Reading Festival
Richfield Avenue, Reading
27-29/08/2010

It may be typically known for its rock sensibilities, but with Guns’n'Roses making a mockery of the entire event by turning up an hour late and being nothing short of ridiculous it’s left to those of a more sensitive disposition to bring Reading festival back to its full glory. And so with the weight of expectation firmly on their shoulders The Libertines, despite not headlining, draw arguably the biggest crowd of the festival for an inarguably triumphant return; from ‘Horrorshow’ to ‘I Get Along’ the quartet unleash an hour of jubilant highs that even see the band temporarily stopped (during ‘Time For Heroes’) because people are going too mental. Phenomenal.

Equally on form are a reverential Arcade Fire who, despite attracting a bemusingly small following to their Saturday slot, more than justify their leap to headline status – offerings from ‘The Suburbs’ are already greeted like old friends and a final encore of ‘Wake Up’ is about as close to a religious experience as you can achieve whilst clad in wellies. If Sunday is anything to go by then we wouldn’t bet against Foals making a fairly significant jump up the billing next year as well; from the opening staccato rhythms of ‘Total Life Forever’ their set is a taut, visceral attack of existential glory. A rare outing of ‘Afterglow’ proves a hypnotic highlight, ‘Spanish Sahara’ sees frontman Yannis get the heaving, crushing throng to, somehow, sit down en masse and by the pounding leviathan that is ‘Electric Bloom’ the entire tent is united in one amorphous mass.

Other highlights include LCD Soundsystem giving a massive two fingers to the Axl Rose comedy circus with an ecstatic Friday second stage headline set which includes ‘Us v Them’, ‘Yeah’ and a heaving ‘Tribulations’, whilst Los Campesinos! perk up a rainy Sunday afternoon with an all too short dose of cathartic indie pop and Mystery Jets bring out the sun with a joyful array of cuts from their most recent two albums and a surprise outing of recent guest vocal ‘After Dark’ complete with The Count And Sinden. It’s left, then, to ol’ ginger nuts – Josh Homme and the mighty, mighty Queens Of The Stone Age - to prove that rock ain’t dead, which they do with the kind of sleazy, swivel-hipped ease that only they know how. Their crowd may be a violent, circle-pit ridden mass of rage, but on stage the Queens pump through the likes of ‘Little Sister’, ‘The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret’, and ‘No-one Knows’ with the assured ease of a band that know they’re the true rock royalty.

Lisa Wright