Leeds, Aug. 30, 1999

By CHRIS STRAW

I hope the majority of the crowd who watched silverchair at the Leeds Festival feel suitably ashamed, they ruined one of this talented band's all too rare UK appearances. Thankfully there were enough true fans present to stop it being a complete disaster, but generally the crowd appreciation was lacking to say the least.

Daniel, Ben and Chris made their usual Taxi Driver entrance and went straight into a full on version of Israel's Son. Emotion Sickness followed next but the poor sound mixing which had dogged this festival all weekend reared it's ugly head yet again. All the subtle "burn my knees and" falsetto lyrics could barely be heard completely destroying the effect of the song.

No such problems with Pure Massacre a great version played without the intro. The 'chair's last single Ana's Song went down pretty well and was followed by Miss You Love which came out as a single on the day of silverchair's appearance in Leeds. Unfortunately, it met with little response from the crowd. That was possibly due to the fact that the UK's national youth radio station, one of who's DJ's was introducing the bands, never give silverchair any airtime. Hallam FM, the commercial radio station I programme in Sheffield, has playlisted all three singles from Neon Ballroom

Daniel worked his hardest trying to get the crowd going, at one point implying that they needed counselling because they were unable to rock - too right. He built this speech up and I could sense that the "Hallelujah" routine was about to commence. Sure enough it did, but to a feeble response from the crowd, most of which had obviously never witnessed this ritual before.

As always The Door followed the "Halle-fuckin'-lujah" which did get the mosh pit going as did Freak, Madman and Slave. Personally I really enjoyed the bangin' version of MC5's Kick Out The Jams which Daniel introduced as "a song we didn't write, but you should like". I think this song was possibly too unfamiliar in the UK to be fully appreciated, a live version of London's Burning from the Clash tribute album might have been a better choice.

The 'chair's 50 minute set ended with Anthem For The Year 2000, again Daniel gave the crowd chance to join in, which they did after an embarrassing amount of coaxing.

Don't get me wrong, this was a top performance from silverchair. I really felt for Daniel, he put everything into it but got almost nothing in return. They would certainly have gone down better on one of the smaller stages where the true fans could have enjoyed a more intimate 'chair experience.

Please guys, don't let that pathetic Leeds crowd put you off coming to the UK again, your shows always kick ass and when it comes to in between song speeches Daniel is the world's best. I'm sure all real fans will agree with me. Your next UK show can't come too soon for me.

If anyone wants to know any specifics I haven't mentioned, please feel free to e-mail me at chris.straw@hallamfm.co.uk