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| Mumford & Sons. An interesting and somewhat disappointing choice of headliner. image: telegraph.co.uk |
As the ever so shy sunshine has decided to grace the UK with its presence over the past couple of weeks and the Coachella live updates on Snapchat have thrown us brits into a pit of deep depression, we are reminded of everyone’s favourite time of year- festival season. One British festival that stands out for its primarily alternative line up and its cool, youthful crowd is Reading & Leeds and this year they are back with yet another slightly controversial choice of headliner.
When I look back to 2009, a time when I was desperate to get to Bramham Park but a mere 12 years old, the prodigious line up was the sole reason for my hunger to dig out my wellies and sleep rough for four nights. ‘Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, Kings of Leon’ read the top line of the line up poster and I was sold. Not to mention the masses of incredible non-headliners that came underneath them on the bill. Now it seems that the R&L festival organisers are getting skinter, their crowd is getting broader or peoples’ taste in music is just getting shitter. I don’t know but Mumford & Sons? Just what the fuck? For a festival that is supposed to embody the idea of youth, excitement, rebellion and loads of other cool abstract nouns, Mumford & Sons are the last band I would choose to replicate that ethos (even if I do enjoy a good sing-song to ‘I Will Wait’ when I’m feeling extra farmer-chic). Putting Metallica next to them is another bizarre choice. A heavy metal band that haven’t produced an album in seven years when the majority of Reading & Leeds attendees, in recent times, are underage shufflers dying to get off to the Relentless stage where they can throw some shapes to Duke Dumont till the early hours without getting laughed at by actual music fans, I just don’t know. I’m sure Metallica’s set will be epic but I’m not sure that the festival’s ever-evolving crowd will be as appreciative as they should be.
The Libertines are quite obviously the festival’s saving grace this year. Playing together for the first time in four years at Hyde Park last year, the volatile four piece’s set is possibly the most eagerly anticipated UK festival slot of 2015 as it will be one of their first major performances since signing to EMI and revealing plans for a third album back in November last year. They are joined by some incredible names on the mainstage, a la the Cribs, Jamie T, the Maccabees and Kendrick Lamar- so if I do decide to take the tedious train journey from Manchester to Leeds again this year, you can bet it will only be for the Friday. Having said that, Reading & Leeds do tend to pull it out of the bag on the smaller stages, with a bunch of our favourite bands from the past couple of years such as Catfish & the Bottlemen, Royal Blood, Circa Waves, Wolf Alice etc and a few nice surprises added liberally like Alvvays, Ben Khan and Jamie xx.
I think the anticlimactic headliners are pretty expected now, take Eminem in 2013 for example, but Reading & Leeds is always worth it regardless of the line up. You could have One Direction on there and it would still be a top weekend. I, myself, haven’t been too impressed with the line up for the past couple of years but I still enjoyed every minute of the festival regardless. There is definitely something to please everyone on 2015’s line up and if not, sitting round the campfire with all your mates is 100% worth the ridiculously high entry fee anyway.
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