Let’s face it, we indies like to avoid all things mainstream, so much so that we’ll likely be sat in the NME/Radio One doing the occasional little run over to the Festival Republic tent the whole weekend.

If you find yourself avoiding the main stage, get yourself a veggie burger and a cold cider; park your backside in the lovely shade of the NME tent. While from the comfort of your own home me, Strictly indie pain in the backside, gives you the low down on where to place your skinny legs and funky Hoxton haircuts. Here you will find the new current cutting edge bands with an album or three under their belt, but who are still under the radar of most musical waves. Let’s get on with it.

Reading – Friday / Leeds – Saturday

Frankie And The Heartstrings
- NME Stage

Ah the cheesy Indie I call Frankie And The Heartstrings. Frankie is a great showman, filled with enough presence to knock Santa from his flying sledge fronted by hay fevered Rudolph ridden with a hip shake to the left, and hair gel on the chimney. Spend your first band of the day shaking your quiff to Frankie’s cheeky hip moves, try not to desolate yours.

Miles Kane
- NME Stage

Alex Turner’s ‘fucking hero’ Miles Kane is on straight after hip shakers Frankie, don’t move just yet. Settle down and be ready to be dazzled by yet another star performance. Best known to many as the other member of The Last Shadow Puppets, to us indies he is the man with the catchy hits ‘Come Closer’ and ‘Inhaler’.



Mona
- NME Stage

My Tennessee indie sweethearts, once upon a time it was the King’s of sex, but no longer. Please welcome Mona, who have pretty much ripped of The Kings Of Leon but with the class of The Queen. Never ones to shy away from wanting to be ‘so big’ as a band. Good luck to them. Every single song on their self titled debut album is a hit. Be prepared for massive sing along to big tracks ‘Trouble On The Way’ ‘Listen To Your Love’ ‘Teenager’ and the big shoutily aggressive sing-along ‘Shooting The Moon’.

The Naked And Famous
- NME Stage

The New Zealand band will charm the waistband from you, filled with dreamy electronica one can only imagine what could happen in another life. Expect a big hitter set including ‘Punching In A Dream’ and ‘Young Blood’ which actually went to number one in New Zealand. Be prepared to be dazzled, did I just use dazzled? Indeed.

Patrick Wolf
- NME Stage

Mr. Patrick Wolf never pulls a poor performance; expect a glittered feathery ‘gaga’ stage costume. We wouldn’t want anything else from Mr. In Love. Gone are the days when Patrick was in love with the thought of love. Now in love with his dearest William, expect a colourful show of love.

Right now is your chance to wonder around for a bit. Go grab a bite to ease your way through, head to the bar, go to the toilet, etc…

Next up:

The Vaccines
- NME Stage

2011′s brightest band of the moment. The Vaccines set shall be special with their cheeky loveable smiles and fast paced songs. I don’t really need to explain why to see their set do I? No doubt the tent will be packed out to sing along to the fast paced sub three-minute hits. A must see.

The Horrors – Festival Republic Stage

End the evening with My Chemical Romance? Emo, no. Beady Eye? Would rather nail my ears to my eyes. Unkle? Nah?
Of course no Indie fan will be anywhere other than the rather tiny Festival Republic.

With Skying being bigger than anyone would have imagined, creating a fan base The Horrors may not have achieved when Strange House and Primary Colours were released. I can imagine this will be first time that many new fans will get to see the power of The Horrors, never ones to shy away from their beefed up new set. Set your eyes on one of 2011’s greatest albums. The Horrors shook the charts up.

Reading – Saturday / Leeds – Sunday

Funeral Party – NME Stage / The Joy Formidable
- Main Stage

This would be a tough clash for me, depends on personal opinions on who you would rather see. Funeral Party’s album disappointed me a little, but live they kick it. The Joy Formidable live are pretty decent. If I were to choose between the two, I would flip a coin in my cheese toasty. This one is up to you matey.

Yuck – NME Stage

Reviving the grunge sound of the 90′s with an incredible taste for old school vinyl. Yuck will no doubt be surprised to see you in the crowd rocking out to their awesome lazy lo-fi tunes ‘Holing Out‘ and ‘Get Away.‘ Yuck are ones to shy away on stage, hiding behind fringes and afro’s, they will surprise you in more ways can be said.

Tribes – The Festival Republic Stage

Head over to The Festival Republic stage to watch my favourite current band Tribes. The Camden Caners will hit you in the face with their amazing bedazzling songs, as catchy as the ripped jeaned trends on stage and the band’s sparkler smiles.

The Kills
 – NME Stage

Like I need to give you a void reason to see The Kills work their magic hidden inside the dark mid-afternoon NME. The Kills rock the stage with their off the hook basslines and Alison’s hard cold rock n roll vocals. They will mostly be playing hits from Blood Pressures with a dash of the crowd pleases thrown in. See please.

Everything Everything
 – NME Stage

The band who make awfully too smart for their own good music. Music far too complicated to the average person’s ear, complete with vocals you can just about understand. With the Mercury awards nomination under their peroxide hair, a fuss should definitely be made.

Head on over to see Indie Rock band Smith Westerns on The Festival Republic after Everything Everything.

Bombay Bicycle Club – NME Stage / Spector – Festival Republic Stage

Little guitar darlings Bombay Bicycle Club turned Indie then Folk and now are? Charming, their darling love of messed up drums and swooning lyrics. With forthcoming album A Different Type Of Fix set to be released next week (29 August)
The young band are not ones to shy away from a great crowd pleasing performance.
You think folk. I think sweat, personally would go see indie starlets Spector before heading over to see Bombay Bicycle Cub.

Fixers & The Strokes

End the evening with a little trip over to see Fixers gracing the BBC Introducing stage before making your way down to see The Strokes in their big festival headline slot.

Reading – Sunday / Leeds – Friday

Cage The Elephant
- NME Stage

Grunge rockers Cage The Elephant are a must see. A band that always puts the W in wow, prepare to rock your boots off. Prepare to walk out of the NME Tent covered in the person in front’s lovely sweat and spit. You want a mosh pit? Cage The Elephant will give you your fill without having to see a band like New Found Glory.

Warpaint – NME Stage

My favourite girls in a band. Warpaint bring the artistic reverie pulling me into an undertow of wealthy dreams. They kick arse live. Each show is treated with the same power and magic as before.

Friendly Fires – Main Stage

Funky soulful dance grooves Friendly Fires know how to put on a special show filled with nothing but thrust hip shakes and Hawaiian shirts. Hulla girls will no doubt brace the stage with sweaty Ed. Party on.

Ed Sheeran – Festival Republic Stage

Everyone loves a little redhead don’t they? I do. It may not be Ed Sheeran as of yet, one day maybe. I have never seen him live myself and have literally only heard brilliant tales of excitement when it comes to this chap. If you want to catch the buzz, go see Ed and report back to me.

Viva Brother – Festival Republic Stage

Okay, I was fighting with myself wherever I should add Viva Dee Bro’s in my indie guide. As you are reading this, I have most certainly added to my 90s chance of brit-pop time.

I get it 90% of people don’t like Viva Brother, the other 10% have huge amounts of passion and belief that Viva will live longer than the hate, how long did it take for Blur? Three albums? Give Viva Brother a chance. They may be ‘cocky tattooed up lads from Slough with shit lyrics’ just give them a chance. Oooh owwwe.

Peter Doherty – Festival Republic Stage

End the evening with Peter Doherty and his beautiful poetry. Yes, Doherty may have had some trouble along the way, but he’s out of prison in time for this headline slot. Surprised he made it?

People can say all they like about this troubled lost soul, but the music he writes is beautiful, armed with his guitar in one hand and a drink or two in the other.

In between those I’ve listed please make sure to catch next year’s bands on the BBC introducing stage.