Leeds Festival 2011

The big initial announcement for Reading and Leeds has dropped this evening, as expected, and it is a stormer. The forums online were sending the rumour mill into overdrive as early as lunchtime today, with a poster of the announcement being supposedly leaked.

Little did we know at that time, but the lineup on that “leaked” poster was in fact correct, and when the official announcement came at 7.15pm from Zane Lowe on Radio 1, I for one thought it was a solid first batch for the August bank holiday weekender.

Pretty annoyed in many ways, as I am not sure if I will be able to afford yet another festival this summer, but I will be working on it up until the event that is a definite. Sure the tickets will all be sold out instantly, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be able to pick one up nearer the time. My mate got one on ebay last year for less than I had paid for a ticket when they went on sale. Hopefully though, I might make it to this, but it is looking unlikely at this time.

Leeds is always a cracking weekend as well, and even if the initial line-up announcement is a bit dodgy (ahem . . .2009, I am looking at you), by the time all the bands are announced, it always has a sterling bunch of bands on there. This year though, the first batch is brilliant, and there are some quality names in there for me. It will only get stronger as well when more bands are added, and when that goldmine that is the Lock Up stage is finally released.

But for now, there is no harm in admiring the names on that list. Great news to see My Chemical Romance and Muse up there, as I had a huge fear that it would be Arctic Monkeys this time, who I am not too fussed on. The Strokes would be worth a watch, but not a personal favourite, and it is great to see Pulp on there. I would love to see them. Pulp’s “Different Class” was one of the first albums I ever bought as a kid and I would like to see them, even if I wouldn’t necessarily go to a headline show of theirs.

Across the line up though, there is pure quality, and I am loving the fact that Deftones, The Offspring, Rise Against, Bring Me The Horizon, Jimmy Eat World, Enter Shikari, Architects, 30 Seconds to Mars, The Midnight Beast, Panic! At The Disco, The Streets, Crystal Castles, Janes Addiction, The Blackout, We Are The Ocean, New Found Glory, Frankie T, and Taking Back Sunday are all on there. They are all acts that I would see, and there will be undoubtedly more bands added that I would watch further down the line.

I am also pretty pleased to see Madness on there, which is a real curveball from Melvin Benn and those behind Reading and Leeds.

It is still a great weeked towards the end of the summer, and is usually not one to miss. I do hope that circumstance doesn’t make me miss it this time round, as it looks immense at the moment.