Photo Credit: Lene Ray
Having spent year after year watching Reading & Leeds Festival on TV, we knew that one day an opportunity would arise to attend the festival in real time … and this was the year thanks to the lovely organisers of the Leeds Festival. This weekend had something for everyone no matter their taste in music and the addition of the Thursday night into the mix made it even more exciting.
Thursday
Leaving work at 1pm and being on site pitching our tent by 5pm after four hours of driving was the perfect start to our weekend, ok the weather forecast was for potential thunderstorms – thankfully that didn’t materialise! Manchester band Arkayla opened The Grid stage at 7pm playing in front of a decent-sized crowd too – the band name comes from a 1991 Oasis demo-track – vocalist Cal Blakebrough doesn’t seem too bothered by the amount of folk that have turned out for the performance either, his vocals are spot on throughout the eight-track set that includes two numbers from their latest EP release Back To Belle Vue, Run Kid and Vivian being the songs. The biggest release to date is Doctor, this one has an anthemic chorus that is sung back to the stage by a good proportion of the crowd “Doctor doctor I’m not taking my pills/and won’t you won’t you won’t you, leave me alone”. We couldn’t have wished for a better start to the four-day festival than the half-hour from the young Mancunians, Arkayla around out on a UK tour later in September & October and are well worth checking out. 8/10
Wigan’s second biggest music export The Lathums are next up, no prizes for guessing the biggest one, the two front pens are packed for this set with the curved jumbotron screens putting out all the action from the stage for those further back. Alex Moore has his cowboy hat on tonight, maybe he was expecting the rain too … one thing we notice early on is that normal bass player Matty Murphy is not on stage tonight, he has a hand injury and is replaced by Blossoms bassist Charlie Salt, the Stockport band would be putting in an appearance themselves the following day on The Grid stage. As Caravan Of Love blasts out from the speakers to welcome the band on to the stage Say My Name kicks of the nine-track set from a band that have worked so hard these past few years to be asked to play the main stage at Leeds. Alex famously had Brandon Flowers on co-vocals on a tour with The Killers a couple of years ago to sing How Beautiful Life Can Be, the Leeds crowd join in with the chorus while the time travelling fantasy that is The Great Escape gets a great reaction. Scott Concepcion is putting in a blinding performance as usual on the guitar and Alex is on stage by himself armed with an acoustic guitar for the catchy All My life, one of their early releases. Heartbreaker has a nice moment for the crowd to join in with the words “make peace, not war” being added while the bands most streamed song Fight On is the best of the set and is sang back enthusiastically by the crowd. If you’ve ever been to a Lathums gig then you will know that they always end with Sad Face Baby, this track seems to get better every time we hear it live, the Leeds Festival has officially opened for 2026! 9/10
We have a great choice of headliner to end day one, the brilliant Kasabian led by the energetic Sergio Pizzorno who is immediately running down the stage walkway for opener Clubfoot, the crowd are right up for this one already. The intro video has Sergio and actor Stephen Graham having some laughs, we are honestly spending as much time staring at the massive screens as we are looking at the stage. Shoot The Runner keeps the energy up but it is You’re In Love With A Psycho that does it for us tonight, this has to be one of Kasabian’s best known tracks that has just about every person screaming back the words to the stage “You’re in love with a psycho/and there’s nothing you can do about it”. Great energy, the young Leeds crowd are already showing why R&L is considered one of the best festivals in the UK.
Friday
Day two kicks off for us in The Canopy where Alex Spencer is opening at mid-day. The nineteen year old Manchester lad is playing Leeds festival for the first time, you wouldn’t know it though, he has an air of confidence that shines through. His track Nightmares made the FIFA playlist and last of the set One Way Ticket gets the crowd involved, his backflip off the edge of the drum kit at the end of the set wows the crowd. 8/10
We first saw Minneapolis band She’s Green live at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow last November when they supported Softcult, the mix of shoegaze and rock gently soothes the soul, the vocals from Zofia Smith are just what we needed to wake up. She’s Green played a few sneaky gigs in London, Manchester & Bristol while stopping over in the UK. 7/10
The Canopy is a new stage that replaces the BBC Introducing stage from previous years, we did read a local newspaper article that claimed it was a stage for ‘nepo babies’, yes Violet Grohl, Gene Gallagher & Cruz Beckham all play this stage over the weekend but we can assure you that all three were great musicians in their own right.
Another band from the USA are next up as After perform in The Gallery tent, the second biggest capacity at Leeds festival, Justine Dorsey on vocals and Graham Epstein on guitar make up the duo who are just about to release debut album Fall Asleep In The Sun on 18th September. 300 Dreams has just hit ten million streams on Spotify and is by far their most popular song. 7/10
A quick dash over to The Grid stage for Dylan John Thomas is next up, there is a big crowd in for the Glaswegians set and rightly so, he has gained a massive following around the UK & Ireland over the past few years. Dylan releases his second album Nothing Here Worth Taking on 9th October, we have been lucky enough to get a sneak preview of the album and it is sounding great, his army of fans will be learning all these new tracks for the upcoming UK tour in November/December. As usual all the big hitters are in here including opener Jenna, Feel The Fire and Fever but the fans will be paying special attention to the new releases Heaven Knows You’re Lonely, Got You On My Mind and Come And Get It, all three of these songs are already turning into anthems that are sang back to the stage today. Dylan has the banjo out for Got You On My Mind while last of the set Fever provokes a mass singalong in the rain. 9/10
Back over at The Canopy we expected untitled to be a secret set but it turns out there is actually a band by that name! The Los Angeles ‘grunge revival’ band put on a decent half-hour and as this is their first ever show in the UK we feel privileged to be here. New song Tinted View and last one of the set Nothing Good send the crowd away happy. 7/10
Stockport’s Blossoms are given a full hour to entertain the massive crowd on The Grid stage … and that they do with a good mixture of old and new songs with three from upcoming album Songs From The Wedding Cake that will be released on 2nd October. They released Additional Driver featuring Declan McKenna the previous day, Declan isn’t here today but does play a set over the weekend. Vocalist Tom Ogden tells us the back story to the song when he was in a minor car accident outside the O2 Apollo in Manchester, the video for this one is well worth checking out “should’ve got the 192!”. The set begins with Gary, the title track of the last album, Joe Donovan on drums is wearing a ‘goodbye Gary’ t-shirt today … does this spell the end for our well-loved fibreglass gorilla?
Joke About Divorce is another new one that has quickly became an anthem, the fourteen track set goes by in a flash and includes all the Blossoms classics such as Getaway, I Can’t Stand It, You’re Girlfriend and Charlemagne to name a few, Nightclub has all the band members down at the front of the stage while a couple even use the walkway to get closer to the crowd. With four UK number one albums behind them already who would bet against Songs From The Wedding Cake being the fifth? 9/10
We left the Blossoms set during the band introductions near the end of Charlemagne to head back down to The Canopy stage for Violet Grohl, yes she is the daughter of Foo Fighters Dave Grohl. Violet is in the middle of a UK tour right now and has taken time out to play Reading & Leeds showcasing songs from debut album Be Sweet To Me that was released in May. Bug In the Cake and THUM are the standout tracks for us. 7/10
The K’s pull a huge crowd into The Gallery for their set, they are one of the most promising indie rock bands on the UK music scene right now as is proven by last year’s number one album Pretty On The Internet. Surprisingly we only get three from that particular album and the focus is mainly on 2024 release I Wonder If The World Knows? The set opens in spectacular style with Icarus, Heart On My Sleeve and Chancer, the crowd are singing every word back at Jamie Boyle who seems taken aback by the size of the crowd in today. The Bends (Here We Go Again) is a personal favourite from the second album while Hoping Maybe, Gravestone and Sarajevo all get deserved attention. We are looking forward to seeing The K’s on tour in the near future. 9/10
Florence & The Machine could have easily been main headliners today, not sure why the Leeds organisers went for Chase & Status, we suppose it balances things out a bit more giving some fans a chance to bounce around while celebrating the GCSE results! It’s Florence Welch’s birthday today and she comments “I’m delighted to be spending my birthday in Leeds” … so are we, the set is filled with joyous music, hedonistic and spiritual at times but also very connecting to the thousands that are watching on. The title track from Florence’s latest album Everybody Scream opens the fourteen-track set, her energy is delightful and we reckon Florence was up and down the walkway at least twenty times during the set! The Candi Staton cover You Got The Love is the song that prompts a mass singalong while The Dog Days Are Over does pretty much the same, Florence requests that everyone puts away their phones towards the end of this one and it is great to see one song being played without thousands of mobile phones up in the air … we are all guilty of that in the modern world. 9/10
In the Ballroom Tent, red fabrics draped along the ceilings beneath beautifully lit chandeliers. Paris Paloma’s fans (“Paris Paloma’s fairies”) were eagerly waiting with excited chatter. The British singer-songwriter, is known for her haunting, folk-inspired songs that cover themes of women’s empowerment, anger and love. Paris entered the stage wearing her trademark style of ethereal tulle fabrics, a Gothic Renaissance-inspired corset and black lace fabric covering her eyes. She graced the stage delicately like a Gothic fairy, wearing ballet shoes so she could twirl and dance during her songs. The crowd screamed and cheered, and some even looked emotional as she sang her first song. Her set was mesmerising and intense as she sang songs from her album Labour and, of course, finished with the song that went viral from the album, also with the same name, Labour. The whole crowd sang and chanted the words along with her. The song itself covers feminism and patriarchy, resulting in a passionate and inspiring finale to her set. (LR)
We had almost an hour before Northern Irish rappers KNEECAP closed The Gallery for the night, the place is already jumping with people in anticipation of what lies ahead. What did lie ahead was sometimes controversial, sometimes comical but always FUN, the energy these three guys bring is jaw dropping at times. There are Celtic tops and tri-colour balaclavas all around as the fans get down and party hard during the seventy-five minute set, this is our first time seeing KNEECAP live but knew what to expect: lots of anti-British sentiment and a new chant for the new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham that we won’t repeat here! DJ Provai is orchestrating the crowd from his mixing deck behind Mo Chara and Moglai Bap wearing his customary tri-colour balaclava, he must have been overheating with that on, we certainly were in among the crowd. The collaboration with Grian Chatten Better Way To Live was great to hear live with Grian appearing on the screens doing his part while Get Your Brits Out and H.O.O.D are the liveliest of the set. There really is no stopping these three guys now, they are selling out shows wherever they play. KNEECAP are in demand all over the world these days and a South American tour is on the horizon in October before a European & UK in November/December. 9/10
Day two definitely ended with a highly-charged couple of sets from Florence & The Machine and KNEECAP, we wonder if Saturday can live up to that?
Written by: Alan Brown and Lene Ray (LR)
Photos by: Lene Ray (Featuring Dylan John Thomas, Holly Humberstone, Arthur Hill, Blossoms, The K’s, Paris Paloma)
