Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

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Dizzee has worked tireless up the stages over the years at Reading. He's become a festival mainstay and a hero. The big question is could he transition from the more traditional indoor arenas of hip hop to the open expansive mainstage and even more challenging on one of the biggest Metal line ups at Reading in a long time. There was little to worry about Dizzee slayed the audience with big beats, great rapping, enthusiasm and the hits. Stand Up Tall, Just A Rascal, Sirens, Old School, Flex, Dance Wiv Me, Boy In The Corner, I Luv U and Fix Up Look Sharp simply couldn't fail. Dizzee himself was amazed by a huge crowd and a great reaction "look at these crazy bitches there ain't no music and their still moshing". To make things even cooler during Pussyhole (Old School) clips of Mortal Combat, Sonic The Hedgehog, Pacman, Enter The Dragon and Karate Kid among others now how cool is that.

Serj was in terrible voice tonight and meandered all over the place. Not only did we have to endure his dorm room politics but a shoddy set. Empty Walls and Sky is Falling pale in comparison to even the worst System singles and his Abba cover was an abomination to God.

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In the past I've seen poor, mediocre and good Biffy sets today however I was treated to a great one. Now with a stronger and more diverse collection of hits, their passion and fury was complemented by grace, skill and subtly. Even the eye rolling singalongs like Mountains and Who's Got A Match seemed absolutely vital today.

Review: Biffy pulled off something very special being both visceral and polished at the same time. There most impressive Mainstage performance to date. (***1/2)

MGMT drew a huge crowd to the NME and with it drew huge expectations. The crowd however where in no mood to be picky and greeted every song like a number one single. The band played superbly and the vocals were excellent the closest thing to seeing David Bowie without actually seeing David Bowie. Time to Pretend and Electric Feel were greeted with deathening screams but it was an astounding redition of The Handshake that stole the shole.

QOTSA pulled a big crowd and I was really hyped to see them. One year ago at Wireless Festival the Queens completely stole the show and made the White Stripes look like nobodies, unfortunately two years before that when the new lineup was just settling Queens produced a sloppy, unispired and meandering set that impressed no one. Despite my hopes that those days were behind them the Queens launched into along grinding jam of a set unlike the concise pummelling they delivered at Wireless a year ago. A life less version of Go With The Flow open preceedings and the set dragged until an equally dreary No One Knows closed the set.

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The crowd were gonna love this no matter what, this is what they had waited years for. Rage did not dissapoint they delivered exactly what was expected and people wanted. A tight bombastic set with the usual teenage political rant and the cool Guantamo Bay visual. If you were at the front I'm sure you had the time of your life bouncing for ninity minutes straight however as a musical performance RATM just don't have it. They deliver the hits Killing In The Name, Bombtrack, Sleep Now In The Fire, Guerrilla Radio, Testify and a sublime Bullet In The Head but its all in the same gear with little variety and no change of pace. While Zac has immense energy he's a terrible singer and a lame rapper and this really shows over ninity minutes, he can rage for ninity minutes but he can do little else. Tom Morrello is a different kettle of fish, the only member of Rage with more than one trick in his locker, he unleashed some sublime and inventive guitar work, but he alone couldn't raise Rage's game.

Pure fury is the best way I can describe the Cancer Bats. The lead singer screams his heart out with pure venom while the guitars provided a suprisingly wide array licks and riffs under the pummelling shred.

I was sitting outside but could feel the huge crowd response and atomsphere and to be perfectly honest that's all the Ting Tings had going for them. The beats were slick but repetitive and Katie was just a terribly lead singer out of key, time and just generally screeching allover the tracks. The crowd couldn't give a shit if she couldn't sing the tracks they'd happily do it for them. Interesting they put a much improved accoustic performance in on the Entroducing stage later on.

Thanks to Glastonbury magic and Jools Holland Seasick Steve has become a festival legend and he true a crowd to match his reputation. Seasick Steve didn't dissapoint with some great banter and some superb crowd interaction, even bringing a girl from the audience onstage to sing to. The music and songs had real heart and character provoking big "Stevo" chants. A racous performance of Doghouse Blues closed preecedings in style. Seasick Steve is a loveable character and a great live act.

Didn't catch the whole of the set but luck for us hit the hits collection at the end with Level, Steady As She Goes, Broken Boy Soldiers and Solute Your Solutions. It was alot of fun but Jack White's other band just lack the punch of the White Stripes.

The band I'd been waiting for weekend and I had lofty expectations seeing as Daft Punk seem to be on an endless hiatus Justice are the only ones left to fill the void. Of course there not even a fifth as good as Daft Punk live but this doesn't stop them being brilliant. Mixing the Phantom into just about every track is sublime, from the openning Genesis they have the crowd hooked and with singalongs the size of DVNO, D.A.N.C.E, The Party and the deathening We Are Your Friends Justice simply couldn't fail. Combined with some ice cold mixing and the best light show of the weekend they established themselves as the heirs to Daft Punk.

Up against the Killers and Gallows the Manics drew a pitifully small crowd but no one seemed to mind least of all the Manics who launched into a rip roaring set. Unfortuanetly despite classic tracks like Of Walking Abortion, Masses Against The Classes and You Love Us the Manics were sunk by a short one hour set meaning that the odd setlist will have left alot of people feeling short changed. Having seen the Manics in the front row at V playing the dream set list I couldn't complain but it was far from the ideal manics set.

Jimmy Urine is an incredibly funny front man and really stole the show. MSI have some incredibly slick beats to back up his stand up routine but lacked variety and couldn't help but feel repetitive and underwhelming on the mainstage, still they did their best and will have certainly gained some new fans myself included.

I'm gonna keep this short, they made me fall asleep literally.

Jack Black is really funny, really, really funny. His jokes are terrible and he knows it and that's part of the reason he's a comedy God. He knows how bad he sucks and he's mainly up there to entertain himself. From the minute they came on dressed as a Lizard and Wizard and costume mishap that cause Kyle to storm off stage they had the crowd in the palm of their hands. Tribute, Wonderboy, Dude I Totally Miss You are all huge singalongs but the two best songs are Fuck Her Softly which suprising garnered the biggest singalongs and the brinlliant The Metal. With Wizard, Lizards, Robots and Devils Tenacious D rocked the house.

Who the Fuck are Avenged Sevenfold and Slipknot anway? All the dissapointment at the pull outs and then the lack of replacements what was the fuss about? When Mettallica are this good who gives a shit? Honestly? Metallica are now they best band I've ever seen live knocking Daft Punk into second and Muse into a distant third. From the minute Creeping Death hit till they bowed out with a lung shattering rendition of Seek and Destroy Metallica were never anything other than brilliant. Even the two new songs fit right in amongnst the classics. Ride The Lighting, No Remorse, Justice For All, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Sanitarium, Master Of Puppets, Nothing Else Matters, Enter Sandman and One among others were simply incredibly. Kirk and Lars were putting on a master class in drums and guitars and James worked the crowd into a frenzy. The set highlight was a cover of Last Caress I may never get to see Misfits do it (well proper Misfits anyway) but Danzig would be proud of this rendition of his best pop record.