Spector on their Reading 2015 set: “It was what the Italians would describe as a crescendo.”

Yesterday (29th August), Spector made their mark on Reading 2015 with a 3.15pm Saturday afternoon set at the festival. “Great thing about that slot - it’s the centrifugal point of the whole weekend,” notes frontman Fred Macpherson. “The Greenwich Meantime of festivals. The fulcrum on what everything else is balanced.”

With great power comes great responsibility, notes Fred, but Spector rose to the challenge with a showcase of new album ‘Moth Boys’, mixed with a supply of hits that’d make LCD Soundsystem tees redundant. “It was what the Italians would describe as a crescendo,” remarks Fred. “It got bigger and bigger. At the beginning it was a bit nerve-wracking. We started with our slowest, least popular song. But we graduated in speed and popularity. It’s the closest we’ve got to hits, really. I don’t want to use that word. Hits on a micro-scale.”

Today they pick up the baton in Leeds. It’s a different ballpark. “Leeds is a last chopper out of Saigon,” notes Fred. “Looking back, we could have done the setlist different at Reading. We’re so proud of our new album, we wanted to get that out first. The time when people are most in the palm of your hands are in the beginning. We wanted to show that we’re not just a bam-bam-bam 180bpm indie rock band.”

Spector play the Radio 1/ NME Stage at Leeds Festival today.