Day 3

Aloha Banditos, you'll be pleased to know that this is the long awaited final chapter of my report from the Carling Leeds Weekender. Sunday is usually a really boring day spent eating large lunches and then sleeping them off again but this Sunday was much more exciting as will be explained shortly.

Firstly I apologise for omitting a fine act from my review of day 2 - The Datsuns. If I'd known how lame the Alien Ant Farm set was going to be I'd have made more effort to watch these guys they rocked (well during the ten mins or so I was there anyway!)

The Streets hit the main stage with a sort of musical splat as Mike Skinner declared it "tits out weather" and consequently received no visible response from the crowd. I only wanted to see Morgan (the bass God) play again but seeing him involved with this rabble was like watching David Dunn scoring in every game so far for Birmingham city: what a waste!! Geezers need excitement, and these guys didn't provide it, so they insight violence - common sense simple common sense!

Next comes the story of the weekend: after spending more time than is physically possible for most normal air breathing mammals in a turdis, Man Mountain Bandito scored the result of the weekend. He'd spent all that valuable oxygen texting the mars prize hotline trying to win a goody bag (I think the dude probably had the munchies big time). However it turned out that he'd won two pairs of passes for a backstage tour. Now here's the sick part. If he'd claimed the prize on Friday we would have been backstage for Metallica on James Hetfields' birthday (shame). Fortunately we were able to go backstage whilst The Doves were on!! We were escorted through the guest area to the press viewing area between the barrier and the main stage and allowed to stay for most of the Doves superb set, as they opened with Pounding followed by the now indie classics Words, There Goes the Fear, Caught by the river and The Cedar room. Plus a bonus of a couple of new unreleased tracks that they were experimenting with... We were totally blown away - the sound was awesome and the vibe of the weekend so far outstanding!!

After being unceremoniously turfed out of the backstage area we rejoined the rest of the extended honorary Bandito Posse to watch the ever original Beck shake his thang! Have seen this extraordinary gentleman on several occasions and he's always worth it. A couple of dudes were spotted 'Bezzing it up' in a massive way whilst Beck blasted out old favourites Loser and Devils Haircut. I wonder who those guys were - I'd really like to shake their hands!

This fantastic weekend was now drawing to a close and things were starting to look bleak and sort of out of focus. Then along came Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the crazed 'Bezzing' starts up again. if you've not received one of the more recent Carlos recorded surf soundtracks you may not have heard these guys, but they kick butt in a very Jesus and Mary chain kind of way, right down to the fuzzy hairdos!
A classic set comprising the fabulous Spread Your Love and new single Stop plus As Sure as the Sun which featured on the recent Gower Mission soundtrack. Some amongst us were disappointed by the lack of White Stripes type action but BRMC were a well worthy replacement on the bill; obviously good mates with the Whites they included a cover of The Hardest Button to Button which definitely came out of the top drawer verdict: if you're monged off your face you can 'Bez' to anything and this was a total 'Bezzfest'!!

Some of you may be aware that in my quest for world Bandito domination I was once known as 'The Beachmaster Genera'l or 'El Beachio' and during this time I was assisted by my faithful sidekick Paul "Fruit on a Leash" Murphy. As a tribute to the best known surfer associated with the Bandito organisation, Carlos would brave the vicious circle pit of death in his appointment with the worlds best skate-punk band (as an aside, if anyone reading this review has been tempted to purchase the recently released skater-rock compilation CD - DON'T! Or I'll come round and nail it too your forehead. This product was examined by myself after seeing the total fallacy of an advert that no self-respecting skater would or should purchase. It's definitely an album for wannabes and contains no genuine sk8 material!!) Pennywise!! These old guys were the Fruit's fave band of all time and are totally awesome, plus they absolutely hate George W Bush just like the rest of us, so nice work fellas!!

Finally I staggered from the Concrete Jungle stage to catch the classic Blur track Popscene back at the main stage - my only comment on the last main stage headliner is that they were quite groovy lights, really!

So Bandito faithful, here endeth the Leeds Weekender report from your illustrious music guru. A few items have been omitted for the legal protection of certain individuals, but apart from that what you have read (although totally out of sequence on the website) is the definitive word on the street kept real for you, by me, Carlos Bandito!!

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