The Reading Festival

The Reading Festival was great and I now have a pleasantly long list of bands I must hear more music from! The Kaiser Chiefs, Artic Monkeys, The Streets and Muse all did fantastic sets but, despite having already seen them live once this year, my favorite was Franz Ferdinand. Being unable to get full weekend camping tickets, we ended up staying in a hotel in the city center, which meant that we had the great community feel of a festival during the day with the added bonus of being able to go back to a hotel with a clean bed, shower and toilet when the music stopped!

The trip to Reading and back was surprisingly enjoyable. The only real problem came on the M1 and took the form of taunting signs telling me to take the next exit for the Leeds Festival. For the uninitiated, the Leeds and Reading festivals have the same acts as each other but, when traveling from Newcastle, Leeds is significantly closer! In the end it was a 640 mile ride into which I incorporated at visit to the old house in Woodley. Although it has changed rather lot in the twenty or so years since we moved, being there brought back tons of memories.

This weekend was also the last chance for me and Glyn to see James before he heads off on a six month Long Way Round style lap of Australia. Wakeup, ride a bike a few hundred miles, explore a bit, party and sleep, then rinse and repeat for six months. Very cool!