Leeds & Reading Festival Page 2

Reading & Leeds Festival 2015's ever expanding line-up continues to grow with yet more acts announced to appear across the many stages; some of which are well-established, and some up-and-coming, but all definitely worth experiencing this year.

Kicking off proceedings, Mariachi el Bronx will be bringing a little Mexican spirit to the UK festival - which will be just as well if the English weather lets us down come August. They'll be joining headliners Metallica, Mumford & Sons and The Libertines, plus many more top billing artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Alt J and Bring Me The Horizon.

Continue reading: Mariachi El Bronx Lead Latest Additions To Reading & Leeds Festival 2015 Line-Up

The first announcement has been made as to who will be playing the Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2015, and it’s a big one: Metallica have been confirmed as one of the three headliners!

Organisers announced on Tuesday (25 November) that the American legends of metal will appear at the festival for the first time since 2008, when they also topped the bill alongside Rage Against The Machine and The Killers. They also headlined in 2003 and 1997, so they’ve got plenty of experience of satisfying the festivals’ notoriously raucous crowds.

Metallica headlined Glastonbury (above) this year, and will do the same at Reading & Leeds in 2015

Continue reading: Metallica To Headline Reading And Leeds 2015

Arctic Monkeys stole the show at last night’s Reading festival, with a storming headlining set packed full of festival crowd pleasers. The set was the band's penultimate performance for a while before they go on hiatus after closing Leeds Festival on Sunday.

Arctic Monkey's frontman Alex Turner

The Sheffield four piece opened their set with ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ before delighting fans with classic 'Brianstorm'.

Continue reading: Arctic Monkeys Play Storming Reading Headlining Set Before Hiatus

Every year, festival campsites buzz with rumours of ‘favourite bands playing secret slots’ and unlikely artists playing impromptu performances. As an event with a rich history of putting on secret shows, this month’s Reading and Leeds festival proves to be no exception.

Last week, one Reading and Leeds organiser revealed he’d been approached by several artists (some of whom he described as ‘arena acts’) all wanting to play at the festival. To the delight and frustration of many fans, he confirmed that one big-name act has since been confirmed to perform a secret slot - but wouldn’t reveal who.

Continue reading: So, Who's Playing ‘Secret Sets’ At Reading And Leeds 2014?

Macaulay Culkin and his pizza-themed Velvet Underground cover band, the imaginatively named The Pizza Underground, suffered the chagrin of a disgruntled crown in Nottingham during the city’s annual Dot To Dot festival. Culkin, who was by this point half-way through a European tour, beat a hasty retreat from the stage after being drenched with beer.

Macaulay isn't the first star to feel the audience's ire.

It proved, that in this age of disconnect, where audience members can turn to the comforts of smart phones during lacklustre gigs, music fans are still eager to openly voice their displeasure. Only a few days later, Culkin announced the cancellation of the remaining tour dates. He has not openly cited the event as the primary motivation for such a cancellation, but it seems all too obvious that the hostile reception he received had severely impacted the decision. Macaulay is far from being the first to suffer the wrath of an embittered crowd and few are safe from the ramifications of a poor or ill-judged performance. Here are ten examples of performers receiving a severe dressing down from irate audiences:

Continue reading: Bottled Off: 10 Bands Who Suffered Worse Fate Than Macaulay Culkin's Pizza Underground

The latest additions to this year’s Reading and Leeds Festivals have been announced and amongst the fresh batch of acts is the former My Chemical Romance frontman, who will play his first live shows as a solo artists at this year’s dual mega-event. Gerard Way’s iconic band had recently become defunct after mutually deciding to lay the group to bed. The multi-million record selling giants of emo rock recently released a greatest hits album entitled May Death Never Stop You but have failed to announce any farewell tour dates, much to the chagrin of their huge and loyal fanbase.

Gerard Way Is Heading to Leeds and Reading

His Reading and Leeds performances will herald a new chapter in the singer’s career as he puts the finishing touches on an eagerly-awaited solo album, the direction of which is still shrouded in mystery. The musician and prolific comic book artist has directed fans to his new website, which features a brief snippet of an as-yet unnamed song.

Continue reading: Leeds And Reading Festival Line Up: Gerard Way Among The Additions

The pop punk trio, Blink 182, from America will once again be taking the main stage for the Reading & Leeds Festival in 2014.

Zane Lowe made the announcement on his Radio 1 show on Tuesday (Dec 3rd).

The ‘All The Small Things’ singers first dawned the festival in 1999 and then hit the main stage as one of the favourite headline acts, three years ago in 2010.

Continue reading: Blink 182 Will Headline Reading & Leeds Festival 2014 For A Second Time

Leeds Festival 2013 may not have brought with it the best weather of the year, with torrential downpours and heavy flooding putting a damper (pardon the pun) on everyone's camping weekend, but the line-up was enough to put a smile on everyone's mud spattered face!

Green Day Headline Leeds Festival 2013

Biffy Clyro drew in a rapturous audience on the Friday and Green Day had a smaller but dedicated audience on Saturday, but that was nothing compared to Eminem's fantastic closing performance which drew the biggest audience of the whole weekend. Other bands had a few surprises up their sleeves, with Fall Out Boy managing to get Foxes up on stage to perform their collaborative track 'Just One Yesterday' (Pete Wentz' favourite song from their new album) and The Lumineers taking crowd participation to a new level by playing in the middle of their audience.

Continue reading: Leeds Festival 2013 Flooding Fails To Bring The Rapturous Crowd Down

Remember when everyone thought Phoenix was an American band, or a Scandinavian band? It was probably rather annoying for the Versailles rockers, though it seems as though there's one huge benefit of nobody being quite sure we're you're from.

Contactmusic Caught Up With Phoenix At Leeds Festival 2013

We caught up with Thomas Mars and Laurent Brancowitz of the French quartet ahead of their triumphant set at Leeds Festival over the weekend and asked how it felt to be the subject of mistaken identity.

Continue reading: Phoenix Claim, "We Can Copy French Songs, People Think We're Geniuses"

We managed to grab Jake Bugg for a quick chat at Leeds Festival 2013 over the weekend (August 23rd - 25th) where, among other things, he opened up about what to expect from his sophomore album and upcoming tour dates.

On album two, Jake has teamed up with one of the most legendary producers in the history of music; Rick Rubin - co-founder of Def Jam records who has worked with a variety of artists from Jay-Z to Metallica. 'That's the great thing about Rick, he's so diverse in what he does', says Jake. 'This year he's done the Jay-Z record and the Kanye West album and Black Sabbath. He's great to work with, he's so chilled out. I fly [to America] tomorrow to go finish off the second record so I can't wait.' He also openly admitted to not knowing who Chad Smith was (he's the Red Hot Chili Peppers' drummer!) when Rubin brought him in as a studio musician but expressed regret that he had to leave the project for a RHCP record.

Watch the full interview with Jake Bugg here

Continue reading: Jake Bugg Talks Album Number Two And Partnering With Rick Rubin [Interview]

Eminem is well and truly back; having performed in some of the world’s top venues, the Detroit rapper has announced a new album set for release on November 5th, with his new single Bezerk out today (Tues, 27 Aug).

Eminem makes a surprise appearance in New York

The Marshall Mathers LP 2 will be Eminem’s first release since 2010’s Recovery, and he has a fair amount of work to do to win back some lost fans, as the album garnered mostly average reviews, culminating in a 63% rating on Metacritic, which, for a rapper of his standing, will have been a disappointing response.

Continue reading: Eminem Announces New Album, But Did He Mime At Leeds Festival?

It may be nearing the end of the summer but Leeds and Reading Festival 2013 goers don't have much to worry about in terms of the unpredictable English weather this weekend (August 23rd - 25th).

The Met Office website has suggested some okay weather for Friday and Saturday with information still to come for Sunday. According to them, Leeds can expect temperatures going up to 23 degrees on Friday though mostly accompanied by clouds, while the following day seems to be a little cooler with a good chance of rain for most of the day before clearing up towards the evening. As for Reading, you lucky Southerners; you can expect rather a sunny morning and temperatures of possibly 25 degrees on the first day, though Saturday in Reading will perhaps also see some spots of rain before the evening approaches.

BBC Weather appears to be more optimistic, seeing 24 degree temperatures in Leeds and 26 in Reading on the Friday, though it looks mildly wet for most of the day on Saturday in Leeds and fairly bright in Reading. Sunday could be the nicest day of the weekend as campers emerge from their tents with their penultimate hangovers to find it brightening up in Leeds at 25 degrees and even reaching 27 in Reading. Other sources suggest similar forecasts, though there have been suggestions of a little rain on the Friday; possibly not disposable raincoat and heavy-duty wellies style weather, however.

Continue reading: Weather-Worries Are Looking Few For Leeds And Reading Festival 2013