10 Acts You Cannot Miss At Reading & Leeds Festival

From hip-hop royalty to grime kingpins, rock bedlam to grunge newcomers...

With only hours to go, the time is fast approaching for Clash to make our yearly pilgrimage to Reading and Leeds festival.

And with a bulging line-up on offer, if you need some help planning your band schedule this weekend, read on…

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Foals
Top of the list is Foals. Boy have the Oxford five-piece come a long way since their indie-math days. Festival Melvin Benn has been eyeing them for the headliner slot since their pivotal, powerhouse set in 2013 and now, having added monstrous fourth album 'What Went Down' to their arsenal last year, they’ve got all the weapons they need to own their time on the main stage.
See them: Main Stage: Reading, Friday / Leeds, Saturday.

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Boy Better Know
Last year when grime collective Boy Better Know headlined the dance tent at Reading and Leeds, so many people turned up to watch they couldn’t fit in the tent and had to clamber up on the Yorkshire pudding vans out the back. Since then, grime has gone global and BBK are spearheading the movement. JME, Skepta, Jammer and Shorty on one of music’s biggest stages is going to be a massive moment.
See them: Main Stage: Reading, Friday / Leeds, Saturday.

Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes
After a stint fronting underwhelming stadium-rock with Pure Love, ex-Gallows vocalist Frank Carter has returned with a new band, the Rattlesnakes, and some of his meanest, rawest material to date. Last year’s debut Blossom was a satisfying comeback that seethed with disgust and hostility. We can’t think of many better ways to kick off a day on the main stage than with violent blues-ballad, ‘I Hate You’.
See them: Main Stage: Reading, Friday / Leeds, Saturday.

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Heck
Heck’s rabid live shows have built the Nottingham quartet a well-earned reputation as purveyors of chaos and general dismissers of health and safety. Their jagged math-punk is an assault on the body and senses, so expect blood, guts, and copious bodily fluids when they unleash their carnage-fuelled Dillinger-styled hardcore in The Pit.
See them: The Pit: Reading, Saturday / Leeds, Sunday

Nas
New York rap legend Nas is one of the most influential hip-hop artists of all time with a seminal back catalogue going back over twenty years. Recently he announced his new, and twelfth, album is on the way, his first since 2012’s 'Life Is Good'. We hope he’ll be in the mood to share.
See him: NME/ Radio One Stage: Reading, Saturday/ Leeds, Sunday

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Blaenavon
Since their 2013 'Kosovo' EP, trio Blaenavon have nabbed Arctic Monkeys’ producer and gradually their back catalogue has blossomed. Over the years they’ve developed their precious, tentative, gentle sound into romantic dream-indie that falls squarely between the elegance of early Wild Beasts and the assured melody of Bombay Bicycle Club.
See them: Festival Republic Stage: Reading, Friday / Leeds, Saturday

Inheaven
Inheaven’s sound, equal parts grunge, Britpop and shimmering 80’s indebted dark pop, has already stirred up a buzz and caught the ears of The Strokes’ frontman Julian Casablancas. The smattering of singles they’ve released so far are exhilarating although 2015’s ‘Regeneration’ is the cream of the crop: garage grit, a thunderous chorus and Jesus and Mary Chain gloom.
See them: Festival Republic stage: Reading, Saturday / Leeds, Sunday

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Eagulls
Leeds-based post-punks Eagulls released their second album Ullages this year, transforming their sound from terror-filled, bug-eyed intensity to lush, shimmering 80’s soundscapes. This year, as the sun goes down they’ll be playing their new material, a glorious jangling glow of dreamy Cure-esque goth-gloom and reverb-drenched yearning.
See them: Festival Republic Stage: Reading, Sunday/ Leeds, Friday

Anderson .Paak
With a sound rooted in R&B and hip-hop but peppered with flashes of jazz, trap and psych, soul singer-rapper-songwriter and instrumentalist Anderson .Paak is an explosive talent with stories to tell – and Dr Dre’s latest protégé. After signing with Dre’s label Aftermath and featuring on six songs on his comeback album 'Compton', .Paak released his solo debut 'Malibu', one of the year’s most absorbing and exciting albums.
See him: One Extra stage: Festival Republic stage: Reading, Saturday / Leeds, Sunday

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Milk Teeth
The ramshackle charm of Milk Teeth’s debut full-length 'Vile Child' made it one of the year’s most loveable albums. Mixing dirty garage grunge with squalling hardcore and languid slacker rock, the Bristol four-piece sound like a blend of Pavement, Dinosaur Jr and Glassjaw, while earlier this year they struck gold with single ‘Swear Jar’: a perfect slice of 90s nostalgia
See them: The Pit: Reading, Saturday / Leeds, Sunday

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Words: Dannii Leivers

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