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Reading/Leeds 2010 Armchair Preview

Queens Of The Stone Age

This year I will not be at Reading (I think Glastonbury has killed off any real motivation to go to another festival this summer) and, whilst this saddens me since it is held only half-an-hour away from where I’m based, the rain that is pouring down at a rather consistent rate is reminding me that I’m better off, this year at least, watching it all on television. This year’s line-up for Reading and Leeds is a very peculiar one, mixing tried-and-tested artists that have succeeded at bringing audiences together in perfect harmony all summer and bookings that are either highly anticipated comebacks or very high-risk. In this preview, it’s the latter that is the focus. Here are some acts of note for this Bank Holiday weekend:

Blink 182 – Since they announced their reunion in early 2009 they have been long overdue to play some shows in the UK and, at long last, they will get their moment of glory as they headline the ‘rock day’ of the festival. It’s easy for people to dismiss them as just some second-rate pop punk band from the 90s but you’d be forgetting that they wrote some damn good tunes. Songs like All The Small Things and and What’s My Age Again should get mammoth responses.

Guns ‘n’ Roses – Axl Rose’s Massive Ego Band was a surprise choice for headliner. The last time he came to play this festival, he only did the Leeds leg and arrived late. Melvin Benn, the man in charge of Festival Republic, has assured festival-goers that he will appear, will be on time and that if he’s not then he will not be allowed to go past his curfew. Whether or not you like Axl’s “band” you can’t deny that this might a strangely engrossing watch, just to see what happens.

The Libertines – The hype around the whole weekend is based around the reformation of the indie rock quartet. The obligatory buzz-worthy preview show has already been achieved and the NME have gone all Libertines crazy trying to convince you that you must care about their return. The only question that remains is this: are the band still playing to their own generation or just a sea of people trying to be hip and cool? On Saturday evening, we will know for sure.

Queens Of The Stone Age – There we were thinking that Them Crooked Vultures would dominate the summer festival circuit this year and then all of a sudden Josh Homme brings back his original band for these sole UK performances of 2010. No one is expecting any new material but anything less than a hits heavy set will disappoint.

Weezer – Excited? No? Ok, the newer material does suck so hard when comparing to the genius of Weezer’s early work but this set will not be about new material that is bland and forgettable but old material that is timeless and classic. Personally, I will be thrilled if they play a lot of Blue Album songs and, let’s be honest, in the summertime songs like My Name Is Jonas, Say It Ain’t So and Buddy Holly are wonderfully effective.

For humorous tweets over the weekend, follow me on Twitter. Which sets are you anticipating, either from the site itself or from your sofa/armchair?

Paul Smith to play solo dates

Paul Smith

The frontman of that rather chirpy indie rock quintet Maxïmo Park, Paul Smith, is set to embark on a solo tour later this year in support of his debut solo album. The man who refuses to be seen without some sort of trendy hat on his head will be releasing Margins on the 11th October and he will be playing dates in November and December, such as:

27th November: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
29th November: Thekla, Bristol
1st December: Bush Hall, London

Tickets are now onsale. More dates will be added at a later date.

Reading/Leeds goers panic as tickets go missing

See Tickets

So, how many times have I criticised SeeTickets on this website? Probably quite a few. However, when things like this happen, I don’t really regret it. A minority of festival-goers planning to go to Reading or Leeds this weekend are facing last-minute panic after tickets have failed to show up in the post. This has left these people extremely angry, understandably. SeeTickets put a statement this afternoon on their Facebook profile:

Dear all concerned,

We’re aware that there are a minority of customers chasing the whereabouts of their tickets for Reading & Leeds Festivals. The situation as of 4pm on Tuesday 24th August is that all tickets have been dispatched by Royal Mail Special Delivery. The vast majority have been delivered but we acknowledge there are still some tickets with Royal Mail on their way to you.

You can receive your Royal Mail Track and Trace Number by visiting our order tracker at www.seetickets.com/tracker

We realise that a lot of customers have been left frustrated and angry at the late dispatch of these tickets and for this we unreservedly apologise. Our priority now is to help those customers that haven’t received their tickets and we will be dealing with them as absolute priority. We also kindly ask that you limit your comments for Reading and Leeds to this post and refrain from posting under other events threads, as these will be deleted.

If you require any further assistance, and in order for us to help people in the most effective way, please post your reference number and postcode as a comment here and we will call you or email you as soon as possible with a resolution for your order. If you would rather not post your reference number on the thread, please email readingandleedsqueries@seetickets.com or call 01159 934 492 and we will endeavour to help you further asap.

After the event we will be posting a postal address for anyone who wishes to complain further.

What’s more, even after that statement was posted, there was some rather interesting exchanges between the people who run the Facebook and disgruntled customers. I could quote some but there are just simply too many to quote. Apparently, as far as Reading goes anyway, the current situation is that customers are now being told that there will be a pick-up at the Hexagon in Reading for those who don’t have tickets but postage costs will not be refunded.

This isn’t the first time this year that SeeTickets have let people down this year. In June, a minority of customers were left without tickets for the free Rage Against The Machine concert in Finsbury Park. I was one of those people without a ticket. When I got through to a human being there, I asked why this had turned into such a farce and the person on the phone mumbled something about difficulties with the process of sending through Royal Mail. He blamed the post, essentially.

This gives me the impression that SeeTickets are not fit to be dealing with massive events if they can’t send out tickets on time. It’s not how a ticket company should work, in my opinion. So, in light of all of this, I am inviting anyone from SeeTickets to contact me and give a reasonable explanation as to why this has happened. Why have you left it so late to print these tickets? Why does this keep happening? Are you even well-equipped to handle big events?

More to come…hopefully.

X-Factor manipulates voices. In other news, humans can talk.

X Factor macro

I didn’t watch the X-Factor this past weekend but 11.3 million other people did. You may think, after it has emerged that auto-tune is applied in post-production, I’m about to launch into a rant about how the X-Factor is blatantly lying to its audience and how people just won’t care anyway, but I won’t. That’s because Luke Lewis of the NME has already managed to do this for me, saving me the hassle altogether. It is a very well-made argument about how this latest story about Simon Cowell’s TV phenomenon, which at this rate is growing like a zombie outbreak, is not surprising in the slightest. Key paragraph:

The key bugbear seems to be that everyone’s favourite Saturday night show, a singing contest renowned for handing out fake signs, carefully staged arguments between the judges, and all-round artifice in the name of harmless entertainment has conned the nation. A programme long-labelled “The Fix Factor” that’s renowned for poor treatment of contestants, exploits legal loopholes to avoid paying appearance fees or expenses and that demands all participants don’t so much as look at other talent contests for fixed periods of time, is manipulating hopefuls. A show that charges 35p a vote, disables comments on its YouTube channel and quite obviously holds two of the three red tops in the palm of its hand is making a mockery out of the British public.

And, just think, we’re going to be hearing this kind of rubbish for four months. Kill me now, please.

Junip at Hoxton Square Bar + Kitchen

Junip

A long time ago (well, five years ago anyway), there was a Swedish band called Junip. But after just one EP they had to break for a while so that José González, its lead singer, could have a relatively successful solo career. Junip are now set to return to the limelight with a new album. Tonight they’re in Hoxton to play songs from their back catalogue, as well as songs from the new record. The main question surrounding the gig is: Is this merely a José González gig with a backing band, or the (re)birth of something new(ish)?

Read the rest of this review at MusicOMH.