The Main Stage, Reading Festival
Despite driving there through a very heavy rainstorm, earlier forecasts in the week of rain and some heavy rain drops falling briefly, it remained dry for the whole day and later on (I took this when I first arrived) the sun came out and it was a lot brighter.
Date: Saturday 27th August, 2016
Location: Reading, England.
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Merch
Ticket/Wristband
Set List:
Many thanks to Claire for permission to use her photo
Can’t Stop
Dani California
Scar Tissue
Dark Necessities
Adventures of Raindance Maggie
Snow ((Hey Oh))
Go Robot
Otherside
Parallel Universe
The Getaway
Californication
Under The Bridge
By the Way
Encore:
Goodbye Angels
Give It Away
My Notes:
At some point they played a snippet of ‘Brimful of Asha’ by Cornershop
Flea and his daughter Sunny did a handstand together and then Sunny did a flip across the stage before the two shared a loving hug. So Sweet!
Rebecca’s Review of Reading!
I was there! I wasn’t originally going to the festival because of having to take my kids which wasn’t a good idea on so many levels but very last minute, thanks to some amazing friends who looked after my children and got a ticket to me as they had sold out by that point, I got to go!!!
Arrived at Reading early afternoon and then begin the 65 minute trek from the car park to the festival site (not that far) and on to the arena entrance (was that far! You had to walk all the way round the venue from the main entrance to virtually the opposite side to get to the actual day ticket entrance and then walk through part of the camp site to get to the arena entrance itself -on the way out you could just leave by the main entrance which took a few mins- and then through the ticket check point, the swap your ticket for a wristband tent, the queue for the arena and to go through security who just glanced at my bag and didn’t seem to do much but there was a long queue all the same… Total faff and the worst organised festival I’ve been to in terms of entrance ( e.g.the Isle of Wight festival sent you a wristband instead of a ticket which saved the faff of swapping things) although everything else was really well done.
Slaves
The first act I got to see was Slaves (Slave?). Sorry not my thing! I’m past puerile angst (and I think the vocalist looked old enough to be past it too!) and it’s been done better and more originally by others and I think I’m getting old but every other word (literally and including one song they played) doesn’t have to be the “f word”. But maybe that’s just me!
Eagles of Death Metal
The next act was Eagles of Death Metal who were really good. A couple of songs in, the vocalist put on a RHCP t-shirt and a cape and he wore the t-shirt for most of their set until he removed it and threw it into the audience. It was also sweet how he did a shout out to his father and got the crowd to cheer for him. Loved their cover of Duran Duran’s ‘Save A Prayer’ at the end of their set.
I missed the next act while buying a t-shirt (obviously RHCP!) and food as the queues were a lot shorter when someone was playing although they sounded good and I regretted not getting stuff earlier on so I could listen to them properly.
Imagine Dragons
Imagine Dragons were up next and I started moving closer to the stage partly as I wanted to see them and also to try to get a better spot ready for RHCP. Loved ‘Radioactive’ when it came out and bought the album but never got into it as it sounds so different to that first single but they were really good live and ‘heavier’ than the album. Will try re-listening to the album now!
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
And then the reason why I went… RHCP! The set started with a trumpet solo before going into the jam leading into ‘Can’t Stop’. Amazing set! Obviously, I have songs I prefer to other ones and every song they played was one I really like so it was a brilliant set list as far as I was concerned AND I also got to hear some songs off the new album live for the first time which, of course, was amazing and I was very happy about! 🙂 The audience was great and there was a wonderful atmosphere.
I was close to the very end of the safety barrier for the start of the set but decided to move back after a while as it was so hot and I couldn’t see Chad at all and wanted to see the whole stage for the new display- although I didn’t manage either of those as I ended up just a bit farther back than from where I started out from but I now had room to move about and treat Reading to my dancing skills ( :P). Many thanks to Stephanie and Anna (hope I got that right!) who decided that dancing with a totally insane RHCP fan to ‘By the Way’ (so glad your fav song got played!), through to the end of the main set and for giving me hugs during ‘Under The Bridge’ because they knew how much that song means to me, was the most normal thing in the world! Was great to meet you girls 😀
Shout outs too to Sage (think he was seven) who was at his first RHCP concert with his mum and who loves the band and also to the group from Guernsey I stood by at the side of the stage at the beginning- hope you enjoyed your first RHCP concert too! There was another couple I was chatting to for ages before I went in search of food (am amazing veggie burrito! Was so good!) and merch who were so friendly. And to the guy who chatted me walking along the road back into Reading at the end of the concert. And the pics are attached at the bottom as promised for you guys who asked me to take them!!! Thanks everyone <3
Red Hot Chili Peppers – We Will Rock You (Flea… by dlstreamlive
Full Show:
Photos:
I tried taking photos as I always do but I didn’t get any good ones- so disappointed and I actually cried when I saw them at home today as I’d tried so hard to get some good shots (final straw on a stressful day; my son ended up being rushed to hospital by my friend looking after him as he had a bad asthma attack. Despite being told he was fine as he’d responded well to treatment and that there was no need, I raced the 100 miles back to be with him as soon as my friend called me first thing this morning. He’s totally fine now but my stress levels are still high!) but it’s so hard to take them from the crowd. Have included the better ones. The first ones at the beginning are pictures taken of the display screens and came out the best of the lot.
(Photos as requested:)
