After a long rainy week everyone including myself was expecting this years Reading festival to be a cocktail of mud and rain. Throughout the week we saw trains being delayed and cancelled, due to the weather conditions, which would be bound to cause nightmares for festival goers travelling to the site. By the time the weekend arrived it was nicer weather all round.
After a two-hour journey I found myself at Richfield Avenue. It was 4:45pm and I knew I had arrived at the right time. After a short wander around I found a nice spot to sit down for a while and have a drink.
When Lostprophets left the stage I wandered further into the crowd and waited for Placebo. After a nice introduction by Steve Lamacq who was compere for the festival the intro to �Taste In Men� filled the air. The crowd witnessed four members appear onstage and begin playing without Stefan who joined them later in the song. The next song was �The Bitter End� which was fantastic as always.
Another highlight was �English Summer Rain� which was excellent and we all heard yet another version of the song. At the end Brian was talking about how he imagined the song to fit perfectly into a rainy festival and held up a rubber duck that someone had thrown at him.
They then slowed down for the ever wonderful �Without You I�m Nothing� which was perfect. It was performed at sunset, which really was the perfect scene for the song. It was performed with compassion and was heartbreakingly beautiful. The guys seemed to really enjoy playing it too.
Towards the end of the set they performed classics such as �Special K� and �Slave To The Wage� which were great as always. They finished off with style by ending with their biggest hit �Nancy Boy� this was a real highlight for me as it�s my favourite song and it was the first time I�ve seen them perform it live and it was excellent. It�s nice to see them perform it and hopefully they will be keeping it in their setlist.
So all in all it was a truly breathtaking performance by Placebo and one I will always remember as they seemed to really enjoy being onstage and were really getting into the set. This performance showed how strong Placebo are live and proved they are a top class act!
Setlist
Taste In Men
The Bitter End
Every You, Every me
Black-Eyed
Special Needs
English Summer Rain
Without You I�m Nothing
This Picture
Special K
Slave To The Wage
Pure Morning
Nancy Boy
For people living in the UK tune into MTV2 (channel 442) every night at 10pm to see highlights of the festival, which shows performances of �The Bitter End� and �Nancy Boy�
