News Reading & Leeds 2010: Rolo Tomassi

Ahead of this year’s event, we asked a bunch of bands playing over the weekend a bunch of questions. Stepping up on behalf of noisy types Rolo Tomassi (NME/Radio 1 Stage) is James.

Have you played Reading and Leeds before?
This is our first time playing! We’re incredibly excited to have the opportunity to do it. Leeds is the festival we all grew up going to and its a kind of dream come true for our band.

Who are you hoping to see while you’re there?
The line-up, for the kind of festival it is, is pretty incredible. I’m hoping to catch Weezer, Atari Teenage Riot, Health and Fourtet amongst many others. We’re fortunate in that a lot of our friends bands are also playing so it’ll be a good weekend in terms of catching up with people.

Who do you wish were playing the festival?
Throats. We toured earlier this year with those guys and Trash Talk and whilst we have had a few semi-reunions, we’ve yet to all share the same bill again.

Who would you like to see collaborate over the weekend?
I’ve been told that Hayley Williams has sang ‘Say It Ain’t So’ with Weezer a few times at shows in the US. I think that’d be pretty great to watch.

Who would you least like to clash with at the festival?
Any of the bands I mentioned that I wanted to see!

Do you, or have you ever gone to festivals as a fan?
I’ve been to Leeds Festival every year since 2002 with the exception of one year when I went to Ieperfest in Belgium. Going to Leeds Festival was an almost religious trip for us and our friends from home. It was the last big weekend of the summer before we’d have to go back to school/college/6th form. I have a lot of amazing memories of being there!

Whilst I don’t particularly ‘enjoy’ camping its all part of the fun of being at festivals.

What’s your festival food of choice?
I’m a vegetarian which I think is pretty safe at festivals. A lot of meat you see being sold looks sketchy as hell. Mexican stands are always a safe bet.

Have you ever stolen from another band’s rider?
Absolutely not. We have been stolen from though and it was a very irritating experience.

Reading or Leeds?
I can’t really make the decision fairly having never been to Reading, but for nostalgia’s sake, Leeds.