Features Reading & Leeds 2010: Saturday 28th / Friday 27th Guide

Reading & Leeds - the land where all good plans go to die. Regardless, we’re giving you tips of just one amazing route through the festival. Excuse the number of spazzgasmic adjectives, but with the prospect of a day of music quite so awesome, it’s easy to get excited.

12:00 - 12:30 Rolo Tomassi / The Walkmen

Sometimes festivals are cruel; they try and make us pick between two acts we really want to see. Reading & Leeds 2010 is in a particularly sadistic mood afternoon - if you like your music with a touch of primal scream (note the lack of capitals), Rolo Tomassi are on the Radio One Stage. Otherwise, The Walkmen open the main.

12:45 - 13:20 The Futureheads / Everything Everything

And another. The Futureheads always put on an awesome show, but Everything Everything have delivered one of the debut records of the year. We’d advise flipping a coin.

13:30 - 14:00 Yuck

Yuck by name, not Yuck by nature.

14:15 - 14:45 Trash Talk

Every once in a while one needs their lug holes cleaned out. You could use conventional means, or you could blast them out with a lovely old slice of noise. Trash Talk do noise, and they do it bloody well.

15:00 - 15:30 Freelance Whales

Once we stopped mistaking that Freelance Whales song on the radio for Owl City (sorry) we realised we thought they were A Bit Of Alright. The only question remains, what would a whale’s freelance rate be? We bet it’s out of our price range.

15:40 - 16:20 Modest Mouse

From self employed sea life to humble rodents - Modest Mouse find themselves on the same day as The Cribs. Does this mean Marr? Probably.

16:35 - 17:10 Villagers

Villagers, Mercury Music Prize nominated and all, really do have a song that sounds like the theme from Going For Gold. We know we keep saying this, but we’re going to carry on until someone listens, or Henry Kelly turns up on stage to ask them who, or what, they are.

17:25 - 18:00 Chapel Club

Chapel Club aren’t a club from a chapel. We don’t think. We’ve not done our research, but we have done our listening. As a tea time treat they come highly recommended.

17:50 - 18:40 The Cribs

Wakey Wakey, it’s The Cribs. Ignoring our poor geographical jokes, the brothers Jarman and their cool Uncle Marr continue their slow ascent up the bill. By album ten they’ll be headlining, just you watch.

18:15 - 18:55 Darwin Deez

He of the ‘looking like a bit of a twat but actually OK to listen to’, Darwin Deez makes a nice starter for the full out pop fest of…

19:00 - 19:50 Dizzee Rascal

… that judge off of Must Be The Music. Apparently he makes successful pop records too. Who’d have thought it? We’re doubtful we’ll get Calvin Harris and The Pineapple to join in, more is the pity.

19:55 - 20:45 Crystal Castles

WARNING: If going to see Crystal Castles, don’t be a dick. We’d actually like to see their set this time around. Keep those hands to yourself, Mr Gropey. If that all goes well, this should be all kinds of fun.

20:20 - 21:20 The Libertines

Morbid curiosity dictates we have to check out just what The Libertines’ 2010 vintage sounds like. Early reports use the word ‘tight’ - we’re assuming this means Pete has spent all his cash on sherbet dips and isn’t splashing the cash. They couldn’t actually have, like, practiced?

22:00 - 23:30 Arcade Fire

Every festival needs one headliner who can do epic, and you don’t get any better than Arcade Fire. The thought of ‘Sprawl II’ in a darkened field has us almost crying with excitement already. Anyone planning on taking the crown from this lot is going to have to play one hell of a blinder.