TRANSMISSION FROM THE FUN POLICE

DEAR VINYL VENDETTAS. STOP. WE HAVE SOME HOMEWORK FOR YOU. STOP. DON'T THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH KICKING UP YOUR HEELS AT THE RADIO ONE STAGE & SILENT DISCO AT READING WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT. STOP. YOUR HOMEWORK IS THIS. STOP. "READING: IN 40 WORDS OR LESS". STOP. DUE SEPTEMBER 26TH. STOP. THE FUN POLICE. STOP. END TRANSMISSION.

OH NO!! DUE TOMORROW!! I don't think we can get away with "the dog ate it" this time....




CATRIN JAMES:
This years Reading festival was a competition of who can have the most extravagant stage show - highlights : The Ting Tings had roped in(no pun intended) a professional skipping team to dance, hop and swing to 'That's not my Name' to impressive proportions,not one mess up! Friendly Fires had their own carnival with 2 exotic dancers clad in bejewelled bikinis and huge feather capes shaking their money makers , so a Brazil style party ensued! Best dressed highlight for me was Leila from the Duke Spirit in a shiny leotard with a gold sequined tunic on top complimented by a pair of gorgeous late 60's boots - sex on legs I reckon!
There's loads more to say,like The Cribs knocking it bandy as the closing headliners of the Radio 1/NME stage on Sunday with a very youthful looking indie legend on the axe - result!


BETHAN ELFYN:
There's something about Reading - It is groundhog day of the best kind. My 8th year at Reading, and each year just gets better. The cameraderie of the production crew working the stage, the Vendettas on the ones and twos, seeing bands I know get amazing reactions from the crowd, and seeing music that I love materialised in the flesh. Santagold's disco madness, MGMT's flamboyant hippy falsetto glory, iconic and sonic depth from Last Shadow Puppets, pure teenage nostalgia from the Manics, deafening volume from Wombats fans, and another year of Silent Disco madness - this time DJing to Kate Moss and friends apparantly! These are the golden moments, the snapshots of memories that last beyond the comedown.


JEN LONG (OUR SPECIAL FRIEND):
Reading is awesome. Sorry, that's not much of a blog entry, but it's true. Every year I swear it gets better. Where else can you bounce to Chromeo, be blown away by a calypso-ing Friendly Fires, bop to Vampire Weekend and bang your head away to the epicness of Rage Against the Machine. Yeh, sure there's other festivals in glorious surroundings and exotic settings, blah, blah, blah... but in Reading the stages are close together, there's no hippies, and plenty of vinyl vendettas. Which is awesome.


LB – ARTIST LIAISON:
So while my beauteous lady vendettas were rocking the decks by day I was running around with a walkie-talkie and meal ticket allocations looking after the bands back stage. Its probably one of my favourite jobs of the year where I’m lucky enough to mix hanging out with my girls whilst buzzing around helping out TMs in distress and band members who always always lose their sticky passes....but night time is always the right time playing some tunes and busting out some eclectic moves at the silent disco! I heart Reading. Rock on ‘09.