June 13, 2010 0:06

The Strokes headline first festival in four years

Band top the bill at the Isle Of Wight

Photo Gallery: The Strokes
Photo: Pa Photos

The Strokes headlined their first festival in four years, playing the Isle Of Wight event tonight (June 12).

Taking to the stage to Queen's 'We Will Rock You', the band tore straight into 'New York City Cops'.

After playing their first few songs, the band started 'Hard To Explain', though briefly stopped after frontman Julian Casablancas spoke over the drum intro.

"I was just talking over Fab's [Moretti] shit, sorry man," he explained of the false start. "It's just there's all these people, how you doing? Right, 'Hard To Explain'."

With the set largely following the warm-up show the band played at London's Dingwalls in the week (June 9), the band barely paused between songs, as they set about reclaiming their headliner status.

"Awesome man," declared the singer, later addressing the large crowd: "This is fucking crazy!"

He later paid tribute to the UK's support of the band, telling the audience: "England, how's it going, you guys are the best, you've got a really good crop going now."

Leaving the stage after 'Last Nite', the band returned for an encore, with Casablancas telling the crowd: "So yeah, we're fucking playing again, doing this shit for you. We fucking love you."

The group eventually wrapped things up with 'Take It Or Leave It'.

The Strokes played:

'New York City Cops'
'The Modern Age'
'Hard To Explain'
'Reptilia'
'What Ever Happened?'
'You Only Live Once'
'Soma'
'Visions Of Division'
'I Can't Win'
'Is This It'
'Someday'
'Red Light'
'Last Nite'
'Juicebox'
'Under Control'
'Heart In A Cage'
'Take It Or Leave It'

The band headline the Rockness Festival tomorrow (June 13) – see NME.COM for a full report, plus get next week's issue of NME, out on Wednesday (June 16) for the band's only interview on this trip.

NME is coming live from the Download and Isle Of Wight festivals this weekend. Head to NME.COM/festivals for the latest news, photos, videos, blogs and more straight from both sites.