Friday 26/08/05 Day 1 @ Leeds Festival

We begin at the Radio 1/NME stage, in hope of catching a bit of The Rakes. But alas, it turns out that frontman Alan Donohue is ill, and unable to perform. Frontman-less, you'd be forgiven for thinking that The Rakes might just call off their gig and get pissed backstage, but oh no!… Instead, the boys decide to call on famous chums from other bands to help out. Bloc Party’s Russell Lissack gets up on vocals for ‘Terror’, Maximo Park’s Paul Smith has a go at ‘Strasbourg’, and Bloc Party’s Gordon Moakes joins in the fun. As if all this wasn’t enough for the raucous crowd of afternoon revellers, Towers Of London’s Donny and Dirk Tourette (-never ones to stay out of the limelight) leap onto the stage to cause havoc by jumping all over everyone during ‘22 Grand Job’… A little unnecessary, but funny all the same. All in all, a chaotic and entertaining performance by a band that – judging by the mass of people packed into the tent – have already proved themselves worthy of our attention.

Next on the ‘to see’ list is a person whose show simply could not be missed, even just out of weird intrigue - Marilyn Manson. Manson has spent his career trying his hardest to maintain his status as the most controversial man on the planet (an accolade recently stolen from him by George Junior, of course). The world’s media famously turned to point the finger at him for a string of school shootings, and he hit back in the only way he knew how – he released the most overtly aggressive, but painfully truthful album of his career. It contained a song called ‘Disposable Teens’. Cue outrage. Of course this is Mazzer all over. He knows that people are stupid enough to pass judgment on him based on the titles of his songs and his album ‘artwork’. Tonight, as the sun is just about to give in to the ensuing darkness, he raises a gloved hand to the sky and chants: “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”. The heaving sweating mass gawping up at him obediently follows suit. Unfortunately, such poignant lyrics as: “The death of one is a tragedy, the death of millions is just a statistic!” are lost on his followers tonight, as if not as meaningful as they once were. Thing is, these days, everyone gets the point of Manson – his novelty value has long since departed and no amount of mic-stand shagging or rehashed 80’s covers is going to give his live show the energy it once did. ‘Rock is Dead’ sounds vacant and even (shock, horror) slightly apt. Only The Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams’ sounds half-decent. It’s still a great visual spectacle to behold, but one gets the feeling that Manson’s recent decision to hang up his fishnets and move on to pastures new is undoubtedly the right one.

One band who seem to have no intention of hanging up anything are veteran rockers Iron Maiden. Widely acknowledged by everyone except Black Sabbath fans the original heavy metal band, they headline tonight’s bill and do so in the only way they know how. No expense is spared on pyrotechnics and a virtual assault course constructed entirely of speakers stacks. Seriously, being a roadie in the Maiden is a full-time job. Bruce Dickinson enthrals some but disappoints others early on with the announcement that the band will only be playing material of the first four albums. This includes ‘Remember Tomorrow’, the songs he claims to have had to sing to get in the band in the first place when the previous frontman was sacked. Whadda we reckon? Er…Blaze who? The only let-down is that Dickinson yells some dickish things in between songs, notably something pointless about getting into the charts. Then he gets back to stalking the stage like the devil’s chief hobgoblin. Some damn fine machine-gunning from Steve Harris as well as watching Nicko McBrain beat merry hell out of (officially) the biggest drum kit in rock also provides ample entertainment. The first few chords of ‘Run to the Hills’ ring out across Bramham Park and Leeds erupts into a deafening roar. The Maiden are back at this festival after more than two decades to get it off to a flying start. It’s as if they never went away.