Every US band on the bill will receive an extra Christmas card this year - 'thanks for making rock cool again, we owe you one, cheers A.' No other British rock band warrants their moment as much as A but today they let it slip through their fingers.
We're informed that they have already notched up 36 festivals this summer in the run-up to today and sadly it shows. It's a safe bet that no. 37 won't live long in the memory. What should have been a potentially limelight stealing show never gets out of the blocks. Lackluster versions of 'Shut Ur Face', 'Starbucks' and 'I Love Lake Tahoe' are good but not great - less bounce, less energy and less balls. Only 'Nothing' gets the treatment it deserves but by then it's too late. A missed opportunity but it could have been worse, it could have rained.
Ash know all about opportunities and know how NOT to waste them. Take note A. Not even a recent car crash - which leaves bassist Mark sporting a neck brace and drummer Rick with broken ribs and a grimace throughout - can keep them away from Reading, their natural habitat.
Peddling a greatest hits set has been the downfall of many bands but, like Glastonbury before, this set revels in past achievements. It might have something to do with their recent jaunt to the US where, Wheeler explains, they've been starting from scratch again. Or maybe it's simply that eight years of uninterrupted hit making is enough to put a smile on anyone's face. Suffice it to say unearthing and thoroughly summer-cleaning their back catalogue has done Ash wonders.
Re-energised versions of 'Girl From Mars', 'Kung Fu' and 'Oh Yeah' make festival success inevitable while 'Sometimes' brings the volume down but turns the emotion up proving Wheeler has more than one trick up his sleeve. "We're all another summer older," laments Wheeler but having re-defined Ash, we're more alert to the continued possibilities of his band.
And then it's pouring again but, in this setting, Muse are not to be missed for the sake of a good soaking. Don't put it past Matt Bellamy to have orchestrated the torrential downpour merely for effect. The bigger they become the more they embrace their role as masters of the 'OTT' and tonight there's almost a supernatural sense of occasion shrouding the whole site.
For one night only, you're welcomed centre stage to witness the Matt Bellamy freak show of extremes that proudly presents a spiralling falsetto so deranged it makes Thom Yorke sound like Tom Jones, a guitar masterclass so terrifically original it even puts Dave Navarro's handy work in the shade and some organ noodling that transports us back to a long forgotten prog-rock heyday. In short, a mind-blowing experience.
No doubt headliners in the very near future, Muse's pompous, grandiose show is a spectacle to behold. So what if Bellamy fancies himself as a cross between a mad professor, 21st century Mozart and sci-fi obsessed Jimi Hendrix - when you're faced with a procession of three-chord wonders, we'll take Muse anytime.
Only the Foo Fighters have the power to top this and they do. They might be in stark contrast to the drama of Muse but the Foos and Dave Grohl especially are most definitely up for it. When Grohl says this is "the biggest night of his life" you know the scale of things you're dealing with. The opportunity is there and he's not going to waste it.
Reading, he informs us, is his favourite festival and he rattles off his past appearances: '91, '92, '95, '98, 2000 and 2002. He thanks us for "sticking by the band". Which band is not clear but we cheer anyway. Without drumsticks in his hand, Grohl is a master entertainer and more importantly a genuine rock star in an entirely different league to the rest of the bill combined (bar Axl Rose up in Leeds).
New, more darkly brooding tracks from 'One By One' are delivered between the hits. And there are plenty of them - 'This Is A Call', 'My Hero', 'Learning To Fly', and 'Monkey Wrench' - crammed in leaving only enough time for the obligatory walkabout to duly prompt a security meltdown.
Reading obviously holds a special place in Grohl's heart - an unknown Nirvana brought 'Bleach' here, they gave one of the best headlining appearances of Reading history in 92 and the Foos practically started here - all of which seems to unlock a more sensitive side to the usually goofy Grohl. This is epitomised by the solo encore of a delicate new track dedicated to Reading. Is this the same man who just picked his nose on camera then licked the lense?
