Florence at Leeds Review

orence And The Machine and Friendly Fires brought a carnival atmosphere to the Leeds Festival today (August 30) as they both played sets on the NME/Radio 1 Stage.

Barclaycard Mercury Prize-nominated singer Florence Welch, who celebrated her birthday at Reading Festival on Friday (August 28), carried on the party at Bramham Park when a fan in the crowd handed her a card.

"Is that a card you're handing me there?" she asked before single 'Kiss With A Fist'. "Thank you so much."

Welch, who performed with a taped-up hand, revealed to the crowd that she had had an accident at Reading.

"By the way, this isn't a fashion cuff," she said. "I really fucked my hand up at Reading, my hand was pissing blood all the way from my dressing room on my birthday."

She then kicked off a call-and-response as she got both sides of the crowd to howl, fittingly, before 'Howl'.

Later, the stage crew had to hand her drummer an anorak after rain started to pour into the tent. "I've just had a shower of rain fall on me, this is so cool," she giggled. "Our drummer needs an umbrella."

She went on to perform single 'Dog Days Are Over', while the crowd sang every word to her cover of Candi Staton's 'You Got The Love.

She was about to perform 'Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)' before she ran out of time, forcing her to apologise to her fans.

Later, fellow Barclaycard Mercury Prize nominees Friendly Fires reeled off tracks from their self-titled debut in the same tent, including 'Jump In The Pool', 'Paris' and 'Skeleton Boy'.

The St Albans band also performed their forthcoming single 'Kiss Of Life' during their lively set.

NME.COM will be coming live from both the Reading And Leeds Festivals sites this weekend (August 28-30). Stay tuned to NME.COM/festivals for news reports, blogs, video interviews and photos from the event.

Get next Wednesday's (September 2) issue of NME for the ultimate Reading And Leeds Festivals review.

Plus have your say on this summer - fill in the annual NME Festival survey now to cast your verdict on 2009, and tell festival chiefs who you want to see next year.