand and Green Day.
An identical festival was held in Leeds at the same time. (Our emphasis).