READING & LEEDS 2022 – ACTS NOT TO MISS (LEEDS FIRDAY / READING SUNDAY)
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
This year double main-stages are back which means double headliners each day. First of day one headliners are the return of the mighty ‘RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE’ who will make their triumphant return to UK this month with one off show in Edinburgh on 24th August before returning to Bramham Park in Leeds on 26th August and Richfield Avenue in Reading on 26th August. Last time the band played the festival was fourteen years ago in 2008. This will be special performance not to miss. Could well be new music played during these sets. Their comeback tour recently started in North America before lands here in UK and Europe and rest of the world.
HALSEY
First of two female headliners headlining this years festival which great moment to see across the weekend.
Halsey has amassed more than 31 billion combined global streams to date, including more than 12.5 billion U.S. streams, and sold nearly 17 million adjusted album units worldwide.
Her latest album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, was released in August of 2021 and was produced by Trent Reznor. It follows the release of Manic, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Current Albums chart. It was the first album of 2020 to be certified Platinum in the U.S. and attained Platinum certification in numerous other countries also.
Halsey continues to push creative boundaries, exerting an influence and impact beyond music. Her first book, I Would Leave Me If I Could: A Collection of Poetry, debuted on The New York Times Best Sellers list last November. Named as one of TIME’s100 Most Influential People of 2020, they have won over 20 awards, including an AMA, MTV VMA, GLAAD Award, the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s Hal David Starlight Award and a CMT Music Award. Halsey recently introduced about-face, a multi-dimensional makeup line for made for everyone.
Halsey continues to speak up for important causes such as disenfranchised youth, women’s rights, mental health and the LGBTQ community.
RUN THE JEWELS
Run the Jewels are hip-hop’s preeminent anti-oppressor, anti-sucker,
anti-wack-shit menace: the party band for the revolution or the
apocalypse, whichever comes first. A collaboration between two
veteran rhyme-slayers — Brooklyn’s El-P and Atlanta’s Killer Mike —
Run the Jewels have gone from a whim-driven underground rap project to a worldwide sensation, headlining festivals, topping critics polls, nabbing Grammy nominations, soundtracking movie trailers and
striking fear in any group unfortunate enough to follow them on a
concert stage.
Mixing the industrial grime of New York City with the vibrant bounce
of the dirty South, Run the Jewels forge hip-hop’s future while adhering
to the core tenets of its bedrock: gymnastic displays of skills, incendiary political rhetoric, furious scratch solos, merciless braggadocio, battle-honed assholery, R-rated punchlines and a back-and-forth that brings the interplay of the shell-toe Adidas era screaming into our contemporary nightmare.
BASTILLE
Over the course of nearly a decade together, Bastille’s unique sound – that cinematic, melancholic pop that masks the bleak realities reflected in their lyrics – has connected with audiences across the globe like no other British band in recent memory. In 2011 South Londoner, Dan Smith, started Bastille alone in his bedroom, releasing 300 copies of Bastille’s debut single. Relentless gigging, genuine word of mouth, some smartly curated mixtapes meant that within a few years — and with Chris Wood (drums), Will Farquarson (guitar) and Kyle Simmons (keyboards) added to the line-up – Bastille became a global phenomenon. The band’s chart-conquering twice No.1 debut album ‘Bad Blood’, which featured the international hit, ‘Pompeii’ was the biggest-selling digital album of 2013. They became that year’s biggest-selling global breakthrough act, with over a billion Spotify streams earning them the British Breakthrough Act award at the 2014 Brits, along with two Grammy nominations. Since then ‘Bad Blood’ has gone triple platinum and sold over 1 million copies in the UK alone.
DMA’S
DMA’S are blessed with a gift for writing music which is as immediately anthemic as it is emotionally affecting. As a result, early fan favourites such as ‘Lay Down’, ‘In The Air’ and ‘Delete’ inspire raucous reactions and beers-in-the-air singalongs. Their sound then evolved with their euphoric synth-tinged third album, the UK Top 5 hit ‘THE GLOW’, which NME described as “a hyper-charged record of dance and decadence.”
After ‘THE GLOW’ became the band’s highest charting album in both the UK and Australia, DMA’S have continued to go from strength-to-strength. Their recent UK tour saw them play to a combined audience of 65,000 people, including a 10,000 capacity sold-out London show at the prestigious Alexandra Palace. They also won three major honours, most notably Album of the Year and Rock Album of the Year, at the 2021 ARIA Awards.
This summer saw DMA’S return to their rock roots with the surprise EP ‘I Love You Unconditionally, Sure Am Going To Miss You’. They are currently working on new material.
PALE WAVES
Formed of frontwoman Heather Baron-Gracie (she/her); drummer Ciara Doran (they/them); guitarist Hugo Silvani (he/him) and bassist Charlie Wood (he/him), Pale Waves released their debut album My Mind Makes Noises in September 2018, by which time they had already won the NME Under The Radar award, made the BBC Sound Of 2018 shortlist and toured with fellow Dirty Hit label mates The 1975. When the album charted at 8 on the UK album chart, Pale Waves were seen as more than a breakthrough act and instead one of the most important emerging indie-pop bands in Britain.
CRAWLERS
CRAWLERS have at long last released the entirety of their debut EP, and the final track to tie it all together is an incomparable triumph. ‘Come Over (Again)’ single handedly stands as a testament to the immense musical capabilities of one of the hottest bands in Liverpool at the moment. Taking a turn from their usual abrasive sound, ‘Come Over (Again)’ takes the band down a brighter path, yet still remains true to their attitude of angst and vexation.
THE NATIVE
Everything is igniting for The Native. Recently signed to rock ‘n’ roll tastemakers This Feeling, the Plymouth-based quintet recently completed an incendiary headline tour, graced arenas as guests to Bastille, and packed the tent during their Isle of Wight set. Factor in airplay at Radio X, BBC Music Introducing and BBC Radio London, and all the evidence indicates that The Native are destined for a big future.
Their new EP coming in August is indicative of The Native’s growing ability to meld immediately anthemic hooks with towering melodies and jagged guitars. Frontman Charlie Noordewier’s vocals possess both an engaging personality and the class to appeal to a broad audience, while his lyrics hone in on a common twentysomething experience.
The EP was recorded in Airfield Studios, Cornwall, with John Cornfield who is best known for working with some of the UK’s most influential guitar bands: Oasis, Muse, The Stone Roses, Supergrass and many more. It was then mixed by the Grammy Award-winning Adrian Bushby (Foo Fighters, Muse, Everything Everything).
Completed by Ben Andrew (guitar), Tom Booth (bass), Harry Youngs (keys) and Fergus Segrove (drums), The Native are all in their early twenties but have already experienced so much as a band. They first came to attention when they were still in secondary school. Their earliest self-released music started to go viral, they played a huge MTV show as guests to Bastille, and headlined their local venue, the Pavilions in Plymouth. Rather than rush out to capitalise on that early interest, they instead took the time to cultivate their own style, the reward being the immense potential that they now show.
On the back of a national support slot with Bastille in 2022, and their own headline tour – The Native’s upcoming summer festival schedule was recently boosted with the confirmation of their first shows at Reading and Leeds, where they will hit the Festival Republic stage..
Other acts to check out across day one are: Maneskin, Denzel Curry, Beadbadoobee, The Blidners, Barns Courtney and upcoming talent across on the BBC Introducing Stage which includes: Miso Extra, Cluadia Valentina, Anorak Patch, LICE, Panic Shack, EMBY, Medulla and Just Wondering.
As well secret sets across the weekend. Here’s hoping Jamie T makes appearance.