> Reviews > Reviews 2005 > Leeds

Review by Rob.

Iggy - Lookin good, the Kens however don't look to clever

Its traditionally a sad time for festival goers in that the Carling Weekend is usually the last festival of the summer. However as this was not the case this year we were in a triumphant mood as we descended on Bramham on a sunny Thursday. The atmosphere here is markedly different to that of Temple Newsam where a kind of Mordor like scenery was the dominant image. Keen as ever I rolled up at 2pm only to find out no one else was getting on site until seven. Still tents required erecting and after a trip to the wristband thingy and back to the car several times, the others showed up. After a relatively quiet night we went to bed looking forward to the 3 days ahead.

Leeds is very much a festival which majors on the music, there is little theatre or circus here. Instead you get the cream of the new bands, one or two rock dinosaurs and genuinely big bands headlining. You also get the chance to do some scouting trying to find the next big thing. In 2004 we saw the Kaiser Chiefs and Kasabian. Who would break from the pack this time out?

British Sea Power - Sporting a jaunty little number from this years Autumn collection

Boy Kill Boy opened the bash on the NME stage. I have seen this lot before and was impressed both then and now. Good tunes and big choruses gives them an obvious Killers comparison but they are a bit more eclectic than that. Then it was off to the main stage for those Scandinavian dudes Turbonegro. Despite limited musical skills these guys always believe they are headlining and so it was this year with glitter canons pyros and costume changes. Great fun.

The pace at Leeds is hectic if you want to see a lot of bands and so it was back to the NME to see the Towers of London. Think New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Guns n Roses. They are also crap, but I think Steve liked them. The singer from the Rakes had the lurgee and was missing from their line up but like proper troopers they played a great set and roped in Russell and Kele from Bloc Party and Donny from the aforementioned Towers of London. After that it was over to the Carling tent for the first time to see the Testicicles mix metal hip hop and pop (and most other stuff in fact) into an interesting sound which I will be checking more of very soon. Someone will say it, so it may as well be me, they were the bollocks. Give this next lot an ASBO quick. The Young Offenders Institute I was a bit scared of because they were chavs and they were in a gang. Single 'We're the young offenders' was good though.

I had just got time to pop back to the NME to see the first 5 songs of Maximo Park who deservedly drew a huge crowd. I managed to get 'Graffiti' and a magnificent 'The coast is always changing' before leaving to see one of my 'must sees', Iggy and the Stooges. Or perhaps they should rename themselves Iggy and the Kens as Mr Pop (as the PA in Nottingham Royal Concert Hall once famously referred to him) is the only star of the show, like David Lee Roth this is his stage and everyone else can fuck off. It is always a privilege to watch him and today Iggy is outstanding, whether stripped to the waist straddling the drums or lying flay out at the lip of the stage he has everyone spellbound. Add to that songs like 'I wanna be your dog', '1969', and 'Raw Power' and you have a great show, one of the festival highlights.

The highlights came thick and fast as British Sea Power walked onto the stage. Their show was as eclectic as ever but the 'Off' between Ivan and a couple of girls was almost as good. The bear made his usual appearance and all was well with the world. LCD Soundsystem were a band I saw by accident at Glasto and have kind of struck a chord with me. They have the trippy dancy feel of the Lofidelity Allstars or Death in Vegas but know how to rock out too. Highlight was the single 'Daft Punk are playing in my house' Awesome, despite a shortened set.

All too soon it was headliner time and despite not seeing much metal today I was looking forward to Iron Maiden having not seen them since 1992. There were no surprises, it was well documented they were only playing songs from the first 4 albums, a good move as most of their best stuff is on these (though the 5th, Powerslave is my favourite album) In the first ten minutes we had about 30 or so entries in the Observers book of heavy metal poses. Feet on monitors, flying Vs, guitar duels. Christ Dickinson even had leather trousers on. Run to the hills was memorable for Ivan trying out several more metal poses and then all of a sudden I got bored. I know its hard to explain but when you have seen Maiden once you have seen it all. Its not that they were poor, far from it, I just wanted to see something a bit more contemporary. So with this in mind it had to be Bloc... Well no actually it was off to see Echo and the Bunnymen!. It is alleged that they play at their best when Liverpool have won so with a (tin pot) Supercup just obtained, they duly played a blinder, proving once more that 'The Killing Moon' is one of the great songs of the Eighties and 'Never Stop' was a surprise most welcome.

That was friday for me there just remained a date with the Cuban Brothers and it was off for rest before a long drive to Cardiff the next day and back in time for Sunday, Rock n roll and petrol reciepts

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Review by Ivan.

I must admit i had to go back to Efestivals website to check the line up 'cos I could not really remember much about the afternoon - then I realised not much went off on the stages in the afternoon to keep me occupied - but then perhaps my mind was set on later things - more of that later! Graham Coxon on main stage did what he did best - fast , quirky a very English version of a classic theme - views about life , romance and going to the toilet. If I remember he finished with the rocktastic 'Freakin Out' - one of the best singles of 2005. His new album should be a bit of a classic too.

Queens of The Stone Age were like they always are - and good at it too. Although with no Mark Lanegan I was going to be disappointed cos some of the their best tracks have him singing. And now to the main part. The Killers - I love this band and after seeing them at Glasto a few months before I was well up for it and had prepared well. Cannot remember much about the set apart from utter love and happiness and well being . And when they closed with 'All these things that i have done' , I can honestly say that there is no place on earth i would rather have spent an hour or so!

Next it was tonight's headliners The Pixies - Ivan seeing them in Leeds 16 years after he first moshed at the front when they played the Poly on the Doolittle tour. Spent the set stood with Warro down the front, and with the glow stix and warmth of Kim Deals voice it was going to be a wonderful set. For me the highlight was 'In Heaven' and also when the band said good night to each other.

And boy how the night would continue - Indie Disco! Even 7 months later it is difficult to think about the summer of 2005 without my mind making reference to those cracking hours spent dancing along to RATM, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, The Killers - the list goes on. A track would come on - 'Mr Brightside' - down some poppers 'n' lager then go into dance hyper drive . The crowd were dancing, security was dancing and even a few stage dives off the barrier seemed to pleased the guys in black. I will admit 'I Predict A Riot' is a good track to dance to (I'll remember this comment - ed), and when they play it this year I for one will be there again giving it my all! and i hope anybody who reads this will be there to - your attendance will be greatly appreciated and you will not be disappointed.

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The Cribs - Steamin'

And so to the traditional end of the major festival season, the final day of the Carling Weekend. The weekend has been superb so far with great performances from acts new and old. Would Sunday follow suit? Again I was in early to see the first few bands. For Sunday this means a 12.00 start with Editors.This lot have been highly tipped and its easy to see why. They sound a bit like Radiohead, Elbow, or even Interpol and have some epic sounding tunes especially forthcoming single 'Munich'. I enjoyed them and will be off to see them indoors soon.

Boy theres a good line up in the NME tent today, and the festival knows it judging by the attendance in here. The Longcut try hard to entertain with their retro Manchester type rock but its a bit subdued. This is definately not the case with local heroes The Cribs, as a big and raucous crowd is ready for some crowd surfing action. The first few times I saw this lot they were rather shambolic and i'm sure the band would admit this. However with the release of the fantastic The New Fellas album, the brothers Jarman have got a lot more slick, whilst keeping the edge to their live set. The new songs are some of the best in the set, 'Martell' gets a sing along, 'Mirror Kisses' bounces along and opener 'Hey Scensters' gets the crowd going mad. Songs fro the criminally underrated debut blend in well with 'Another Number' being the highlight. A band who could be very big in 2006, even the Strokes now tip them! The atmosphere is great in here now and its lifted up even more notches by Nine Black Alps. They are doing nothing new,just playing early 90s grunge, but the songs are strong and everyone is going mad. 'Get your guns' and 'Shot down' are great whist 'Not everyone' is a Nirvana rip off par excellence.

Its time for food and drink and I wander over to the Carling Stage to see The Mystery Jets. Now this lot are weird. They live as a commune of Eel Pie Island, and the band features the Harrisons, not brothers but a father and son combo. They do the prog rock stuff but lean towards early Pink Floyd rather than Yes, which is, Im sure you will agree, good. I decline the Arctic Monkeys but it seems like the rest of the festival is off to see them. The reason, well its great seeing the new bands and all that but there comes a time when you want to see the bigger established bands do their festival thing.

Tim Burgess - Fishcakes, Pate, Yoghurt, fuck! forgot the yoghurt.

So its off to the main stage for the rest of the day. This means missing the monkeys and also the Arcade Fire, Hot Hot Heat, the Kills and the Go! team, but you can't be everywhere at a festival (unless you are Steve). I get to the main arena just in time to see Dinosaur Jnr resurrect their tasteful grunge. J Mascis is a very underrated guitar hero and he declares war on his guitar up there. Pity there were so few there really. The numbers grow a bit for veterans the Charlatans who seem to be moving the wrong way on these bills recently. They play a bit of everything today, even a couple of new songs one of which may or may not be called 'New York'. Tim Burgess is still the main focus even though he's had a few today but he sings fine and 'Sproston Green' is a powerful set closer'. I was looking forward to Razorlight who were really good at Glastonbury set against Coldplay. I also wanted to hear the new songs again. However as they get less time at Leeds they perhaps wisely opt for the hits from Up All Night. They do play Kirbys House and Keep the Right Profile though which are as good as anything on the album. Highlight though is definately the sublime 'Somewhere else'. The Kings of Leon have to follow them. Normally I love this band but they are well off the pace today. They go on, run through the motions, and go off. Disappointing, especially when I missed the Arcade Fire.

Foo Fighters - Do their tribute to Close Encounters of a 3rd Kind

Dave Grohl must be one of the best frontmen in rock today and he cements that tag in the Foo Fighters headline slot. After watching 'All my life', 'Breakout', 'For all the Cows', 'Learn to Fly', 'This is a Call' et al I believe they are also the world's finest singles band. It really is hit after motherfuckin' hit. Christ, even songs which aren't singles sound like singles. Add in a great laser show, some awesome drumming from Taylor Hawkins "'The worlds second best drummer!", and some bad festival sing alongs, and we have the best set of the weekend by miles. Its everything a headline show at a festival should be. A truly colossal 'Monkey Wrench' ends the show and then we all go out on a high, back to the campsite to burn the bogs down. What a great way to end the festival season.

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