Rock festival of the week: Leeds and Reading Festival, various venues

Perverse as it sounds, you can't beat a bit of grandiose gloom when it comes to lifting a festival's spirits. And this year's twin-site big rock one boasts the godfathers of such in the Cure, who'll dispense the heady hairspray of opulent gloom when they deliver one of those enormo-sets they do so well these days. Which isn't to say the rest of the line-up disappoints.

Main-stage crowd-pleasing duties will be ably tackled by the hits-packing Kasabian, Foo Fighters, the Black Keys, Florence & the Machine, Paramore and oodles more.

At the established scale's other end, buzz-farming newcomers include Deap Vally, Toy and Savages; higher up the scale, Grimes, Django Django, Metronomy, the Horrors and Sleigh Bells serve state-of-the-art-pop noises. In the absence of the Stone Roses (they're at V, the dolts), meanwhile, At the Drive-in will lay frenetic claim to the band-reunited slot – and give Robert Smith a run for his money on the big-hair front.

Richfield Avenue, Reading; Bramham Park, Leeds (0871 220 0260; seetickets.com) Fri to 26 Aug