Chappell Roan slays Reading Festival with fairytale-themed set

Mark SavageMusic correspondentBBCReading Pageant marked the star’s first UK competition headline setWhen Chappell Roan toured the UK final autumn, she was taking part in small, club-level exhibits.On Friday, she headlined the Studying Pageant, taking no prisoners with a stunning, jubilant set that capped her unbelievable rise to fame over the previous 18 months.Backed by a gothic fairytale citadel and a strong all-female band, she added a crunchy rock edge to hits like Sizzling To Go and Informal, bringing her debut album to stadium-sized life.”Thanks for loving me and standing with me,” she instructed the 90,000-strong viewers. “This can be a dream come true, significantly.”Roan was booked for Studying after rising as the most important break-out star of 2024, however her journey to success has been something however clean.She spent years honing her type and combating sceptical file labels earlier than her campy, singalong anthems discovered their supposed viewers.Her first (and to this point solely) album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess was a slow-burning hit that chronicled the singer’s seek for id: Leaving small-town Missouri for California, ditching the “hyper mega bummer boys” she’d dated in her teenagers and embracing queer love.The songs had been tightly written, embracing all the things from nation to 80s synth pop, nevertheless it was the lyrics – filled with solitary craving and thwarted romance – that actually linked.At Studying, devoted followers screamed each phrase, ceaselessly threatening to drown out Roan’s personal vocals, highly effective although they had been.”You would be forgiven for pondering it is the world’s greatest hen occasion,” mentioned Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, surveying the multitude of pink cowboy hats within the viewers.The singer progressively shed parts of her gothic ensemble all through the setRoan emerged on stage shortly after 7pm in an ornate crimson outfit, topped with black “bat wing” fascinator that followers instantly dubbed “Chappell Crow-an”.Skipping throughout the stage, she opened with three of her most upbeat songs – Tremendous Graphic Extremely Fashionable Lady, Femininomenon and After Midnight – solely pausing to shed layers of her elaborate costume.Over the subsequent 90 minutes, she performed virtually each tune she’s launched, together with the early launch Love Me Anyway and this 12 months’s standalone tracks The Giver and Subway.Usually, the reliance on album tracks and deep cuts can be a nasty signal for a competition headliner – however Roan wasn’t stretching out skinny materials.Someway, almost each tune from Midwest Princess has turn into a contemporary anthem, elevating the album to the standing of classics like Thriller, Rumours and Again To Black.Highlights included Sizzling To Go, with its viral YMCA-style dance routine; and the snarky comeuppance anthem My Kink Is Karma, which Roan devoted “to my ex who’s within the crowd tonight”.Nevertheless it was ballads like Informal, Espresso and Image You that actually showcased the star’s voice – all nation twang and breathy vocal flips, that places her on the next aircraft than her pop contemporaries.The constrictions of the competition slot meant sadly there was no room for Roan’s trademark banter.A spotlight of her present tour has ceaselessly come throughout The Giver – the place she pauses the tune to learn out messages from viewers members about their hopeless exes. (Final week in Oslo, she bought followers to boo a person known as Daniel, who had cheated on his accomplice “twice in the identical Burger King parking zone”.)Sadly, there was no repeat at Studying, however the singer’s charisma and stage presence had been by no means unsure.The singer will carry out on the Leeds leg of the competition on Saturday nightAs the solar set over Little John’s Farm, she strode to fringe of the catwalk for her breakout single, Good Luck Babe, silhouetted by spotlights and looking out each inch like a famous person.She sealed the cope with Pink Pony Membership, blowing kisses and high-kicking her means throughout the stage, as fireworks rained down on her and followers fortunately misplaced their minds.From the primary be aware to the ultimate bow, it was an ideal pop set.Roan will do it over again in Leeds on Saturday evening, earlier than two headline exhibits at Edinburgh’s Royal Showground subsequent week.After which? Along with her summer season competition run over, Roan has a handful of dates in Eire and the USA earlier than she faces the unenviable activity of following up the femininomenal success of her debut.Chatting with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe earlier this month, she mentioned that activity might take so long as 5 years.”The second mission would not exist but,” she mentioned. “There isn’t a album. There isn’t a assortment of songs.””I need to write music at any time when I really feel settled. I have not felt settled,” she continued. “It has been a really unsettling 12 months and a half, and I believe as soon as I actually really feel calm in a brand new home and have a routine… Then I can take into consideration writing a tune.”Let’s hope she will get that relaxation quickly – as a result of we’d like her again as quickly as potential.Chappell Roan’s Studying Pageant setlist Tremendous Graphic Extremely Fashionable GirlFemininomenonAfter MidnightNaked in ManhattanGuilty PleasureCasualThe SubwayHot To Go!Barracuda (Coronary heart cowl)Image YouLove Me AnywayThe GiverRed Wine SupernovaCoffeeGood Luck, Babe!My Kink Is KarmaPink Pony Membership