LIVE REVIEWS
Lana Del Rey’s Reading headline set opens in paradise. Before the star comes onstage tonight (August 24), clips from her 2013 short film Tropico fill the screens, Del Rey in the Garden of Eden with Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and God. Later in the film, she’ll be cast out of this utopia, but, for now, she’s safe in this divine space.
As the screens change to show the ornate world the singer has created on Reading’s Main Stage – which includes an ivy-covered exterior of a stately home – it feels like Little John’s Farm could become an extension of that heaven. Del Rey walks on beaming and opens with ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’, its blunt first line (“Goddamn manchild, you fucked me so good I almost said, ‘I love you’”) an iconic starting point.
Quickly, though, there are problems, as the pounding bass from The Chevron stage at the other end of the festival is so loud it competes with Del Rey. ‘Arcadia’ seems stunning and ‘Without You’, the ‘Born To Die’ track she resurrected earlier this year after a decade in the cupboard, could be an early highlight of the set. Both, however, are turned into wobbling, chest-rattling discordance. Even if you position yourself directly under a speaker – or are onstage, it turns out – Sonny Fodera’s house beats are still frustratingly audible. “Can you hear me through the techno?” Del Rey asks the crowd after ‘Ride’.
There are some beautiful moments here – if you can shut out the bass. ‘Summertime Sadness’ finds the star and her backing dancers holding up art deco-style mirror boards, turning Del Rey into a 1920s statue. ‘Ride’ is as exquisite as ever: scenes from its music video, interspersed with shots of Lana in real time, fill the screens and pull you into her gorgeous visual world. ‘The Grants’ and ‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd’ give her backing singers a moment in the spotlight, their incredible vocals covering Reading in powerful, poignant emotion.
“Thank you so much, Reading. We’re going to play you a couple more songs for as long as we can,” the star tells the huge audience after ‘Video Games’. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Instead, due to a production error (for which the festival later apologised “unreservedly”) that halts the performance five minutes early, the big screens cut to the festival’s graphics, momentarily coming back on as fireworks explode in the night sky and Del Rey looks pensively out into the crowd. It’s a disappointing end to a set that had the potential to go down as a classic and, following Glastonbury 2023, a second big UK festival moment in just over 12 months that could have been something much more glorious. We’ll just have to wait for Lana Del Rey’s return to truly experience paradise with her.
‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’
‘Arcadia’
‘Without You’
‘West Coast’
‘Summertime Sadness’
‘Cherry’
‘Pretty When You Cry’
‘Ride’
‘Bartender’
‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’
‘The Grants’
‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd’
‘Video Games’
Follow all of the action as it happens on the NME Reading & Leeds liveblog here.
Check back here for the latest news, reviews, photos, interview and more from Reading 2024.
LIVE REVIEWS
Slayyyter played her take on Turnstile’s ‘Birds’ onstage for the first time in Atlanta. You can watch footage of the performance below.
Slayyyter is currently touring with her ‘Wor$t Girl In The World’ show. She added the cover to her set at The Eastern on Monday night (September 21).
She sang ‘Birds: Slayyyter Version’ near the end of the main set, following ‘Brittany Murphy’. She then came back for an encore featuring ‘Brand New Chanel$’ and ‘Beat Up Chanel$’.
It was her first live performance of the song. She originally recorded it for Turnstile’s ‘Never Enough: Versions’, a collection of reworked tracks released on August 28.
The 22 track release brings together new interpretations of songs from Turnstile’s fourth album. Contributors include Elton John, Hayley Williams, Blood Orange, A. G. Cook, Faye Webster, Four Tet, Oklou, Floating Points, Nourished By Time, Alex G, Julien Baker and Mustafa.
Panda Bear recorded a new take on ‘Magic Man’, while Dying Fetus gave ‘Birds’ another interpretation rooted in death metal.
See Slayyyter perform the track live and listen to her studio recording here:
Slayyyter trades the original song’s hardcore intensity for a bigger electronic sound that feels at home alongside her latest album, ‘Wor$t Girl In America’.
Turnstile first released ‘Birds’ on their 2025 album ‘Never Enough’. The song won Best Metal Performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards, where the album also won Best Rock Album.
In its five star review of ‘Never Enough’, NME pointed to ‘Birds’ and ‘Sole’ as reminders of Turnstile’s hardcore beginnings. It also praised the album for “furthering their unique, pop-facing take on hardcore”.
Slayyyter will join Turnstile on another stage next month. She and Die Spitz are set to support the band at the University of Kansas in Lawrence on October 6 for the ‘Never Enough Tour Pt. 2’.
It has been a big year for Slayyyter. Her third album, ‘Wor$t Girl In America’, came out in March, and NME’s review highlighted its mix of “brash, sleazy pop” and late 2000s indie sleaze sounds.
Last month, she performed Hole’s ‘Violet’ for triple J’s Like A Version. Courtney Love called the cover “a delight” and encouraged Slayyyter to “keep wiping the floors with us”.
A few weeks later, Slayyyter took ‘Wor$t Girl In America’ to Reading Festival. NME’s live review declared that there was “undoubtedly a star before us on stage” and praised her “rasped, rocked-up delivery” and growing confidence as a performer.
