Leeds Festival - Braham Park, Leeds - 27th - 29th August 2010 Part 3

Important Festival Fact #3

The (short) reviews of bands published over the last three days don’t really give justice to the amount of people, the smell of the toilets or the burger vans selling ‘the biggest hot dog ever’ for £4, that, when bitten into, revealed itself to be mainly sawdust. All I can say is grit your teeth, pay the extortionate amount and stock up on food, and you’ll have a great time.

Part 3 - Day 3 - Sunday

New Young Pony Club For a band put on at half one, they really got everyone going. The lead singer was either wearing very laddered tights, or she’s about to kickstart a new fashion craze. I am almost sorry for the keyboard player for how many hearts she will break in life. The song ‘Ice Cream’ is fantastic. Went and bought the album off the strength of what I saw. 7/10

Girls Unusually this is a band better in studio than live. I liked their Shoegaze and Velvet Underground touches and the stage strewn with flowers was a lovely touch but the lead singer's voice was nasal and hissing and the set went nowhere. 5/10

Two Door Cinema Club There was a huge turnout for these lads and I soon saw why. The singer’s plaintive voice adds a dimension to the sketchy rhythms and the inventive songs that often turned on guitar breakdowns or introverted lyrics and got everyone with their hands up jumping. ‘Undercover Martyn’ and ‘Do You Want It All?’ were brilliant. Played with the energy I wish Girls had had. 9/10

The Big Pink Terrible. Well, ‘Dominos’ was alright, but the crowd was dead and the music was dead. It was a rip off that would have been derivative in 1993. I was out of there, picking up cups of cider to give back and so get money for a burger. 2/10

Lostprophets Saw the end of their set. A huge banner with 'Mega Lolz!' raised a smile, and though I have never liked most of their songs they did a decent job in getting the crowd moving, playing with energy and urging everyone to get moving. Covering Prodigy and DMX was a step too far though. 6/10

Delphic Brilliant. These guys' dance touches really translate well to a festival setting, where on stage three big satellites dominated the stage. ‘Doubt’ was electric and at the end - I'm not sure which song exactly - there was a cracking guitar solo. Their blend of dance and rock really went well and I think they'll be headlining places before too long. 9/10

Queens of the Stone Age Josh Homme was born to play festivals. It's a brilliant festival. Why? "Look at that woman's f**king tits there, it's a good day". What a politically correct character. In my opinion every festival should open with an appraisal of the feminine characteristics of the audience. Yes it’s slightly misogynistic but I suppose that’s half the fun. They played a lot of songs from Rated R, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, that were heavy as always, including 'I Think I Lost My Headache' that had a crazy finish. 'No One Knows' and 'A Song for the Dead' were brilliant as always, everyone clapping and headbanging along but there was nothing special about the show - it did feel a bit cookie cutter and the crowd was surprisingly docile. I guess Homme was a bit annoyed at being relegated to warm up when he headlined the place two years ago. 8/10

Phoenix Didn't expect much from these guys – people were cracking gags about if they’d come out with a white flag and surrender (Ho! Ho! Ho!) - but they pulled off a show. ‘Lisztomania’ and ‘1901’ were the highlights. The light show was indeed a spectacle and together with the lead vocalist running into the crowd and their mixture of synthesizers and guitar, it created a very atmospheric performance. Again I didn't know the songs but have bought the album off the basis of that performance. Stunning. 9/10

Marina and the Diamonds OK, it was Sunday night. I was tired. Everyone was tired. But even if I were fresh, not for one minute would I have been impressed by this unoriginal sub-par Florence and the Machine rip-off, who oohhed and aaahhhed and gurgled her way through the setlist. Like OMG! She wore hippy sunglasses, isn't she unusual and wacky and kooky! Pity there were about 200 girls in the audience all dressed like her, all looking at each other in horror that they weren't a special little snowflake. There was one song called ‘I’m Not a Robot’ or ‘I'm Not A Chicken’ or something, that was reasonably entertaining but she's such a rip off from Florence I'm surprised the Ginger Ninja isn't collecting royalties. 3/10

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