Review: Reading Festival 2014
The line-up for Reading Festival 2014 was pretty impressive which resulted in a fully sold-out festival. If you've ever been to a festival you know you'll have an amazing time by listening to some of your favourite music, meeting new people, having campfires and discovering new talents. Here's a look at the music across the stages throughout the weekend:
Friday night made history with the festival's first co-headline sets from Paramore and Queens of the Stone Age. Paramore took to the stage first and wowed the audience with music from all four of their studio albums. The band put on an energetic performance with lots of confetti and flashing lights. Paramore faced a technical problem when the sound cut out during their set. This led to the magical moment of Hayley Williams singing 'The Only Exception' a cappella with the audience. The technical issue turned out to create the most unforgettable memory for the audience and the band with Hayley exclaiming "Oh my gosh, I'm never going to forget this".
Queens of the Stone Age closed Friday night with lots of lasers and classic rock songs. The band played an amazing set but it felt like the connection with the audience was missing.
Arctic Monkeys headlined Saturday night and gathered possibly one of Reading Festival's biggest crowds in history. The crowd went crazy for their old classics such as 'Fluorescent Adolescent' and 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' but also went mad for the more recent songs from the number 1 album, AM. You can watch the band finish their set with 'R U Mine?' below:
Sunday night saw Blink-182 bring the festival to an end and had the crowd singing and dancing along. However, the American pop-punk band did not sound brilliant and were out of tune at times. This did not affect the audience who loved every minute of their performance and the show had a great atmosphere. Blink-182's set was certainly fun and they had the audience laughing at their jokes.
Jake Bugg played the main stage before Arctic Monkeys on Saturday night. He put on a remarkable performance as the sun set on Reading Festival. Bugg played many of his popular songs such as 'Two Fingers', 'Me and You' and 'Lightning Bolt'.
You Me At Six played an energetic show on Sunday afternoon as they played songs from various albums. They welcomed Alex from All Time Low on stage to sing 'Fresh Start Fever' with them and to announce their UK co-headline tour taking place in February. The band as always were very grateful to play to such a large crowd on the main stage.
A Day To Remember played a brilliant rock show on Sunday performing many of their top hits including 'The Downfall of Us', 'All Signs Point to Lauderdale' and an acoustic version of 'If It Means A Lot To You'. Lead singer, Jeremy McKinnon, got into a giant hamster ball and crowd-surfed during one of the songs in the middle of the set. Watch Jeremy in the giant hamster ball below:
Lead singer of My Chemical Romance, Gerard Way, made his debut solo performance on the NME/BBC Radio 1 Friday morning. A huge crowd formed for his debut performance, most likely hoping for a few MCR songs which never got played. The frontman play a great set on his own but all the songs were new and unknown so the audience weren't able to sing along.
Bombay Bicycle Club played an amazing set on Saturday night and had a huge crowd gathered with the tent overflowing. The band welcomed Lucy Rose on stage to sing 'Lights Out' and 'Wherever, Whenever' and Rae Morris joined them on stage to sing 'Luna'. Bombay Bicycle Club were magical as they lit up the tent with bright colours and amazing sounds. I'm sure it won't be long before the band play the main stage.
Hudson Taylor played the Festival Republic Stage on Friday afternoon and played an amazing set to an overflowing tent. Hudson Taylor are a folk-pop band formed by two brothers from Ireland, who have built their fan base from posting videos on YouTube. The band had a large crowd come to watch them perform which is impressive considering they are yet to release their debut album. The band also made their first UK TV debut during the festival which you can watch below:
American rock band, Mayday Parade, took to the Festival Republic Stage on Sunday night and put on a great performance of their biggest hits, including 'Jersey', 'Jamie All Over' and 'Three Cheers for Five Years'.. The band's fans were there in force with the audience singing along with every word. The only downfall of the set was that it was not long enough to play all the songs the crowd wanted to hear.
The alternative stage offered entertainment away from the music with many comedians performing stand-up comedy.
Bill Bailey was hilarious and incorporated music into his comedy on Friday afternoon. The comedian, who is best known for his role in Black Books, had the audience in stitches as he told jokes and played variations of songs, such as singing Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball' in German and Lady Gaga's 'Poker Face' in a West Country accent. The Alternative Stage tent was rammed full with people laughing.
Seann Walsh took to the stage on Sunday and put on a humorous show about living with his girlfriend. The stand-up comedy was relatable to the audience with many people laughing and nodding in agreement. Seann Walsh made his first comedy performance in 2007 and went on to win Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year within two years.
Reading 2014 was a remarkable year for the festival and will be tough to top in 2015!
