reading 2001 (Carling Stage)

Member Name: afroedd

Product:	Carling Stage
Date:	09/11/01 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: amazing bands, Day tickets are a good price, weekend tickets are a good price

Disadvantages: the toilets are horrible, The festival food gives you belly ache, very crowded

I went to reading on the Sunday. Heres my opinion on the day.

The arena opened at 11 o’clock and we all flooded in.

Before the music started I walked around the arena seeing what was there. Here is some information on the facilities etc.

Toilets: How can I put this? Terrible and stinking is the best way. There was no toilet roll and when you had finished your business it just flushed out onto the floor below. Hence a terrible smell and if you looked under the ,mobile the bogs were in you could see piles of poo!

Food and drink: There was a big selection of stalls to buy food and drink from. It was all ridicuasly over priced a can of coke was £1 and a bottle of coke was £1.50. The food like all festival food gives you the s**ts. So if I were you I would take a packed lunch or something like that.

Bar: There was quite a big bar selling a variety of drinks. The beer was reasonably cheap. However there were long queues to get served

Merchandise: There were several big stalls selling T-shirts and programs with time tables in etc. It was all very expensive though

Other: There was a big mobile where you could take your phone to be instantly charged up. There was also a useful meeting point designated right in the middle of the arena so you could meet there if you got split from your friends, but it was so packed it would probably be better to designate your own meeting point.

The music:
Heres my review on all the sets I saw in the day:

Boy hits car: Boy hits car started off the day with an acoustic opening. They really got the crowd warmed up. Although the mosh pit was small it was still pretty heavy moshing. They called a bloke up onto the stage who went wild with them. They finished off there set by playing a song called as I watched the sun f**k the ocean.

Stained: Stained played an incredible set. The mosh pit was quite big and the crowd moshed through the entire set. Th
e music for this set was the loudest of the day and you could feel the beats vibrating through the ground. There set flew by.

Hed(P.E.): This was a band who gave the crowd what they wanted. They got the crowd really excited and there was a absolutely huge mosh pit, which was great because it was one hell of a crowd surf to get to the front. I didn’t like the music from this band but I did like the moshing.

Fear factory: Fear factory came on and it started to rain. This temporarily dampened everyone’s spirits. But when they started playing the song lynch pin the crowd got going again. The moshing started and stopped through out the set. This set was great, despite the rain.

System of a down: This band attracted one hell of a big crowd. Mainly consisting of teenagers. They led the crowd to believe that they were on drugs and I would have to say that I believed them the way they were acting and all that. But I think that gave it away most is the way they stood on stage chanting we are on drugs for five minutes. The moshing was pretty heavy.

The cult: I remember when I was a young lad my dad used to listen to their stuff. So when there set started I was a bit sceptical. They played half a set of there old stuff and half a set of there new stuff. So therefore there was moshing during the new stuff. The lead singer freely admitted that he was mental, he dissed every thing from the lack of British bands on stage to Clark shoes? Can’t say that I really enjoyed this set. I did like the song "take the power" though. However one thing I did find funny when this lot was playing was that in front of where I was standing here was a middle-aged bloke wearing a pair of leather y-fronts and a big fish net vest. He was immensely fat and he was dancing as if there was no one else around. He kept bumping into people. He he he he he he.

Queens of the stoneage: I walked away from this set thinking "what a s
trange band". There bass guitarist came on butt naked and Thats the way he stayed for the entire set and the lead singer kept on banging on about ecstasy pills. I really didn’t like this band. You might want to know that they dedicated the set to the girl who got them their ecstasy pills.

Papa roach: I believe this was the best performance of the day. I don’t really know how big the mosh pit was all I know is that I was right up the front going wild.
We had been waiting for ages for them to come on and we were all pretty bored so we started throwing plastic bottles. Within 5 minutes there were hundreds of plastic bottles flying everywhere. Then the lights went out and the band came on and started playing. The crowd loved them. The lead singer (Cobie Dick) kept praising all of the crowd for being so cool, he kept on insighting the crowd to go crazy so we did. He spent most of his time on the floor or in the crowd which was quite amusing. The moshing was great. They finished an incredible set by playing as expected there most famous song "last resort"

Marlin Manson: Not many men walk around in leather corsets but this is one of the thew who do. This weird man had everyone entranced. There were loads of Goths around when his set started and it was quite scary seeing all these strange people walking around. He finished and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Eminem: I hate this bloke. Shaming ecstasy pills and carrying a chain saw round thinking that he’s a hard nut. He done a duet with Marilyn manson. He finished the day off and there was a mad rush to leave the arena.

This was a excellent day out. Choose the day you go wisely as the festival runs for three days, each day has a different type of music being played.

Here are some tips on what to take if you wish to go next year:
· Toilet paper! It sounds strange but at some point in the day you are bound to need to go and there is no toilet
paper in the bogs.
· Packed lunch! The festival makes you ill avoid eating it.
· Dry kag! It does rain and if you get soaking wet it can really spoil the day

I would conclude that this is a great day. The tickets are a great price (£35 for a day ticket and £95 for a weekend ticket) and you get to see all your favourite bands. However the prices of food and drink is high. Definitely worth visit if you are into rock music.

Summary: