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Music review Young triumph at the post-GCSE rite of passage
The Guardian
|August 26, 2025
You're at the start of what might be the best weekend of your life," Manchester's dance-grooved "pop poet" Antony Szmierek tells a cheering audience, capturing the buzz which brings tens of thousands of teenagers (and older) to Leeds festival (and its Reading counterpart).
The festival is a post-GCSE rite of passage. Two years ago, Szmierek was a special needs teacher before becoming a dazzling wordsmith, so draws on his backstory (and gets another cheer) when he tells the kid in the front row who failed all his exams: "It doesn't matter. You will be someone."
This story is from the August 26, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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