Reading & Leeds Festivals 2012 Announce Headliners + First 40 Acts

Reading Festival 2012 Poster

The first announcement of the August bank holiday weekender festival double bill is upon us and Reading and Leeds have thrown out a couple of surprises amongst a lineup that, in our opinion, most people could have largely predicted. For Rocksins regulars, there are some good rock and a couple of metal bands mixed in with the more traditional Indie fare that one would expect to find on the lineup for Reading and Leeds.

As widely predicted, Dave Grohl and the rest of The Foo Fighters have been confirmed as headliners and they’ll be playing Sunday at Reading and Friday at Leeds, in what is often traditionally the “metal” day, although there isn’t a huge amount of metal on it. Of potential interest to our readers is The Black Keys in the sub-headliner slot, along with Welsh metallers Bullet For My Valentine featuring quite high up the day’s bill. All Time Low also make an appearance on this day, along with The Gaslight Anthem.

Traditionally the most Indie of the days, Saturday at Reading and Sunday at Leeds sees the day being headlined by Kasabian, with Florence & The Machine filling sub-headline duties. We’re not particularly interested in that. What is of infinitely more interest is the long awaited return to the UK of At The Drive In, who will be headlining the Radio One/NME stage on Saturday night, guaranteeing that that tent will be overflowing and then some. Synth rockers Enter Shikari are also on Saturday’s lineup on the main stage in another item of interest, as is the news that Billy Talent will be appearing on the Radio One/NME stage.

Friday night at Reading / Saturday at Leeds sees original goth rock band The Cure headlining in the biggest genuine surprise of the festival lineup (alongside the return of At The Drive In). Hayley Williams and Paramore are also returning to Reading and Leeds for Paramore’s second sub-headline slot in three years, having last appeared in that slot supporting Blink 182 in 2010. The Friday also offers some other interesting bands, with rising British stars You Me At Six high up the main stage, as well as Tom Delonge’s Angels & Airwaves, Coheed & Cambria, Cancer Bats and Deaf Havana.

This is only the first batch of announcements with lots of bands and stages still to come, including the Lock Up stage where you can traditionally find some metal, hardcore and alternative acts. As we said there are some good bands on there but in our opinion not too much to trouble Download, Sonisphere and Bloodstock in terms of stealing their traditional attendees (especially Bloodstock).

Tickets are currently on sale through seetickets.com. For further rock & metal festival updates, including more from Reading & Leeds, Download, Sonisphere, Bloodstock and more please keep checking back with us on a regular basis.

Reading Festival 2012 Poster

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