Stage: Lock Up Stage, Reading
Time: Friday, 4.05pm
Dress code: Saved By The Bell-style, All-American gear for the band; dark shirt and tie for the hobbitish singer, Tom Higgenson. Spotty bare backs for the overwhelmingly teenage crowd.
In summary: "Have you guys just come for one song?" asked one of the Plain White T's towards the end of their set. The gigantic roar from the tent was unequivocal. 'Fraid so, guys. So out rolled Hey There Delilah, the band's acoustic UK number five and US number one. Their baying silenced, the crowd went wild, singing along to the whole song including, impressively, the coda. Definitely the first big festival sing-along. But just as the strummed poignancy of Time of Your Life fooled many gentlefolk into thinking Green Day were the band for them, so too is Hey Delilah totally unrepresentative of the ungrammatically punctuated band's schtick. That song's Leonard Cohenish lyrics and Willy Mason-influenced melody are worlds apart from what the band like doing best. Which, on the basis of this set, are smiley, harmony-heavy, fun but ultimately forgettable teenage songs about why love sucks. See Wheatus, Jimmy Eat World, Weezer. . .
Better than: Wheatus - at least Plain White T's are nearer the right age for these sixth form songs of love and pain.
Worse than: Illicit snogs in the sixth form common room.
Talking point: Quite how many people turned on their heels the minute Hey There Delilah finished.
Highlight: Duh. Hey There Delilah of course.
Mark out of ten: 7
What they'll be up to this time next year: Unless they write some more anthems, still seeing half the crowd walk out of their set after Hey There Delilah.
