Queens of the Stone Age graduate to the top of Reading 2014 bill

Where are the new festival headliners, you’ll hear them cry. But headliners of major summer blockbusters like Reading & Leeds aren’t created in five minutes - they’re grown over time, lovingly nurtured album by album until they’re strong enough to take the pressure. Biffy Clyro knew it when they were called up to top the bill, but if any band has done their time on the climb to the summit, it’s Queens of the Stone Age.

After all, they have the hits, but they’ve been no overnight success story. ‘No One Knows’ is hardly a wallflower. ‘Smooth Sailing’ is positively pesky in its demands for attention. As a one-two, ‘Feel Good Hit of the Summer’ and ‘The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret’ are peerless. They’ve brought lasers too, just to make sure it definitely looks like a bill topping set. But that isn’t it. QOTSA have a gear - a groove - that’s made for Reading.

Once they hit it, there’s a quality that’s been long muscling its way to the highest of highs. Josh Homme knows what it takes to play Reading Festival. He’s been here with Queens before. He’s brought other bands too - notably supergroup Them Crooked Vultures a few years back. The top of the tree isn’t a gamble here, it’s a graduation. In Homme’s own words, “the first time we played here was at 1 o’clock. Now it’s 10 o’clock. That means we’re nine hours better.”

You can’t argue with that logic.

Queens of the Stone Age played:
You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire
No One Knows
My God Is the Sun
Burn the Witch
Smooth Sailing
Do It Again
The Vampyre of Time and Memory
If I Had a Tail
Little Sister
Feel Good Hit of the Summer
The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
I Sat by the Ocean
Make It Wit Chu
Sick, Sick, Sick
Go With the Flow
A Song for the Dead