Courting have covered the Oasis anthem ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ at their Reading 2024 set.
The Liverpool indie four-piece appeared on the Main Stage this lunchtime (Saturday 24 August) and sandwiched a section of the song into their track ‘Crass’. Previously they’ve done the same thing with The Strokes’ ‘Last Nite’ and fun.’s ‘We Are Young’.
This comes ahead of Liam Gallagher’s headline set here tomorrow night, and amid his fuelling of rumours of an Oasis reunion. Before performing the Noel-sung ‘Half the World Away’ in Leeds last night, Gallagher commented: “It is very interesting init? It is a very interesting situation we’ve found ourselves in.”
Courting braved rainy weather to get the day off to a buoyant start. “We are Courting from Liverpool,” announced frontman Sean Murphy-O’Neill, “and we are your favourite band’s favourite band,” referencing Chappell Roan’s infamous assertion that she is “your favourite pop star’s favourite pop star”.
The singer also augmented ‘Popshop!’ with a nod to festival, altering the song’s lyrics to “Take the lads on tour, we’ll go to… Reading”, and engineered an audience cheer for the opening of ‘Famous’.
Drummer Sean Thomas wore a chain mail neck-piece adorned with heart pendants, while Sean Murphy-O’Neill joked that “everyone’s just here waiting for” fellow Main Stage performer Lana Del Rey.
Although the tone of the band’s performance was generally jovial, Murphy-O’Neill offered a moment of earnestness when he said: “This is the first festival I ever came to. It means a lot that people came out to see us.” He added with a grin: “We’ll see you when we’re headlining.”
Courting released their second album ‘New Last Name’ back in January, with The Cribs’ Gary and Ryan Jarman assisting on production duties.
In a three-star review, NME noted the band’s eagerness to explore new sounds and concluded: “Some other stylistic choices prevent ‘New Last Name’ from being the disruptive moment it clearly wants to be – ‘Flex’ and its nod to ‘Mr Brightside’ (‘now she’s calling a cab’), doesn’t quite land – but the album’s overall vibrancy doesn’t dim on repeated listens.
“What’s clear is that the playful, ‘for the plot’ vibe of a band that started on a lark is beginning to transform into something close to remarkable.”
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