Even by the standards of Britain’s longest-running rock festival, it was a finale to beat all others.

Indie’s great comeback kids The Libertines, smashed their headline appearance at Reading Festival with a show which had fans – many of them too young to have seen them first time round – in a frenzy. A set devoid of banter but loaded with crowd-pleasing tunes had a rammed main stage moshing, letting off flares and taking to their friends’ shoulders for a sing-along, starting with Horrorshow and tearing headling into Vertigo, The Delaney and sparking an explosion for the epic Can’t Stand Me Now.

After that, hits fell like skittles at working mens’ club… Time For Heroes, Music When the Lights Go Out, What Katie Did, Boys in the Band, Anthem for Doomed Love and The Good Old Days. It was as tight as a duck’s proverbial, and, despite, the lack of conversation, was designed to tick all the boxes and give us what we wanted – right down to the iconic microphone-sharing of Pete Doherty and Carl Barât. If they haven’t actually made up, they made a good job of looking like they have.

There was no question of them leaving without an encore, and they obliged with a scuzzy Fame and Fortune, Up the Bracket, What A Waster, and finishing with a jaunty Don’t Look Back Into The Sun and a rousing I Get Along.

It was a breathtaking finish to a festival which, more than any other, surprised with the breadth of its top-slot acts. Friday’s headliners Mumford & Sons were predictable but also out to impress, throwing in the anthemic I Will Wait, Little Lion Man and Believe early on. Any fears that the folk-poppers might get bottled off were scotched early on with an arms in the air reception from a crowd who don’t seem to care that Reading has long since moved away from its Reading Rocks roots.

That heavier past was recalled on Saturday, courtesy of Metallica, who left the crowd battered with a searing set and grandiose stage show, carrying us along on a wave of metal from opener Fuel, through Master of Puppets and Seek & Destroy, to the thunderous encore closer of Enter Sandman. And they really did seem to be enjoying every minute – winning thousands of metal converts along the way. Reading may not be pretty, but no one does music like it. And that’s why it still rocks.