Wandering through the campsite at 5am, returning from some friends' camp fire, I saw some bloke sitting in the mud with a little gas stove near the main site entrance selling plastic cups of coffee for 20p a go to raise money for the fare home. I bought one. I needed it. The entire walk of about a mile to my tent took nearly an hour through the quagmire.

On Sunday the campsite and arena looked like the battlefields of the Somme. Ankle-deep mud everywhere meant all day on our feet and the ever-present possibility of trenchfoot. Or, worse, falling over. The slippery conditions meant that very little lager or cider was drunk, either, except by Quayley, who was also the only one to sit down. In the mud, of course. It was so bad we resorted to drinking coffee and eating hot doughnuts on the Sunday night.

The top blew off the Session Tent on the Sunday afternoon and Teenage Fanclub gave up half their main stage slot to Eugenius who had been due to play in the tent.

Nirvana's headlining appearance on the Sunday turned out to be their last in the UK. Kurt Cobain scotched rumours of his demise that had persisted all weekend by arriving onstage in a wheelchair. Their performance was good, but not astonishing - they were never a particularly good live band, despite what people say. The carefully-orchestrated trashing of the equipment at the end of the set was strangely dull, probably because everyone expected it anyway.

Monday morning has never felt so good...

Bad things about Reading 1992
• Rain
• Mud
• It was the last year when you could park your car next to your tent

Best Bands of Reading 1992