The Oxford English dictionary describes the word embrace as 'to hold closely and lovingly' which just about sums up the way the British public have taken to the band of the same name, writes Templeton Blake.

Fronted by the McNamara Brothers Richard and Danny, Embrace have sold over half a million copies of their first two chart topping albums The Good Will Out, and their latest Drawn From Memory. They've also developed in to one of the most potent live bands in the UK.

Their popular melodic, emotional music has made them a firm festival favourite and they've spent the summer headlining at every festival across Europe including T in the Park and Glastonbury.

Well-seasoned in outdoor gigs, they return to these shores to headline the Radio 1 Evening Session Stage at the only 3 day 'dual-site' festival in the world The Carling Weekend at Reading and Leeds Festivals. Having only ever played one Leeds date at a festival before, several years ago on the unsigned stage, Yorkshire born and bred lead singer Danny McNamara is particularly looking forward to the Leeds leg of the dual date festival.

"I know a lot of people who are going. Whenever we play Leeds we always go down really well. I actually live between Bradford and Huddersfield and it's only 10 minutes from Leeds so I'm really looking forward to playing. It's just like a homecoming gig."

The Carling Weekend Reading & Leeds Festival promoters Mean Fiddler, have compiled one of the finest festival bills ever, securing the best musical talent around and swapping over the bill each day.

Something Danny is no stranger to. "I think the idea of two separate but similar festivals really works. When we play places like Germany or France, you go there and you're on a festival bill and quite often you see the same bands.

"It's different crowds both days so it's different gigs. The crowd are half of any gig anyway. If there's a crowd of people when you play and that makes them cheer and that makes you play better. So they cheer more and it spirals up and that's when you get a really good gig. You just want people to enjoy themselves at a gig." Danny continues: "The bill at The Carling Weekend Reading and Leeds Festival is really good. The Primals are playing, Oasis, Badly Drawn Boy and the Doves. There's at least 20 bands I'd like to see." The Leeds leg may be a homecoming gig but the Reading site also had a lot of good memories. Danny explains: "When we played last at Reading, we were in a tent and I think we were third on the bill and the Verve were above us. I remember standing at the side of the stage watching them, I was beside the guy who signed both bands, the Verve and us and you could see he was beaming from ear to ear it was a really proud day for him. I remember thinking 'yeah, it's cool this music business'."

To warm up for the main stage performance at Glastonbury, Embrace decided to do something a little different. Leaving cryptic messages on their website and through a mobile number, they staged a couple of 'secret' performances. The first on a beach 25 miles East of Glastonbury and the most recent of which was high in the Peak District of Derbyshire, where a 70 strong audience of determined fans watched the band perform a string of tunes.

"We just want our gigs to be fordedicated fans of the band," says Danny. "And also to do it really cheaply or for free if we can. Not make it a commercial venture. The last ones were brilliant, we all went off to the pub after."