Vince Power from uber music promoter Mean Fiddler has been talking to Xfm about his dream line up for the Carling Weekend: Leeds and Reading Festival, and plans to expand Glastonbury next year.


As the upcoming Carling Weekender goes from strength to strength, with the Reading leg of the event selling out well in advance Mean Fiddler’s Vince Power has been talking about the event.

“Reading in the last couple of years has sold out very, very quickly. We’ve been sold out for three months now. We’ve noticed, in the last three years at least, a real appetite for live music again and Reading is all about live music, and also very much about the bands that are around at the time.”<br>
As for Power’s dream line up for the event, some of his choices seem a little tough to realise, one being permanently disbanded, and another seemingly destined never to reunite.

“That’s the prize question isn’t it?” he said, “You’d have to have the Clash, and I’d love to have Oasis again they were great at Reading. But my personal choices wouldn’t really be ‘Reading’ bands, they’d definitely be money losers.

“It’d be nice to get the Stone Roses back together,” he continued. Reminded of Ian Brown’s recent announcement that he’d never reform the band, Power laughed, “That’s almost like saying ‘How much?’ Hopefully he’s listening; it might put the idea in his head.”<br>
The Mean Fiddler has also been closely tied in with organising Glastonbury for the past four years, and (despite some occasional differences of opinion between Glasto founder Michael Eavis) the festival has been going from strength to strength

“Glastonbury’s a great event and this year was very successful,” Power continued, “Apart from the weather and even that wasn’t that bad. It [the relationship between Mean Fiddler and Eavis] has been a marriage of convenience more than love, but we’re getting there and it gets better every year. We’re working on it, and it’s a festival to be proud of. Its an institution Glastonbury, it's such a big festival and a big thing in people’s minds.”<br>
As for the much discussed expansion of the event’s size for 2005, Power wasn’t definite, but revealed Mean Fiddler hopes to increase the ticket numbers.

“I’d have to check, but I think we’re going for a capacity increase, he explained, “Probably by about 15,000 which would take it up to 130,000… if we get it.”

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