If Royal Blood’s on-stage tantrum at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend last month taught us anything, it’s that the duo – vocalist/bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher – don’t take kindly to an underwhelmed audience. And while punters close to the Pyramid Stage (the ones you can see on the telly) make the scene look as if it's all kicking off – with a mosh pit or two ignited by a few eager fans – it’s not many rows back before the crowd begins to thin. It’s a total pendulum swing in atmosphere from the recently finished Foo Fighters, who had packed out the area to its corners, with fans bobbing their heads and singing out into the sun.
In spite of the petered-out audience, the band walk out onstage with a quiet confidence, gazing over the revellers like a pair of carnivorous animals flexing their talons, before the inevitable swoop down onto their prey. Opener Out Of The Black is as good of an attack as any, with the band's split-pedalled riffs punching out like a grandiose fist, walloping the surrounding farm with the sound of its familiar weight.
