Headliners ready for Reading and Leeds

  • Author, Greg Cochrane
  • Role, Newsbeat music reporter

What's it like to play a festival and have thousands of people scream your band's name? Headliners Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead look forward to this weekend鈥檚 Reading and Leeds festivals, alongside the likes of The Prodigy, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Gossip.

Image source, AP

Image caption, The Prodigy are going to "rip it up" and give "110%" says Keith

The Prodigy 鈥 Leeds (Friday), Reading (Saturday)

Liam Howlett: We can鈥檛 wait; we鈥檒l come up with something.

Keith Flint: It鈥檚 not like we go along with a master plan as such, it has to happen a bit more natural than that for us.

Everything has to be in place, the sound and the actual set and then we just walk out there naturally. We need the platform to go out there and rip it up.

It鈥檚 about giving 110% and not letting anyone down, not being complacent and being determined to go and rip it up.

I鈥檝e got to see Arctic Monkeys they鈥檙e phenomenal.

Liam: We hung out with them in Australia at the Big Day Out festival. They were on the other stage and we watched them most nights.

Keith: They鈥檙e one of only a few bands we can go and watch that hold our attention for as long as they do. They鈥檙e real and something to be seen.

Arctic Monkeys 鈥 Leeds (Friday), Reading (Saturday)

Image source, AP

Image caption, Arctic Monkeys say following The Prodigy will be a tall order

Matt Helders: It'll be good to watch them [The Prodigy] before us and pretty scary because they're obviously going to be a bit louder than us.

But I don't think people will be going for the decibels. I think it works out quite well. We watched them a few times in Australia [at January's Big Day Out festival]. We had a great time, they're very nice people.

Alex Turner: "I shared a wonderful plane journey with Keith [Flint] - he's a lovely chap.

Radiohead 鈥 Leeds (Saturday), Reading (Sunday)

Ed O鈥橞rien: We haven鈥檛 played there since 1994, Reading鈥檚 just down the road from Oxford 鈥 it鈥檒l be nice to do that one and it鈥檒l be dark at that sort of time. It鈥檚 cool. Although it is Reading - it's rival territory.

Glasvegas 鈥 Leeds (Friday), Reading (Saturday)

Caroline McKay: We鈥檝e been there last year as well, it's going to be great fun.

Paul Donoghue: Yeah, last year was kind of the first festival we鈥檇 done that we were really happy with and that the reception we got was amazing. It really blew us away, we鈥檙e really looking forward to that this year.

The Gossip 鈥 Leeds (Friday), Reading (Saturday)

Beth Ditto: The north [Leeds] is my jam, it's like the southern United States up there.

Image source, AP

Image caption, Beth Ditto from The Gossip says she's looking forward to playing in the north

Brace Paine: I always like playing Reading because it reminds me of The Year Punk Broke [1991 music documentary]. It seemed so cool.

The Ramones, Babes In Toyland, Hole鈥 Reading has a magical place in my head because of that. Reading is exciting because of that connection.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs 鈥 Leeds (Saturday), Reading (Sunday)

Karen O: Memories? A lot of hi-jinx. I don鈥檛 know how free I am to speak about it. The first time we played there was so much pressure - the hype around us at that point was at its peak.

For me it was a highly self-destructive performance that year. Leeds was better but Reading was the first one where I blew a fuse in my head.

Brian Chase: The one in 2006 was awesome you [Karen] jumped into the pit, there were the bodyguards in these yellow shirts and just this sea of tens of thousands of people.

Nick Zinner: You [Brian] played the last Reading Festival with one arm.

Brian Chase: I had an arm injury earlier in that tour so the only way I could go on was by playing our set one handed.

Karen O: It鈥檚 impossible to predict, so we won鈥檛 really know.