Slaves, Shame, The Vaccines and more battle the rain to send Reading 2018 off with glorious final day

It’s a sodden start to Sunday at this year’s Reading - driving rain greets the start of the festival’s final day - but it’s something that works to Let’s Eat Grandma’s advantage. Jenny and Rosa are welcomed by a more-than-sizeable crowd, half sheltering from the rain, half here to hear tracks of brilliant futuristic pop from this year’s ‘I’m All Ears’. They’re then given five of them in a concise, hit-packed set, all backed by the excellent, intricate drumming of Savages’ Fay Milton. ‘It’s Not Just Me’ remains one of the year’s most addictive synth-pop hits, while closer ‘Donnie Darko’ is a drawn out rollercoaster, dipping into every corner of the pair’s weird and wonderful world.

Lady Bird are another early beneficiary of the rain, the Kent trio’s first set of the day kicking off The Pit in style. As ever, they mix heartfelt lyrics (latest single ‘Boot Fillers’ dedicated to step-parents everywhere, for example) with rambunctious punk spirit, their closing thrashout as euphoric as anything the stage will see all day.

Next, fellow threesome Demob Happy are another thanking Mother Nature, their rifftastic, jam-heavy set at the Festival Republic stage drawing in Reading’s early birds from the off.