Reading/Leeds underway

We speak to some of the acts as thousands of rockers kick-off the party

22 August 2008 - Reading and Leeds festivals are upon us again this weekend (22-24 August) and performers XX Teens, The Enemy, Does It Offend You Yeah? give us their lowdown.

Today (22 August) is the first day and will see Rage Against The Machine, Metallica, The Cribs, Babyshambles, Vampire Weekend and more play across the two sites.

Coventry trio finish-up

Leeds festival marks the grand finale to almost two years of touring for the Coventry trio and will be their last live show of the year.

Frontman Tom Clarke says he's looking forward to it, but also a bit of time out: “It’s gonna be our last set of the year at Leeds then we’re gonna take a bit of time off, as we’ve been on tour constantly for two years. We’ve had no more than a week off so it’s gonna be nice to go home and put our feet up.

“But Leeds was an amazing festival. Last year we played the gig and then went straight out into the crowd to have a chat with the fans, it’s just a brilliant vibe at Leeds.”

Even though Leeds’ atmosphere pleased them, Tom says it might be hard to top their set at last year’s Reading bash.

“Reading was the highlight of our year last year I think,” he told 6 Music. “It was again one of those unexpected things where you turn up and you know it’s gonna be good, but you don’t really know how good. We walked on stage and got the most tremendous receptions. It’s amazing to go out there and have your expectations shattered.”

And as for their onstage antics, Tom reminisced: “Andy dived off the stage into the crowd and as he came back out the security attacked him because they thought he was a fan trying to get on the stage. That was quite fun to watch.”

"When we hear Rage playing, we’re gonna be like: 'Thank you very much, good night.' And just go and watch Rage because we’re fans of them."
Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Miles Kane’s hectic schedule

The Rascals’ frontman will be playing two gigs, today (22 August) in Leeds and on Sunday (24 August) in Reading - one with his band, The Rascals, on the Festival Republic stage, and then later with an orchestra and his famous mate, Alex Turner.

Their side-project, The Last Shadow Puppets, are hitting up the Radio 1 stage and Miles joked about how he will get from one gig to the next.

“We’re playing and then I’m doing The Last Shadow Puppets in the night as well, so I’m getting ‘copter-ed over,” he said.

To which the rest of his Rascals’ bandmates laughingly interjected with: “And we’ll get the megabus home.”

XX Teens’ trip down memory lane

Rich and Antony from XX Teens say they've only been to Reading once before - and they had quite different experiences.

Rich said: “I went and saw Blur once one year and then urgh, the horrible Red Hot Chilli Peppers were playing and I was a bit sick to myself.”

To which Antony interjected: “I saw them too, they were fantastic.”

XX Teens are often compared to The Fall and they say maybe it was their one visit to Reading years ago, that sealed their fate: “The Fall played, I like The Fall. We sound just like The Fall and they played and we just made notes together. We’ve just been dining out on it ever since.”

Does It Offend You, Yeah?’s tight spot

The English electro rockers Does It Offend You, Yeah? are also on the Reading/Leeds bill energising crowds with their upbeat dance inflected live shows.

The band say Reading and Leeds is a bit of a homecoming for them having toured their debut album, You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into , extensively in recent months.

They're a bit gutted to be playing so close to when headliners Rage Against The Machine are on stage though: “When we hear Rage playing, we’re gonna be like: ‘Thank you very much, good night.’ And just go and watch Rage because we’re fans of them, it’s gonna be a tough one, but a good one.”

And the gap between their sets isn’t as tight as it could have been, as vocalist James Rushent said: “I think we’re on an hour before them, at the same time as Queens Of The Stone Age, so that’s pretty good.”

Georgie Rogers