Reading and Leeds 2009 proved to be a weekend of immense highs and lows, and that was just the GCSE results. There were surprise slots from Them Crooked Vultures, the supergroup comprising Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones, Reading stalwarts Bloc Party may or may not have announced they're splitting up ("We won't be back here next year... or for the next few years after that," said singer Kele Okereke) and Vampire Weekend played some new songs but were overshadowed by the impressive human pyramid formed by the audience.
Leeds apparently bore the brunt of a few serious crowd surges on the main stage, calling for Arctic Monkeys to halt their performance of Brianstorm and the Prodigy to appeal for calm, while Reading suffered the same sound problems that have plagued the festival for the last few years. For me, the highlight of the weekend was Radiohead, who closed Reading on Sunday night and whose performance of The National Anthem, All I Need and Karma Police, among others, came as welcome respite to my cold and tired bones.
Radiohead also provided the biggest shock when Thom Yorke introduced himself with the word "Whassssup!?" before the band launched seamlessly into Creep, the single that brought them to the public's attention in 1992 but is rarely played live these days. Perhaps, given Yorke's bizarre choice of intro, the band wanted to fool everyone into thinking it was 1999 again.
But what was your best bit? Was it Karen O's costume change, Faith No More's festival comeback or Kings of Leon going down like a bucket of cold fish (well, it cheered us up, anyway). Or was it the fact there wasn't a flag in sight?
