First time back at Reading Uni for awhile, but I still found it OK; it's the Courage Brewery junction off the M4! Got there in good time to catch a bit of opener Coast's routine but okay actually chunky harmonic riffery; a bit of a poor man's 18 Wheeler actually, which was ironic as the "Wheeler"'s vocalist Sean Jackson was here handing out Coast flyers at the end of the set!
I popped into the crowd for Electrafixion's set; as anticipated, they were totally brilliant, playing dynamically, spookily and with oodles of class. Former Echo And The Bunnymen vocalist and current Electrafixion mainman Ian McCulloch, effectively the voice of my teenhood in his former incarnation, still knows how to make the old spine really tingle with his vocals, and the young back-up (apart, that is, from fellow old Bunny Will Sergeant, who's looking thicker-set and more Ramones-ish by the day) kicked up a perfect storm of stunning, heavy-on-the-guitars mighty mood music. My one man moshpit expanded, as I gave it loads for an utterly brilliant set!
After that, the very popular Boo Radleys were onto a bit of a loser for me. No issue with them really; they sounded their usual pop-psych fun selves of recent viewings and I watched the first half-dozen numbers of their swirly-delic pop numbers, but felt after that, that I'd become a victim of Boo-overexposure this year. Also, they seemed a little lightweight after the crashing brilliance of Mac's lot, although, again, no fault of theirs - McCulloch's a total idol of mine, and on tonight's form, ANYONE would have suffered in comparison. So I hung back during their set, then had a drink in the quiet bar, bumping into Jools, the former Marion and current Electrafixion bassist, for a chat in the process.
Undoubtedly, the Boo Radleys have this year enhanced their reputation with a brilliant LP of Summer pop, which encapsulates 1995's Summer holidays and which has made them both massively popular and ubiquitous in the process ("Wake Up Boo!" is everywhere!), but on this showing, Electrafixion won the day!
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