Day 2 of the 1997 Reading Festival. We didn’t see as many bands as we’d probably usually see at a festival as we all took a long break in the middle of the afternoon/early evening to do a raid on the local Toys R Us and buy up a bunch of fairly high powered water pistols/rifles. It was a pretty sunny and warm day and for some reason this resulted in a roaming water pistol fight across part of the campsite. It was great fun, and certainly cooled everyone down a lot (be they active participants or unfortunate bystanders caught in the crossfire). But I did manage to see a few bands.

A couple of the bands I certainly did not want to miss were on the main stage early in the afternoon. Apollo 440, who I’d seen for the first time and thought were great at V97 the previous Sunday, were first up at 1pm. They played another really good set which I enjoyed, but not to the same level as my previous outting with them.

Following them, at just after 2pm, was Republica. I’d seen them at Glastonbury a couple of months before and they had been brilliant. They did not disappoint and were by far my favourite band on the Saturday and up there for the entire festival. One of the things that surprised me was the mosh pit and crowd surfing for them. Republica had never really struck me as a mosh pit/crowd surf type of band …. but boy was I wrong. The crowd was fantastic and well up for the show. I think I even managed to have a bit of a surf during their set too :p

Swedish band The Cardigans followed – and were always going to have a hard time following the brilliance of Republica. They’d had a #2 UK hit the previous year with ‘Lovefool’ and were a lot more laid back and quiet than Republica. I quite like some of The Cardigans music, but didn’t find them overly stimulting live. So we ended up leaving the festival arena, headed to the local Toys R Us, and came back to the camp site laiden with water pistols for the rest of the afternoon into the early evening.

The Orb drew us back to the main arena later that evening for their 8.15pm set. Their Little Fluffy Clouds single from 1990 had a lot of plays over the years and I enjoyed their blend of ambient electronic dance music. They are the type of band that you just want to lay down in a field and chill out to – which is great – but not necessariluy the most scintillating live act – especially as it was just guys behind keyboards on the stage. I enjoyed them but am not sure they really suited the festival.

Headliners on this Saturday evening were Manic Street Preachers. This was the fourth time I’d seen them over the years and whilst they were pretty good live I’ve never really been much of a fan of them for some reason. They did play a good set and certainly deserved the headlining slot, but out of the three festival headliners over the weekend were the one I was least interested in.