SWMRS provide a short, sharp shock early doors at Reading Festival

SWMRS are certainly not ones for fucking about. Three songs in, and they’ve already dropped three absolute bangers. ‘Drive North’ and ‘BRB’ blow the doors off, before ‘Miley’ provokes the first group sing-a-long of the weekend. A quick mid track interruption to make sure everyone knows how to deal with idle hands from gropey bastards (“turn round and punch them in the face” seems a pretty attractive option, even if informing security may be the more advisable option), and the roof is firmly blown half way across Berkshire. Think they’ve peaked too early? Think again. ‘D’You Have A Car?’ demands the kind of call and response antics usually reserved for main stage headliners, before descending into a band verified wall of death that’s not the norm for 2pm in the afternoon. “The best thing we have”, new track ‘Berkeley’s On Fire’ quickly follows, clanging its way to the front like the reanimated corpse of a punk rock robot. “If you liked what you’ve heard, there’ll be a lot more coming,” Cole teases, before launching headfirst into ‘Palm Trees’. In and out in a ball of flaming energy, SWMRS show no signs of sinking yet. Words: Stephen Ackroyd