Following the success of our first Leeds Festival in 2005 (review here) we returned a year later for another August Bank Holiday weekend of music and mayhem. With another Glasto-free summer – this time due to a ‘fallow’ year rathe than a failure to get tickets – we needed another festival to go to and Leeds came up trumps again…
Whist the lineup for Reading and Leeds wasn’t quite as strong as it was in 2005 there was still plenty to keep us entertained including my first and only experience of Pearl Jam! I’d been a fan since the early 90’s but had never seen them live before so this was a bit special.
Highlights from Leeds Festival in 2006 were:
Pearl Jam – see above. Their headline slot on the Friday night was their first festival appearance since some fans were crushed to death at at a show in Denmark in 2000. After walking out onto the stage singer Eddie Vedder asked the crowd to “take care of one another” before launching into ‘Go’. They were superb that night! Here’s some raw fan footage which is surprisingly good quality for its age (mobile phone cameras were still a bit crap in 2005!)
Primal Scream – we opted to see them rather than Franz Ferdinand and, whilst we couldn’t actually get inside the NME/Radio 1 tent to see them ‘up close’ the vibe around the outside of the tent was enough to satisfy our need for a bit of old school festival attitude. This is what they looked like from INSIDE the tent!
Slayer – I was into thrash metal back in the late 80’s but had never got round to seeing Slayer during that era of my life (even though I DID see three of the ‘Big 4’ back then – Anthrax, Metallica and Megadeth). This performance made up for it a lot as Slayer ripped Leeds a new one that afternoon.
Arctic Monkeys – after missing their legendary Leeds debut in the Carling tent a year earlier we got to see and appreciate why the Sheffield band had risen so rapidly in such a short space of time. It pissed down on that Sunday night and we got soaked to the skin but they were utterly brilliant.
Muse – we had already seen them a few times during their rise in the early 2000’s (including a gig at the Princess Charlotte pub in Leicester – ticket stub here!) but now Muse were playing with the big boys. Awesome set and worthy headliners. Even bigger things were around the corner…
Placebo – without checking I think I’ve probably seen this band more than any other in my lifetime. Another faultless set from Brian Molko et al…
The Fall – Salford’s finest, Mark E Smith fronting the latest lineup of the band in the NME / Radio 1 tent. During their 42 year existence The Fall allegedly had 60 different members and released 32 studio albums. I’m glad I got to see this incarnation of the band – they were awesome and Mark was on fine form. Here’s some footage!
Other notable performances over the weekend came from Australia’s Wolfmother, Flogging Molly and Bedouin Sounclash who unfortunately had to cut their set short in the Carling tent when the singer Jay Malinowski lost his voice. What was memorable about this show though was that the crowd took over vocal duties and sang the songs for him – even after the band had left the stage. It was actually quite moving…
Slayer 
Primal Scream 
Primal Scream’s Mani 
Wolfmother 
The Fall’s Mark E Smith 
Matt Bellamy of Muse 
The first and only time I’ve abandoned a tent at a festival 
The aftermath 
Monday morning after the festival
Back to the Bowl
Metallica’s Big Day Out – 1999 – read more here!