Day 1

As promised here is the long awaited review of the Leeds Carling Weekender

Aloha Banditos! Someone asked me a week or two ago "are The Darkness Dogw**k, or otherwise?" Well, as promised here's the word on the street or rather from a field on the wrong side of the Pennines, on The Darkness and much much more!!!!

Thursday 22nd August approx. 11pm Carlos, Claire Bandito , Vicky and Man Mountain Bandito arrive at festival site. After having all bottled beverages confiscated by the fascist camp security force Carlos et al are pleased to find that some altogether rather groovy friends of the Man Mountain have reserved us a top camping spot (respect due!!). Fortunately canned beers had also been brought in so drinking commenced forthwith!

Friday dawned with an overpriced bacon roll and the Bandito entourage made it's way to the main arena; from here on I'll cut the crap and just give you the low-down on the bands.
Spent most of Friday at the main stage starting with the All American Rejects (ok, nothing special) swiftly followed by the absolutely dire 'The Used' who just thought they were cool because their main man shagged rock piglet Kelly Osborne, tried to play the crowd too much and thought it was a really original thing to do to get everyone to shout 'fuck' a lot. Verdict? Definitely the worst band I've seen for many years!!

Next victim was Good Charlotte. If they'd stuck to playing tunes rather than trying to outdo The Used by over crowd participation they would have been excellent. Verdict: tried a bit too hard but well worth seeing.

Next comes the only British representative to grace the main stage on day one - the totally awesome Primal Scream. They were so good that I had to phone Baron von Evilgoat during the set so he could enjoy the bass playing masterclass from the legendary Mani ( I think I phoned in the middle of Baby Lucifer). The Scream had it all - soul, extensive guitar noise and great British controversy as Bobby Gillespie changed 'Kill All Hippies' to 'Kill All American Soldiers In Iraq!!' Absolute class!!

Sum 41 were on next (the only other non-American band of the day). Well if you've only heard the single "In Too Deep" you're in for a hefty surprise as the Canadians launch in to 45 minutes of non-stop ultra fast power punk-pop mayhem including a cover of Metallica's Master of Puppets! After pretty much a whole afternoon of this genre this was pretty intense but none the less excellent.

After a quick break for some more extortionately priced food we returned to see the final half hour of System Of A Down; not really sure what to make of them really... Heavy as hell with some bizarre operatic vocals and crazy facial hair - 'nuff said!!

Finally to the headline act of the day (and probably the whole festival!): Metallica. Finally I was about to see the band whom I'd waited for more than ten years to see and of all the days to see them on James Hetfield's birthday. It's hard to describe just how good this band are you just have to see and hear for yourself before they decide to retire!
The start was delayed by some bint from radio one who'd probably never played a Metallica record in her entire life pleading with the crowd to stop pushing forward - yeah right!
What followed was an awesome two hour spectacle of pure musical professionalism, power and raw energy with the added immense display of pyrotechnics if only the Man Mountain had answered his messages we would have seen all this from back stage!! The set included many old classics (Master of Puppets, For whom the Bell Tolls, Creeping Death and Seek and Destroy to name but a few) plus two brand new tracks from the latest release St. Anger plus Kirk Hammett drumming and Lars playing Kirks guitar badly - truly sensational! I thrashed my Afro off!!
After the legendary track Enter Sandman had stopped ringing in our ears we traipsed stiff necked back to Camp Bandito for more chemical abuse!!

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