BLUR- Leeds Festival Sunday 24th August

As the daylight fades, Blur enter the stage and start their set with 'Ambulance' and Damon sings 'I ain't got nothing to be scared of', we realise this may actually be how he feels. Battles for No 1, conquering America and maturity in musical direction seem insignificant tonight. All that matters is that the crowd are to be presented with a set of great songs, old and new. The first classic is is 'Beetlebum', followed by a pogo jump back to 1994 for 'Girls & Boys'. What follows is a set of catchy new songs, including 'Moroccan People's Revolutionary Bowls Club' and crowd singalongs such as 'For Tomorrow'. Its now time for some blues as Damon acknowledges Graham won't be there so asks the crowd to sing his old best mates parts for 'Tender'. For 'Out of Time' as Damon sings 'Feel the sunshine on your face, Its in a computer now', many of the crowd may wonder has have they aged since the sunny beaches of Greece in 94? But as 'Crazy Beat', is followed by 'Song 2', they realise how they have just bounced through the years. 'Popscene' rocks as a favourite for the fans. 'End Of A Century' is sung beautifully and the bluesey grind of 'Trimm Trabb'sounds great live. New track 'Battery In Your Leg' is performed with raw emotion. And the emotion is even stronger in Damon's voice as he announces that they havent played this one in a while, before the band launch into 'The Universal'. 'To the End' is the perfect opener for the encore. Phil Daniels waddles on stage to crys of 'Oy' from the crowd. Damon promises that if the crowd behave themselves for 'My White Noise', they may just play 'Parklife'. The former is dark, Parklife's antithesis, yet still as catchy as Phil Daniels bellows 'You're Boring'. 'We've Got A File On You' is played twice, even faster the second time. Damon gets patriotic on us as he announces his love for his country and the people in it, blur finish with their shipping forcast 'This Is A Low'. Tonight, few could have forcast one of the greatest and most balanced blur sets of all time.

Andy Dangerield

Why no kinesis reveiw? they were the band of the weekend easilly.

What better way to start the weekend than in front of a bunch of shouty girls with guitars. As it happens, The Applicators are surprisingly good. All those hour alone in the bedroom listening to Hole and The Pixies was evidently a better use of their time than attending Pep rallies or dating Quarterbacks.

The Raveonettes are up next, with their feedback tinged Jesus and Mary Chain homage. It’s simple three-chord stuff, but they’re ahead on points over the host of garage-rock counterparts.

Firstly, because (shock horror!) they’ve let a girl play. Blonde and scary of eye, Sharin takes to the role of cool female bassist well (I know all female bassists are inherently cool, but there are gradations); and brings a welcome vocal counterpoint to the tracks.

Secondly, because of their choice of material: dwelling on the dark side of Americana – a little ground glass in the vanilla coke. It’s all very ‘live fast, die young, and leave a pretty corpse’; suggesting that Ronettes and Shangri-Las records are widely available on import in Denmark.

Attack of the Ghost Riders remains the stand out track of an accomplished set. Yet, there’s a suspicion that it might all be a little bit too contrived.

Since I’m passing, it would be rude not to check out the original ‘warthog of love’, Har Mar Superstar in the Carling Tent. Taking a break from his busy schedule at Manumission, he’s a legend in his own lunch, dinner and teatime.

As he waddles through Power Lunch and Brothers & Sisters, it is undeniable that the fat man can sing, but I remain resistant to his inexplicable charms. As to it seems do the dancers, who I trust are being substantially rewarded to take his sweaty pawing.

There’s an air of amateur pornography about the whole performance. I make my excuses and leave before the greying Y-fronts make an appearance, and head off to the Dance Tent.

This will be the second time this week I’ve seen Squarepusher. If I get any more masochistic I’ll have to buy myself a gimp mask. ‘Easy listening’ is not a phrase in Tom Jenkinson’s vocabulary. But if drum n basss/prog-jazz fusion is your thing (and who, who truly loves music, can say it is not), the Squarepusher is your man.

Despite the experimental nature of his music, there’s a distinct lack of black polo necks and goatees in the crowd (apart from myself of course). Instead, it’s the usual pilled up massive. An audience Tom evidently feels at home with. He’s such a nice Chelmsford boy, does he really need to punctuate the set with shouts of “who’s the fucking daddy!” All in all it’s a little too much pretentious knob twiddling for my tastes.

After a safe interlude has elapsed, I venture back into the Carling Tent. For what looks like The Libertines doing an acoustic set? Oh, my mistake it’s Hope of the States. Huggably twee with their matching uniforms and on stage cartoonists, they’re everything British Sea Power should be, and patently aren’t.

Resisting any attempts at conventional taxonomy, they display a blur of musical references, often within the bars of the same song. Somehow it all seems to point in the right direct, and it points to a place you’d like to go.

As the evening moves on, I squeeze my way into the packed Radio 1 tent to catch the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I’ve always felt their label as one of the hottest bands around had more to do with Karen’s predilection for fishnets and throwing larger down her front, rather than any real talent. There’s a special place in every music journalist’s heart for an ‘up for it’ front woman (Courtney Love anyone?).

However, she looks positively demure tonight in a black mini-dress, as the band open with some older material. Which remains excellent – the opening guitars on Rich, the vocals on Pin and Bang. There’s still the undiminished excitement from last year’s Lamacq Live session.

The newer material from the album unfortunately pales by comparison. Which is perhaps where the fishnets and wet t-shirt chic come in. It’s a great shame they pulled out of last year’s Carling Weekend, as that clearly would have been the time to see them.

I push across to the Dance Tent to pay my respects to Lamb. 45 minutes later they appear onstage – that’s the rest of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the best part of The Music – but the delay is an irrelevance. Lamb are consistently and utterly enthralling. Louise’s crystal clear vocals soar over a drum n bass tinged soundtrack of perennial gems like Gabriel and Gorecki.

Somewhat disappointingly the previews of the newer material suggest a more commercial direction. However, after three albums who can begrudge them popular appeal (Kosheen, in comparison ‘kept it real’ for one whole single). They are by far the best act of the day.