Carling Weekend 2003 - Leeds Review Sunday

United Kingdom | by Sara Bowrey, Sara Wright | 24 August 2003

Carling Weekend 2003 - Leeds review Sunday

Another sunny day dawns at Leeds - can the British public take much more good weather? The last day of this long Bank Holiday Weekend bonanza holds out the promise of a more eclectic line-up than Friday and Saturday, and hopefully fewer projectile sieges.

On the Carling stage The Sun are intriguingly billed as a cross between The Clash and Sonic Youth!? On watching them this description seems a little optimistic, whilst they are a competent garage rock band with some good tunes, they don't have that unique edge which would justify comparison to such seminal bands.

Back on the main stage Junior Senior are strutting their stuff with their strange brand of electro-pop. What they are doing at what is essentially a rock festival is beyond us and we can't help but feel that they would be better off in a Mediterranean holiday resort? However, maybe we are just being over-cynical, and this is just what is needed for a sunny festival afternoon?

The Libertines are up next and the question everyone wants answered is, 'How will they cope without explosive frontman Pete Doherty?' All credit to the band for continuing to tour and record without Pete, who seems increasingly less likely to rejoin the band, (allegations of his burgling Carl's flat recently and now forming a new band lend weight to this theory). They have a difficult mid-afternoon slot to fill but do it admirably. Whilst Pete is missed the rest of the band are full of passion, obviously enjoying their performance and their blistering shambolic pop is great for a sunny afternoon. However, we can't help but miss the spontaneous punch-ups and controversy that have haunted live gigs in the past.

If you saw Mike Skinner in the street you could be forgiven for thinking he was just another disaffected youth, with nothing better to do than hang around on corners and hotwire scooters with his mates. But give him a mike and an audience and an 'inner city poet' is born. With The Streets Mike gives us a wry look at lad pub culture. He manages to combine witty rapped lyrics with a surprisingly catchy backbeat and its all too easy to find yourself 'singing' along. Really best suited to a late-night poorly lit smoky venue they manage to prove themselves worthy of a main stage slot.

Beck has managed to combine blues influenced ballads and indie-rock in his prolific career to date. His audience never quite knows what to expect and at Leeds he is at his eclectic best, moving from the tormented love songs of latest album 'Sea Change' to more bouncy tunes from the fabulous 'Odelay'. He even manages to do some dance routines with other band members! Beck is an enigma, his seeming aversion to much of the media belies his cheery stage presence. Anally retentive as ever, Beck appears to have developed an aversion to website photographers, and so we weren't allowed to take photos, but if we had they would have shown a man confidant in his music and at home with all of his multiple stage personas.

The first thing you notice about The Mars Volta is THAT hair, well you could hardly miss that 'anti-fashion' statement now could you? During each hour long prog-rock indulgence that is The Mars Volta, frontman Cedric Bixler keeps his audience amused with an exhausting display of frantic maniacal dancing - microphone stands fly in the air as Cedric somersaults and cavorts across the stage.