Yungblud capped the second edition of his grassroots musical festival, Bludfest, by inviting a fan onstage to play Fleabag.
The Epiphone signature artist picked 15-year-old Thomas Addenbrooke from Oxford, England, to join him on stage, with the pair tearing through his 2021 hit in front of 30,000 fans at Milton Keynes Bowl.
Launched in 2024, Bludfest was created to showcase top-tier talent at affordable prices. Yungblud had pledged to “cut the corporate bollocks” and put fans first.
He’s taken that ethos to heart and, incredibly, it was only the second time Addenbrooke had performed live, according to the Oxford Mail. His first was at an open mic night at an Oxford café.
The teenager played one of Yungblud’s Epiphone Junior signature guitars for the performance, his hair impressively spikey and serving early Sum 41 vibes with aplomb. As per the video below, he shows absolutely no nerves as he struts around the stage with unbridled confidence. It's a joy to see.
Yungblud has been making a habit of fan jams, having done likewise at last year’s inaugural bash. Those who join the guitarist and his band on stage have walked away with his signature SG Junior.
Discussing his guitar giveaways with Total Guitar last year, he said, “We’d been sent some cool prototypes to tour with. I wanted to try them out and switch between my main ’60s Gibson and the Epiphones. I started to mix and match on stage.
“We were headlining a festival in Prague, and I asked the crowd, ‘Does anyone want to come up and play this next song with us? Does anyone actually know how to play it?’ Everyone went a bit mad and it was crazy looking at 60,000 people screaming, ‘Yeah!’ There was one kid in the middle screaming, ‘Me!’ I got him up, his name was Simon, and it was like we’d been playing with him our entire lives.
“I handed him the guitar at the end, saying, ‘You can keep that!’ And the next day it had millions of views.”
Addenbrooke is the latest benefactor of the trend, pocketing a P-90-equipped Junior for his efforts. Not bad for his second gig.
But Addenbrooke isn’t the only one getting his hands on a new guitar: Yungblud himself was afforded the chance to play Steve Jones’ Sex Pistols Les Paul on stage last year. The guitar was bought at auction for $390,000, and its owners have been putting it in the hands of some big-name players, including Billie Joe Armstrong and Deryck Whibley.
