READING & LEEDS FESTIVAL 2015 GUIDE

It’s that time of the year again Britain’s glorious countryside has endured a pasting from another annum of boozy, loud and damn right outrageous Music Festivals. We are near approaching the closure of the season with many of the UK’s biggest festivals, Isle of Wight, V Fest and Glastonbury well and truly wrapped up. The cows can finally return to the peace and tranquillity of their humble abodes to graze until their hearts content, well all until next year of course. But all is certainly not lost, alike every year when we approach this landmark and music lovers from across our great nation are struck with the dreadful disease known to many as ‘Festival Blues’ there is one light that remains flickering as a solitude to these sick and weary festival goers. A saint in disguise, injecting hope into all those that need it, Reading and Leeds Festival which is masterfully placed at the end of August on Bank Holiday weekend is potentially the last opportunity for these alleged music junkies to get their summer fix. With one day to go until Reading and Leeds kick off on Friday we thought this would be a prime opportunity to take a look at some of the bands that are set to play and give you a guide on which bands to keep an eye out for.

Mumford and Sons are set to headline the legendaryMain Stage on Friday night and this, without question, is a must see their innovation of an Indie Folk hybrid is enough to get any merry soul dancing and singing the night away. There is sure to be an incredible atmosphere at this set and what better way to bring the Festivals first day to an end. Alongside them on Fridays Main Stage we have ALT-J who we managed to catch at Reading Festival in 2013 headlining the NME Stage they have come a long way since thenlanding themselves a spot on Main Stage supporting the headline act. This is definitely one to catch and they are sure to produce an electrifying set. Also on the Main Stage, but during what will hopefully be a beautifully sunny daytime, are Rock newcomers Drenge. Since bursting onto the scene earlier this year Drenge have accumulated an avid following; their debut album ‘Undertow’ was a huge success and will soon be available to purchase on Vinyl from our Store, so keep your eyes peeled for that. This set has a lot of promise and is guaranteed to rock your socks off. Too cheesy?! Alongside these bands on Friday our other must see picks include Limp Bizkit who do not really need an introduction or justification do they? Peace who earlier this year released ‘Happy People’ a follow up to their incredible debut album are playing the NME/ BBC Radio 1 Stage make sure you catch that for a nice serving of indie pop. Earlier on the NME tent, Don Broco will grace the stage following their recent album release ‘Automatic’ which received extremely good reviews so again if you’re at Reading check them out, we’re sure their set will be filled with a lot of their newer material in an attempt to promote the album. Be sure to check out some of the smaller tents during the day for the opportunity to catch a rising star nice and early after all it wasn’t that long ago we saw Jake Bugg play the BBC Introducing Stage at Reading Festival.

Well Saturday is an absolute cracker, plenty of incredible bands to catch. It’s also very promising to see a lineup like this on Main Stage the past few years have been somewhat disappointing at Reading from a Rock perspective, there have been some great headliners but the bulk of acts on Main Stage have been sub standard to say the least. This Saturday lineup on the Main Stage is the best we have seen for years with lots of good Rock acts making an appearance. Metallica are set to headline the festival on Saturday which again is a must see for anybody they are bound to make the set special and host a few surprises along the way so do not miss that! You could very happily get to the Main Stage first thing in the morning set yourself up and not move until you pass out in a river of beer mid Metallica set. The lineup is great we recommend you check out as many of them as you can on Saturdays Main Stage with: Bring Me The Horizon, Royal Blood, Alexisonfire, Pierce The Veil, Modestep and Marmozets. If you’re a conservative soul and want to make sure you get around the festival to check out as much music as possible we would suggest you 100% make sure you check out Royal Blood who again do not need an introduction they have pretty much torn a hole in the Rock music industry and were given every award under the sun for their self titled debut album. Also Alexisonfire is sure to be an incredible watch having split a few years back with no sign of reform it looks as if the Reading and Leeds veterans have returned with a vengeance and are ready to tear up the Main Stage. Dallas Green and the boys are sure to play some old classics like ‘This Could Be Anywhere In The World’ and ‘Boiled Frogs’ from their Crisis album make sure your there. So far we have only covered Saturdays Main Stage, the NME tent is another thing entirely with once again plenty of acts to go and see. Many of this year’s brightest bands will be playing this slot with: Catfish and The Bottlemen, Everything Everything, Wolf Alice, Slaves and Nothing But Thieves certainly not to be missed it looks as if many of you will have to make a POA to ensure you don’t miss anything. We forecast that Saturday will be a day of clashes, many bands looking like they will be playing at the same time as eachother. Over on the Festival Republic Stage you have: The Wombats, Darlia, Radkey, Pretty Vicious and Ratboy which also feature as our picks of the festival. To the person that manages to see all these bands on Saturday you are truly a God and we salute you, to the rest of you mere mortals good luck.

Sunday is yet another good day for music with the legendary indie rockers Libertines headlining the Main Stage having returned from their informal hiatus for the past god knows how long the band are set to release new album ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’, which is available on our store, and will take to Reading and Leeds to play what we expect will be a set filled with both old and new. Also on Sunday’s Main Stage are Jamie T and The Maccabees make sure you get down to these sets they are sure to be good ones. The Maccabees recently released their new album ‘Marks to Prove It’ which has received very good reviews we can be sure that some of these songs will make their way into the bands setlist. On the Festival Republic stage we have We Are The Ocean, Mini Mansions, Gengahr and Spring King that feature as our festival picks all these bands have had interesting years and are sure to impress. It’s going off over in The Pit on Sunday with: Refused, While She Sleeps, Cancer Bats, Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes and Turbowolf who are all sure to live up to the tents name and put on a mosh worthy performance for the metal heads out there. If you want a dose of heavy rock and sweaty crowds make sure you get down to see a few of these bands. In particular TurboWolf who we saw back in April at The Bullingdon in Oxford, they are an incredible band that connect with the crowd and put a lot of energy into their sets. They have just released their latest LP ‘Two Hands’ which is a great album throughout make sure you check that out at some point before or after Reading and Leeds.

That concludes our rather primitive guide to the festival be sure to check out a few of the bands we mentioned and if there are any that caught your eye or surprised you be sure to tweet us @therockwolf1. We want to hear all about it! Make sure you drop down to the BBC Introducing Stage at some point over the weekend to support some of the smaller bands hoping to make the big time in the near future. PEACE, TRW