Royal Blood have been announced for a surprise secret set at this weekend’s Reading Festival. Check out details below along with our exclusive interview with the band.
Fresh from announcing their fifth album ‘Dead Company’ with the pummelling comeback single ‘Ten Over Ten‘, the Brighton rock duo have been announced to join Fontaines D.C., Charli XCX, Geese and many more at the iconic festival this Friday (August 28) – where they’ve been announced for a surprise early set on The Gallery stage at 2pm.
“The set planned for Reading is pretty brutal,” frontman Mike Kerr told NME. “That’s been the theme for these shows. It’s only 45 minutes long so that allows us to play all the heavier songs that we have. The theme of the show is to make it as relentless as possible.”
Looking ahead to the questionable weather, drummer Ben Thatcher joked: “Hopefully it rains so we can get more people in the tent.”
This comes after the rock veterans recently returned to the stage for the first time in over two years, with the break from touring leaving them reinvigorated.
“We’re now just having the best time,” said Kerr. “We missed playing and it’s been a long time for us. The whole point of the band is to play live. That’s why we make records.”
He continued: “Nothing prepares you for that rush of adrenaline of playing live again. After three or four tracks we were settled in. By the time we played Lowlands Festival, we worrying less about playing things right and just having fun and being more free-spirited.”
Recent setlists have seen Kerr and Thatcher giving fans a taster of their new record by slipping in ‘Ten Over Ten’ alongside fellow hard-hitting newbies ‘Swallow The Bomb’ and the title track of ‘Dead Company’.
“‘Ten Over Ten’ has been great,” the singer shared. “You can already feel that little bit of familiarity in the room. It sits alongside some of the biggest songs in the set already. ‘Swallow The Bomb’ has been really good because I can already see people in the crowd connecting with it even though they’ve never heard it before. It’s confirmed our suspicions that these songs are meant to be played live.”
Royal Blood have a storied history with Reading & Leeds, with the duo making their first appearance as a buzzy new band back in 2014.
“The first time we played Reading was pretty mental,” Kerr recalled. “If my memory is correct it was when we had ‘Out Of The Black’ and ‘Figure It Out’ on the radio. We were doing a UK tour of about 100-capacity rooms, some of them were selling out and some of them were not. We were in that very early stage of touring and trying to get fans. We rocked up to Reading and we went from playing to 100 people to playing to a tent that was rammed with thousands.
“I remember it being quite intimidating. It was a huge surprise because we didn’t think we could do that. It was scary but the energy was great.”
Upon their return the next year after their huge-selling self-titled Number One debut album, they found themselves on the main stage. Rising up the line-up, they would perform as pre-headliners on the legendary stage in 2019 ahead of The 1975.
“Reading was one of the first major festivals I went to when I was about 17,” Kerr told NME. “It was absolute carnage and almost medieval. Everyone was covered in mud and in a primal way of being. It was so much fun.
“I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t part of me watching bands playing on the main stage with the thousand-yard-stare thinking: ‘One day’. To play these stages is pretty surreal, and I always think back to that 17-year-old me and how impressed he’d be.”
Asked what sets Reading & Leeds apart from other festival, the frontman replied: “It’s an anything-goes festival and feels less family-oriented for all the right reasons. It’s loose and rowdier.”
Thatcher agreed: “We always associate it with the GCSE results day. You party with your mates, do things for the first time without your parents watching. It’s a rite of passage.”
Highlighting the rest of the line-up – which also features headliners RAYE, Dave, Florence + The Machine and Chase & Status – the band celebrated how far the festival has come in terms of diversifying its bill.
“It’s great, and I love the day we’re playing on,” said Thatcher. “We’re playing on the same day as Fontaines who are in a similar position to us with a new album coming out.”
Kerr went on: “I like how Reading & Leeds is now much more of a mixed bag. Back in the day it was more straight up guitar bands and rock, but I actually like where it’s landed. It seems more reflective of how people listen to music now. It’s not genre-based, but more on what’s exciting at the moment.”
Royal Blood’s Reading 2026 secret set will be at 2pm on The Gallery Stage on Friday August 28. Check out the rest of the stage times here.
The band will release new album ‘Dead Company’ on November 13, with a 2026 UK headline tour to follow.
Reading & Leeds runs from Friday through to Sunday. Check back at NME for the latest news, reviews, photos, interviews and much more.