Riffed

We're finally back from Leeds Festival, although still we're recovering. We imagine Reading would've been just as good, therefore we have narrowed down the top 10 artists at both festivals over bank holiday weekend. 

10. Metronomy 

Devonshire groove Gods Metronomy performed an extremely dance-worthy set inside of the NME/BBC Radio 1 tent. Playing tracks from their latest release, 'Love Letters' as well as closing on the ever so brilliant 'You Could Easily Have Me'. Joe Mount and the rest of the band certainly provided the festival vibe all of whom were on Bramham Park was craving. 

9. Queens of the Stone Age 

Queens of the Stone Age may have brought the rain along with them to Leeds Festival but this didn't dampen the spirits of the crowd. Josh Homme and the Queens performed an incredible co-headlining set with an even more incredible lighting display. 'No One Knows' was to be our highlight, from a set of which was full of highlights. 

8. Arctic Monkeys

'Yorkshire, your boys are coming home' was the phrase being echoed around Bramham Park throughout the duration of Sunday and come home they did. Performing a brilliant 21 song-long set, the Monkeys sparked a mosh or two for sure as they signed off 'AM' in Europe in style. Highlights being 'Brianstorm' and the set closer, 'R U Mine?'. 

7. The 1975 

The 1975 performed an incredible set inside of the NME/BBC Radio 1 tent on Friday evening at Leeds, although advising a crowd full of 15 year olds to "take drugs for the first time in this field" wasn't really the best thing for Matt Healy to say. Apart from this, the Manchester band sparked a ruptious roar of applause throughout as they played tracks from their debut album as well as some new material too. 

6. The Kooks

The Kooks earmarked their return to the scene at Reading and Leeds this year as they played out a brilliant set in the NME/BBC Radio 1 tent to an ever so brilliant crowd. All of whom were at the top of their voice upon the performance of 'Naive' and 'Seaside' to name but a few, but not only did the classics get the thousand plus strong crowd going, new material from their forthcoming release, 'Listen', appeared to do the trick as well.

5. Catfish and the Bottlemen 

Welsh rockers Catfish and the Bottlemen were playing mid-afternoon on the Festival Republic Stage on Saturday, but the crowd looked as though it could of filled the NME/BBC Radio 1 tent. Each track they performed was an anthem, with each and every person inside and outside the tent singing along at the top of their voice. Expect big things from the Bottlemen. 

4. Royal Blood 

If you're a regular visitor to our site, you'd of probably realised we're huge fans of Royal Blood. Therefore, when they took to the stage on Sunday, you wounldn't be surprised to hear the news that we were front row and that we thought it was absolutely mind-blowing, would you? Performing tracks from their debut self titled album, Mike and Ben sparked a frenzy inside of the NME/BBC Radio 1 Stage. Even more so when they were unplugged half way through 'Out of the Black', which ruined it a little bit, but, not that much. 

3. Cage the Elephant 

Cage the Elephant were another fantastic band playing the NME/BBC Radio 1 stage and the Americans didn't fail too please. Their extravagant prowess pulled in a fairly big crowd of whom witnessed yet another extremely vibrant and entertaining set in which lead singer Matt Schultz took to the crowd to stand on fans shoulders whilst screaming the words to 'It's Just Forever'. 

2. The Courteeners 

The NME/BBC Radio 1 tent was rocking to the sound of The Courteeners on Saturday evening, albe half the crowd were outside the tent as Liam Fray and the band attracted more than a few punters. Performing incredible renditions of classics such as 'Not Nineteen Forever' and 'Are You In Love With A Notion?' as well as the just as fantastic new tracks, 'How Good It Was' and 'Summer', taken from their latest release, 'Concrete Love', the band sparked frenzy upon the couple thousand strong crowd. Of whom weren't afraid to set off a flare or two.

1. Bombay Bicycle Club 

Though Bombay Bicycle Club were performing prior to that of headliners Arctic Monkeys, the ever progressing quartet from London attracted a huge crowd during their wonderful set on the NME/BBC Radio 1 Stage. The atmosphere created by Bombay within that tent was unmatchable, there were to be no moshing, everyone was simply dancing with one another to the ever so brilliant sound of the band from Crouch End. It's hard to believe a band can sound better live than on a recording, but, Bombay Bicycle Club did exactly that at Leeds Festival. Our highlight of the weekend by far. 

Though they may not have made it into our top 10, there was still plenty more brilliant performances across the weekend and you can watch them all via BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e65q2m/videos/p025dkhw#list ;

Written by Charlie Ireland. 

RIFFED x