SUNSHINE, downpours, music and more: that was Saturday at the 2023 Reading Festival.
It wouldn’t be a festival without a bit of the wet stuff falling from the sky, but thankfully it wasn’t enough to make day two a washout.
There was plenty of choice to ensure all music fans had something that tickled their tastebuds. Here are just some of the highlights.
Baby Queen began with Internet Religion on Main Stage East before working through a set of endearingly earnest yet charmingly chaotic songs that show a remarkable versatility, casually worn.
When upbeat, Baby Queen shines like sunlight, but their distinct moments of down-beat introspection are all the more impactful for their contrast.
Baby Queen’s vocal style is laconic and almost throwaway, and yet still feels considered to the very last beat, proving that their boisterous brand of power-pop and punk outlook has lots more fertile ground to explore.
Arlo Parks’ set over on Main Stage West explored their full range of songwriting ability, flexing their musical chops without any brashness or pretences.
Parks has been rising through the ranks over the last couple of years and this set was filled in equal measure with down-beat, earnest ballads and wailing rock songs to show just why.
Paired with Parks’s vocals, which are at once Featherlight and a powerhouse presence in the mix, Parks’ songwriting has cemented her not only as a must-see at any festival but one to watch out for, with huge potential to become a major landmark in the British music canon.
During the set, Parks said: “This is one of the most iconic festivals in the world, it’s a dream come true,” before closing the set with Devotion and Softly.
Easy Life was next up following fellow Sangria-collaborator Arlo Parks, with high hopes that the latter would join them on stage for the duet piece, which sadly didn’t come to pass.
Despite this, Easy Life kicked off with a perhaps unlikely choice of Beeswax, which allowed the crowd to settle in properly before a barrage of sunny, alternative indie pop.
With massive sing-along songs Pockets, Sangria, and Spaceships, Easy Life battled the intermittently soggy weather with a perhaps fittingly casual performance, looking very much at home to the huge stages and audiences they’ve become increasingly accustomed to in recent years.
They followed with the lo-fi-loaded OJPL before jumping two-feet-first into the eminently danceable Skeletons, replete with jazzy trumpets and boisterous brass section interludes.
They closed with Ocean View and Nightmares, but would have one more surprise to spring following their set – more on which a little later.
Meanwhile over on the Alternative Stage, comic Laura Smyth brought a down-to-Earth, approachability to proceedings with her charmingly confrontational and arresting but affable style.
With an energetic delivery, Smyth brings that increasingly sought-after ‘mates down the pub telling jokes’ style, without buffing off too much of the polish which goes into the craft.
Particular highlights included skits concerning going on holiday with her children, the gentrification of South London, and a hilarious double-think, hypocritical conundrum about body positivity.
She also touched on mental health and menopause with delicacy and disregard in equal measure in her set’s nuanced, though not necessarily ‘neat,’ conclusion.
Hardcore punk rockers Scowl appeared in a symphony of plaid and white lace on the Festival Republic stage, a visual sleight of hand which is immediately revealed when the five-piece kicks into their own brand of boiling angst and noise.
While much of their set is filled with unbridled energy, there are moments where the band crashes to a stop, seemingly just for the fun of it, bringing the audience juddering along for the ride and hungry for more by the set’s close.
During the set, lead vocalist Kat Moss said they had “Been really excited about playing Reading since I was into Kerrang and other alt music magazines. I’m glad to be here and onstage with my best friends.”
ZAND swiftly followed, exploding onto the Festival Republic stage in a splash of neon and skin, immediately arresting.
Antagonistic, driving guitars combine thumping beats and a laconic vocal style for a set brimming over with angst-ridden, rap-laden hard rock and laced through with acid (“How many slugs are in the audience?”)
ZAND’s style drips with rage at points, especially with the screaming, maniacal parts of I Spit on Your Grave, encapsulating a big part of what much of the audience is looking for in terms of hard acts with even harder attitude.
Despite this, the set was still peppered with the occasional light-hearted jokes and offhand asides which only further cement their complex outlook, and belying their punk sensibilities.
Highlights included Slug Money, Demotion, and a new song for the set, Leeches.
Lucia and The Best Boys brought Pin sharp rock filled with chant-along melodies and mixed with chamber sensibilities to BBC Introducing, kicking into high gear during anthemic choruses.
Lucia’s powerhouse vocals are laid over tight, considered instrumentation which builds to shimmering wall of sound during much of the set.
She has an arresting physicality too, with precise, poised movements that seem almost ethereal at times, with flashes of untethered freedom of physical expression.
The band exudes pure energy and occasionally dips into almost country-tinged tunes with melodic hooks that sink in instantly.
The set closed with Burning Castles, the title track of their upcoming debut album, which shows off Lucia’s soaring vocal ability, perfectly counterpointed by a falsetto and effervescent synths, giving the song an almost angelic quality.
Perfectly Untrue was a particular highlight.
Hot on their heels was Reading’s own Only The Poets, who already seemed to be brimming with the emotion of the moment as they took to the BBC Introducing stage.
Without missing a beat, the four-piece began with Every Song I Ever Wrote, playing to a home crowd in every sense of the phrase.
By the time their second song, Over and Over, was done, the audience had ballooned, and most were chanting along with every word.
They followed with Looking At You and Crash, before taking a moment to explain that this is the festival which started it all for them and inspired them to perform.
They closed their all-too-brief set with Jump! before disappearing into the crowd with acoustic instruments and numerous followers in tow.
At midnight, they were to be found in The Purple Turtle for a special aftershow party.
You can catch our interview with them here
There was to be yet another surprise, however, as Easy Life returned fresh from their Main Stage set earlier in the day for round two, packing out the BBC Introducing stage for another slice.
They barrelled through Beeswax and Pockets, throwing T-shirts and merch into the crowd, along with Sangria and Spaceships, before playing their latest track, Jujitsu, and closing once again with fan-favourite Nightmares.
They disappeared as quickly as they had arrived, leaving the crowd chanting “two more songs”, proving they are a band impossible to get sick of.
Over on Main Stage West, The 1975 kicked straight off as the dying notes of their first version of ‘The 1975’ faded, jumping headlong into The City, and swiftly following with M.O.N.E.Y, and Chocolate.
It marked the start of a set which the band had announced would be a 10th anniversary celebration of their debut self-titled album– a shrewd move considering it would be their third headline performance at the festival in just four years.
Before they set about playing the album in it’s entirety, they paid tribute to Lewis Capaldi, for whom they agreed to fill the headline slot after Capaldi took a well-deserved break on health grounds.
Healy appeared in his usual laconic style with a hip flask before graduating to a cigarette and a bottle of wine, which has become customary.
For Robbers, he shed the leather jacket and took a more laid-back approach, before bursting into smash hit Girls.
By playing their 2013 self-titled debut album, the band brought a relaxed vibe, the crowd singing along without spilling over into all-out mania, which sometimes accompanies the band’s shows – perfect for those looking for the hits while conserving their energy for the final headline act and the final day.
As the set continued, however, they broke from the album’s tracklist, bursting into It’s Not Living If It’s Not With You, among the most anthemic of their songs from the last 10 years.
In the excitement, Healy managed to snap a mic stand before jumping onto the keys for the climax of Show Me Your Love, with a sax solo screaming away through the dying chords of the song.
He then donned an acoustic guitar for I’m In Love With You, which set the crowd alight with a danceable and dependable hit from their more recent work.
As the set began to wind down, Healy again took up the acoustic guitar for I Always Wanna Die Sometimes, and closed with the explosive and heartfelt anthem, About You.
Sleep Token packed out the Festival Republic tent with hard rock and razor-sharp musical motifs, all the while donned in heavy masks – both literally and figuratively shrouding them in mystery.
Their set spilled over into wild territory, cementing the act as officially the loudest at the festival up until that point (with the possible exception of Wet Leg’s scream on Friday afternoon.)
Finally, The Killers brought all of the pomp and circumstance to their headline slot, with lead vocalist Brandon Flowers proclaiming: “They used to call this Reading Rock Festival… we’re going to turn back the clock.
Their set featured deeper cuts and mellower choices sprinkled into a catalogue of their anthemic hits from over the last two decades, including timeless tunes When You Were Young and Smile Like You Mean It.
Their live performance of Mr Brightside, a real rarity to see performed by its originators in the flesh, only went to show why the song has been in the British music charts almost constantly ever since it was released.
