LIVE: Reading Festival, 28th – 30th August 2015

As one of the biggest festivals in the UK, Reading is always going to come in for some stick from ‘festival purists’. The commercial nature and heavily sponsored image of the world famous event makes certain would-be festival goers claim that the festival has lost it’s soul. Thankfully, having spent four days on the Reading Festival site, soaking up music from relative newcomers to established icons, I can safely say that that is absolutely not the case and that this festival is one of the greatest.

First of all, the site is big enough to fit in eight stages, yet small enough for you to be able to nip in between them all at your leasure, dipping in and out of the music on show to find something you like. That luxury isn’t afforded at all festivals of this size, making Reading one of the best for people who can’t be bothered to wander around for miles.

Whilst the layout is great and always has been, it’s obvioulsy the music that is the main draw for the thousands of people who attend each year and the 2015 line-up was immense. In terms of the headliners, there wasn’t really anything new. Metallica and Mumford & Sons have both headlined Glasto in the last couple of years and The Libertines headlined a BST show at Hyde Park in 2014, so we weren’t expecting anything particularly groundbreaking from any of them and we didn’t really get anything new either. All three did play strong sets though and the noisy recital of each song from the crowd demonstrated how much people were loving it. But Reading Festival in 2015 was about more than the headliners and more than the main stage.

Earlier in the day across the entire weekend, artists/bands were grabbing their opportunity to appear at one of the most well know festivals in the UK with both hands. Nick Brewer, Bugzy Malone, Star.One and Lady Leshurr, amongst others, all impressed on the BBC 1Xtra stage as they performed during daytime slots. Radkey, Drenge, AWOLNATION and much-talked-about newcomers Slaves drew huge crowds to their respective sets and all of the artists mentioned put on a brilliant performance. There seemed to be something in the air at Reading this year that meant the bands/artists playing realised that this was a huge opportunity for them to impress their fans and convert some new ones at the same time.

One act who embodied that feeling completly was Clean Cut Kid. The Liverpool based four-piece performed an energetic set showcasing their considerable talents and justifying exactly why we picked them as our ‘one to watch’ at this years festival. Their breakout single ‘Viamin C’ may be the song that everyone knows, but the crowd in attendance at their set on the BBC Introducing stage seemed excited to hear a load of new music from these fast rising stars and the band were more than happy to share it with them.

Foals were the ‘secret set’ act this year on the NME/Radio 1 Stage and played through a six track set featuring music from across their releases including ‘Red Socks Pugie’ and crowd favourite ‘My Number’. With their latest album What Went Down released the day before the festival began, Foals seemed a popular choice for the secret slot and were extremely well received.

The ‘Biggest Non-Main Stage Crowd of the Weekend’ award has to be shared between South London MC Stormzy and Grime legend Lethal Bizzle on the BBC 1 Xtra stage. The fact that additional security had to be brought in from other stages during both of their sets shows how packed out and manic the tent was for their respective performances and neither of them disappointed. Stormzy powered through a lively set featuring his huge tracks ‘Know Me From’, ‘Not That Deep’ and ‘Shut Up’, whilst Bizzle, who entered the stage on a segway, blazed through a mixture of classics and more recent chart smashes including ‘Rari Workout’, ‘Fester Skank’ and ‘It’s a Shame’. Both artists also freestyled over classic Grime beats including Rebound X’s infamous track ‘Rhythm & Gash’ which was heard during tduring the majority of artists sets on the 1Xtra stage.

Pre-festival, doubts had been cast by some over the sets of Limp Bizkit and Kendrick Lamar; would Limp Bizkit be able to draw the kind of crowd they used to and how would the Reading Festival crowd take to a Compton rapper playing just before The Libertines on the main stage? It has to be said that the doubters were proved 100% wrong as Limp Bizkit’s set full of timeless nu-metal sing/shout alongs whipped the sizeable crowd into a fierce frenzy, whilst Kendrick Lamar’s lyrical prowess and obvious talent on the mic ensured that the crowd were fully involved and engrossed by his majestic performance, with tracks such as ‘m.A.A.d city’ and ‘Alright’ receiving a lot of love.

A special mention has to go to Babymetal too. Whilst most festival goers are still recovering rom the previous night’s antics at midday, the Japanese metal-idol band managed to draw a mass of curious onlookers to the main stage and their dance routine-filled set mixed with the contrast of cutesy vocals and thrashing metal guitars won even the most old-fashioned metal fans over. Huw Stephens announced the band as “something the main stage at Reading has never seen before” and he couldn’t have put it better. Everything about the group shouldn’t work but somehow it does. The band were this year’s special guests and you can guarantee that they’ll be back again in the future after this showing.

Reading Festival is an absolute must-attend for any music fan and with so many diffrent genres on show, ranging from metal and grime to punk and drum & bass, there is something for everyone. If you’re an open minded individual who appreciates talented musicians and you weren’t there this year, you missed out on a blinder. But don’t worry, there’s always next year…

Matt Tarr
@MattTarrJourno

Matt Tarr

Matt Tarr

Urban Music Editor
With grime and hip hop being major influences on him growing up in South East London, Matt's passion is urban music but over the years he has gathered a hugely diverse taste, ranging from Wiley to The Smiths by way of Machine Head, that has made him a very open minded individual.
Matt Tarr