Surprise: Royal Blood: Reading 2026

There are secret sets, and then there are secret sets announced several days in advance by the band playing them.

Royal Blood’s appearance in Reading’s Gallery Tent belonged firmly to the second category. The Brighton duo had already confirmed they would be turning up on Friday afternoon and promised something “brutal” and “relentless”, so there was little chance of anybody wandering in by accident. Mike Kerr had even joked beforehand that a downpour might help fill the tent. By 2pm, the rain had eased and the Gallery was packed anyway.

Sci-fi noises and helicopter blades announce their arrival before Royal Blood tear straight into ‘Out of the Black’. Eleven years after their debut album, that opening riff still sounds ridiculous coming from a bass guitar.

“Are you feeling good?” Kerr asks midway through. “We’re Royal Blood, let’s go.”

Ben Thatcher apparently takes that as permission to leave his drum kit altogether. He heads towards the front rows for a round of high-fives while Kerr keeps the song moving alone, before returning in time for the final charge. The first serious mosh pit of the weekend opens underneath them and Thatcher ends the song by battering the gong behind his kit.

‘Come On Over’ gets a huge clap-along almost immediately before ‘Boilermaker’ settles into the Queens of the Stone Age groove that has always suited Royal Blood. Kerr and Thatcher are at their best when the riffs stop simply hitting you and start swinging as well. ‘Boilermaker’ leaves just enough room between the drums and bass for the groove to drag the crowd with it.

The most interesting reaction, though, comes when the new songs arrive.
‘Ten Over Ten’, from the forthcoming ‘Dead Company’, is heavier and nastier than much of ‘Typhoons’ without simply sounding like a return to the debut. There is a Metallica-sized bluntness to the riff, and people do not wait to learn every word before opening another circle pit.

‘Swallow the Bomb’ goes somewhere dustier, its desert-rock charge giving Thatcher plenty of room to push the tempo while Kerr keeps the riff moving underneath him. Nobody uses the new song as an excuse to check their phone or disappear towards the bar. Another pit opens instead.

That is probably the best advert Royal Blood could have given ‘Dead Company’. More than a decade into their career, they already have enough songs to carry a festival set. The useful thing is that ‘Ten Over Ten’ and ‘Swallow the Bomb’ do not feel like gaps between them.

‘How Did We Get So Dark?’ drags the set back towards the second album before running into ‘Little Monster’, one of those riffs that still feels too obvious not to have existed before Royal Blood found it. Thatcher hammers away behind Kerr while the Gallery Tent continues to move.

There is very little hanging around between songs. A riff starts, Thatcher hits something extremely hard and several thousand people understand their responsibilities.

‘Lights Out’ brings another older favourite into the set, Kerr’s bass growling through one of the darker songs from ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’. It lands with the same blunt force as the heavier material around it, Thatcher driving it forward without giving the crowd much chance to settle.

‘Trouble’s Coming’ changes the mood completely. Its Daft Punk and Justice influence still gives it a different shape from most of the set, but live it works because Royal Blood never let it become too clean. The beat gets the Gallery Tent bouncing rather than opening another pit, giving the set one last change of pace before the finish.
Kerr thanks the crowd near the end and talks about how much Reading means to him, remembering previous appearances before wishing everyone a good weekend. Then ‘Figure It Out’ arrives.

The riff starts, and the tent erupts again.
The secret had been out for days.
The noise was considerably harder to contain