'Another Reading Headline'

Festival mania hits us again. The rumour-mills are in overdrive producing prospective line-ups, telling us Hayley Williams is pregnant (again) and that ‘legendary band x are reforming’ just for the occasion. The rumours, on one hand, are terribly annoying. On another, they seem to have become a part of the festivals themselves.

Festivals, in a way, have become a little like Christmas; the build up is equally as important as the actual weekend. And, come the weekend, each act onstage is a little like a present; the anticipation, the excitement, the bated breath, the occasional disappointment, and, more often than not, something for everyone! But, moving swiftly away from this dreadful metaphor, and towards something more relevant, shall we talk about Reading and Leeds?

It is, of course, Reading and Leeds festival on the horizon. The line up was announced this week, dispelling the circulating rumours, and bringing it with it some eyebrow raising news. The first thing that struck me as I gazed excitedly at the line-up like a child at his Christmas presents (apologies, metaphor now banned), was Friday’s headline act at Reading: Guns ‘n’ Roses. This is not good news. Don’t get me wrong, I love Guns ‘n’ Roses. They’re the band that continued to define ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ into the nineties. They pretty much defined ‘sex drugs and rock ‘n’ roll’ for a new generation. ‘Appetite for Destruction’ was a landmark album, an influential piece of work. Slash remains a guitar legend, an icon of rock ‘n’ roll stardom... and he’s about the only man around who can actually look good in a hat like that. So why is it such bad news that GnR are back? Quite simply: they’re not Guns ‘n’ Roses.

I’m referring of course to the monumental bust-up and reunion of ’94-98. The band grew tired of each other, and of (mainly) Axl Rose’s antics, and one by one left the band. Following a previous argument in which Axl threatened to quit the band should he not get his own way, he now owned 100% of the rights to the ‘Guns ‘n’ Roses’ name, and could therefore bring in other musicians and continue as though nothing had happened, using the same band-brand to carry on lining his pockets. So the Guns ‘n’ Roses hitting the stage this year are not the band we knew. They’re not the band that brought us ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ or ‘Paradise City’, they’re not the band that sold out arenas across the US and England, causing riots as they went, they’re not the band who threw TV’s from hotel windows, and taught us what to dream of when we pictured rock ‘n’ roll stardom. Quite simply: they’re not Guns ‘n’ Roses.

This isn’t to say that the new line-up is all bad... (Duff McKagen was replaced by Tommy Stinson, originally of ‘The Replacements’, enough at least for a wry smile?) If the new line-up don’t sound terrible then so-be-it. But the fact remains that the band are not Guns ‘n’ Roses. Imagine flocking to see The Who and discovering you’d turned up to a Jack Johnson concert. No, the musical metaphors don’t quite translate, but the idea stands: it’s still good music, but it’s not what you wanted.
Anyway, enough about Axl Rose and his band of merry crack addicts, for there are other entries on the line-up this year definitely worth noting. Carrying on the trend of discussing headline acts, we’ll try moving on to Arcade Fire.

Arcade Fire are an odd sort of blip on the music-radar. Arcade Fire have won numerous awards for various albums; 2008’s Neon Bible won the Grammy for Best Alternative Album, for example, and now they sit at the top of the line-up for Reading and Leeds 2010. Despite this, it’s been a long while since I heard Arcade Fire on the radio, or hitting any mainstream music channels. In fact, it’s hard to imagine much Arcade Fire material hitting the mainstream media; it says something that the awards they have won have all been for the ‘Alternative Album’ category. So it might seem like Arcade Fire are an odd choice to headline Reading and Leeds, and yet there are some substantial facts drifting about the pop-ether that deserve to be taken into consideration. Mainly, the fact that 2008’s Neon Bible album sent Arcade Fire on an international tour, covering 122 shows (including 33 Festivals), 75 cities and 19 countries. Mind-blowing stuff.

So perhaps it’s just me who’s somehow missed the international fame of Arcade Fire; just me who looked a little perplexed when he saw their name was the biggest on the line-up; just me who remembers that the last time he saw Arcade Fire they were performing a few songs on ‘Later with Jools Holland’, and that was a while ago at that... I suppose time will tell; come the festival weekend Arcade Fire will stand tall in front of the crowd for the world to judge. And I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Moving, again, swiftly on then, we turn to one of the biggest names in pop-punk music: Blink-182. The trio of Californian punk-ers are back. The announcement that Blink would reform again received mixed reaction. There were the inevitable cries that they were only in it for the money. There were the forlorn faces of those who thought that their latest album (Blink 182) was too much of a different sound for the band; the songs weren’t about masturbation and getting drunk anymore, and the music went beyond repeated power-chord-progressions. For some this was just too much. For others, however, it was fantastic news: the pop-punk band that had defined their teenage years had returned.

But what made Blink 182 such icons in the first place? I suppose we can put it down to being in the right place at the right time. Three awkward Californian kids just happened to show up at the right time in the right place with some un-restrained, simple guitar parts and some unadulterated lyrics and they effortlessly fell into the hearts of teenagers everywhere. They seemed to capture the unpredictable emotional rollercoaster of adolescent life, and made it OK to be awkward, OK to be a misfit, and OK to feel like a bit of a social outcast. Blink came along and appealed to teenagers everywhere with a simple but subtle message: There’s nothing wrong with who you are, and you’re not alone. Whether this was intentional or not is another matter, but in any case, this was the result.

From then on it was a simple (ish) rise to global stardom, a bumpy hiatus-come-break-up, some unsuccessful side projects (Angels and Airways, +44) and an eventual reformation in time for this year’s festival. Blink’s last album, the self-titled ‘Blink 182’, was a new direction for the band, as they made the leap from songs about teen-angst and knock-down-ginger to relationship troubles and social politics – the same leap was made by Green Day when it came to ‘American Idiot’. Blink took a more experimental angle, focussing tracks around Barker’s drumming prowess and DeLonge’s fascination with simple guitar patterns layered with digital effects. It received a mixed response, possibly alienating the skateboarding, pierced, tattooed fan-base they had acquired over the years. The question now is whether they’ll play much of it at Reading and Leeds, especially taking into account their enormous back catalogue of hits and the gargantuan mountain of excitement, expectation and anticipation that comes with their return.

Either way, whatever their motivation, Blink 182 are taking the stages by storm this year. It’s going to be interesting to watch, seeing the band together, how they play and react off each other, and whether they’ll still fool around. Something about the latest album and their experiences since suggests there’ll be a more serious approach to music now... but how will this fit with old classics like ‘What’s My Age Again?’ Another reason to anticipate Reading and Leeds!

Other acts set to appear comprise of the newly reformed Libertines, as Docherty rounds up his band of merry men for another go at raking in a few quid to pay next week’s bail charges. The Gaslight Anthem are on too – definitely ones to watch. Rumoured to be Bruce Springsteen’s favourite band, The Gaslight Anthem produce a sort of raw, American-indie sound that works amazingly well... keep an eye on the Gaslight Anthem. Paramore are about, promoting latest album ‘Brand New Eyes’, Limp Bizkit are back – we haven’t heard anything in a while, but they should still cause a riot with old classics such as ‘Rollin’’ and ‘My Generation’. There’s some home grown talent heading your way this year too. The Macabees are making an appearance following a year of rising fame, along with The Klaxons and the amazing and underrated Frank Turner.

All in all, this year’s Reading and Leeds is set to be a good one. A brilliant line up, a brilliant weekend. There are a few names that seem to missing for one reason or another. Bloc Party? Maybe. Kasabian? Definitely. Either way, this year’s festival is one to look forward to. At any rate, the Reading and Leeds highlights might just be the only thing on TV this year that Alan Carr didn’t present, and that’s good enough for me...