The Reading Leeds Festival 2009 Highlights: Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs

arctic monkeysAlex Turner of Arctic Monkeys at Reading Leeds Fest (photo: Gigwise.com)

The Reading Leeds 2009 Music Festival wrapped up on Sunday, but the buzz about the performances from the likes of Radiohead, Vampire Weekend, Kaiser Chiefs, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys and many other indie rock heavyweights, is still lighting up the music blogs and social networks.

The popular three-day fest – commonly referred to as The Reading Fest – is one of the biggest outdoor music events in all of Europe, and regularly sells out only days after tickets are made available for purchase. In fact, the organizers are already promoting the 2010 festival.

Other notable artists and bands who performed at Reading 2009 include Bloc Party, Maximo Park, Kaiser Chiefs, New Found Glory, Placebo, Ian Brown, The Prodigy, Friendly Fires, The Rakes, Billy Talent, The Virgins, Crystal Castles, White Lies and dozens more.

The following are video and song highlights from the Reading Festival 2009:



In the video above, Radiohead briefly covers the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’s track “Maps” as an intro to “Everything In Its Right Place.”

“All I Need” – Radiohead (via our friends at TheMusicSlut.com)


Arctic Monkeys performing “Crying Lightning” this past weekend at the Reading Festival. Courtesy of BBC Radio One. Folks in the UK can watch more of the Arctic Monkeys’ set at Reading on the BBC website.

“Crying Lightning” – Arctic Monkeys (via IGuessImFloating.com)


Kaiser Chefs performing “Ruby” last Saturday at Reading 2009 to an enthusiastic crowd. UK fans, let’s face it, are just much more energetic than fans you see at U.S. festivals; just watch the crowd in the videos if you’re not convinced.

View the Reading Fest’s homepage.

Bootlegged New Songs from Arctic Monkeys Rumored 09 Release

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything new from the UK’s smoking rockers Arctic Monkeys, so it should come as good news to fans that the band is recording a new album due out “later this year,” according to their official website.

The band recently premiered four new songs at the Big Day Out Festival in New Zealand two weeks ago.

“Pretty Visitors”
“Crying Lightning”
“Dangerous Animals”
“Go-Kart”

Download a zip of the entire Wellington show.