Saturday @ Leeds Festival

Half an hour into Leeds Festival and I wanted to go home. The mud was ridiculous. Luckily, not only am I precious, I also have Scrooge tendencies and the ticket had cost 180 pounds – to waste it would have been close to sin.
 
The better line up today was the NME/Radio 1 stage – The Metros opened the show but sadly I’m not familiar with their music so I couldn’t possibly tell you how good a show it was, likewise Yeasayer although you will be pleased to find out that their bassist closely resembled Kip from Napoleon Dynamite when he went through his hip-hop phase – moustache included - which was of course fantastic.
 
Adam Green came next. I love Adam Green. I think his music is brilliant and his outfits even more so. He did not disappoint despite the fact he’d broken his foot in ‘Notting-ham’ last night. And the outfit – how does a tasselled t-shirt sound? That’s right, you heard it, tasselled. All the way down the arms. The show included songs like Carolina, Festival Song and Leaky Flask. Unfortunately for Adam his microphone stand was playing along. By the end of the last song it had broken in half but luckily he just did what any self-respecting artist would do and pretended to ride it across the stage like a pony.

I had to wait till half past 7 to see another artist I love although I did pop in to see Pendulum. It was the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I lasted about half an hour in the moshpit before I made my excuses i.e. fought my way out. I only went in there in the first place so I could get front row for Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band who were exceptional, despite a lukewarm reception from the crowd. They opened with NYC – Gone, Gone, a perfect choice as it is both short and snappy, and finished with I Don’t Want To Die (In The Hospital) rounding off a set which was more energetic than you may have suspected from the boy behind Bright Eyes.
 
Last Shadow Puppets next. It was only their third gig but fortunately it turns out they both have experience with other bands so they were kind enough to playe a brilliant show anyway. They even had the generosity to play my favourite song, Seperate And Ever Deadly, which was great when I could hear it over the shouts of ‘I Love You Alex!’
 
I’ve got to say, I was so tired by the end of their show I had to move towards the back for The Cribs. I have seen them before and know the carnage they cause in the moshpit but tonight everyone in the tent was loving them – even considering the fact Ryan Jarman did ‘damn us all to hell if we’re booing Metallica’. Previously a threesome, The Cribs recruited former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr (or as Ryan called him, Johnny Jarman) earlier in the year to play with them on the NME Shockwaves tour and he has now become a fully fledged member of the band. Lucky for us this meant new songs which, being The Cribs, is always a treat. They opened and closed with classic songs, ‘Our Bovine Public’ and ‘I’m a Realist’ respectively so they had the whole tent singing, actually, earlier in the day Lightspeed Champion had led the crowd through a quick rendition of I’m a Realist and told us he would be in the middle of the moshpit. I didn’t see him but who knows? It is not as if his hat makes him stand out from a crowd