RECENT POSTS
The previous ten posts on the Blog
Archives
- Mephedrone - How Dangerous Is The UK's Favourite New Drug?
- 10 Tracks You Have To Hear This Week - Hot Club De Paris, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Shearwater
- What Should Liam Gallagher Call His New Band?
- Glee - Best Thing On TV, Or Cynical Cheese-Fest?
- Where Are The Protest Singers Of Today?
- The NME Chart Top 40 Revealed - 8th February 2010
- Carl Barat And Sadie Frost - Backstage At The Theatre
- 10 Tracks You Have To Hear This Week - Gorillaz, Marina, Joanna Newsom
- Save The Music Industry - Buy A Subscription
- The NME Chart Top 40 Revealed - 1st February 2010
- Apple iPad - Everything You Need To Know, Including Videos and 8 Reasons Why It Sucks
- Can't We Do Better For The People Of Haiti Than 'Everybody Hurts'?
- More...
CATEGORIES
Filter Blog posts by...
Categories
- All
- In The Office (970)
SEARCH
Use the form below to search the blog archives...
Speaking as someone who is generally perceived be the epitome of an "indie boy" (well, that's what my girlfriend calls me) I've, until recently, been a bit sniffy about the kind of rock (rawk?) music which tends to attract fans to the Download Festival and the last day of Reading.

Speaking of Reading, it was long rumoured, in fact generally assumed, that the 'rock day' headliner this year would be AC/DC – they've been trying to get them for years, they are on tour - the planets were aligned on this one.
But it didn't happen, and there isn't even a 'rock day' on the main stage at all. But the organisers should have moved heaven and earth to get them – because their performance at London's O2 Arena last night was without the doubt the best arena show I have ever seen.
Everything about it was perfect – the punishing volume, the choice of songs (five new album tracks and THE HITS), the audience's frenzied reaction, and the sheer spectacle. You can read about all that in our news story.
But when I was on the way home, I couldn't help thinking that if those boys were to headline a festival, they would make everyone else sound unspeakably lame. Although having said that, if they had done Reading, the organisers would have had to do something about the sound restrictions. Maybe that's what AC/DC were concerned about, as they were in talks, but subsequently chose to do their own summer stadium shows instead.
Anyway, the idea of watching Arctic Monkeys, Kings Of Leon and even the mighty Radiohead doesn't seem quite as exciting now. In fact, I'm worried that whoever I see in the future will just pale in comparison to what I've just witnessed.
To those who rocked, I salute you – including this bloke, who was one of the many middle-aged men wearing schoolboy outfits in homage to Angus Young:
NME.COM blogs contain the opinions of the individual writer and not necessarily those of NME magazine or NME.COM.
This post has 3 feedbacks awaiting moderation...
Leave a comment:
<< Previous post: Queen, Procul Harum And The Power Of Gibberish
Next post: 'Record Store Day' Masks A Depressing Truth - We've Fallen Out Of Love With Buying Music >>







