Queens Of the Stone Age & Arctic Monkeys thrill Reading

A largely dry (so far,fingers crossed!) Reading 2014 kicked off on Friday with some massive crowd pleasing performances.

Jimmy Eat World rocked the Main stage for their first performance of the afternoon before hot footing it to the lock up tent to thrill hardcore fans with a full run through of classic album Fortunes, rounded off with a couple of old classics, including fan favourite, The Middle.

Vampire Weekend had the main stage singing along to a seemingly endless stream of hits before Paramore kept the crowd warm for the days headliners, Queens Of the Stone Age. Josh Homme and his crew didn't mess around and set the bar high by playing No One Knows early on. The crowd never calmed down and air-guitared along through classics like Feel Good Hit Of The Summer, Lost Art of Keeping a Secret and Little Sister before closing the set and the day with Go With The Flow and the gorgeously dark, A Song For The Dead.

Other highlights of Friday were Blood Red Shoes, Drenge, and Warpaint.

Yesterday, after Pulled Apart by Horses had ripped up the main stage, much touted power duo Royal Blood drew a massive crowd to the NME stage, the singer/bassist Mike Kerr draws such an amazing noise from his expertly played bass it does the job of two instruments, with a wealth of quality material these guys are destined for heady heights.

The Hives were the highlight of Saturday afternoon with the most energetic and entertaining front man of the weekend so far. They delighted the crowd with a high octane performance in front of a sinister puppet master backdrop and finished an awesome set with the classic Hate To Say I Told You So.

The Amazing Snakeheads took us on a terrifying ride through the dark depths of their seemingly hideously disturbed minds with a selection of dark, horrifying tracks from their incredible debut album. Most notable from today's performance is the stark contrast between the John Travolta (Staying Alive era) lookalike smiling, slightly camp bassist and the lead guitarist/singer who attacks each song and spits out his lyrics with hate, bile and feverish brilliance. Here it Comes Again is a highlight of a staggering set.You have to see this band to fully appreciate the raw emotion and darkness of the Snakeheads experience.

Arctic Monkeys finished off the day in style. A few years ago these guys looked uncomfortable with their main stage presence after being thrust so quickly into deity status. Last night they proved they have grown into their supertstar skins. Alex Turner has gained confidence, a new, slick Josh Homme meets Elvis persona and, lets face it, a large helping of
arrogance.

After an electric start of Do I Wanna Know, followed by Brianstorm, it was clear that most of the enormous crowd knows every Arctic Monkeys lyric off by heart. Old classics Sun Goes Down and Teddy Picker sit right at home next to brand new classics One For The Road and explosive set finisher R U Mine.