Reading/Leeds, August 28th, 2004
GREEN DAY FINISH CARLING WEEKEND IN AN AMAZING 2 HOURS
50 Cent was booed off stage, people were glad he was gone. After 20 minutes of throwing bottles of piss and mud at him and people screaming '50 CENT'S A WANKER, 50 CENT'S A WANKER, FUCK OFF, FUCK OFF, GO HOME GO HOME, the crew cleared the stage, and Tre Cool's drum kit was approaching the centre of it. The funniest part was when 50 cent did leave, 'HE'S GOING HOME, HE'S GOING HOME, HE'S GOING, 50'S GOING HOME!!!â€
People starting screaming GREEN DAY, GREEN DAY!!!
I was shaking and I was very excited, the reading accouncer approached the microphone
'We apologize for any inconvenience but Green Day will be here shortly'
This was not long after the announcement of a 3 year old boy went missing; the father of that child is very irresponsible.
After a reasonably loud 20 minutes of waiting, the stage went quiet, A song by rancid was playing 'roots radicals' and I was singing to it amongst a few thousand others. The moment of truth was at hand.
A guy in a pink bunny-suit crept onto the stage, with a nice can of Guinness at hand, could it be Billie Joe? No, Billie has tattoos. He murdered this can of Guinness in the span of about 15 seconds, the crowd egging him on, 'GO GO GO!!!!' clapping and screaming. He started pointing at the heart on the drum kit, and tapping it, (strangely enough). Eventually this loveable fellow left the stage.
Billie Joe, Mike Dirnt, And Tre Cool all ran onto the stage
People were screaming as they waved their hands in the air, clapping for the Amazing Punk Trio.
Billie Joe had his good old Gibson Les Paul Junior around him, with a P-90 pickup.
He started playing American Idiot and the crowd went wild. I seemed to be the only one singing it, shows how much I have listened to it. They finished the song and people were yelling to the top of their lungs as Billie Joe saluted them, with the original:
'ALL RIGHT READING!!!!!!!!!!! HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU GOD DAMMIT?!'
Tre cool did a "boom boom boom" thing on his drums, this was going to be 'Longview'.
It was an outstanding 3 and half minutes. Billie did the traditional call 'I said HEYYYYY OHHH!!!!' and the crowd chanted with him amongst me.
The crowd started singing Longview before Billie could, and when he started, he started from the beginning and the crowd laughed in amusement.
They're old boys now, but somehow they play all this stuff as though it's fresher than fruit. Perhaps their stint in new wave side-project The Network has refreshed their energy to entertain.
This gig was totally amazing; they played classics from Dookie, Warning, 39/smooth, Kerplunk, Insomniac and Nimrod.
Billie Joe teased the crowd. 'When I say Jesus, you say CHRIST!!!' and everyone did just that. He played the first chord, the whole BAM BAM thing, and every time he did that, people shouted 'CHRIST!!!' In amusement.
Their backing guitarist 'Jason' was with them, I consider him very lucky because he’s practically in the band.
'This song was done by a Band called 'OPERATION IVY' BOY!!! He kicked off the three chord song and that's when people started jumping because they knew he was going to call up 3 audience members to play the song, it took 3 guys to hold me up, I must be very heavy. They finished it off without a single fuck up, not like in 2001 where the bass player was drunk (refer to kazaa lite and download Green day live a t reading 2001). The guitar player did a little showing off in his glory of managing it with a few pints in him, Billie Joe eventually took the guitar off him, 'Barney' I believe his name was. And in his little solo show-off, Billie said 'you get to do a stage dive' And everyone started laughing their asses off, (if you haven't been to reading, you should know that the barrier is about 30 feet from the stage lol)
'Do you have the time, to listen to me whine?'
This is where it really kicked off
About 50 people on my side all fell over, as did I, nearly breaking my Digicam. Eventually we all got back up covered in mud, but it was bloody good fun.
For the next hour it was nothing but Moshing and shouting 'BOOBIES!!!' at the stage
This is roughly the set-list:
American Idiot
Longview
Welcome to paradise
Hitchin' a ride
2000 light years away
Brainstew/Jaded
Minority
Waiting
Basket case
Knowledge
King for a day
Maria
When I come around
I fought the law (clash cover)
Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones Cover)
We are the champions (Queen Cover)
Ever fallen in love? (The Buzzcocks cover)
Good Riddance (time of your life)
Shout (lulu cover)
She
Geek stink breath
These aren't in order, but they are the songs that were played
The ending to this concert was magical
The played my 2 favorite songs, When I come around and Good Riddance
I only ever saw Green Day once before and it was the first time I ever saw Billie Play time of your life. If anyone saw me crying my eyes out, don't worry I wasn't dying or anything, I was just being a little bitch. From the big screen on the Reading Stage I could see a tear dripping down Billie Joe's face, he was crying for the same reason I was, because the gig was so fucking amazing.
He started playing time of your life, and cigarette lighters were in the air, people were singing along gently, and it was an absolutely amazing 2.5 minutes. He put his guitar down at the end, said 'Goodnight Reading, we'll be back in the UK in January', and walked off stage waving at the crowd.
What an amazing 2 hours it was
Distortion 2002, they were only up for 30 minutes, but this, really made up for it.
By Phil Rickard
I have pictures, which will be somewhere on the site
Thanks for reading, not the festival, but for actually reading this.
I was hoping they would Play 'Church on Sunday' and 'Going To Pasalacqua' but unlucky I guess.
50 Cent was booed off stage, people were glad he was gone. After 20 minutes of throwing bottles of piss and mud at him and people screaming '50 CENT'S A WANKER, 50 CENT'S A WANKER, FUCK OFF, FUCK OFF, GO HOME GO HOME, the crew cleared the stage, and Tre Cool's drum kit was approaching the centre of it. The funniest part was when 50 cent did leave, 'HE'S GOING HOME, HE'S GOING HOME, HE'S GOING, 50'S GOING HOME!!!â€
People starting screaming GREEN DAY, GREEN DAY!!!
I was shaking and I was very excited, the reading accouncer approached the microphone
'We apologize for any inconvenience but Green Day will be here shortly'
This was not long after the announcement of a 3 year old boy went missing; the father of that child is very irresponsible.
After a reasonably loud 20 minutes of waiting, the stage went quiet, A song by rancid was playing 'roots radicals' and I was singing to it amongst a few thousand others. The moment of truth was at hand.
A guy in a pink bunny-suit crept onto the stage, with a nice can of Guinness at hand, could it be Billie Joe? No, Billie has tattoos. He murdered this can of Guinness in the span of about 15 seconds, the crowd egging him on, 'GO GO GO!!!!' clapping and screaming. He started pointing at the heart on the drum kit, and tapping it, (strangely enough). Eventually this loveable fellow left the stage.
Billie Joe, Mike Dirnt, And Tre Cool all ran onto the stage
People were screaming as they waved their hands in the air, clapping for the Amazing Punk Trio.
Billie Joe had his good old Gibson Les Paul Junior around him, with a P-90 pickup.
He started playing American Idiot and the crowd went wild. I seemed to be the only one singing it, shows how much I have listened to it. They finished the song and people were yelling to the top of their lungs as Billie Joe saluted them, with the original:
'ALL RIGHT READING!!!!!!!!!!! HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU GOD DAMMIT?!'
Tre cool did a "boom boom boom" thing on his drums, this was going to be 'Longview'.
It was an outstanding 3 and half minutes. Billie did the traditional call 'I said HEYYYYY OHHH!!!!' and the crowd chanted with him amongst me.
The crowd started singing Longview before Billie could, and when he started, he started from the beginning and the crowd laughed in amusement.
They're old boys now, but somehow they play all this stuff as though it's fresher than fruit. Perhaps their stint in new wave side-project The Network has refreshed their energy to entertain.
This gig was totally amazing; they played classics from Dookie, Warning, 39/smooth, Kerplunk, Insomniac and Nimrod.
Billie Joe teased the crowd. 'When I say Jesus, you say CHRIST!!!' and everyone did just that. He played the first chord, the whole BAM BAM thing, and every time he did that, people shouted 'CHRIST!!!' In amusement.
Their backing guitarist 'Jason' was with them, I consider him very lucky because he’s practically in the band.
'This song was done by a Band called 'OPERATION IVY' BOY!!! He kicked off the three chord song and that's when people started jumping because they knew he was going to call up 3 audience members to play the song, it took 3 guys to hold me up, I must be very heavy. They finished it off without a single fuck up, not like in 2001 where the bass player was drunk (refer to kazaa lite and download Green day live a t reading 2001). The guitar player did a little showing off in his glory of managing it with a few pints in him, Billie Joe eventually took the guitar off him, 'Barney' I believe his name was. And in his little solo show-off, Billie said 'you get to do a stage dive' And everyone started laughing their asses off, (if you haven't been to reading, you should know that the barrier is about 30 feet from the stage lol)
'Do you have the time, to listen to me whine?'
This is where it really kicked off
About 50 people on my side all fell over, as did I, nearly breaking my Digicam. Eventually we all got back up covered in mud, but it was bloody good fun.
For the next hour it was nothing but Moshing and shouting 'BOOBIES!!!' at the stage
This is roughly the set-list:
American Idiot
Longview
Welcome to paradise
Hitchin' a ride
2000 light years away
Brainstew/Jaded
Minority
Waiting
Basket case
Knowledge
King for a day
Maria
When I come around
I fought the law (clash cover)
Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones Cover)
We are the champions (Queen Cover)
Ever fallen in love? (The Buzzcocks cover)
Good Riddance (time of your life)
Shout (lulu cover)
She
Geek stink breath
These aren't in order, but they are the songs that were played
The ending to this concert was magical
The played my 2 favorite songs, When I come around and Good Riddance
I only ever saw Green Day once before and it was the first time I ever saw Billie Play time of your life. If anyone saw me crying my eyes out, don't worry I wasn't dying or anything, I was just being a little bitch. From the big screen on the Reading Stage I could see a tear dripping down Billie Joe's face, he was crying for the same reason I was, because the gig was so fucking amazing.
He started playing time of your life, and cigarette lighters were in the air, people were singing along gently, and it was an absolutely amazing 2.5 minutes. He put his guitar down at the end, said 'Goodnight Reading, we'll be back in the UK in January', and walked off stage waving at the crowd.
What an amazing 2 hours it was
Distortion 2002, they were only up for 30 minutes, but this, really made up for it.
By Phil Rickard
I have pictures, which will be somewhere on the site
Thanks for reading, not the festival, but for actually reading this.
I was hoping they would Play 'Church on Sunday' and 'Going To Pasalacqua' but unlucky I guess.
