The Amazons stage an emphatic homecoming at Reading 2023

Words: Jamie Muir.Photos: Patrick Gunning.

We’ve been mentioning that feeling of homecomings a lot this weekend. Reading has that feel of a show where bands truly begin, formed from the moments they experience across its historic stages. In The Amazons' case, they have a bit more of a claim, though. The Reading natives' journey across the stages of the festival is entwined with their own rise - becoming not just a scorching force in British rock but bonafide live kingpins. If written out as a Hollywood film script, taking to the Reading main stage would sit as the pivotal scene where all those long years on the road pay off big time.

With a Reading FC scarf draped over their amps, their fiery brand of surging rock anthems is dialled up to 11 from the start. The moment seized in their teeth, the singalong refrains of ‘Junk Food Forever’ set alight a run across their career to date. ‘Ready For Something’ is stomping in its punch on such a grand stage, whilst ‘In My Mind’ and ‘Doubt It’ sizzle with such firepower that any early strugglers on a Sunday morning are immediately pulled into the fray. The rumbling crunch of ‘Mother’ becomes a larger-than-life beast when smashed across the Main Stage. Surrounded by friends and family, you can’t help but feel its importance.

Gazing out across the crowd gathered, frontman Matt notes that journey. From 16-year-olds all the way to the festival main stage, as they tear through a closing ‘Black Magic’ and stand draped in that very Reading FC scarf with the word HOME emblazoned behind them, it’s an emphatic moment for The Amazons and for Reading itself. That’s what you call a proper homecoming.