Royal Blood pack out The Gallery tent for raucous Reading 2026 “surprise” set

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.

Royal Blood live at Reading 2026.

Credit: Andy Ford for NME Royal Blood live at Reading 2026.

Credit: Andy Ford for NME 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’.

Royal Blood live at Reading 2026.