Get Free - August 23 - 26 2002

I may post the original diary unedited that I kept while at Reading.
Some of it doesn't make sense to read it now, and the handwriting is
almost illegible in places.

Aug 22
Woke up around 6am and wrote my online journal and fed the cats. I was
supposed to meet my friends down the station. But I got a phone call
around 10am to say that it was now 12.30, so I kept playing my guitar,
like I expect I would do. I also listen to a few choice cuts from
various albums to pass the time. I have no idea what I listened to this
morning.

I met my friends and my niece at 12.30 and we got the train to London,
I introduced myself and found out all their names, not that it mattered
I hardly saw them the whole time I was there, but more about that
later. We had piles of bags, I had a bastard of a cargo bag to carry
which had my tent and the sleeping bag along with my clothes in it, and
another kit bag with all the food and water I was taking as well as 200
cigarettes.

We got the tube to Paddington, and then the train to Reading. Once we
arrived we found out we had to lug the bags to the Festival site about
a mile and a half away, and it was really hot, and after a while I
began to really hate the bag I was carrying. We had to queue up for
half an hour to get out special wristbands. Then trudge off in search
of a pitch to setup camp. I was getting seriously pissed off that we
had arrived so late, and after we thought we had found a pitch and
started making camp, got told by a steward that we had to move. At
which point I felt like killing someone. Possibly the steward.

As luck would have it we found a really good site in area C of Brown
Camp, which was a ten-fifteen minute walk from the arena where all the
bands would be playing. And also the bogs were just down the
road.

So we set up camp then I went in search of a friend I had intended to
meet there. I found them eventually, after two hours and several text
messages and a voice mail. We sorta arranged to meet up the next day
and see the bands which was the Friday.

I had a look around the stalls and then went back to the tent around
ten pm. Not much was happening so I had a beer and then went in my tent
and fell asleep. I hadn't counted on the noise caused by various
campers going completely fucking mental. This continued until 3 am when
they all dropped from exhaustion no doubt and I managed to get a few
hours sleep before I woke up at 6am.

Aug 23

I had my breakfast of coffee, orange juice and cereal bars, and took a
piss in the bogs down the end, and it was pretty bad in there, they
stank, nothing flushed and a few were already full of shit. I mean what
was that smell? I know it now, I think anyone would, it's the smell of
shit, sweat and beers.

I wore my leather jacket all day the previous day and wore it every day
I was at Reading, it became my signature along with the Yin Yang scarf
I had bought specially. My niece had got off with some mod bloke I
heard and all the girls had demonstrated that the fifth rule of not
getting to second base with any likely lad would have counted for
nought. I made it clear (me in charge) that there were four
rules:
1) Do not accept pills from anyone
2) Get back to the tent once a day
3) If you drink alcohol do not get pissed and throw up everywhere,
especially not in the tent
4) Always travel in pairs.

I walked into Reading and bought an XL Bacon Double Cheese Burger which
I had with Orange Juice instead of a soft drink as they had run out. I
went in with a bloke that the girls had met, and he seemed ok. He went
to the station and I rang my friend, and they arranged to see me at the
main entrance of the Arena.

Needless to say when I got to the main entrance to the arena there were
about 5,000 people there so I was stuck. I wandered about trying to
work out what bands they might be seeing. Ended up feeling very very
depressed and when I heard a song like "Always You're Way" by My
Vitriol I felt like crying. I was alone in the crowd and none of the
people I had come with could be found. I went back to the tent and on
the way was stopped by Darth Vader who wanted to know what time New
Found Glory were playing so I told him, and I felt a bit better being
able to help.I rang my wife and then decided that I was okay and I
would enjoy the bands alone.

I got to the NFG gig and it had started and it was good. Then I met
Alison who was 16 and had a boyfriend but he wouldn't dance. So we
danced for all of thirty seconds in the Pit until she was swept away,
and I ended up with a little blonde girl called Angus (short for welsh
Angharad) in a see thru dress, who also had a boyfriend who was'nt
there but that didnt matter because the Vines came on and we danced
like crazy together and it was the best gig I have ever been to for
dancing. Or Moshing.

Then I had a look at the time table and watched a bit of Jane's
Addiction before I got a text message from my friend and I was there
like a shot to say hi and that was okay.

The bands:

The Moldy Peaches = Bollocks.
Soundtrack Of Our Lives = Pretentious bollocks that you think will be
good till you realise it is bollocks.
Mercury Rev = Didnt stay long enough to find out, didnt like them after
one song.
The Dandy Warhols = Shit live and shittier still for making me think
they were good enough to waste CD money on.
The White Stripes = Didn't see
Weezer = Didn't see
Jane's Addiction = Classic Heavy Rock, but not my cup of tea.
Pulp and Strokes were on after I had left.

I got back to my tent at 1.15 am and escaped into the tent which I
sealed against intruders and fell asleep hearing the sounds of people
in combat in the distance and running and screaming and so on.

Aug 24

Woke up at 6am, and had breakfast as before. Then I had to take a shit,
and it was like staring into the face of Hell in the cubicle I chose,
with a pile of turds so high I had about two inches clearance. Talk
about in the shit.It made we want to vomit but i held my breath.

I trundled round to see my friend and I was there a long time just
talking. I gave them a tshirt I had brought specially to make them
smile. But something happened and I ended up taking them to the Railway
station and saying good bye.

I am alone again, but I am not really, I just think I am, and I made
sure that I stayed at the main stage. There was a feeling of tension in
the air. Sum 41 played and they were okay, they passed the time and
seemed to enjoy themselves unlike the crowd which went beserk in one
place with plastic bottle throwing, which I will call Bottle Moshing as
it was confined to an area the size of the pit. The next band on were
Ash, now Ash I wasnt sure about because there music has alot of
unexpected chord changes in it but it was excellent. And I will buy the
1977 album. Finally Muse came on and they pissed all over the Foo
Fighters. They were magnificent, and even though it pissed with rain
like the heavens open and the clouds cried floods, nobody cared. They
opened with New Born and closed with Bliss from the album Origin Of
Symmetry. I had my moneys worth all ?200 in seeing the Vines the night
before and the bands I saw today. I imagined my friend with me,
standing next to me as we watched Muse.

I had a crepe and a hot chocolate before going back to the tent. Again
it was wild outside as a 1000 nutters stalked the metal walkways. I
heard later that about 50 of them had had a three legged race.

Aug 25
Another hot day and this time the cubicles had been cleaned so I had a
clean crap for change. The smell was bad but not as bad as the day
before. The toilets are Hell on Earth, but I hear Glastonbury's dont
even get cleaned.

I washed my face and hands and had breakfast. Then i buggered off to
Reading town and bought three CDs which I mailed myself in case they
got nicked, I got Stranger Than Fiction, Meet The Bellrays and the Less
Than Jake double CD. I also bought an emergency phone charger. The
previous day I had bought a torch, and that had helped someone to find
their glasses worth ?700.

Up to the stalls and I am wearing the Spiderman t shirt which I bought
the previous night. It is hot again. The ground and my face cook in the
sun. I see a bit of 100 Reasons who play a bit crap, I mean they are
okay if you like that sort of thing but they are still not my cup of
tea. I like songs that you can dance to and get four in in the space of
one song from the Dandy Warhols. Then I saw Jet Plane Landing who were
really good and you could tell they actually cared about their stuff
unlike NOFX who clearly didnt and played shite and spent more time
making cute jokes and waffling about how much they hated their
President. Who gives a shit? There are ways to make people care and
making it all seem a joke isnt going to work. I hated the fact they
declared that Punk Rock is purely politics, that's bollocks, Punk Rock
is whatever you think it is, its indidvidual not a uniform and yes it
does include songs about love, girls, friends who shit on you and so
on. There is new form called Emo-Punk or Emo-Rock , the latter I saw
and it was okay if a bit self indulgent wailing. Basically emo is about
a girl and you and there is emotional shit you have to sort out.

Incubus I left during their first song. Didn't like it. watched Haven
the Emo-Rockers, and then wasted twenty minutes waitng for Cornershop
to play having spoken to a girl called Becky, who then completely
ignored me, and I ran out screaming when they started playing. Down to
see Slipknot, which seems to be popular with the kids. Very loud and
noisy but that's it, there was the menace again and some poor bastard
got a vodka bottle in the head from some thoughless shite who threw it.
He was knocked out and it bled badly, he was taken away quickly. More
Bottle moshing, I was hit in the back by a full two litre bottle of
water. Slipknot hammered away for an hour and said the word "fuck" a
lot.

Then the PA played Basketcase by Green Day and it was an omen. The
crowd sang. Then Offspring came on and they were superb and they even
recorded the crowd singing whoaaah for their new record. Brilliant
stuff and everyone was happy. They did All I Want and lots of stuff off
of their new album. I heard that Prodigy were shit.

I got back to the tent after having some more food and a coffee, then
went to sleep. About an hour later World War Three started, there was a
loud explosion followed by fire sirens and somebody yelling "Get Off
The Road" loudly. More running about and yelling, so I got up and
investigated. I went in search of my niece with one of the friends I
had come with and we walked everywhere and still didnt find her, but we
saw a man standing on a box wearing only a hat and a plastic rain mac
and the police walked past and didnt notice, we saw many crowds of
chanting campers and i thouhgt it was a fight but it wasnt - some bloke
was trying to balance on a kettle drum used for bins on its side, and a
lot of the lights were out. I was up to 4am before I got to sleep and
the things I saw, were like a film except nobody would believe a film
like that it was too surreal.

Aug 26

Woke up at 6am about two hours after falling asleep. Had breakfast. All
the bins have mysteriously disappeared. I have also been reading Adrian
Henri poems and writing poetry last thing at night as I find it helps.
We packed up the tents and went home.