VARIOUS - Leeds Breeze Festival - July 2000.

After taking just 35 minutes to get to Leeds from Manchester, it then took us two hours to get to the Park, primarily as they'd changed all the road numbering and every signpost, and there were no signpost anywhere. With an expected crowd of 30,000, only about 5,000 or so bothered to turn up, potentially due to the Euro 2000 final. Or the weather, which bordered on rain.

You needed a ticket to get in, and then when you did get in you were faced with a main stage that was covered in muddied 14 year olds in Korn T-Shirts having mudfights and a second stage in a similar state. The stages were about 100 yards apart and had very loud speakers. The plan - almost sensibly - was to have Stage A end and Stage B start at exactly the same time.However due to the heroic incompetence of the security and organisers almost every stage started and ended at exactly the same time. Hence both stages were fighting it out with each other to hear themselves

I can't remember who I saw - I even ventured into the Dance Tent - a massive big top surrounded by a small lake of mud - and was faced with about 14 people in Leed's biggest school disco. A trip to the information booth was in order to find out when the acts were on.Upon entering we were told - before we'd even opened our mouths - "There's no alcohol on sale anywhere on the site." He read our tiny minds. Even the first act I wanted see - Mojave 3 - or Slowdive as they used to be known, I had managed to miss due to the pisspoor organisation.

And so to Miles Hunt, who played with all the passion we'd expect, probably because he had his eyes shut throughout most of the set and couldn't see the crowd of some 200 or so people. Plagued with technical difficulties, he soldiered on as reverb and echo was piled onto his vocals to a crowd that seemed more curious than interested, bar the one guy in an old Stuffies shirt . So, Miles was in damp spirits. He managed to introduce the infamous 'pissing and moaning' trilogy whilst he 'bored the crowd with acoustic bullshit', threw in a glorious Fixer, and managed to take requests - in the shape of Immortalising Chase and Someone Like The Kingbird. He introduced Kingbird in his normal fashion, only for the guitar to hit some techncial hitch, and then to be told he had one more song. A Circlesquare later, and it was hometime. All in all, Miles came on 25 minutes late and played for, at most, 30 minutes.

Following Milo, I bumped into an acquaintence only to be told some shocking things. The stupidly strict security were justifying their minimum wage with moronic fervour and, with a rigidly enforced wristband code, people backstage with pink wristbands had to walk the perimeter instead of cutting 20 yards across the centre of the area. Leeds had said that 30,000 people would turn up. In the end, no more than 5,000, 4,900 of whom were watching Terrorvision.

The stages were running 30 minutes late, and every band was being forced to cut short its set in the hope that it would start on time. Miles, naturally, being a victim thereof. However the next act on the Stage, the risible Clint Boon experience, managed to play for about an hour and 10 minutes. So by the time that Clint finished, it was actually after the time the Utahs! were due on. In the meantime Terrorvision played their entire set + 3 encores whilst Leeds City Council decided to reduce the Utahs from starting at 20-40 and playing for an hour, to 21-10 and playing for 40 minutes, to when they were finally allowed on stage, at 21-25, for a 35 minute set.

And so, when Love Song starts, it falls apart. The song, with its long intro, just builds, and builds, waiting for a massive guitar riff and vocals to kick in. It's a wondeful song, and really works well in a live enviroment. The band, are by now, resigned to a wasted night due to the shocking amateurism of the council, playing their fourth gig since 1995, in their hometown, to 150 people. Jez plays his guitar, unable to hear anything, and the song builds up, breaks down, and keeps going. Jez fiddles with his guitar, waiting, vainly to hear something. Jez approaches the mike, and nothing comes out. The song slowly grinds to a halt. Unable to be heard, Jez simply shouts "We'll be back."

A quarter of an hour later... Jez's by now useless guitar discarded, they return. "Due to circumstances way beyond our control we'll be playing for 20 minutes,and play everything double fast." And so What Can You Do For Me, begins. It's a wonderful reworking. Jez takes the mike during an instrumental break and yells "Leeds Breeze lets fucking have it" but nothing comes out. I've never seen anything like what happens next. Jez takes the mike and throws it into the pit where it uselessly sits as he loses his temper and it's definitely overdue. As the 100 or so security guards (roughly on a 1:2 ratio with the crowd) laugh. He then kicks the microphone stand over and can be heard shouting very loudly - louder than the music in fact despite the fact he does not have a mike "FUCKING TWAT" at the council bod on the mixing desk. Someone had pulled out the mike lead whilst walking past... for the rest of the song I'm convinced he's punching his sequencer in anger.

The song ends, to relief, that soon this appallingly organised farce will soon be over. And so to Edwin Starr who cannot successfully hide his disappointment at being faced with 29,500 less people than promised. Funky Music, is funky, but not really very successful. The crowd who are here are quite pleased and enthusiastic, but realistically it can only be described as a damp squib.

Something Good. Boy do I love this song. Jez even seems to be enjoying himself and introduces the song as "allegedly the defining anthem of 1992"..And finally to Rock. Build on a massive sample from From Those About To Rock... it's an absolute bona fide 100% classic. Whilst I am familiar with the rest of the set, this song, like the new material debuted at Glastonbury seems to be more linear, trancier, streamlined than the 93 material. The pop edge, the well constructed, muscular songs are still here.. but updated, slinker, y2k compliant. The song is just begging to be released. Why they cannot get a Brian Douglas impersonator in to do the vocals and just give 100% writing credits to AC/DC I don't know.