An uplifting evening of music from three rising stars of the scene on the 21st January.
This was an opportunity to right a few wrongs for Reading Indie Life tonight. We had missed Good Neighbours at Reading Festival in both 2024 and 2025. We also missed out on Master Peace at Are You Listening? Festival last year. This was a great line-up to catch them both on.
Jack Gray
Jack Gray is an Australian singer-songwriter who has been releasing music since 2019. He was very much bringing the sunshine vibes with some easy listening indie guitar music that edges into full on pop at times. He was polite and appreciative of the audience reaction, who very much enjoyed his set.
He has been touring with Good Neighbours in Australia and across the UK. ‘I Got 3’ is his biggest hit to date. His first album came out in 2024 and a trickle of singles since July 2025, most recently ‘Tattoos’ a couple of weeks ago, suggest another one is on its way.
He will go down very well with any fans of Reading’s Only The Poets.
Master Peace
Master Peace is always known for bringing huge amounts of energy. Despite starting off wrapped up in a coat with the hood up, he is soon peeling of layers and bouncing around. He has only released one album but has a lot of music under his belt thanks to a wide array of singles and EPs. Given the support slot tonight he was always going to end up disappointing somebody with his song choices. A lot of his recent brilliant singles are lost amid the lack of time.
He has an excellent new EP out next Friday. The title track, ‘Stupid Kids,’ is played and is given some context. “This next song is called ‘Stupid Kids’. I was a stupid kid at school. I got kicked out of my school. Then last year I played Glastonbury and they asked if I would come back and do an assembly. Well why the f**k would I do that?” It is a familiar story of a creative square peg kid, not quite being able to fit into the round hole education system. There is clearly a touch of bitterness and hurt feelings left around it.
‘Good Times’ sounds superb. He ends with the great singalong chorus of ‘Home.’ He takes a moment to teach it to us beforehand, but if you hear it once you will be able to sing it back straight away. We would enjoy a headline set from him at some point, where he wouldn’t be leaving out so many awesome songs.
Good Neighbours
The playlist between acts has been spinning Foster The People, Fun, Peter Bjorn and John, Noah and The Whale and other laid-back vibes. All of these acts make sense as a reference point for Good Neighbours. They have been on a rapid rise. They only formed in London in 2024 but managed to get on the BBC Introducing Stage at Reading Festival the same year. Debut album ‘Blue Sky Mentality’ came out in October last year and a ‘Complete Edition’ just came out over a week ago. It has a couple of tracks not on the album, some different versions of several of them, some live recordings and a number of fun cover versions. Like the similarly sunshine-fuelled Royel Otis, they seem to be big fans of a decent cover version. They are a duo of Oli Fox and Scott Verrill but expand out to a full five-piece band for live shows.
‘Blue Sky Mentality’ nicely sums the band up. This is a happy, joyous celebration of an evening. Oli Fox bounds on and instantly starts bashing out additional drumming for the bouncy, uplifting ‘Suburbs’ with his bleached blond hair. He switches between singing, playing guitar and bashing out extra beats as the songs dictate. He is a bundle of energy all set. Scott Verrill is a calmer presence on stage, switching between guitar, keyboards and vocals, but is clearly loving his life right now. ‘Skipping Stones’ feels designed to be heard from an open top car in the summer sun.
The quality tracks keep on coming. ‘Ripples’ has a propulsive edge and a lovely message:
“When life cannot deliver
Bring it back to me
If ever you’re feeling low
Honey, kick your feet
‘Cause I can feel the ripples
Pull you from the stream”
The hits are piling up, ‘Starry Eyed’ is added to the list. The main set finishes with their biggest monster track ‘Home.’ It is a fantastic song, instantly catchy and a great use of whistling to make it even more immediate. They come back out for one more, ‘Daisies.’
Good Neighbours have an excellent crowd. The front rows are filled with teens and early twenties belting out the words to every track from start to finish. This band already means a lot to so many people, on the evidence of tonight it is easy to see why. They overwhelmingly want you to have a good time, to enjoy yourself. They seem honest and genuine. This is top grade indie-pop music. We have come into tonight curious and been sent home believers. We will not make the mistake of missing them a third time at Reading Festival, when they next turn up to play.
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