This summer saw the arrival of myself to Leeds Music Festival 2009. The line of headliners consisted of
Arctic Monkeys,
Kings of Leon &
Radiohead.
I'd firstly like to say that I was unable to attend this event, due to a family holiday before my Grandparents retired. Due to an operation being booked, this holiday had to be brought forward to an earlier time, when I learned I could attend Leeds. I immediatly went online and bought a ticket from
Viagogo.
I was extremely excited at the thought of seeing my favourite band since I was a child, Arctic Monkeys. I'd followed them bought all the Albums, Singles, Artwork and had almost every track I could. That night they came on, I had already knew all of the words to Humbug and I was extremely annoyed at the Crowd I was standing around, thier knowledge of the new materials lyrics was not appealing. I felt half of the time I was dancing with friends and others standing still. The set was fantastic, and the atmosphere, on the old material that brought the band to the mainstream world was incredible.
Arctic Monkeys is a band I hear alot of people say, "I Prefer The Older Stuff-", That's ridiculous. If people stop and think about the song meanings for just one minute they may understand the beautiful side to their music. Alex Turner is one of the best song writers of our time, and that band are world class artists. Their cohesion and talent together is phenomenal.
I personally enjoyed there gig, incredible.
I also saw Radiohead and Kings of Leon that weekend, Im sure alot of people are familer with the term 'Band Wagon', well I could say I was on the Kings of Leon band wagon, but I have listened to Radiohead for a while, in pieces. Personally Radiohead are not my favourite band, but very talented never the less. Their set was amazing, the artwork and stage design alongise the tremendous song was great. For this set I sat back as It was I felt, a very merry atmosphere. Im sure the warriors at the front had a great time jumping and enjoying themselves. I had my fair share of that queing from 4pm to 9pm to see the Arctic Monkeys front row. However during The Prodigy I realised I was going to be stupid to stay in that position, because I was in pain at the men behind me pushing me into the metal barriers.
During Kings of Leon, I ventured into the middle. This is one of my weekend highlights, Im not one of those "Band Wagon" listeners, who know their hits such as "Charmer", "Notion", "Use Somebody" & "Sex on Fire", because I personally think as incredible those new albums are, the first album
Aha Shake Heartbreak was their strongest.
If I am to write about the more middle class bands, I would say a highlight was to be "
The Rakes, I am very happy and feel priveleged to say I saw them before they split up October, is year. (2009). Another highlight was a newly started band, which are now very big '
Them Crooked Vultures', but I would like to say their material focuses on the band being better musical writers, in comparison to lyrical writers.
I know I've written only about the headliners, but reality speaking I did enjoy alot of the other bands in Leeds. Some fantastic performances, in not a serious order but some what structured;
Bloc Party,
Maximo Park,
The Courteeners,
The Maccabees,
Florence & The Machine were also fantastic. Another great set was
Ian Brown.
Another highlight of Leeds was situated in the Silent Disco, I did go their once and the music was party, rave whatever It's called. Although It was a very unique experiance and I would Reccomend it.
Personally, I did not spend as much time as others taking part in the other activities at Leeds Festival, such as DJ Tents partying until 5-6am and generally exhausting myself, I did not even drink much alcohol and still enjoyed It.
I'd reccomend it to anybody who has an interest in music, although If i were to narrowly stereotype It I'd say a person would have to have a brief taste in rock, or dance... Or generally "The Charts", but this contradicts my taste in music. But then again that works in favour of why nobody around me sand around to Arctic Monkeys, they were not as a big fan as I was. Im sure they have their favourite artist who I don't even know the Chorus too!
Anybody can go to Leeds and enjoy it, Take a Sleeping bag, Pillow, tent.... And basically anything else you want. I wouldn't say clothes were essential I had my fair share of witnessing nude festival goers that weekend.
-Chris