Thoughts from Reading Festival

As you can probably guess from the title ^^^ this year I went to Reading Music Festival (23 - 25 August). And yes, it was amazing, yes, it was one of the best weekends of my life, yes, I loved every minute, and yes, I am currently suffering from serious post-Reading blues because just oh god it was amazing - but that's not what I'm going to blog about today, because jeeze if I did that I'd just prattle on pointlessly forever. In fact, I can feel myself starting to do that now, so I shall get to the point!

Sat on my friend James' shoulders for this photo, hence the
height. Even from the photo you can tell how incredible
the atmosphere was there

I've said before that I love live music and I love gigs so much. There is nothing quite like the buzz you get at a gig, when everyone starts singing along to the lyrics of a song of a band you love immensly - I mean, if I get that feeling as a lover of the band, I can't even begin to imagine how it makes the band themselves feel. It must be utterly surreal and incredible. I have such a huge deal of respect for the music industry and for music artists. As someone who writes, and I do write on a daily basis - even if it's just adding details to a character I've come up with, I try to do some kind of writing every day - I know how much of yourself you inadvertently put into what you create and so how nerve-wracking it is to show what you've done to someone else, because if they reject it, it almost feels like they're rejecting you. I'd imagine it's fairly similar for musicians, and yet I'm so grateful they do what they do, obviously, because music has saved me time and time again. When I see bands I love live, and I hear that music I love actually being performed in front of me, to say it generally reduces me to tears would not be exaggerating. I have cried at most gigs I've been at.

In my lifetime so far, I've seen a definite shift in the way music is perceived. I am still a huge lover of CDs and physical editions of music - I have an iPod, but it's full of music I've loaded on there from CDs. I also can't stand piracy and illegal downloading of music. When people say, "Yeah but it's only 99p they're missing out on, it's not much, come on, what difference will it make" my mind then goes "If everyone said that, the band would make no money!" More and more people I know now illegally download music - which OK, that's their decision, it's just one that I hate personally. Why do I hate it so much and why have I suddenly been thinking this? I will explain.

Being at Reading Festival was one of the single most incredible experiences of my life. I was surrounded by 3 of my best friends pretty much at all times (4 when we could find Hannah) which made the weekend amazing, but obviously, what made the weekend fantastic was the music. Having constant access to all this live music was unbelievable and phenomenal and fantastic. It made me think about how those musicians really were baring their souls to us, singing about things that mattered to them, and how they were touching so many people just by being. I have always appreciated and loved music, but it made my love and appreciation for music increase ten-fold. How on earth does this link to illegal downloading, I hear you ask. It fits in perfectly.

Personally, I don't get the whole illegal downloading thing. If you love a band and want to support a band, why do you think you have the right to get that music for free? The hours that band have put in to create that music is more than anyone can probably guess. How would you feel if you spent months, maybe a year or more, of your life doing something, making something that you were hoping to earn some money from, and people react by saying "That's amazing, I love it!" and you earn no money at all. It would be an utter kick in the teeth to all the work you've done. Everyone has the view of "Well, other people do it, why shouldn't I" and that's true, but eventually it'll damage the bands, in my opinion. By not paying you're not supporting these bands, and eventually these bands wouldn't be able to continue if they received no money whatsoever. Bands at Reading Festival survive on people buying their music and I don't know, the idea some people don't actually pay for music kinda disgusts me a bit. Maybe I'm old fashioned. I don't know.

Reading Festival made me appreciate bands in a whole different light and feel a love for music in a different way that I'd ever felt, and I think that's where this rant/pondering/thoughts/train of thought thing has come from - because music has done so much for me, as it has done so much for others, and the thought of not repaying those people who've helped me so much isn't something I can fully contemplate. I don't know.

Side note - if you love music and have never been to a gig then oh good god go. They just no words, gigs are unbelievable. 

Biffy Clyro at Main Stage at Reading Festival on the last night of the festival - they were unbelievably good