Isle of Wight 2009 tickets on sale

Tickets for next year's Isle of Wight Festival, which takes place on 12th-14th June are on sale now. Adult tickets, including camping are £140. There's no news yet as to who's playing, though. For further info or to order, see www.isleofwightfestival.com/

Phoenix 94 bootleg online

A radio recording of three bands live at the 1994 Phoenix Festival is available to download. It's a big file (160Mb) and contains tracks by three bands: Goats (no, I don't know them, either), Carter USM and The Wonderstuff (who were playing their farewell show at the festival). You can get it from here: http://live-bootleg.blogspot.com/

Word reviews Reading

The latest issue of Word (on sale now) has a half-page review of Reading (plus some glaring historical inaccuracies concerning the 1986 line-up...). Additionally, the magazine contains a reprint of John Peel's review of the 1977 festival, which is taken from a forthcoming book of the great man's writings for various magazines, and consists mostly of his recollections from the bar, rather than actually seeing many bands. Sounds like a great way to experience the festival to me...

Reading gets new festival

The Reading Festival site is to host a new "world music" festival. The two-day Heavenly Planet Festival will take place on 10th and 11th July 2009, and is expected to attract 15,000 people. The local council have committed to the new festival for three years.

Reading 2008 Downloads

OK, none of this strictly legal, your honour, but here are the Reading 2008 sets I've found on the web so far:

Babyshambles
Bloc Party
Cajun Dance Party
The Cribs
Dizzie Rascal
Editors
The Enemy
Feeder
Foals
The Last Shadow Puppets
Justice
The Music
Mystery Jets
Pendulum
Queens Of The Stone Age
The Raconteurs
The Rascals (9 songs)
Seasick Steve
The Subways
We Are Scientists

Can't tell you anything about sound quality, source of the audio or anything else, as I haven't downloaded them. I suspect they're either from TV or radio highlights broadcasts.

Council praises Glastonbury

Mendip District Council have praised the organisers of Glastonbury, describing it as "possibly the best managed event of its kind in the world. We know how important it is to Mendip and how important it is to ensure it remains one of the best in the world," added Mendip councillor Tom Killen. The festival has also come in for praise from Avon and Somerset Constabulary, the Environment Agency, Somerset Primary Care Trust and Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue.