After a disappointing Friday headlining act, the last thing that the punters really need is a bunch of talentless morons pillaging their ears. Kerrang! cover boys, Aiden (1/5), are a mess: their over-bearing bass-slurry of a set does nothing at 11.30 in the morning. What's more, if the dreadful sound could be refined, all one would find is the latest in a long line of pop-punk banality.

The Morning After Girls (3/5) provide a decent respite from the silliness on the main stage. Although they are prone to irritatingly long intros/outros à la early Dandy Warhols, the Morning Afters manage to sooth the haggard ears of whoever watched the dreadfulness that had just inhabited the main stage. 

Flogging Molly (4/5) are the first real treat this afternoon. The Pogues-in-waiting do what you expect an Irish folk-rock band to do and provide 40 minutes of string lead rock complete with accordion and a Guinness brewery full of wit. Due to the great set the Mollys put on, I only manage to get a glimpse of the intriguing Giant Drag; frontwoman Annie Hardy encourages the audience to go home and jerk off over pictures of drummer Micah before jumping in to the closing track ‘Kevin is Gay’.

At the moment everyone is taking about Wolfmother (2/5) - I have absolutely no idea why. All their mid afternoon set manages to do is send people to sleep while they go through many long winded guitar-wanking sessions to fill the gaps between their overrated album-filler tracks. Only ‘Woman’ manages to lift most punters out of their Wolfmother-induced comas. Things unfortunately get worse as The Cribs (2/5) stroll on. They are loud, but they could have made more of an impact by beating themselves with twigs.

After a depressing lunchtime the time has come to make a run for the Radio 1 tent to catch the last of be your own PET. Their rocket-up-the-arse rock is exactly what is needed, and a great lead up to The Automatic (5/5). The lads from Wales put on a rip-roaring set, which keeps the crowd mental for a whole 40 minutes. They are soon joined by more Welsh lads, Goldie Lookin’ Chain for their dreadful but hysterical cover of 'Gold Digger'.

Even though the main stage has mainly shown drivel for most of today, I still decide that it would be a good idea to return there to watch Feeder (3/5). Now looking like a bunch of boring dads, Feeder trundle through a set of mediocre singles and are only saved by the likes of ‘Shatter’ and the mostly-OK ‘Lost and Found’.

Mike Skinner is a bit on the lively side this evening as The Streets (4/5) get all interactive on our arses. "It’s a beautiful thing", Skinner claims as he successfully gets Reading festival to kneel and jump for the third time in half an hour. Surprisingly this is not irritating. The feel-good factor is further piled on courtesy of Skinner’s charming banter and the likes of ‘Fit But You Know It’ and a great ‘Turn the Page’.

After the rap chav master, Reading is served another serving of rap-scallion antics, this time in a more traditional Reading form. The Arctic Monkeys (3/5) are fine, but with only an album (and a bit) worth of material they find it difficult to create a presence on the main stage. The hits are played in between moments of silence in which Alex Turner worryingly asks Reading if everything is OK. There is a cheer and then complete silence… and some tumbleweed.

What the Arctics miss out on stage presence, Muse (5/5) more than make up for in the way of complete massiveness. All you could want in a great rock show is here: big flashy lights, big flashy screens, big flashy fireworks and big flashy tunes. The first half of their set is completely faultless, opening with an apocalyptic ‘Knights of Cydonia’, the booming ‘Hysteria’ and long absent friend ‘Showbiz’. By this point there is no way that Muse did not have the entirety of the festival in the palm of their hands.