Reading & Leeds 2014

Undoubtedly amongst the best festivals in the world, Reading & Leeds 2014 have just finished, and they were spectacular. Headlined by Arctic Monkeys, Blink-182, Queens of the Stone Age and Paramore, we had a few writers at Leeds who each had a different view on their favourite acts. Here are our picks of the best of the weekend, in no particular order:

Bombay Bicycle Club
London based indie-rock band BBC headlined the NME/Radio 1 stage on the Saturday of Reading and Sunday of Leeds. The band, led by angelically voiced frontman Jack Steadman, had the crowd in the palm of their hands for the entire set. The light and picture show going on behind them only exaggerated the brilliance of what was, for me, possibly the best performance I saw all weekend. Everyone lost their shit at What If, and songs like Lights Out, Words Gone and How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep prompted huge singalongs from the loved up crowd. I was a fan before, but they went so far above any expectations I had and absolutely blew me away.  - Molly 

The Hives

The Hives. Photo: Giles Smith

As soon as Peace left the main stage on the Sunday at Leeds, huge white letters spelling 'HIVES' took their place, forming the most part of the Swedish band's incredibly cool backdrop. The backdrop suited them well as they are an incredibly cool band, not least deservedly cocky frontman Howlin' Pelle Almqvist. Dressed to match the rest of the band, he swaggered and jumped about the stage, howling (hence his name) at the audience to "Cheer! We deserve more applause than that!". During the now famous freeze-frame bit of Tick Tick Boom, he spent around five minutes introducing the band and then went into the crowd to get us all to sit down, in preparation of going mental for the last part of the song. "If you're still stood up I'll come out there and make you sit down!" he commanded, and his adoring crowd obeyed. They finished with Hate To Say I Told You So, and as we showed our appreciation, Almqvist yelled proudly, "I know you're cheering in part because I've told you to, but the other part is because you fucking love me!". He wasn't wrong. - Molly

Baby Strange
Following their support slot on Palma Violets' Rattlesnake Rodeo tour last November, Glaswegian three-piece Baby Strange have built up a loyal following, and it certainly showed in Leeds; their fairly large crowd seemed to be loving every blast of punk rock they were showered with. After an extremely well performed and received cover of the Talking Heads' Psycho Killer, they expressed their wish to play "a couple more songs" which "are really short, only about two minutes each" but they were denied it, resulting in much booing from the crowd (including me), eager for more. However, the booing did turn to applause as the band left the stage - what we got from them was fantastic, and I know we'll be seeing much more of Baby Strange in the near future. - Molly

The Wytches
Filling an opening slot on the NME stage on Friday at Leeds festival, Brighton three piece The Wytches had a tough job. Their unique brand of "surf doom" could easily have fallen flat, with their heavily distorted guitar and piercing screams not being the usual fodder for this stage. However, they certainly impressed, filling their short set with pit-worthy anthems from their debut album Annabel Dream Reader. The standout moment for me was their opening song- Burn Out The Bruise, showcasing their Bleach-esque style and ability to write and perform a seriously heavy yet catchy chorus. - Benny

Mongol Horde. Photo: Giles Smith

Mongol Horde
Frank Turner's hardcore project Mongol Horde aren't what you'd call radio friendly, and of course in their sub-headline slot on Leeds' Lock Up stage, they didn't alter this one bit. Their music is effectively a massive "fuck you" to basically everything ever, full of genuine humour and brought together by Turner's deafening roar. Their set consisted of twelve songs from their self titled LP released this year, bringing huge circle pits to the adrenaline (and whatever else) fuelled crowd, with Frank frequently being hoisted in the air by adoring fans. A band which has a song about Natalie Portman's tapeworm forming a republic clearly doesn't take themselves too seriously, so they clearly don't give a shit what I think. All the same they were definitely a highlight of the weekend. - Benny

Queens Of The Stone Age
Possibly the best stadium rock band currently touring, Queens Of The Stone Age destroyed this years' Leeds festival, which isn't surprising as their latest album Like Clockwork is amongst their best. New songs such as Fairweather Friends and If I Had a Tail sat comfortably among their old classic songs from Songs For The Deaf and Rated R, with godlike frontman Josh Homme delivering them with his trademark swagger. Ending on the near satanic Song For The Dead, this band seem as good today as they've always been, and look unwilling to stop. My only criticism (and no fault of the band) is their short set, caused as a result of their headline slot being shared with the simply cringeworthy pop-punk of Paramore.  All in all however, Queens shone; their catchy desert rock being my personal highlight of the festival. - Benny

Peace
After standing through Dry The River (a very good folk band) Peace took to the main stage. I'd headed down early to get a good spot - I was in an alright place, quite far left of stage left. The crowd was pretty chilled out throughout their set. Each member walked on one at a time, starting with Dom who started playing a drum line, followed by Sam with a bass line, then Doug with some chords and finally Harrison. They burst into 'Lovesick' their last single from debut album 'In Love' and I must say it's a crowd pleaser. The band continued to play through some older album and EP tracks including 'Float Forever' and 'California Daze'. The guys didn't fail to impress with new songs 'Money' and 'Lost On Me' and they, as they have been recently, replaced '1998' with rap track 'World Pleasure', but who can complain when there's a groovy bass solo? No one. This was my fourth time seeing Peace and I've never been so proud of them; seeing them play on the main stage made my festival. - Laura

Wolf Alice

Wolf Alice. Photo: Victor Frankowski

When Wolf Alice took to the stage in the Festival Republic tent on the Sunday of Leeds festival, they did so in matching white outfits. I must say I was surprised; that was one thing I was never expecting a young indie rock group to do. As always, they didn't fail to impress. Ellie's vocals blew me away; how she can go from singing a quiet slow song such as 'Blush' to having loud, wild vocals in 'She' amazes me. At one point Ellie and Theo started doing their swaying side to side type dance while they played a solo together, and this always manages to make me smile. The band played through well known EP tracks and followed these up with a couple of new tracks, closing with a sped up version of 'Fluffy' as they were about to get pulled off stage. - Laura

Superfood
These guys were one of my favourite acts of the festival. After chatting to frontman Dom Ganderton (he remembered me from a few months back and gave me a slighty wobbly, possibly drunken hug), they played the BBC Introducing stage on the Thursday night. This, like Peace, was my fourth time seeing them, and they really did blow me away. It was nice to be surrounded by hundreds of people there to see them and being in a Superfood-loving crowd was incredible. The band played well knows tracks 'Melting', 'Bubbles' and 'Right On Satellite', a couple of album songs and finished with debut song 'Superfood'. Superfood really never fail to put on a good show. - Laura

Feel free to comment with your favourite acts of the weekend! 

Palma Violets live review

Palma Violets have a bit of a reputation for being one of the most energetic live acts around, and their show at Leeds Metropolitan University on Thursday 21st of November certainly did not disappoint. 
The excitement started as soon as we were let into the venue; the band's legendary merch guy Harry Violent spoke to the crowd in his booming voice as one and as individuals, directing us to put our names on the mailing list and just generally preparing us for the gig. Support came from Baby Strange, a brilliant Glaswegian punk band who are well worth checking out, and the hypnotic psychedelia of Childhood, whose frontman was either incredibly stoned or thought he was Jimi Hendrix. Perhaps it was both. 

Moshpits were already going during the first support, started by none other than Harry Violent and Palma Violets' frontman and bassist himself, Chilli Jesson. The crowd were singing football chants and the infamous 'Yorkshire, Yorkshire' chant and someone threw up then danced in their own vomit, it was all good fun.
The real fun, though, started when Harry appeared on stage and, like a ringmaster at a circus, introduced the band we were all there for. With a chorus of cheers, Palma Violets took their places and dived into previously unheard song 'Gout! Gang! Go!', a raucous affair which went off madly despite the fact no one knew any of the words. Second was Rattlesnake Highway, the song this tour was named after (The Rattlesnake Rodeo Tour), which got a grand reception of out of tune yelling of the words by the crowd, mainly made up of the sort of teenage boys who like to think of themselves as LADs. The gig continued in much the same fashion, with Jesson and fellow frontman Sam Fryer (but mostly Chilli) bounding around the stage like excitable puppies, and Chilli quite literally screaming down the microphone. There was many-a-crowdsurfer (one of which nearly broke my neck, and who was kicked out after he'd ridden the people waves for a third time), and many-a-moshpit. By the time they played biggest hit yet 'Best of Friends', Chilli had knocked the microphone stand over about four times and jumped on drummer Will Doyle's bass drum once - their tech guy had to stand at the side of the stage in preparation of running on and picking the equipment back up. 

Invasion of the Tribbles (photo credit Daniel Robson) 

The last song before the encore was 14, slow and steady in contrast to the rest of the set, it prompted possibly the loudest singalong of the night (after Best of Friends) and was a nice finish to the first section of the gig.
When they came back on (with Jesson shirtless), the Lambeth band played another new song, 'Scandal', which sounded brilliant; gloomier than their first album yet with the same rawness and energy, building my hopes for the quality of their second record. When the song had finished, Chilli shouted his introductions of members of Baby Strange and Childhood, as well as Harry Violent, back onto the stage, and they all had a hand in playing a regular feature in Palma Violets live shows: their cover of Hot Nasties' 'Invasion Of The Tribbles', which is sung in the most part by Mr Violent. Chilli put his bass down and came and interacted with the crowd, unable to do his usual crowdsurf due to the height and distance from the stage of the barrier, before clambering back to join his bandmates and saying one final goodbye.
Overall, the best way to describe the gig is probably that it was a little bit mental. Pretty painful, but incredibly fun nonetheless. I even managed to talk to Chilli, Will, Harry and keyboardist Pete before it and they were super friendly guys. 
I urge you, dear reader, if you haven't yet, to see Palma Violets live. They may not be the world's best musicians, but in my mind they are contenders for the world's best live band right now. They are a must-see, simple as that. Written by Molly McGrath

                           8.9/10