It’s safe to say that, with a lack of festivals, summer 2020 has been a bit of a miserable one. As the August Bank Holiday weekend approaches, thoughts turn to what would usually be the last big festival of the season: Reading & Leeds. Here’s a little look at the things we miss about Reading that set it apart from other festivals.
Secret Sets
Enter Shikari performing on the introducing stage in 2019
In the past few years, secret sets have become a common event across a Reading weekend giving fans a great chance to see some popular bands play on much smaller stages. Sometimes this will be under a different name like when Don Broco played as “The Pretty Boys” in 2017 or simply just announced moments before the start. Enter Shikari played some acoustic songs on the introducing stage last year as one of 5 sets they played across the weekend.
The Carlsberg Danish Quarter
A festival goer enjoys a bev at the Danish Quarter
Probably the best bar at the festival, the Danish Quarter is like having a festival pub garden. It’s served as a great rendezvous point for me and my friends over the years and is a great place to chill out between bands or cool off with a sweet pint of slightly watered down Somersby after a rowdy pit at the nearby BBC Radio 1 stage.
The BBC Radio 1 Stage
Henry Cox of Boston Manor ‘in the tent’ 2019
The big outdoor Reading main stage is iconic, hosting some of the biggest music names in the world but the BBC Radio 1 stage has a way of creating an incredible atmosphere too. The giant tent seems to give every musical note and crowd singalong an extra kind of magic and the enclosed ceiling makes for some incredible light shows.
A Trip To Tesco
A jolly captain fresh from a Tesco trip
There’s not much more to say here other than you would struggle to find another festival where you can jump on a boat which will take you to Tesco to stock up on festival essentials. It’s traditional.
Mates Fest
The Birdbox and friends. Yeah, I do have some!
Reading’s hugely diverse lineup means there is a bit of something for everyone, no matter their taste in music. There’s dance music on the dance stage, heavier stuff in the pit, rap on the 1xtra stage and everything in between on the main. Everyone is happy and it makes it the best weekend of the year.
What are your favourite things about Reading and Leeds? Let me know on Instagram or Twitter:
@The__Birdbox
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(The Birdbox is not associated with Carlsberg or Tesco but free stuff is nice).
For years now Biffy Clyro have been one of, if not the biggest modern rock band in the UK. Over the last decade they have become a regular festival headliner while filling arenas with their brand of spine-bending rock riffs and catchy, radio friendly hooks.
After hearing the first single, ‘Instant History’, you’d be forgiven for expecting their 8th studio album (9th if you include the ‘Balance, Not Symmetry’ soundtrack) ‘A Celebration Of Endings’ to be a relatively tame album. A radio friendly electronic chorus is paired with easy on the ear pop verses which you’d think would imply the rest of the album would follow the same path. This is not entirely the case.
Some classic Biff Riffs bookend the album through opening track ‘North Of No South’ and raucous closer, ‘Cop Syrup’, the latter being one of the highlights of the album for me. There are more lively guitar parts sprinkled across the rest of the album in ‘The Champ’, ‘Pink Limit’ as well as the singles ‘Weird Leisure’ and ‘End Of’.
It could be considered cliché to say that this album encapsulates everything that Biffy Clyro are great at but it really does! I’ve already mentioned “Biff Riffs” and how they know how to write commercially successful, radio friendly pop-rock songs, but another thing Biffy Clyro have up some kind of wizard’s sleeve is their expertise in exceptional emotional ballads. The spirit of past songs such as ‘God & Satan’ and ‘Folding Stars’ shine through here in the form of ‘Space’ and ‘Opaque’ both of which are sure to invoke a lighter in the air response when eventually played live.
‘The Biff’ have been known to use some peculiar wording in the past. “The midget is frigid” and “I’ll turn your baby into lemonade” are just a couple of examples. ‘A Celebration Of Endings’ is much easier to interpret lyrically though. The pre-chorus of ‘End Of’, “I would’ve fucking died for you, you wouldn’t know how to be a friend”, seems like bitterness towards a close friend after a betrayal of some sorts while the line “but you could’ve made it right this time, and you should’ve made it right, there’s still time” in ‘Opaque’ implies that the door could still be open for that relationship to work.
In an interview with the BBC, vocalist and guitarist Simon Neil mentioned that “there were two long-term working relationships we had that deteriorated in ways that we couldn’t have envisaged”. It’s clear that the breakdown of these relationships has inspired ‘ACOE’ with betrayal being a recurring theme lyrically.
‘A Celebration Of Endings’ is about exactly that. The album starts in a dark place with feelings of grief and total resentment towards someone for being deceitful and ruining a great friendship and ends with more of a positive ‘that was awful but let’s move on and be better’ kind of outlook which could quite easily be applied to many real life situations.
“I’ve been saved from the darkest place, I’ve embraced the need to live, we’ve lived before and we’ll live again”
Mon the Biff
8/10
What are your thoughts? Do you have a favourite song? Anything that surprised you?
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With Download 2020 cancelled and Download TV out of the way, attention has swiftly turned to next year’s lineup. Will download follow what other festivals have done and keep the same bands we were meant to have this year, or will we get a fresh set of headliners?
I’ve investigated whispers and rumours from various corners of the internet and collated a few of the most frequently mentioned ones here.
So, in no particular order, here are the current rumoured headliners for Download Festival 2021:
Kiss
Kiss may well want to rock and roll all night (and party every day) but that’s just not going to happen this year. It might happen next year though! There’s a possibility that they will return for 2021, however there’s the small matter of rescheduling a massive European tour as well!
Probability: 78%
Rage Against the Machine
With the state it’s in at the moment, the world needs a band like Rage Against The Machine right now. However, as far as Download festival is concerned, a band LIKE Rage Against The Machine is the closest we’re gonna get as the real band will be touring in the U.S that weekend. Bummer!
Probability: 0.2%
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters, in my opinion, are one of the best live bands around right now so it’s criminal that they’ve never headlined at Download. Dave and Co were due to headline Nova Rock Festival in Austria this year and are the only headline band not rebooked for 2021. As it happens, Nova Rock falls on the very same weekend as Download next year and Foo Fighters are in Europe the week after so surely the only logical reason for them to pull out is to headline download!?
Probability: 90%
Five Finger Death Punch
Popular amongst typical Downloaders,energetic live shows and a new album out, Death Punch have all the ingredients needed for a headliner… but I just feel like they’re not quite there yet. I’m certain they’ll be considered as headliners in the next few years, but for now I feel they’re more likely to sub or top the bill on the Zippo stage.
Probabilty: 57%
Bring Me The Horizon
A band that divides opinion amongst the rock and metal community, Bring Me The Horizon are ready now for headline slots at big festivals and now is the perfect time to book them. BMTH are better than they’ve ever been after gaining a UK number one album with 2019’s ‘amo’ and playing some of their biggest shows to date, including a monstrous headline set at All Points East. With rock fans starting to turn away from Reading and Leeds’ increasingly rap and Indie heavy lineups, they will be looking towards festivals like download as a potential alternative. I believe booking Bring Me The Horizon to headline would be a great way to convince a new audience to come to download. There’s also a brand new album on the horizon (pun absolutely intended) and, if new songs ‘Ludens’ and ‘Parasite Eve’ are anything to go by, it will be much more suited to download than their last couple of albums.
Probablity: 85%
Metallica
2021 will mark 9 years since Metallica last headlined the festival which, when you consider how Download famously recycles it’s lineup, means we are probably due a Metallica return. It would also be a fitting way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ‘The Black Album’.
Probability: 76%
System Of A Down
Another band due to play this year, System Of A Down are as close to confirmed for 2021 as you can get. They’ve been announced for most major rock festivals in mainland Europe and Shavo (bass) was spotted on instagram promising Nandi Bushell (drum ledge) she could go as his guest next year.
Probability: 98%
My Chemical Romance
MCR’s plans for their big return have had to be put on hold for another year but could a headline slot at the biggest rock and metal festival in the UK be part of their plans? In short, probably not. I expect they wouldn’t want download to conflict with their UK stadium shows, although Download is only a week before those so I could be surprised.
Probability: 45%
Iron Maiden
Another 2020 headliner, Maiden had a very lengthy slot on Download TV with promoter Andy Copping stating his surprise at the amount of footage they were happy to provide. Unfortunately, although I haven’t seen the statement myself, Iron Maiden have apparently ruled themselves out of returning for 2021.
Probability: 2%
Aerosmith
Download 2017 was billed as “the last chance to see Aerosmith perform in the uk” so you’d think it’s crazy that they’re even in the mix as potential headliners. As it happens, they’re playing headline shows in London and Manchester towards the end of June next year but I think this makes them more likely NOT to headline next year as Download usually doesn’t like headliners to play other shows close to the festival. Aerosmith would be possible for 2022 though I feel.
Probability: 30%
Biffy Clyro
Biffy Clyro headlined alongside Aerosmith in 2017 and pulled a relatively small crowd, so why would they be picked again? It could be that, with Maiden not able to play next year, a quick and relatively cheap replacement was needed. The main reason Biffy are tipped to headline though is because of all the bands on Download TV, they were the only one not due to play the festival. With over an hour of footage, many have taken this as a way of hinting at a headline slot for 2021. I may be biased here as a big Biffy Clyro fan but I think they deserve another chance! They will always be underdogs because of download’s often hard to please fanbase but a tailored set may work in their favour and they certainly have enough of a back-catalogue of songs for that to be possible. Perhaps Biffy could be well supported with a co-headliner too?
Probability: 83%
Prediction Time:
With an announcement probably (hopefully) coming sooner rather than later, I feel now is a good time to get a prediction in:
Friday: Foo Fighters
Saturday: Bring Me The Horizon/Biffy Clyro (co-headline)
Sunday: System Of A Down
What do you make of my prediction?Who do you think will headline?
The Birdbox 