Jake Bugg set to take Reading Festival by storm

If there’s one thing Jake Bugg can’t get enough of, it’s the chance to share his music with new fans. And there’s no better place to do that than at a festival — particularly one with 90,000 people ready to hang on his every word.

On Saturday the 20-year-old singer-songwriter returns to Reading Festival — one of 273 artists and bands to play across eight stages.

“I personally dislike crowded areas and lots of mud, but actually playing festivals in front of loads of people is what you dream of when you’re younger,” he says. “And I couldn’t wish for much more.”

Jake forms part of an impressive bill at the festival beside the Thames at Little John’s Farm this weekend, coming second on the bill to the mighty Arctic Monkeys, and starring alongside Queens Of The Stone Age, Paramore and Blink-182.

He will be joined, between now and Sunday night, by some of the world’s biggest rock, indie and dance acts, with the likes of Courteeners, Bombay Bicycle Club, Disclosure, Gogol Bordello, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Imagine Dragons, Peace, Vampire Weekend, Netsky, Pendulum, Metronomy, The Horrors, The Kooks, Flume and Jimmy Eat World all lined up to play the Ritchfield Road site, and its sister event in Leeds.

Jake is no stranger to the festival, just over the river from Oxfordshire. Making his debut on the Festival Republic Stage in 2012, the Lightning Bolt star was back again last year, a number-one album under his belt.

This year he returns, hitting the main stage with his second long-player, the Rick Rubin-produced Shangri La.

“It’s been kind of crazy,” he says. “When you’re young and you watch these massive bands play on television, you dream that one day you’ll be up on a main stage. But you don’t expect to actually be there.”

He admits it’s a totally different experience from regular gigging.

“Playing a festival is an opportunity to win over new fans, and excite people who maybe wouldn’t come out especially to see me,” he explains.

“That’s what’s really good about Reading and Leeds; the chance to see different people getting into your music. There’s always that fear about how many people are going to take time out of their festival to see you, of course, so when it all does work, when there is a really good atmosphere, then it’s really, really exciting.

“I’ve enjoyed the festivals this year. The weather’s been good and I think I’ve gone down well.”

Main stage: Reading 2013. This year Jake Bugg is second on the bill to Arctic Monkeys

It’s certainly a step up from his previous Oxfordshire performances at the very different Wilderness festival, near Charlbury, and the O2 Academy Oxford. “Reading has got a bit of a younger audience, which for me is great,” he says. “It’s a bit like I’m playing to my kind of people and it proves there’s still a market out there for what I’m doing.”

And how does the lad from Nottingham’s vast Clifton council estate think he’ll go down with the festival’s hard-rocking crowd?

“I’ll have to ramp it up a bit!” he laughs. “But then, I was up against Metallica at Glastonbury, so I know how to compete with rock. I would have loved to have seen them myself, actually. But yes, when you play Reading you just want to keep the momentum going, make people have a bit of a dance and a drink, and enjoy themselves.”

And how is the new album being received? “I’m still really pleased with it,” he says. “It’s always a nerve-wracking thing putting a record out. You always worry that people are going to say it’s not as good as the last one. But the point is that, inevitably, it will be different from the first record, and my next record will be different again. It’s all about evolving and improving. It got to number three in the charts and I’m pretty high up the bill at Reading. So it’s all good.”

His appearance in front of the infamous Reading moshpit follows an even more extreme performance — a gig in one of Brazil’s biggest favelas in the mega-city of Sao Paulo with the anti-poverty charity ActionAid, whom he met through Reading Festival’s promoters.

“That was just another world,” he says. “You hear about these places on television but seeing a favela... I thought things were tough where I came from but this was a whole different story. But the most amazing thing about it was how nice the community was and how they stuck together to help each other.”

And how did his music go down? “I actually did a couple of festivals out there and it was great,” he says. “I did a hip-hop track with this band from the favela in Heliopolis. They rapped over Seen It All and everyone was cheering. Well, I hope they were, it was all in Portuguese! But it was pretty crazy.”

The avid Notts County fan even had time for a kick-about. “I scored four goals, which I was pretty happy about,” he says proudly. “I thought it might be a bit trickier than that!”

Reading Festival
Little John’s Farm, Reading
From tomorrow to Sunday
Tickets have sold out

You can watch the video of Jake Bugg visiting the Heliopolis favela in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with ActionAid here:

Watch the video for Jake’s current single There’s A Beast And We All Feed It: