They say that Rome wasn’t built in a day, but if the crowd size at The Festival Republic Stage this afternoon was anything to go by, the Phillipines’ own No Rome has built himself a small empire after supporting headliners The 1975 on their world tour earlier this year.

The Dirty Hit signee had a packed-out tent eating from the palm of his hand as he blasted through a tight set of songs from across his discography, including ‘Cashmoney’ and ‘Stoned in the Valley’ from 2019s ‘Crying in the Prettiest Places’ EP. The artist and his band blend genre boundaries seamlessly, bouncing between soulful R&B, hip hop and the luscious indie of ‘5 Ways to Bleach Your Hair’.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was 2018 single ‘Narcissist’ featuring The 1975 which garnered the biggest reaction, sending more than a few audience-members airborne onto their friend’s shoulders, while others pushed forward. The sheer volume of the crowd more than made up for The 1975 frontman Matty Healy’s absence during his verse, ahead of his band’s headline set this evening, with No Rome himself in awe of the response he received at his first ever Reading Festival.