Royal Blood pulled a huge early afternoon crowd to pack out The Gallery tent at Reading 2026 for their less than “secret” set today (Friday August 28). Check out photos, footage, the setlist and more from what went down below.
The Brighton rock duo confirmed earlier this week that they’d be playing a surprise last minute set at the legendary festival, promising a “brutal” and “relentless” set.
Having jokingly hoped for a downpour to pull more punters into the tent, the rain relented a while before their 2pm set time with fans flocking to The Gallery anyway.
Sci-fi sound effects and chopper sounds beckoned the band to the stage as if to say, ‘We are taking off’, before they tore straight into the fan favourite ‘Out Of The Black’ with a thunderous landing.
“Are you feeling good?,” asked frontman Mike Kerr mid-song. “We’re Royal Blood, let’s go.”
At this point, drummer Ben Thatcher was in the crowd squaring up to the front rows for a round of high-fives before making his way back to kit while Kerr ripped through bridge riff. The song climaxed with the first major mosh pit of the weekend and Thatcher sealing it with a bang of his gong.
While ‘Come On Over’ inspired a huge clap-along moment and the QOTSA-esque locked-in groove of ‘Boiler Maker’ got the crowd going, it was impressive that it was two new songs from incoming album ‘Dead Company‘ that erupted in circle pits courtesy of the Metallica-edged riffery of new single ‘Ten Over Ten’ and the runaway desert rock of ‘Swallow The Bomb’.
The set reached its climax with the menacing ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’ flowing straight into ‘Little Monster’, fulfilling Kerr’s promise of an all-killer no-filler show. After ‘Turn The Lights Out’ led into the Daft Punk and Justice indebted ‘Trouble Coming’ from ‘Typhoons‘, Kerr thanked the huge crowd before wishing them on their way ahead of the brutal closer ‘Figure It Out’.
“I love this festival and I’m so glad to be back,” he ended. “It brings back amazing memories and I hope you’re having the best time.”
Their show followed another “secret” set from Jamie T on the main stage. Neither he or Royal Blood will be performing at the sister site in Leeds.
Royal Blood’s Reading 2026 setlist was:
‘Out Of The Black’
‘Come On Over’
‘Ten Over Ten’
‘Boiler Maker’
‘How Did We Get So Dark?’
‘Little Monster’
‘Swallow The Bomb’
‘Turn The Lights Out’
‘Trouble Coming’
‘Figure It Out’
This marked their fourth appearance at R+L, over a decade from their debut as a buzzy new band back in 2014 before making return the next year after their huge-selling self-titled Number One debut album where 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.
Speaking to NME ahead of the show, Kerr explained how rejuvenated the band were feeling after their break to be back on stage, and opened up about the energy provided by the new material.
“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. Nothing prepares you for that rush of adrenaline of playing live again.”
He continued: “‘Ten Over Ten’ has been great. 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 will release new album ‘Dead Company’ on November 13, with a 2026 UK headline tour to follow.
Reading 2026 continues today with performances from Geese, Charli XCX, Fontaines D.C. and many more.
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