by
The Sunday morning acidic hangover is here and so too is the rain but that's as good an excuse as any to delay braving the outdoors and run-down on day two at Reading.
In the past few years Saturday at the Festival has established itself as the "indie-rock" day. Last night's headliners, with their cod-Springsteen, New Order half-inching, The Killers, seemed perhaps a little out of place, sandwiched between Rage and 'tallica. Equally out of sync with the festival's roots were the most TopShop of pop, The Ting Tings, guitar-miming along and doing a bit of karaoke to their backing tracks. Despite both of these bands (better known for which adverts they're on than their albums) riling the traditionalists, there were several thousand carefree arms in the air to make these acts feel right at home.
One of Saturday's early highlights was also of a pop persuasion, with dancers, decks and Ray Ban spex. Santogold had the tent in a whirl right from the opening howl and thud of 'You'll find a Way'.
Also in the Radio 1/NME tent, which was crammed for much of the day, was the dink-dink plinks of Foals who've come along-long way in the space of a year and seem more and more like the real deal in front of big crowds, with their epic arty-party pop. Similarly, Mystery Jets, drew huge crowds for their off-kilter pop, which rattled the tent from front to back.
Brand new bands were cutting their teeth and airing their wares too. Stand-outs included the reincarnated Thisgirl, who've gained a keyboard player and acquired a more direct approach at shaking your ass as Skeletons. Conversely, the much-hyped White Lies, with their New Order/Duran Duran meets Editors/Interpol attempts to enthrall with dark-pop failed to fire on all the promised cylinders.
Band of the day? Probably Bloc Party who played a mixture of the hits and tracks from their new album Intimacy and had a huge main stage crowd, playing just before The Killers.
More words and photos from our team at both sites are forthcoming this week but for now, here are Simon Shackleton's shots of These New Puritans, yesterday at Leeds.
A view of Leeds festival site from the big wheel
Check back on Tuesday for DiS' full rundown of events and follow, mobile signal allowing, our roving review via twitter.com/drownedinsound.
