FESTIVAL REVIEW: Leeds Festival 2024 – Friday

Want more Leeds Festival? Check out our full reviews of Saturday and Sunday.

So, the Friday of Leeds Festival 2024 is—if you’ll pardon the pun—a bit of a blowout. Severe winds across the entire north of England have hit Bramham Park, sending tents flying and dealing a huge hit to the festival as a whole. Not only is the arena hours late to open due to weather warnings, but stages and lineup reshuffles throw an even bigger, more chronic wrench into even the best-laid plans. The BBC Radio 1 Stage—making a vaunted return after a few years’ hiatus—is shut down for the entire weekend; the new, state-of-the-art Chevron Stage finds itself unable to open as planned. All of that leaves a significant number of acts cut off, in some cases entirely. Subsequent days will be reshuffled to accommodate for Skrillex or Ashnikko, but for Beabadoobee or Renée Rapp (who is inexplicably booted off to have her Main Stage slot replaced by Bru-C), that’s it.

All of that leads to a dramatically slimmed-down Friday experience, of which the arrival of 21 Savage does little to nothing to salve. Well, ‘arrival’ in itself might be giving him too much credit. He actually doesn’t show up for a while, leaving his DJ and hype-man to present a mix of trap and pop and festival anthems to pick up a crowd presumably not in the best of spirits. It’s just a shame that this goes on for 40 minutes, and stops being a fun hype-builder much earlier than that. Demeanour from the stage alone would indicate that wheels are being spun, and with the amount of times it’s reiterated that 21 Savage is waiting in the wings, ready to come out, it all feels a little pointless. Sure, maybe there’s still wariness and safety concerns to take into account, but for the people who’ve been twiddling their thumbs all day up to now, no amount of reasoning is going to endear them to a 12-minute performance in a slot billed for the best part of an hour.

Then again, you could give 21 Savage all the time in the world and he’d likely be no better. It’s the kind of low-energy, workmanlike showcase that’s become a disappointing trend for trap artists at this festival. Attempts to gee up the crowd almost feel parodically low-octane, which seeps into the fire and plumes of smoke emerging out of obligation. Sure, 21 Savage’s whole shtick is a dead-eyed, occasionally grisly monotone which doesn’t lend itself to vibrancy, but it’d be nice if that was in this conversation at all. Instead, him putting in even this meagre effort is made to feel like hard work. A couple of the core lines of Bank Account and redrum stick, as does Drake’s memed contributions on Rich Flex piped in through the tape, none of which has anything to do what what 21 Savage himself pulls out. Reading would go on to get a more extensive performance a couple of days later, which only makes the point sorer, if anything. Even if the performance aspect is just as underwhelming, there’s a chance of something—anything—leaving an impact. • LN

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After the…interesting start to Friday, the one thing everyone needs is a good, old-fashioned headliner to get spirits back up. Enter Catfish And The Bottlemen. It feels like the much-lauded four-piece have been away from playing live longer than the three years it’s actually been, the palpable excitement in the crowd reaching fever pitch as the band take the stage. Everything from instruments to outfits to projections on the screens are the band’s classic black and white; it’s simple but effective, sleek and polished. As soon as it’s clear from a singular guitar strum that anthem Longshot is the opener, punters giddily begin gearing up to yell first word “go” along with singer Van McCann. And the hits just keep coming. Kathleen, Soundcheck, Pacifier and Twice alone is good enough of a run to cement Catfish’s place atop the Reading & Leeds poster, and that’s not even counting 7, Homesick, Rango or 2all that come later. For all the criticisms the band get about releasing the same album over and over again, this set proves just how well these songs stand up, choruses sounding positively gargantuan soaring over the Yorkshire fields.

Performance-wise, the band take a ‘let the songs do the talking’ approach, powering through tracks from their three albums with minimal addressing of the crowd. While it does indeed let their craft shine by itself, it can sometimes feel like Catfish are going through the motions, wide grins from singer McCann aside. The several drawn-out guitar solos that pepper the set stunt its momentum; some onstage banter to balance the lulls out would work wonders while still reinforcing the whole ‘rockstar’ thing. That said, this set is both a triumphant return to the stage for Catfish And The Bottlemen and a nice cap to this first ‘era’ of their career (comeback single Showtime is notably absent from this set, strange considering it has a lyric specifically about headlining Leeds). More importantly, it’s just the morale boost the Leeds punters need. • GJ

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When looking at Liam Gallagher’s performance after the fact, the big, pulsating asterisk is how it’s so wildly overshadowed by Oasis’ return that it’s not even funny. “Who cares about the full run-through of Definitely Maybe on its 30th anniversary when its creators—one of the most important, influential musical acts of the ‘90s, let’s not forget—are properly back, against all conceivable odds?” Well, it’s worth remembering that, although there were flutters of rumours, nothing had been etched in stone yet. To those who’d never expect a Gallagher ceasefire to this extent, one of the original architects of Oasis’ debut and second-string opus giving it the full treatment is a big deal. It certainly feels that way on the ground, in how Gallagher carries himself and treats his work with such overwhelming reverence. Regardless of what’s to come, tonight, the spectacle is here in full swing.

It can be phenomenal to just watch play out, where Gallagher’s character and archetypes—and the rockstar untouchability that can often enshroud them—take pride of place. He’s right in position, stage-centre, leaned forward with his hands behind his back, untrained but unmistakable voice at full force. It’s the spearhead for rock music as unabashedly ‘real’ as this, with the onus placed on its spiralling solos and instantaneousness. These are the sorts of songs that could click straight away even if you’ve never heard them before. ‘Deep cuts’ might be overselling the certain ubiquity of songs like Columbia or Up In The Sky, but you’d never peg them as mere album tracks with how pitch-perfect the festival aura around them is. It’s a grandness like no other, quite frankly. Gallagher himself knows it; he’s rarely one to waste words when each subsequent monolith of ‘90s rock excess can do exponentially more.

And so that’s exactly what this is. Both sonically and visually, it’s a celebration of an all-time great era in British rock music. The pop art visuals are the perfect, right-at-home mismatch with grungy candids blown up to fit the big screen. Meanwhile, the additions of pianos, strings and backing singers further flesh out an already well-endowed collection of works. From every angle, Gallagher continues to abide by Oasis’ classic edicts, feeling larger than the largest life and celebrating that in pure volume and intemperance. There’s the big, flexing riff on Cigarettes & Alcohol, and the ease at which pinpointing absolute classics like Supersonic and Shakermaker can be performed. Within the space of about an hour, there’s both the plastering of ‘LASAGNE’ onscreen during Digsy’s Dinner, and a stately tribute to rock icons on Live Forever, without a trace of jarring juxtaposition. Such is the nature of the show, after all. Liam Gallagher—the rock ‘n’ roll star that he is—is at that level of undeniable icon status, with his old band or without. Even with an Oasis reunion out of the picture entirely, its music and its spirit is being kept alive and well. • LN

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Words by Luke Nuttall (LN) and Georgia Jackson (GJ)

Photos by Alex Piper and Sam McMahon