My first Reading Festival came the following weekend that I’d been in Chelmsford for V97. So two festivals in two weekends – with a few days of work squashed inbetween. This time round we had a large group of us pitching our tents and preparing for three days of music and fun. We arrived on Thursday to get the party started – especially as it was Polly’s 17th birthday on the Friday – and had a a great evening of chatting and drinking around the campfire.

The music kicked of for us on Friday afternoon with Strangelove, a Bristol-based indie rock band that had been touching the Top 50 a few times across 96-97. Not really the type of sound that I’d usually go for but they were very good and a great opener for our weekend. Fountains of Wayne were up next – still five years away from their best known and biggest hit “Stacy’s Mum” they had only released their debut self-titled album ten months before playing Reading. They had managed a couple of Top 50 UK singles already and were carving out a name for themselves. For some reason I wasn’t keen on them here though. They were followed by Sunderland pop-punk band Kenickie, fronted by future radio DJ and TV host Lauren Laverne. I preferred them over Fountains of Wayne but still found them fairly average.

Thankfully The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, a New York three-piece rock band, were up next and really brought the tempo back up with their bluesy alt rock. I’d never listened to them before but really enjoyed them and they certainly worked well outdoors under the sun at a festival. We took a dip again following The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion as Stereolab took the stage. I’d seen them at Glastonbury and hadn’t really liked them much and found them pretty samey again here.

As the evening drew in I managed to see four bands which I did enjoy. Starting off with James on the main stage at 7.20pm (there best known track – 1990’s “Sit Down” – being sang loud and strong by all the crowd, a Welsh band called Jack on the Dr Martens Stage at 8.25pm, Symposium on the Melody Maker Stage (this was the third time I’d seen them and they were just as great as they had been the previous weekend at V97 – certainly my favourite band of the Friday at Reading) and then headliners Suede.

I loved Suede since I first heard them back in 1992 when they released their debut single, but I’d never managed to see them live. The three albums they’d released to date (1993’s “Suede” with hits such as Animal Nitrate, 1994’s “Dog Man Star”, and 1996’s “Coming Up” which spawned five top ten singles including Trash (#3), Beautiful Ones (#8), Saturday Night (#6), Lazy (#9) and Filmstar (#9). Suede were great live and, if it hadn’t been for a storming set by Symposium earlier in the evening, would have been my favourite of the day.