Reading Festival

Reading & Leeds is an institution on the British festival circuit. It’s the beacon that marks the dusk of festival season each year, and whether you like it or not serves as a bit of a who’s who of live music. Its history precedes it and it’s often difficult to think about Reading & Leeds without the context of what’s gone before. What’s lost from this viewpoint, though, is the fact that for a huge chunk of the 90-odd thousand people who attend each event, this is their first one.

Arriving at Reading’s musically fertile field, the wide-eyed revellers of 2014 look afresh at a weekend of opportunity. Whether they’re there to paint up with UV and freak out in the dance tents or to cling to the main stage barriers for hours for a good spot, they’re there for a weekend to remember.

Our first stop was Drenge at the NME / BBC Radio 1 Stage. Rolling out onto the stage in what can only be described as ‘charming’ dresses, the pair tore into a tight set with moments of monstrous noise that proved their live set is a force to be reckoned with.

Friday daytime also saw Eagulls strike up a storm, their late arrival to the stage explained only by the words, “Things broke, but now they’re fixed. Let’s play!” Their tardiness was promptly forgotten after the first few chords of Tough Luck ricocheted around the Lock Up Stage ensuring immediate frenzy.

As night drew in, Warpaint’s ghostly atmospherics filled up the NME tent with a purple glow, a titanic helping of dry ice, and a kind of celestial swagger that only they can deliver. Over at the Festival Republic Stage, Jamie T was about to start a secret set, and he didn’t disappoint with a setlist full of his trademark charm and poetic pleasantries, but it was the night’s headliners Queens Of The Stone Age who left Friday’s biggest footprint.

A veritable Bigfoot of rock ’n’ roll, elusive until this year from the top of the Reading & Leeds bill, QOTSA came out to a grandiose red glow punctuated by green laser beams and delivered a truly superhuman set. Equal parts explosive, melodic and powerful. Queens’ set culminated in a bone-rattling rendition of A Song For The Dead cementing them in the ranks of rock’s untouchables.

Lyger, fresh off their support slot with Jane’s Addiction, got Saturday off to an energetic start before we headed over to check out one of the most anticipated sets of the weekend from Brighton two-piece Royal Blood, who didn’t disappoint with a confident, riff-heavy set to a packed-out NME tent.

Later on the main stage, Howlin’ Pelle of The Hives was up to his usual tricks during and between their familiar catalogue of festival rousers. Aptly, the band performed in front of an Eraserhead-esque image of Howlin’ Pelle as a red-eyed puppet-master. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re not thinking it now but you’re gonna realise later that, ‘Shit man, those last 15 minutes of The Hives… that was about as good as 2014 got at Reading…’ You might as well just let loose and go fucking crazy cos it’s happening right now…!” The Hives’ stage patter remains a highlight wherever they play.

Saturday night was the turn of The Arctic Monkeys to take to the main stage. Their AM logo emblazoned, pulsing across the back of the stage as Turner and co. brought one of the finest sing-along sets the festival has seen to the field full of smitten onlookers.

Sunday day provided highlights from new London disco gang Jungle, Baby Godzilla — who tore the Lock Up Stage to bits — and of course, the ever-juvenile Blink-182 to close. The irony of their opening track What’s My Age Again? seemingly wasn’t lost on the Reading crowd, but time wasn’t an issue as they blasted out their pop punk hits to the joy of everyone in attendance.

2014’s Reading entertained in the manner we’re accustomed to, but on top of that the variety on show tells a tale of its own. Now though, it seems small bands are really stepping up their showmanship to shake the ‘moody indie’ cliché that has haunted an empty tent or two in the past, and it didn’t go unnoticed by the detribalised kids who’ll happily have it all on shuffle.