The Black Side of Rock'n'Roll
Reflections on Reading Festival, 2005

It's clearly taken me a long time to get off my ass, and write this, but hey, I've been busy

Reading festival 2005. My 6th year at the festival. I love that place, I've had some of the best times of my life there, and seen some of the best gigs there. Beck & Oasis 2000, Greenday 2001 (I think), and again in 2004.

Maybe it was because of my young and impressionable age, (even though everyone treasures the memories of their teenage experiences, and the first times you do various things), but this year I've had a slight feeling of disappointment, not over the whole festival, just on one single area. It wasn't the shit line up - that just gave me more time to do the obligatory 'getting wasted in the campsite', or to check out the Carling stage. It wasn't my friends, this year we had an awesome camp, and it wasn't even the toilets when I very nearly vomited in one due to the gut wrenching smell. It was those toss piece anal lick bum hole swimming security guards.

The first night I'm walking into the campsite with a case of bottled beer, and I'm walking round the edge of the market place so as not to drown, and and I hear a 'You can't take bottles into the campsite', but I didn't really hear so I carried on walking.. 'ARE YOU FUCKING DEAF YOU FUCKHEAD?' in a thick Glaswegian accent; this jumped up little bleach blonde prick of a security guard was staring straight at me next to two other equally as stubborn and impolite morons. The bleachey peachy one started being very aggressive and getting right up in my face as if his life depended on getting my beer off me. Or maybe it was that he was really short and most short people have a bit of a chip on their shoulder, hehe.


This was the trend throughout the rest of the festival, with all the security guards being quite un cooperative, except when they nearly caught us pushing each other into tents, but we told them it was some dude with short black hair, and the security gimps believed us hook line and sinker and told us they were gonna catch him that night. Haha, stupid fucks.

But why are these people here? We come and go to festivals to get into the spirit, to have a party. We have saved up all summer to afford their ever ascending rip off prices, but we pay these prices with a thought of 'Fuck, I could have bought a new set of speakers with this money' to go and listen to the art we love, listen to the artists who have inspired us, and given us things to think about, whether that's in their lyrical content or, for the musicians among us, who just want a jaw dropping moment. Either way, these people are our heroes and heroin(e)s, and there isn't a price you can put on watching your hero play live.

Security don't get that. They're at this amazing place, full of great people and a whole host of spectacular music to listen to, but they don't get it, they're all just laughing at the Goth kids, the punk kids or just anyone who wants to express themselves, 'cos their too bitter at the fact that if you walked round the estates of Glasgow looking like that, you'd get a beating. They have a mentality that if you're not working class from the back shit ends of Glasgow, then you haven't lived and they'll be bitter to anyone else, because if you're not from there, you're obviously a snob right?

I think it's a real shame that these tossers get to experience, something to me that I treasure every year, and is something I treat with huge respect. 60 odd thousand like minded people in a field for 5 days listening to rock n roll, is there anything much closer to heaven?


Are 10 percent of these airheads even aware of who say 5 - 10 bands are on the bill? Probably not, they just want to beat people up and walk up to people in large groups and intimidate them.

Oh sorry, I meant to say they're there to help people, silly me!

Paz


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