Music
Review
Chappell Roan casts a spell over Reading Festival
The Grammy-winning Best New Artist was witchy and wonderful at Little John’s Farm
Chappell Roan covering Heart’s ‘Barracuda’ just makes sense. Chappell Roan covering Heart’s ‘Barracuda’ in drag makeup and purple underwear in front of a three-dimensional gothic castle? Even more so. ‘Barracuda’ is – rightfully – and angry song, a return punch in the face of sexist, sensationalist headlines (not unfamiliar to Roan either). It’s not the anger that makes it fit in Roan’s setlist, although there is anger to be found there too – the sarcastic seethe of ‘Good Luck, Babe’, the outraged protest of ‘Casual’. ‘Barracuda’ is a glamorous, stylised outpouring of female emotion, no less sincere for its outlandishness. And that’s Roan to a tee.
Roan prefaces her Reading set with a brief Disney-esque animation featuring spell books and blinking yellow eyes. She emerges onto the stage in full sorceress garb which disappears piece by piece throughout her set, burlesque-style. When she performs ‘Picture You’, a ballad about late night fantasies, she’s fondly caressing a turquoise wig on a mic stand. Before launching into ‘My Kink Is Karma’, she tells the field, “I dedicate this song to my ex… who is in the crowd.” The gimmicks, for want of a better word, are great – but Roan’s appeal goes far beyond pageantry.
‘Pink Pony Club’ has had a lot of radio play, so much so that it’s easy to forget the message at the heart of the song, one of inclusivity, self-discovery, and finding safe spaces. These days, Roan isn’t just finding these spaces, but creating them. There’s hardly a person in Little John’s Field who isn’t bellowing a line about taking to the stage in their heels, whether it’s with a pink sparkly cowboy hat on their head or a beer can in their hand. It’s not as if Reading has ever been a particularly unwelcoming festival, but Roan has just made it weirder and more wonderful than ever.
