With a reputation for bringing their show to the audience, Augustines are a thrilling band. Tim Hughes talks to drummer Rob Allen ahead of this weekend’s festival date

It’s the biggest, loudest and certainly liveliest music festival of the summer.

But of the 90,000 high-spirited fans and artists thronging the huge Reading Festival, this weekend, one is particularly excited.

Rob Allen is the drummer with New York rock band Augustines – one of the weekend’s biggest draws and a huge fan of the festival, taking place just over the county border.

“I’m so excited!” he tells me. “It’s our first headline slot at a festival and it’s going to be great. Normally I only get excited a day or two before a show, but I’ve been excited about this for weeks.

“We did it before, in 2012, and it was one of the best moments of the whole tour. We didn’t know what to expect then. We came out in a massive tent to see everyone leaving. I was thinking ‘I hope people turn up’ – and they did. It was packed to the rafters and it went mental.

“I remember choking up a bit. It was a dream come true.”

Augustines join an impressive bill beside the Thames at Little John’s Farm, featuring headliners Queens Of The Stone Age, Paramore, Arctic Monkeys and Blink-182.

Also up, between now and Sunday night, are Courteeners, Bombay Bicycle Club, Disclosure, Gogol Bordello, Jake Bugg, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Imagine Dragons, Peace, Vampire Weekend, Netsky, Pendulum, Metronomy, The Horrors, The Kooks, Flume, Jimmy Eat World and scores more. There is even a respectable comedy line-up, boasting the likes of Bill Bailey, Adam Buxton, Mark Watson, Milton Jones and Katherine Ryan.

A total of 273 bands and artists will play across eight stages, including the Festival Republic Stage, headlined by Augustines – Rob and bandmates Billy McCarthy, Eric Sanderson and new conscript Al Hardiman.

Formed from the wreckage of earlier band Pela, Augustines rose to fame with their 2011 debut Rise Ye Sunken Ships. The band’s name (they were initially known as We Are Augustines, due to contractual issues relating to trademark issues) refers to the birth month of Sanderson, McCarthy and McCarthy’s brother James, who’s death by suicide was a big influence on the first album.

From the word go they acquired a reputation for their incendiary live shows – the band often ending up among the audience. After a recent gig in Oxford, following the release of their eponymous second album, they played part of their set outside the O2 Academy in Cowley Road.

Despite the band’s roots in the New York borough of Brooklyn, Rob is a Londoner – who despite his 12 years in the Big Apple, shows no sign of losing his accent.

He has played drums since the age of six, and gigged since 11, playing in other bands and working as a session musician before getting his break with Augustines.

“I was kind of getting fed up with it and wanted to go down a different road. And this came up and saved my life.”

“It has been busy though,” he goes on. “But I can’t complain as it’s a really great life.”

And, he says, it doesn’t get much better than playing Reading and its sister festival in Leeds.

“I always wanted to get involved in the festival, so to play it has been unreal.”

Though, he laughs, the action this time will be all on stage. “We like to get up close and personal with the audience, but at bigger gigs you can’t do that so we like to get into the crowd.

“It will be a little bit different at Reading though,” he says unconvincingly. “We’ll be on our best behaviour!”

CHECK IT OUT
Reading Festival is at Richfield Avenue, Reading, from today until Sunday.
Tickets have sold out. More details at readingfestival.com

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