LEEDS FESTIVAL 2019 - FRIDAY (DAY ONE) : MUST SEE BANDS/ARTISTS
With less than three weeks to this year’s Reading and Leeds Festivals here our must see bands/artists appearing on First Day (FRIDAY) at Leeds Festival this year!
FRIDAY
Main Stage:
FOO FIGHTERS
Following up their sold out shows at the London Stadium (twice) and Manchester’s Etihad, the world’s biggest rock band, Foo Fighters, will make their triumphant return to headline Reading and Leeds in 2019.
With nearly 30 million records sold, and fresh from packing out the world’s biggest venues – Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear and Rami Jaffee will bring their three-hour-plus rock marathon master class back to headlining Reading/Leeds, a tradition they began in 2002.
Expect every one of the tens of thousands voices in attendance to be raised with every deafening chorus as Foo Fighters run through dozens of classics spanning their massive catalogue, from their 1995 debut through 2017’s ‘Concrete and Gold’ which went to Number 1 in more than a dozen countries including the UK and US.
FOO FIGHTERS
A DAY TO REMEMBER
Over the course of the past several years, each of A Day To Remember’s releases have hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Rock, Indie and/or Alternative Charts. They’ve also sold more than a million units, racked up over 400 million Spotify streams and 500 million YouTube views, garnered two gold-selling albums and singles (and one silver album in the UK) and sold out entire continental tours (including their own curated Self Help Festival), amassing a global fanbase whose members number in the millions. All of which explains why Rolling Stone called them “An Artist You Need To Know.” In other words, their creative process has worked and worked well.
A DAY TO REMEMBER
FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES
Forget everything you know about Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes. Cast aside the savage brilliance of 2015 debut Blossom and Top Ten follow up Modern Ruin.
Erase from your mind a live show which remains the most thrillingly visceral experience in contemporary rock.
Because everything they’ve done up until now has been leading to their jaw-dropping third album, End Of Suffering.
Just six months in the making, End Of Suffering – named after the Buddhist term for enlightenment- is the sound of a band entering an entirely new realm of the senses. A forty-minute rock’n’rollercoaster of molten-hot bangers, scorched-soul ballads and grunge lullabies laced through with a lacerating lyrical honesty, it’s both a stadium-sized declaration of intent and a deeply personal cri-de-coeur.
FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES
ENTER SHIKARI
Enter Shikari are a British band.
Their fifth studio album is out now, and is entitled The Spark.
They are often found to be touring the world.
Their component parts are Rou, Rory, Chris and Rob.
ENTER SHIKARI
YUNGBLUD
Emerging from the gritty north of England YUNGBLUD brings to the stage an explosion of raw energy and thought-provoking lyrics. He has created his own blend of alternative rock: poetry, guitar-hooks and break-beats with a fierce determination to make a dent in pop-culture. Dangerously sexy, startlingly bold yet emotionally grounded YUNGBLUD drops a grenade on his audience members imprinting himself in their minds.
YUNGBLUD
MILK TEETH
Milk Teeth welcomed a new and exciting era for the band with the release of their latest single ‘Stain’ at the tail end of 2018. ‘Stain’ is the first song to feature new full-time member Em Foster (Nervus) into the gross-pop trio. Riding high of their Heavy Music Award for Best British Newcomer and a sold out Underworld show in London, alongside countless festivals and tours throughout the UK, Europe and the USA, 2019 is primed for Milk Teeth to continue their ascent!
MILK TEETH
FRIDAY
BBC RADIO 1 STAGE:
BASTILLE
Bastille have gone from a bedroom band to crashing the UK charts with their recent second album, ‘Wild World’, debuting in the UK charts at number 1 and staying there for two weeks.
It’s just six years since South Londoner, Dan, started Bastille alone in his bedroom, releasing 300 copies of Bastille’s debut single. Relentless gigging, genuine word of mouth and some smartly curated mixtapes has meant that within three years — and with Chris Wood (drums), Will Farquarson (guitar) and Kyle Simmons (keyboards) added to the line-up, Bastille have become a global phenomenon
The band’s chart-conquering debut album ‘Bad Blood’ has sold over 4m albums alongside 11m singles. Their latest album‘Wild World’ retains the vivid, rich, filmic song-writing of its predecessor but pushes the band’s distinctive sound in exciting new directions. Lyrically, it’s a leap forward. “If our first album was about growing up and freaking out about it” Dan explains,
First single ‘Good Grief’ is unmistakably a Bastille song with its sampling of Kelly Le Brock from 80s movie Weird Science. Across ‘Wild World’ you’ll find numerous new additions to the band’s sonic architecture. “On the first record we didn’t have guitars simply because I couldn’t play guitar,” Dan smiles. “This time round we’ve added them to the mix — but they’re still a massive novelty to us, so it’s been fun developing the band’s sound.”
A sense of escapism runs through ‘Wild World’, but at the heart of it all is a fascination with the human condition, and the relationships we all forge, fight over and sometimes forget. “The world can seem fucked up,” Dan concludes. “But people — well, people can be amazing. The relationships you choose to have in your life are the main solace. They’re the things that make life awesome.”
BASTILLE
CHVRCHES
Crafting songs with big synths and bigger hooks, Chvrches combine their roots in Glasgow’s indie community — the band features former members of Aerogramme and the Twilight Sad — with a love of chart-friendly pop. They made an immediate impact on the music scene with 2013’s bittersweet-yet-anthemic debut album The Bones of What You Believe, and later found ways of bringing an extra sheen to their music without sacrificing any of its depth. On 2018’s Love Is Dead, their collaborators ranged from pop producer Greg Kurstin to the National’s Matt Berninger.
CHVRCHES
SUNDARA KARMA
Oscar Pollock looks through the headlines, joins all the dots, peers to the very core of modern society, politics and social media, and senses crazy hands on the controls. “It’s like there’s this weird creepy clown who’s controlling everything and getting a real kick out of these bizarre things us humans are doing,” he considers. “Like, ‘oh my god, look what I can make them do now!’”
Forget the box, art rock sensations Sundara Karma think outside the whole damn packing plant. Their songs are personal reactions to art, literature and culture – Plato, Wilde, Bram Stoker, Manet, Buddha – that tackle topics from online self-obsession to consumer capitalism, the smokescreen of the nuclear family and the lies at the heart of the teenage dream.
Oscar, aged just twenty, is already emerging as the most captivating frontman of our times, plucking at the long, silvery thread of rock’n’roll androgyny that runs through Bowie, Bolan, Suede and My Chemical Romance while embracing high art, questioning The System, probing his darkest autobiographical depths and musing – jokingly – about the evil clowns controlling the Earth.
Add in a truckload of solid gold anthems that view classic noughties rock melodies through the modern indie prism of Arcade Fire and The Maccabees, and it’s no wonder Sundara Karma are being hailed as the bright future of alt-rock, a reputation built on a clash of exotic and ordinary that’s embedded deep in their roots.
SUNDARA KARMA
THE AMAZONS
The Amazons are a four-piece rock band from Reading. Their debut album was released in May 2017, and charted at #8 in the UK Album Chart following a long list of tips and ‘ones to watch’ acknowledgements from The BBC (Sound of… 2017, Brit List), Spotify, Apple, MTV and many more.
The success of their first release, which included the singles Black Magic, Little Something & Junk Food Forever – all of which were supported greatly at BBC Radio 1 – allowed the band to tour the world through 2017 and 2018. Headline shows in the USA, Japan and Korea, as well as a run of sold out UK & European dates have kept The Amazons busy.
They are now heading back into the studio to record their second album with MPG’s Producer of The Year for 2018, Catherine Marks, with whom they worked on the last record. 2019 is shaping up to be a big year for the band, who are excited to get back on the road.
THE AMAZONS
THE STORY SO FAR
A lot can happen in three years, and for The Story So Far, a whole lot did. After the release of their third, self-titled album in 2015, the band’s routine writing, recording, and touring had caught up with them. “We were so burnt from touring, and playing the same songs over and over again,” says Parker Cannon, the band’s vocalist and lyricist, “We knew we had to take a step back and collect ourselves.” By taking that time to recharge, The Story So Far were able to look at themselves with fresh eyes and newfound creative ambitions, returning with their most cohesive and confident record to date.
THE STORY SO FAR
PICTURE THIS
Picture This are an alternative/pop band releasing anthemic, sing along and somewhat cinematic music. Songs that capture your imagination. Lyrics that hit hard.
PICTURE THIS
THE FAIM
The Faim came into existence as naturally as their music. The Australian group met while in high school in Perth, emerging from an assignment completed in their music class. Soon the friends were penning their own songs, inspired by bands like Fall Out Boy, The 1975 and Metallica, and each brought in an array of musical influences, from indie rock to jazz to pop-punk. Since the beginning, the idea has always been to keep things as organic and sincere as possible, always ensuring that each song The Faim makes reflects who they are human beings.
THE FAIM
FRIDAY
THE PIT:
FIDLAR
Over the course of 13 songs, FIDLAR’s third album Almost Free touches on many of the tragedies and irritations of modern life: existential dread, gentrification, the inescapable sway of the super-rich and the self-involved, post-breakup telecommunication, performative wokeness, the loneliness of sobriety or the lack thereof. But through sheer force of imagination and an unchecked joie de vivre, the L.A.-based band manages to turn feeling wrong into something glorious and essential. In the age of joyless self-care, Almost Free makes a brilliant case for being less careful, for living without fear of fucking up, and possibly embracing any incurred damage as a lucky symptom of being alive.
FIDLAR
PALAYE ROYALE
Rightfully christened as both “The Hottest Band of 2018” and simply “the” group of the year, by the English music press, Canadian fashion-rock trio Palaye Royale is a shot of adrenaline into the modern musical landscape. Summoning a thrilling spirit, with throwback sonic crunch, visual flair and reckless live performances, Palaye Royale has quickly earned a legion of obsessive cult-like loyalists, lovingly dubbed Soldiers of the Royal Council.
PALAYE ROYALE
NOTHING NOWHERE
We’ve got something to make you feel ‘better’, nothing,nowhere. will be heading to this year’s Reading and Leeds Festival.
NOTHING NOWHERE
STAND ATLANTIC
Stand Atlantic, made up of Bonnie Fraser (vocals/guitar), David Potter (guitar), and Jonno Panichi (drums), launched into the international eye following last year’s Skinny Dipping. The group’s blend of hard-charged rock and soaring pop melodies has earned them a home on international tours with the likes of New Found Glory, Neck Deep and State Champs – and critical accolades like a “Best International Breakthrough Band” nomination at the 2018 Heavy Music Awards and inclusion in Kerrang’s highly coveted Hottest Bands of 2018.
STAND ATLANTIC
HOT MILK
Hot Milk are an emo power-pop duel fronted band from Manchester, England. Jim and Han met in a bar in the Northern Quarter in 2016, became fast friends and have lived together ever since. What started over a bottle of wine and an acoustic guitar in their living room, whilst it pissed it down outside, quickly became their vice and way to survive through everyday life. The Manchester weather coupled with their persistent desire to fill a meaning-shaped hole meant that one song quickly turned into fifteen after running home from work during lunch breaks and staying up all night.
Singing sad songs with happy melodies, Hot Milk are a celebration of the real. With Fun, Family and Kindness at the forefront of their minds, Hot Milk hope to create an open and warm sphere where everyone is invited.
HOT MILK
FRIDAY
FESTIVAL REPUBLIC STAGE:
CRYSTAL FIGHTERS
Almost ten years ago, the then-unknown Crystal Fighters were playing their first shows at warehouse parties across London. This summer they’re headlining a run of huge European festivals. Spanning continents, the band’s ever-evolving music captures everything that makes their shows a life-affirming experience: a joyous explosion of beats, electronics and bass delivered dazzlingly onstage.
CRYSTAL FIGHTERS
SWMRS
Within the opening bars of SWMRS second LP comes a sea change. You think you’re in familiar rock territory with the Oakland-formed quartet when suddenly an electronic beat kicks in that throws you for a loop. The same thing happens throughout the ten tracks that make up Berkeley’s On Fire – the band’s most urgent, electrifying and groundbreaking record to date. “We always talk about how to make something brand new within the genre of rock,” says co-frontman and songwriter Cole Becker. Cole and bandmates Max Becker (guitar, vocals), Joey Armstrong (drums), and Seb Mueller (bass) spent months deconstructing themselves, their favorite records, and their own process to make this album. From the scraps of what they left behind, a new sound emerged.
SWMRS
CAVETOWN
Robin Skinner makes music by himself, in his bedroom under the name CAVETOWN, but his songs belong to the world.
Fans see themselves in Skinner’s music: tales of love and loss, of yearning to make sense of life. For three minutes at a time, listeners feel less alone inside his songs, finding comfort in times of chaos and confusion.
Cavetown’s fourth album, LEMON BOY, puts Skinner’s effortless, bright melodies and economic songwriting on full display. From the looping folk-pop title track (with an inventive music video that’s racked up 1.2 million YouTube views) to the uke-meets-electronica “Fool” and jazzy “888,” it’s an intimate, calming collection that displays a songwriting craft far beyond his years. Most importantly, it’s from the heart.
CAVETOWN
ANTEROS
Anteros are a London indie-pop four-piece fronted by Laura Hayden, drawing influence from the likes of The Cure, Arcade Fire, 90’s No Doubt, The Cardigans and Blur.
Having released their first single as a fully formed band at the start of 2016, Anteros have quickly established a fervent fan base of music lovers and critics alike and achieved unheralded success, being chosen as one of Annie Mac’s New Names for 2016 and achieving a #3 on Hype Machine with single
‘Breakfast’. The band were invited to open the prestigious Other Stage at Glastonbury this summer, with other notable festival appearances including Reading and Leeds and Secret Garden Party, alongside a sold out first headline show at London’s Waiting Room in late September.
ANTEROS
THE SNUTS:
THE SNUTS are four young musicians from West Lothian, Scotland who write and perform anthemic indie rock, drawing comparisons with early Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon and Oasis.
Already a cult sensation in their Scottish homeland, THE SNUTS have built their burgeoning reputation on the road, with shows growing in scale and style since they sold-out their first headline date at Glasgow’s King Tut’s (250 cap.) at the tail end of 2017.
Spending much of 2018 spreading their riotous rock ‘n’ roll gospel further afield, with a succession of major festival performances including Reading & Leeds, Benicàssim, TRNSMT and Belladrum, their final show of the year was another sell out, at SWG3 in Glasgow (1,300 cap.) which inspired a frenzied audience reaction and mass singalongs.
THE SNUTS
VISTAS
Edinburgh’s Vistas have been surging to the forefront of the indie-rock scene over the last few years with a steady stream of catchy, radio-ready releases leading the band to pick up extensive praise from the likes of Radio 1’s Huw Stephens, 6 Music, DIY Magazine and Clash Magazine among many others – With every release defining the band in a clearer light, Vistas now come through with their latest single ‘Eighteen’ which will only continue to solidify their position as clear ones to watch for the year ahead.
VISTAS