Jamie T kicks off Reading 2026 with surprise main stage set: “Ready for a little dance?”

Jamie T kicked off Reading 2026 with a last minute indie celebration of a set on the new main stage, The Grid.

Check out photos, footage and the setlist below.

After teasingly begging the festival to let him play before confirming his appearance last night , the London indie icon delivered his opening “33 minute and 10 second” performance (in honour of his new single ‘3310 ‘) to get things going on the Friday (August 28).

“We got on the bill then,” he said with a smile, arriving on stage to introduce ‘Hippodrome’ before rolling into ‘The Old Style Raiders’ for the early arrivals.

“Thank you very much,” he said after to the applause of the field.

“How are you Reading Festival? We’re here to open the celebrations.” Jamie T live at Reading 2026.

Credit: Andy Ford for NME Jamie T live at Reading 2026.

Credit: Andy Ford for NME Jamie T live at Reading 2026.

Credit: Andy Ford for NME ‘Salvador’ and ‘3310’ landed well, but the crowd didn’t appear to warm up until the indie classic ‘If You Got The Money’ dropped.

“This one goes out to all of you,” said Jamie in tribute.

“Ready for a little dance? Admitting that he “felt like Bono out here” on the gangway laid out for tonight’s headliners Charli XCX and Fontaines D.C., before he offered: “Have you had a good time ladies and gentlemen? You’re gonna have to shout louder than that…” A boisterous outing ‘Sticks N Stones’ got the best response of the set before a sing-along of ‘Zombie’ closed things out.

The next ‘secret’ surprise set will come from Royal Blood performing on The Gallery stage at 2pm .

Neither Jamie T or the Brighton rock duo will be going on to perform a secret set at the sister site in Leeds, where Kasabian opened proceedings with the first ever Thursday night headline set .

View this post on Instagram sdfsdf Jamie T’s Reading 2026 setlist was: ‘Hippodrome’ ‘The Old Style Raiders’ ‘Salvador’ ‘3310’ ‘If You Got The Money’ ‘Sheila’ ‘Sticks N Stones’ ‘Zombie’ Jamie T’s Reading appearance comes on the heels of a secret sold-out performance at London’s Scala last week – where he played at the venue for the first time in 20 years and previewed some currently unreleased songs from his new album. ‘Ghosts (100 Days of Morning)’ will arrive on October 9 and marks the highly anticipated follow-up to his fifth record ‘ The Theory of Whatever ’ which dropped in 2022, and the slot at Reading tomorrow comes ahead of a seven-date UK headline tour at the end of the year.