Hal - reading 2005
Hal play a type of alternative music that is perfectly placed on a Sunday afternoon at a festival. Warm sunny and mellow, not too hard on the hangover but enough going on to mean that it doesn’t drift away into a musical wave that washes over you without you being aware of who or what it is, or being particularly fussed if you didn’t find out.
In ‘Play the Hits’ and ‘What A Lovely Dance’ they have a couple of enjoyable singles that stand out from the set list as being crowd lifters, but at this point in the weekend a large number of those gathered in the Radio 1 tent were glad of the opportunity of a breather between Sons and Daughters and Maximo Park.
Those that stick around in between sets use the time to sit, or in the case of Sundays, lie on the grass. Given that virtually nobody moved when Hal came on stage might suggest that they were met with a certain amount of indifference. However a combination of the warm weather, the relaxed music that match the mood and the fact that most of the crowd were feeling a touch delicate, I think Hal can feel they did a good job.