Royal Blood spoke to NME backstage at Reading 2026 about their upcoming album ‘Dead Company’, and reflected on their debut appearance at the festival back in 2014.
The Worthing-formed band, comprised of singer and bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher, caught up with us just after they played a mid-afternoon secret set at the Gallery stage, which attracted a huge audience.
Reflecting on the show, Kerr said: “We’re really happy. It went really well. We’re playing live again after two years of not doing anything, so we’ve had a real road to Reading. We’ve done a bunch of shows and dusted off the cobwebs. Today, it felt like we’d arrived.”
It’s one of a number of smaller shows that the duo have played in anticipation of their fifth album ‘Dead Company’, which was previewed by single ‘Ten Over Ten’ and is due for release on November 13.
These underplays “never feel small”, Kerr said, adding: “There’s always a level of intimidation to them. I think that’s just playing live by nature. There is that element of excitement because when you play, things can break and go wrong, so that’s big enough for us.”
This led the duo to look back on their first appearance at the festival, back in 2014, when they played a similarly packed gig at the NME/Radio 1 Stage. Asked what he remembered of that show, Kerr replied: “Being pretty scared – exactly what we were just talking about. We were playing probably 100-capacity rooms on our first or second UK tour.
“Reading was just a stop-off in that tour. Some of those shows sold out, but a lot of the time it was like 50 people. So we showed up at the NME stage and it was thousands of people. We’d never really done that before. So it felt like a bit of a baptism of fire. My memory of it was just having a really good time. It was a very memorable experience, for sure.”
The band also opened up about ‘Dead Company’. “It’s pretty relentless,” Kerr said. “The idea was, ‘Can we make a record where it never lets off?’ I commend anyone who can make it to the end, really. It’s pretty brutal. There’s not really any breathing room. Every song on the record, we were imagining playing live and making sure that when we play them live together, they felt good.
“I think, ultimately, that’s why we’re in a band: playing live. That’s the pay-off for us.”
Thatcher added: “I also think it has the energy of our first record, and the excitement of that. But we’ve four albums’ experience of writing songs. I think it’s a reflection of our last album, as well. We made that in a different environment.
“This one was us coming back together and playing in a room together, having that energy and that fun. I think it reflects onstage. It’s something that we really wanted to bring to the stage again: that raw, unedited feeling of playing rock music.”
Reading 2026 continues today with performances from Dave, RAYE, Gunna, Radio Free Alice and many more.
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