August 23, 2008 19:14

Foals hit by crowd surfing chaos during Reading Festival show

Scores of fans try to invade the NME/Radio 1 Stage

Photo Gallery: Foals

Foals created hysteria in the NME/Radio 1 Stage this evening (August 23) at Reading Festival, as scores of crowd-surfers attempted to invade the stage.

Thousands of fans had packed out the big top tent before the five-piece took the stage.

Then, as the Oxford band played 'Two Steps, Twice', frontman Yannis Phillipakis leapt into the crowd, prompting pandemonium.

Fans immediately began hurling themselves over the saftey barriers towards the stage.

Security guards struggled to contain the crowd members, as at least 50 fans breached the barriers in the space of a few minutes.

At one point guitarist Jimmy Smith was caught up in the chaos - with stewards attempting to escort him out of the pit, after briefly mistaking him for a fan.

After the song finished crowd-surfers began arriving at the front at a steady pace that security could manage for the rest of the set.

It wasn't the first time Foals had been met with madness at the festival. They made an appearance at last year's event, where they packed out the then-named Carling Tent.

"We were here last year - it was fun," the singer/guitarist said near the start of the set. "But now we want to make this even better."

Before the stage invasion attempt the band played songs including 'Cassius' and 'The French Open' and bigged-up Mystery Jets, who had played on the same stage earlier.

Foals ended their set with 'Electric Bloom', during which Phillipakis scaled an amp stack as yet more crowd-surfers cascaded forward.

Foals payed:

'XXXX'
'Olympic Airwaves'
'The French Open'
'Balloons'
'Cassius'
'Heavy Water'
'Two Steps, Twice'
'Hummer'
'Red Sox Pugie'
'Electric Bloom'

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