Sunday at Reading 2024 may go down in history for an unusual first: the only headliner in the festival’s near 70 years who threatens to upstage themselves . On the day that Liam Gallagher arrives to play all of Oasis’s debut album Definitely Maybe on the week of its 30 th anniversary, the atmosphere is feverish with rumour that the band are imminently due to announce a reunion . The mooted comeback is speculated to be a huge run of 2025 reunion shows in London and Manchester, gigs that couldn’t be more hotly anticipated if The Smiths were supporting.

Twitter word is that every Premier Inn in London has already been booked out for most of next August, and the buzz on site is just as much for pre-sale details as Liam’s (somewhat second-best, in the circumstances) show itself. The rest of the bill has its work cut out to forge more memorable moments today. In the Radio One tent, Good Neighbours arrive on the crystalline tails of Glass Animals and a TikTok hit in the shape of the anthemic “Home”.

(The London alt-pop duo both look and sound like Weezer have got heavily into hair bleach, La Roux and The Communards.) And Renee Rapp’s attempt to steal the day comes catastrophically a-cropper in a nightmare set that would make even Lana Del Rey breathe a sigh of relief that she didn’t have such a shocker. In glamorous truck stop garb, this Broadway Mean Girls star turned Avril Lavigne-style pop rock hopeful bounds onstage to find only her drummer is making any noise.

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