A: Not The First, And Certainly Not Last Hype Band To Grace Reading's Main Stage

As our countdown of the Top 100 Reading Bands nears its conclusion it’s time to look back and reflect on eleven great years of Reading and Leeds Festival history. As always it has been chaotic, prone to disaster and muddy as hell, but that’s Reading, it’s obnoxious snarling rock’n’roll, it’s not meant to be pretty.

That being said, nothing quite defines Reading like a good old fashion trend and an over hyped NME or Kerrang band. The festival is all about on living on the edge and representing the youth of the nation whether their taste be good or bad.  As times changed, Reading changed. Fashions and sounds have fallen in and out of vogue, bands may have come and gone, but not matter how short lived or silly they were, they all left their unique mark on our favourite festival.

So today we celebrate the trend, the fad, and the hype that makes Reading the world’s most transient festival!

Turin Brakes: The very spirit of hard rock and rebellion

2000: The Brit Pop Hang Over, The Sappy Singer Songwriters And Nu-Metal’s last hurrah

The year 2000 was a crazy year at Reading Festival; a new millennium had arrived but the 1990s just wouldn’t give up the ghost. The main stage was dominated by Brit Pop and lad rock as Pulp delivered a typically sensational performance in between a paint by numbers Oasis outing and a baffling headline performance by the Stereophonics.

However, despite it’s apparent dominance, Brit Pop was on it’s way out, Oasis would cling on but Pulp had already moved on artistically, Blur had departed for a different planet with the spell binding 13, and one question loomed large: who would take their place?

The answer was two fold (if you believed NME and Kerrang); soppy slow paced MOR indie and brain dead nu-metal. Embrace led the charge headlining the NME Tent with Badly Drawn Boy in tow while Idlewild and Gomez took pride of place on Saturday’s main stage. More worryingly, there appeared to be no end to this convey belt, as a chronically cringe inducing outfit by the name of Turin Breaks were making waves on the Carling Stage.

Nu-Metal might not have gone on to become the dominate cultural driving force its advocates believed it would, but few could begrudge Rage Against The Machine a suitable bombastic send off, nor could anyone second guess the scene as Slipknot and The Deftones delivered huge performances on the main stage.

The year’s big hype band, who were positioned as the next great hard rock band, took to the stage before Daphne and Celeste. Yes the mighty A! Conquerors of stadiums across the world…oh that’s right, that never happened, let’s try that again: A the mundane pastiche rockers!

What We Should Have Watched: The smart money should always have been on third from top Foo Fighters, NME headliners Muse, Carling tent hopefuls Elbow, and one solemn dearly departed songwriter by the name of Elliott Smith.

Gay Dad: The Saviours Of Brit Pop

2001: Big Things Popping Little Things Stopping

The brakes were suddenly slammed on the trends of the last decade in 2001. Brit Pop was dead, but its last great hope where about to take the fight to the Carling Stage, as the laughable named and hideously overrated Gay Dad attempted to capitalize on the momentum of an NME cover shoot. While Nu-Metal simply disappeared, Rage retired and Papa Roach were left to carry the can, they weren’t the worst bet, and they certainly didn’t embarrass themselves, but they didn’t set the world on fire either.

It wasn’t all bad news however, a little known band by the name of The Strokes were turning the world on its head. With Kate Moss popping up at their gigs and their image taking up residency on NME and Q’s front covers, they were the hottest ticket in town. The fever was so intense that the band had to be moved from the NME Stage to half way up the Main Stage. The future had arrived, Gay Dad couldn’t revive the past, and Reading would be built in The Strokes image for the best part of 10 years.

And boy did Reading need The Strokes; the festival was littered with a million failed fads from forgettable side projects (BS 2000, Evan Dando) to abysmally bad one hit wonders (OPM, Alien Ant Farm). Atop the line up there was a real head scratcher of booking decision as soft rockers Travis headlined above Green Day. While at the bottom of the bill The Donnas, who weren’t bad by any means, were already failing to shoulder to the weight of female expectation.

Thankfully The Strokes weren’t the only band ushering in an era of creativity and cultural revolution, over on the dance stage a new sound was taking hold. UKG had arrived, to the uninitiated that’s UK Garage. Oxide and Nuetrino were the main event riding high on back of a pair top ten singles, but the true stars were So Solid Crew, back for their second outing having opened the stage in 2000.

With their skipping beats and brazen LDN gangland aesthetic, the mammoth crew represented the commercial face of the oncoming storm. With their spotty grooves, sparse arrangements and their unashamedly (and entirely free from gimmick) British delivery, they were busy sowing the seeds for grime, a legitimate English artistic outpouring, and for raps return to Reading worthy credibility. Make no mistake, So Solid Crew were still a fad, they didn’t last, but their style, sound and sheer variety (from independent female input to strong dance connections) would inspire everything from Dizzee to dubstep.

What We Should Have Watched: In between the big name movements Lostprophets were making a splash on the Carling Stage alongside Cat Power, Ladytron and Bright Eyes. On the Radio One stage Mercury Rev were at the height of their powers, as were Mogwai, while Elbow continued to make steady progress, and a little known Scottish band by the name of Biffy Clyro just snuck onto the line up.

Andrew WK: Hard Rocks Antidote To The Strokes, Or So Kerrang Told Us

2002: HYPE, HYPE, and more HYPE

Few years featured more fads and hype bands than 2002. There was good and bad of course, but mostly bad, as the hype machine got it wildly wrong.

Remember A from the year 2000? Well by 2002 they’d almost caught on, emphasis on the world almost, as they reached the peak of their ascent (half way up the main stage). Poor guys, by 2002 they’d already been replaced, they were old hat, Kerrang had a new hero, and his name was Andrew W.K. He was going to rewrite the rule and head bang his way to the top of the main stage (only he didn’t). He did, however, carve out a nice and respectable career for himself, but make no mistake, in 2002, with “Party Hard” in the charts; we were all being told that he was the new messiah, hard rock’s anti-Strokes.

Super serious rock also made its return, no Pearl Jam and Soundgarden weren’t headlining, tedious rockers Puddle Of Mud were riding the momentum of hit laden debut Come Clean and singles “Blurry”, “Control” and “She Hates Me” straight onto the main stage. Still anything was better than Vex Red, a band so sober and serious (boring) they wrote the “anthem”  “Can’t Smile”.

The Strokes’ success was already begining to take effect as bands began to copy the “take a classic artist, and give them a lo-fi indie twist”, as The Hives became Reading’s very own Swedish Stooges. While on the Radio One stage some no hopers by the name of The Libertines were shambling about on stage with a whole host of cronies in tow, a young fellow by the name of Johnny Borrell might even have been side of stage, but they’d never amount to much right?

Of course not, the only The band that were worth seeing were The Vines, forget Pete Doherty, Australlia’s finest were not only going to be bigger than The Strokes, they were the bona fide next big thing! Now don’t get me wrong, I brought into the hype on this one, NME had some pretty strong evidence, “Get Free” was exhibit A, and Highly Evolved didn’t sound half bad either. Sadly it wasn’t to be, but they had us all fooled, if only for a little while.

Not quite as hotly tipped as The Vines were the Von Blondies a band who cast a long shadow over indie, in large part thanks to their indie dancefloor classic “C’mon C’mon”. Sadly the band failed to capitalise on this early momentum, leaving industry insiders and outspoken supporters bemused and a little embaressed.

Kerrang were still looking for a saviour and they really looked to be onto something with an outfit called Rival Schools. They had a great album and one hell of a hit single in “Used For Glue”, nothing could slow this band down, they looked destined to headline the Lock Up stage as often as they wanted…wait what?….they wouldn’t release a second album for nine years…okay then.

Peaches: Making Pop Flithy Again

Over on the dance tent, Garage had departed and in its place stood Jewish Canadian quirkiness. Peaches was bringing OTT sex rock to Reading and she had her posse of dancers and bitches alongside her, including a very special assistant by the name of Feist (I wonder what happened to that girl?). Peaches couldn’t fail, not with an album as enticing as The Teaches Of Peaches and a fetishistic single by the name of “Fuck The Pain Away”.

Don’t worry we’re not finished yet, 2002 also saw the arrival of Mike Skinner and the evolution of UKG, as The Streets headlined the Third Stage. The sound of a generation had been forged, first The Strokes, then The Libs, and finally The Streets, a vicious cocktail was beginning to take shape, and it’s name: Monkeymania.

But let’s not get ahead of our selves, 2005 is three years away, and 2002 has more hype bands to highlight. By 2002 NME and MTV2 had become so confident (and they had plenty of reason to be, great bands were popping up everywhere) that they were backing every horse in town. New Zealanders The Datsun’s were declared the next evolution in Garage rock as “Harmonica Generator” and “Mother Fucker From Hell” were ruling the nation’s dance floors. Sadly, they had the passion, but lacked even the remotest whiff of original thought and quickly fell from the limelight.

Princess Superstar, a favourite of ironic arty types, finally stumbled upon her big commercial breakthrough in “Bad Babysitter”, but for most festival fans she was a short lived success who wouldn’t resurface on the pop culture radar until the release of “Perfect Excedeer”.

Finally, The Carling Tent served as a parable for misplaced hyped, buried atop one another on the bottom rung of the bill were Interpol and The Kills, two bands who eased into our countdown of the Top 100 Reading bands. While headlining stage were two bands that Zane Lowe had, very publicly, picked for rampant success; the psychedelic pop non-entities the Polyphonic Spree and bland lad rockers The Music. Both bands lived up to their potential (trust me) but could never meet expectation.