Kate Nash - Carling stage

It must have been difficult to gauge the kind of reception Kate Nash would receive from a Reading crowd this year, which can only explain why the 20-year-old singer and songwriter was not placed on the Main Stage with other mainstream acts.

Performing in a packed Carling tent, Nash succeeded in entertaining her audience, at some points sending them wild –quite literally. Only a couple of songs in and Nash’s performance was interrupted by an announcement warning that she would have to stop if those climbing up tent poles continued to do so.

Desperate to catch a glimpse of one of the rising song writers of this year, Nash’s repertoire requires her to largely remain seated at her keyboard throughout.  Frustrating for those gathered outside, the only sign that Nash was on stage was the sight of a redhead bobbing along in the distance to the hip hop sound her tracks produce.

Dressed for the occasion and arriving on stage with a bunch of helium balloons, Nash’s straight talking, narrative approach to her song writing, provided tracks packed with emotive and sentimental lyrics. Singing along to Birds, emotion could be seen on some of the faces in the crowd, many relating to the pertinence Nash’s lyrics present.

Inevitably, some had only come to hear Nash perform her amazingly successful Foundations single but her true fans hung around until the end of her set where they were treated to the highly catchy and melodic Merry Happy.

Flags outside promoting Kate’s debut album, Made of Bricks, carried the words ‘Kate Nash advises…Get Drunk, Get Dancing.’  Whether this was through alcohol or emotion, this was advice the crowd who gathered to see her had no problem heeding to.  

David Ricketts