Stars are rocking in the rain

Saturday

MOTHER Nature would not let such a testosterone-filled rock festival go unpunished. The downcast slate-grey sky poured almost relentlessly as the succession of rock bands blew across the main stage. Soon the field was the consistency of pea soup. Hair dye ran down shaved heads, the lights danced off rain macs and people clung together.

Yet for all that, stiff upper lips prevailed among this coming of age crowd - out for a good time come hell or, this being Leeds, high water.

The dance stage smelled like old Jorvik, and Jack-knife Lee impressed early on with their retro grooves. Similarly Les Rhythmes Digitales, playing their synthesisers like sea anemone, were great to begin with but soon paled. Leeds act Utah Saints struggled with technical difficulties but brought the house down by bringing on Edwin Starr for Funky Music.

So it was left to the unlikely figure of Elliott Smith to shine - despite cutting a ridiculous figure in burgundy cords. His band helped to recast Smith's fragile early tunes in a fresh, more muscular fashion, while his voice and keyboards added the requisite sweet elements. Shack sounded hopeless and no-one should care about Ian Brown.

On the main stage, Placebo showed all of the pretenders about the art of stagecraft with a powerful set of edgy, off-kilter rock songs delivered with style. For all their faults, they were far better than aggressive bands like Rage Against the Machine.

The crowds streamed over the sodden field for headliners Stereophonics. Elevated to such a high position, a knockout blow was called for. However, despite Kelly Jones' charisma, their motionless set was distinctly lacking in musical exclamation marks. At their best they sounded like Oasis and added nothing that was new or fresh. Overall then, rather monotone and backward-looking with illuminating flashes.

Paul Rhodes

SUNDAY

This year saw the Leeds Festival come of age - with a traditional baptism of mud, glorious festival mud.

But though the Sunday may have begun with the ground still boggy from the previous night and ended with a deluge dampening Pulp's triumphant headline performance, the line-up was anything but a damp squib. Despite The Carling Weekend being the most commercial event on Earth, with sponsors' logos smirking from every available surface, Sunday's bill was packed with musical mavericks - the creative heart of this three-day bash.

Some bands were made to play festivals, and the Super Furry Animals are one of them. Helped by a sunny afternoon they dispensed psychedelic rock blowouts and lazy pop harmonies to an appreciative crowd. Gomez are another case in point - looking like a gaggle of physics students and playing like veteran bluesmen, rattling through a likeable early evening set. And heavyweight rockers The Deftones delivered some serious primal scream therapy.

Festivals bring misfortune to some - Elastica's Justine took to the stage only to croak an apology for cancelling their show due to having lost her voice. Her loss was Queens Of The Stone Age's gain, as the American rockers rapidly lured the crowd over to their storming second stage show. Black Box Recorder meanwhile, were just not meant for playing live - and trying to maintain a cool, ironic image is hard when your guitars keep packing up.

Hero of the day was Badly Drawn Boy, who had a rammed second stage tent in the palm of his hand. Even after his band were long gone, and the roadies dismantling the stage around him, he was still busking it, to mass adulation, while Beck, by contrast, was losing the plot and the interest of the crowd, over on the main stage.

Pulp started brilliantly, opening their set with their anthem Common People, and road-testing some impressive new material, with Jarvis Cocker's banter and his band on top form. But just to stop it all getting just too good, the weather finally had its revenge - reducing the site to a quagmire once again.

PICTURE: Jarvis Cocker of Pulp during their headlining performance at Leeds last night

Pictures by David Harrison