Reading and Leeds Festival has paid tribute to Viola Beach.
The double music extravaganza has honoured all four members – Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Tomas Lowe and Jack Dakin – of the band and their manager Craig Tarry, who plunged to their death from a bridge in a tragic car accident in Sweden in February.
A special mention was made at Reading on Friday (26.08.16) when Blossoms took to the stage in the BBC Introducing tent and remembered the group, who supported them on tour earlier this year.
Blossoms never replaced Viola Beach after the tragic accident and instead, opened their shows with a video recording of one of the band’s support gigs, and during their secret set at Reading, Tom Ogden asked for the crowd to applaud the group, saying: "Let’s have a round of applause for Viola Beach".
Over in Leeds on the main stage, screens an emotional documentary about the group played prior to The Vaccines set at 6pm.
The docu-film included audio from interviews with frontman Kris Leonard, tributes from Radio 6 DJs Steve Lamacq and Huw Stephens, and footage from their performance at last year’s Reading & Leeds festival.
Earlier this year Viola Beach were remembered at Glastonbury when Coldplay performed their track ‘Boys That Sing’ during their headline set.
The special performance followed a memorial concert in April held in the band’s hometown of Warrington, Cheshire, North West England, where fellow indie stars The Kooks, The Zutons and The Coral performed.
A compilation of Viola Beach’s songs was also released as a self-titled album in July, which reached No 1.
At the time of their tragic deaths, several music stars mourned the loss of the rising rock band including former Oasis star Liam Gallagher, The Stone Roses and Kasabian.
They all got behind a campaign to get the group’s single ‘Swings & Waterslides’ into the charts.
Viola Beach honoured at Reading and Leeds festival
