Thursday, August 23, 2012

How to watch The Cure at Reading on BBC3

As you know, BBC3 will be broadcasting the first hour of The Cure's set at Reading on Friday at 21:00. Problem is, if you're outside of the UK, you can't watch it online. So you will need a proxy/VPN. While there are other ways, the simplest way to set one up seems to be by downloading and installing Tunnel Bear. Have heard it worked very well during the London Olympics, and would expect it to be just as good for the Reading coverage, though there are no guarantees. This will be my first time trying it, so we'll see what happens.

If you want to try it, just go here, download the version that's right for you, install it, switch it on, set it for UK, go to the BBC Reading website, and try watching something that is live. You only have 500MB of free data, but do the Twitter promo and you can get an additional 1GB. That should be enough if you just want to watch The Cure's set on Friday.

After the 1st hour, The Cure's set is supposed to continue on the Red Button channel, though the BBC page doesn't mention this, only Radio Times. Then you can go back to BBC3 for highlights at 23:30.(Thanks to @rob_sheridan for the tip on this)

Update: "also expat shield works on the bbc" (Thanks Gary)

14 comments:

  1. If they are going to show the rest of the gig on the red button, I presume it'll also be a live stream on the BBC's R&L website - www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/

    However it's quite possible they won't be showing it - for every other festival this tour the band have only allowed the first hour of every gig to be streamed live, and it looks like it may well be the same on Friday - why would BBC3 cut away from the headliners halfway through their gig?

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    1. Don't know. Just going with what the Radio Times said:

      "So while you can catch the first hour of an exhaustive set by Reading headliners the Cure on BBC3 from 9pm, press red at 10 to continue enjoying the pop goths’ triumphant return to a festival they haven’t played since 1979. If you’re a satellite or cable viewer, you’ll also be able to choose between bands on the main three stages. "

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  2. The Radio Times used to be owned by the BBC up until a year a go - I'm just hoping some wires are crossed and the original publication was correct.

    However, cutting away from the headliners is nothing new at all. Most festivals on tv do it so they can show the other stages and what else is going on - you can often hear the headliner playing in the background as the commentators are talking between acts.

    Hope the Radio Times have got it right and Robert isn't restricting the amount that can be shown. I can sort of understand it at the other festivals as they were mostly webcasts but a TV broadcast is very different.

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  3. Alternatively, the fact that the BBC/Radio Times are saying they'll be going back to The Cure at 11:30 suggests to me that they'll be showing more than just the first hour as they won't want to repeat what has already been on. Red Button treatment would make sense too as we're going to see nothing from Leeds (no cameras there) and it will be mostly Cure fans that will watch it rather than the casual's that are going to watch BBC3 for the night.

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    1. Beau, is the Red Button channel available online? I always thought it was a sort of extra channel on TV, satellite, etc.

      So there is no way for us to watch that part, correct? Those of us watching online can only watch the bits on BBC3 at 9 and 11:30, right?

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  4. Craig - I couldn't tell you for certain. I have a feeling that the BBC Website shows the bands individually as well as the BBC3 footage.
    So they might show the red button (if there is any...) footage but have it laid out on the website with one feed for The Cure, one for The Maccabees etc. and you'd be able to click on each one like you'd be able to select it on the red button service.
    Don't quote me on that though but I'm sure I remember the R/L BBC webpages being set up like that before.

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    1. Thank you, Beau. Going to keep my fingers crossed for it. At least I should be able to see the stuff on BBC3, so I will not get greedy. :)

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  5. I want to be greedy and have it all because I couldn't afford to go! Haha :P.

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  6. Just found out that Paramore will not be shown on TV at all. If they are only showing one hour of The Cure (with no Red Button) then its going to be a fucking boring night on BBC3.
    Not that I am into Paramore but they were one of the bigger draws and surely they won't live off the Maccabees all night?

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  7. Also noticed something else: The Foo Fighters is only shown for an hour on Sunday too and then more is shown later on like with The Cure.
    I know that Foo Fighters are getting a similar length set to The Cure (150 mins) whilst Kasabian (who's set is not interrupted) are getting only 120 minutes.
    The only theory I can think of is that the BBC doesn't want to fill up a whole channel with perhaps 3 hours of music from one band so the logical thing would be to stick them on the Red Button so people can carry on watching.
    It doesn't explain why the BBC don't mention The Cure regarding the Red Button but oh well, I just thought I'd point it out!

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  8. Do the twitter promo and you can get an additional 1MB;) maybe 1 GB? :) /Lasse

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  9. It works!! Ready to watch another Cure show ;). Thanks, Craig.

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  10. I have just tweeted, how long time before i can get 1GB, someone? /Lasse

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