Kings of Leon play V warm-up gig

by Kev Geoghegan
Radio 1 music reporter

Kings of Leon release new album Only By The Night on 23 September

Kings of Leon have warmed up for this weekend's V Festival with an "intimate" gig at London's Brixton Academy.

The venue, which has a capacity of around 4,500, was packed out for the concert.

Performing in front of three or four split screens which flashed up images throughout, the band played a show nearing two hours and blasted out crowd favourites from their three previous albums and the forthcoming, Only By The Night.

Kings of Leon set list Crawl Black Thumbnail Taper Jean Girl My Party Razz Molly's Chambers Sex On Fire King Of The Rodeo Fans Arizona Milk Four Kicks California Waiting The Bucket On Call McFearless Pistol On Fire Trani

The band opened the show with Crawl, one of their new tracks.

Singer Caleb Followill told Newsbeat: "It's one of the places we've played the most in London and the crowd is always crazy.

"It sounds weird but it's an intimate gig. The last couple of time we played here they were bigger venues and you don't really get to enjoy the crowd so much."

The audience were in fine voice, singing along to tracks like Molly's Chambers, The Bucket and Razz.

Kings of Leon played more new tracks, including Sex n Fire which was first played by Radio 1's Zane Lowe and Manhattan which formed part of the band's encore.

Glasvegas support

The band were supported by Scots newcomers Glasvegas and Followill admits he's a big fan.

He said: "It's funny because they sound like they're Scottish in the way they sing but the music sounds like great old doo-wop but with a new twist on it."

But he added that he's still having a little trouble understanding singer James Allen's thick west of Scotland accent.

Encore Knocked Up Manhatten Charmer Slow Night, So Long

He said: "The music is universal but, as far as what is he saying, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

"I'm just scared we're gonna end up in the bar with them and we won't understand them and they won't understand us.

"We'll just get into a drinking contest."

V Festival memories

Kings of Leon now turn their attention to the weekend's V Festivals in Chelmsford and Staffordshire, where they play before The Verve's headline set.

Drummer Nathan Followill said: "It's one of the cleanest festivals we've ever played. I remember nice, lush grass and they really take care of the artists.

"The last time we played there it was a lot of fun, there were a lot of bands like The Killers who have now blown up, that were playing in the middle of the afternoon.

"I think they're pretty good at catching on to bands early on."

Kings of Leon are playing a UK tour in December.