So it’s been a week since Reading Festival. A week ago right now I was at Reading, gearing myself up for what was in my opinion the best day of the festival. It was the day to see A Day To Remember, The 1975, You Me At Six, Papa Roach and Blink-182 (those were the bands I was not going to miss for anything!)
As much as I complained about Reading this year, I really do miss it. I would give anything to be back there with my friends, in the arena, screaming along to some of the best songs ever written.

The headliners this year have always been phenomenal performers, with an amazing crowd atmosphere. My headline act highlights included:

The Only Exception – Paramore
Paramore give everything in their shows. I once met someone who described Hayley Williams as an animal because of the fact that she runs around everywhere, and sweats a LOT. Reading gave them some technical difficulties that they overcame, which basically means that the sound cut for most of Ignorance, Hayley’s speech, and the first half of Only Exception. Even with that, The Only Exception was a highlight for me – being in the crowd singing a cappella with Hayley, and then the acoustic guitar suddenly coming back in was amazing.

No One Knows – Queens of the Stone Age
The most famous song to come out of the QOTSA discography. This song is probably more famous than the band itself. Every time they play this live you can usually hear the crowd more than the band, especially for that awesome guitar riff.

My God Is The Sun – Queens of the Stone Age
A ridiculous amount of energy pours out of QOTSA when they perform, which I felt from being near the front. This is my favourite song from the new album which is why it made this list. Also because they sounded awesome and looked like they were having a great time performing it! And the lights were pretty cool too…

When The Sun Goes Down – Arctic Monkeys 
Now, I love Arctic Monkeys, but it’s fair to say that when it comes to performing, they’re not the most exciting. They just stand there playing for the majority of the time, which definitely gets them by as they are all incredibly talented. But, come on boys, please give us SOMETHING exciting?! Jump around a bit! Tell a joke! Do something! When The Sun Goes Down had a great atmosphere, with a lot of cheering and jumping for a truly brilliant song.

Violence – Blink-182
Tom DeLonge’s vocals are really not what they were. However, Blink’s set was brilliant for the fans. With a setlist littered with old tunes and dirty jokes, the massive OMG amongst fans was the fact that they brought the Flaming FUCK sign with them. Oh good god, yes, yes, a thousand times YES!

 

Now this last one isn’t a headline act, and it happens at this bands gigs a lot, but after seeing the band four times I finally got the chance to be underneath the hamster ball so it was a massive highlight for me. The whole set was just incredible, so here it is.
A Day To Remember