A fantastic day was had by all at the Reading University Student’s Union on Saturday the 13th of September courtesy of the wonderful local charity Readipop.
All photos by Reading Indie Life.
The Readipop Charity has been going since 1998. It provides a range of music workshops, and access to instruments, for children throughout the year. It also supports young artists with opportunities to take their first recording steps, providing focus and technique for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Well, we didn’t get a full festival this year, but the shortened Fiesta was nothing but a triumph. Reading University Student’s Union made for a great multi-room venue providing a range of entertainment. There was plenty to keep the kids occupied with circus skills, face painting, bracelet making and plenty more. There were some local indie-market stalls and some very tasty food, including local pizza legends Sarv’s Slice.
We Don’t Run
It was still very quiet when this year’s University of Reading Battle of the Band’s winner We Don’t Run came on at 12:15. Those who were down in time got an absolute treat. They have a great sound and some decent original tunes. Well worth checking out if you get the chance.
Ben Marwood
Opening the patio stage was local acoustic legend Ben Marwood. He was in a reflective mood as a former University of Reading student. He reminisced that the last time he played in the university was as part of a punk band in 2004. They didn’t win the battle of the bands, unlike We Don’t Run. He plays a mix of old and new songs, including one that manages to recite pi to a large number of places – educational as well as fun. He tells us there will be a new album at some point.
The Borough
The Borough are another lively young indie band. They have two tracks in the usual places. Their set was unfortunately curtailed by a few minutes by the fire alarm going off. All was quickly sorted, whatever the cause, and it didn’t happen again.
Jess Tuthill
It was great to finally catch Jess Tuthill this year. She favours the ukulele as her instrument of choice and works wonders with it. It is a great set from the local singer-songwriter who deserves thousands more listeners on Spotify. She enjoys her computer games and her Last of Us inspired track went down very well. ‘Fuzzy Love’ is a strong ending.
Doops
It is a good set from the local legends. They play a number of tracks from their forthcoming album, including brilliant recent Single of The Week ‘everything’s fine’. They have a blended mix of psychedelia, post-punk and alt-rock.
4Fingaz
4Fingaz brings a lot of uplifting and strong messages with him about coping with adversity and believing in yourself. There are some bold attempts to get audience participation going for this time of day but he carries it with his strong personality.
Bone Idle
A four-piece indie band from Reading. There is a decent crowd by now and the band go down well. There are some very classic indie stylings and they will be popular with anyone who likes a bit of 90’s indie. There are several EPs and singles on streaming sites.
Glitterwound
Having gone in blind to this band they were certainly heavier than expected. A seven-piece act with a number of multi-instrumentalists. They seemed genuinely surprised by the strength of the crowd reaction and talk about being used to playing much smaller venues. Their lead singer was quite nervous but didn’t let it affect the quality of her performance. Watch out for any official music releases in the future.
Vanity Fairy
In her own words Vanity Fairy is “about five coffees deep” and looks as wired as that suggests. She is one of the surprise packages of the day and is an enormous amount of fun. This is a full-on set of classic 70’s style disco and 80’s tinged dancefloor. She is both fearless and shameless, going for a wander amongst the crowd and even outside Mojos and into the patio area. Many in the crowd are strongly sucked in, a few recoil in terror as she zeros in on them.
Kah’nya
Kah’Nya is an absolute superstar in the making, a huge talent. It would be great to see her backed by a full band as she writes fantastic pop tunes. As at Are You Listening? Festival it is just her and her acoustic guitar today. Her voice is fantastic, she writes intelligently, and in a few years we will all pinch ourselves at these times where we sat less than two metres from her, when she is selling out arenas.
Baby Said
Baby Said never disappoint and come at this with great energy, as always. They are a touch thrown by having forty minutes, as they are used to playing a tight twenty-five to thirty minutes. Luckily, they have already written more than enough decent tunes to fill the time. Everyone has fun, crowd and band alike. As previously, the beyond their years guitar skills of sisters Veronica & Jess Pal are the absolute stand-out.
Oh Dear
After Pej and Uncle Peanut had to pull out late on Ben Marwood did a second stint in Oh Dear’s original slot and they took the stint in Mojos, rather than out on the patio. This duo sound excellent on record with hints of Lemon Jelly, and are in the grand tradition of dreamy indie-pop. They translate that well live. Today, they got their first ever mosh pit. Not sure why it happened given how laid back they are, but it made it memorable.
The Primitives
The presence of this veteran band, formed in Coventry in 1985, was a real treat. In terms of streaming numbers, they are the biggest performers today, narrowly edging out The Amazons. Their incredibly cheery brand of indie-pop is lapped up by the crowd, a few clearly drawn from further afield than Reading just to see these guys. ‘Crash’ is of course the icing on the cake, one of those perfect little pop-tunes that just makes life a little bit better by its existence.
Puma Theory
Tonight, Puma Theory confirmed themselves as the next big Reading band. They are tightly coiled, dynamic and have explosive energy. They have three very decent singles on streaming services and more should be on the way soon. They have a great ear for groove and melody. Jacob Holroyd and Cameron Smith are the core members, expanding to a four-piece when they play live.
Stealing Sheep
Stealing Sheep struck the only bum note of the day. This was a programming error having them right on before the Amazons. Earlier on in the day would have been fine, but their weird brand of art pop felt misplaced at this point. Baby Said, The Primitives or Puma Theory would have all worked better in this slot. Whilst there were some in the crowd enjoying it, there were a chunk of people positioning themselves for The Amazons that were looking seriously nonplussed. That we had to sacrifice watching the ace Reading band Bevendene, to sit through this for a barrier spot for The Amazons, only made it worse.
The Amazons
This was the third time we have seen local heroes The Amazons this year, but the first full performance. The wait was worth it as this is a band transformed, levelling up to achieve their full potential. There was a lot of existential debate about whether they should keep going during the initial process of the last album. The outcome was that they only deemed it worth continuing if they could make the album, every track on the album, every live performance the best it could be. It resulted in the best album of their career and now looks to be set to turn into the tour of their lives. This is go big or go home personified.
They lean heavily on 21st Century Fiction, it making up more than half of the tracks played in the set. ‘Joe Bought A Gun’ gets the crowd warmed up in style. A track they wrote after experiencing a gun range in the United States, thinking it might be fun but being horrified by the whole noise and experience of it. Old favourite ‘Ready For Something’ is next and the Student’s Union explodes into life.
‘Love Is a Dog From Hell’ is one of the new album’s highlights, a rollicking barn-stormer. ‘In My Mind’ is absolutely one of the older tracks that stands up against the raised standards of the new material. As a newly formed six-piece band in their live iteration it possibly hasn’t ever sounded so good. ‘My Blood’ is absolutely epic.
There are plenty more stunning moments across the set like ‘Pitch Black.’ There is a great medley of old favourites taking in ‘Junk Food Forever’, ‘Stay With Me’ and ‘Ultraviolet’ leading into set closer ‘Black Magic.’ There is time for them to reflect on their local journey, giving a well deserved shout out to local promoting legend Steve Siddle for giving them their first show at The Rising Sun Arts Centre many moons ago. This is a real celebration and an absolutely brilliant way to cap a memorable day. Anyone seeing The Amazons on tour later this year is in for a real treat. With DJ sets goings on into the early hours there was plenty more to enjoy. The Readipop Fiesta was an out and out success. Wether it is a festival or a fiesta, let us hope for another event this good for next year.
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