Weekly > Reviews
Leeds Festival (Saturday) - Bramham Park, Leeds
Having missed the Leeds festival last year in favour of going to watch Leeds Utd turn in an abject performance away against our rivals from Sheffield I decided that this year I could forsake a trip to Norwich in favour of watching some live music in the beautiful Bramham Park setting.
Leeds festival is no different to any of the other big festivals in that you get that same thing for your sixty pound or so (that’s per day not for the weekend!). Bands, stages / tents, beer, stalls, dodgy food, fairground rides and of course a shed load of people wasted on various toxins ranging from beer, to the illegal, to strangely enough….Poppers!
Things started off badly, a couple of drinks the night before the festival after work, turned into me staggering home at three thirty in the morning. Just short of eight hours later and I was sat in a pub in Leeds City centre nursing a pint with my friends all looking a lot chirpier than me at this point. I came round a bit on the bus…not sure if it was the cheap day return that had my Yorkshire sensibilities perking up, but either way things were looking up for the day as the sun decided to join us for the day as well.
Wristband finally acquired and a fifteen minute queue to get in overcome and we were in just in time to see local heroes The Wedding Present on the Main Stage. No Wedding Present performance is ever any different aside from the fact that you can guarantee a line-up change will have taken place since you last saw them, David Gedge will still be singing about being dumped by A N Other girlfriend, they’ll be contrary and not play Brassneck, but they’ll make up for it with a rousing My Favourite Dress and an impressive run through Dalliance.
Not wanting to stay at the main stage all day we headed off to see Death From Above 1979, who on record I love but on stage were just a horrible noise that saw us leave after two songs. A quick trip back to the main stage and we caught most of a decidedly lame Graham Coxon who has got to make that Blur return soon on this showing.
- Leeds Festival (Saturday)
- Bramham Park, Leeds (Saturday 27th August 2005)
- Category: Live
- Reviewed by: Kev
- Published on: 08 Sep 2005
- Comments: 0
- Beat Surrender Rating:
Weblinks
Add to favouritesThank god for The Subways (pictured) though as we zigzagged back to one of the tents again, they gave a typically energetic and thrusting display that saw the crowd swell and for the first time that day they seemed to be generally enthralled by what they saw….a foxy bass player goes a long way to help though as well.
I’m sure you are getting dizzy now, but back at the main stage for Elbow who are another band I love on record, but as tea time approached they had an audience asleep in the back (see what I did then) of the field. If you needed livening up after that though then I hope you joined us in catching the performance of the day from the fantastic DJ Format and crew in the dance tent. Off the cuff emceeing had the crowd in stitches in-between shaking their arses to the full beats and UK hip hop vibe that he serves up when singing, the mood was helped along nicely by a text message informing me that Leeds had just gone one nil up at Norwich!.
As night began to fall on us it was time for things to go slightly more rock as the ever wonderful Queens of the Stone Age blasted their way through a thunderous main stage set. Then came the dilemma. Stop around and watch the Pixies on the main stage, a band I’ve never seen live, or go see Kasabian in the tent, who I’ve seen twice but you just knew were going to be an event in that setting. The old timers won out this time as they hit all the right notes through a vintage hour and a half set that featured every favourite I could have asked for.
Back on the buses and a taxi ride later and I was home, weary, happy and contemplating getting a ticket for the Sunday off of a tout, which but for 90 minutes of playing football the next morning I may well have done.
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