DZ Deathrays Reading And Leeds Festivals UK Blog

We had arrived back in the UK, only being here just over two months ago it kind of felt like we had never left. This time we had come back to play the massive Reading and Leeds Festivals. I had been told these are the festivals that punters go to and let off a bit of steam, celebrate what's left of a short lived English summer, maybe burn some tents down and throw bags of shit around. We were both excited and nervous.

Flying from Australia you always seem to land in London at the ungodly hour of 5am. This means you can either go to sleep during the day and wake up in the middle of the night feeling like absolute balls, or alternatively you can have a quick power nap, drink all afternoon and go to bed at a semi normal time (usually around midnight) and wake up at a normal time but feeling as hungover as balls. We chose the later option but instead of going to bed around midnight we ended up on the streets of Camden drinking gin until about 3am. This just left us to be almost dead for our warm up show in Kingston. Having not played a show in over three weeks we felt like we had concrete arms and the ultimate hangover + jetlag combo was just punishing us for going too hard too soon, a classic rookie error.

After the Kingston show we drove up to Leeds… well we slept in the back of the van while our new driver got us up there through the night. This was our first experience hiring a driver so we were making the most of it. We arrived at our hotel at 5am, went to bed and then hopped up to go to the festival grounds by 9.30am. Its fair to say everyone was feeling a little worse for wear that day, but by the power of tequila we were able to make it up on the stage for our 2.05pm slot and thrash it out. We were really impressed with the Leeds crowd who gathered early to see us. It was lovely to hear some RUMHAM" chants throughout the set. This has been a thing following us around the UK from earlier this year. Simon wore a shirt that says  RUMHAM" on it at one of the shows and since then we have randomly been hearing people chant "RUMHAM!!!" between songs, even when Simon isn't wearing the shirt. I think due to the fact we hadn't played a show (aka done any exercise) in almost a month really showed during the last few songs… we were absolutely exhausted. I made my way down into the crowd for a mosh midway through the set but didn't have the energy to even throw my guitar at the end… I just sort of flailed it around a bit and stumbled off stage.

The rest of the day in Leeds was pretty awesome. We caught up with some of our Northerner mates from Pulled Apart By Horses and Baby Godzilla, got drunk on tequila and Sailor Jerry and went to see some pretty rad bands.

We had the next day off so we headed back down to Reading. Arriving mid afternoon at the most ballin' hotel we have ever stayed in while on tour, with a steam room, pool and spa! We went in to the festival that afternoon to see At The Drive-In… I was taking it easy due to this shitty cough I was sporting but Simon was fighting fit and ready to party. I went on ahead in to the festival and at the gate was frisked searched and had to empty all my pockets. Seeing this, Simon decided he didn't want to run the risk of losing his bottle of whiskey he had previously bought and planned to sneak in, so he downed it in about 10mins. Then also helped some of the crew finish theirs. I went on in and saw Mastodon and when I saw Simon next he was telling me the same stories over and over with that great blank look on his face. I left after At the Drive-In, he got home about 4am… so the next day was maximum pain train for him.

Sunday was Reading show day. I was coughing like an emphysema patient and Simon felt like a hobo who had broken into a beer truck overnight. None the less, I ate a heap of medicine, a jar of honey and drank rum mixed with my tea to get ready for the show. Meanwhile, Si power-napped. Feeling rough as guts before walking on stage, as soon as Rad Solar rang out, I knew this show was going to be an epic one. The crowd had already grown way past the size of the Leeds crowd and people were going nuts with mosh pits and circle pits opening up sporadically throughout the set.

I jumped down in the crowd again and took out some kids on my way down. Being pulled out of the crowd by security as if I was being lifted out of quicksand, thrown back on stage to continue the rest of the set. We decided for this show we would drop a song and add this new outro instrumental we have been playing recently, which allows some time for Si to get down in the crowd and go for a surf! I'm glad we made the choice to do this as it was fucking awesome watching Simon get thrown around the pit for over a minute while I wailed noise on the crowd. We finished off with a massive guitar throw and classic catch, thank you Reading, thank you UK, fuck yeah see you in November!

Now it's off to Italy to play a couple of festivals, one of which only has four bands playing each day… so the day we play we'll be sharing the stage with The Killers, Two Door Cinema Club and The Temper Trap. Then it's off to the USA to tour with TRUST and Blood Red Shoes through September (while also slamming as many PBR's as possible).

Brutal times,

DZ Deathrays

Editor's note: Here's the line-up to the Italian festival they're playing. Not bad.