Shock rapper Eminem will exchange the mean streets of Detroit for the English Home Counties, to headline this weekend's Reading Festival.

The controversial cult-figure, who shot to notoriety on both sides of the Atlantic with his highly charged, vitriolic lyrics and alienated 'white-trash' image, looks set to be the main attraction at this annual feast of sound.

The event will be first ever UK festival played by the outrageous Marshall Mathers - aka Slim Shady - and is expected to feature material off his three times platinum 'Slim Shady' LP and more recent hits from his massive Marshall Mathers album.

He will be joined at the three-day gathering by fellow love/hate figure Marilyn Manson. The twisted rocker is guaranteed to shock and offend for what will be - along with the twin festival in Leeds - his only UK festival appearance this year.

Also making their only festival appearance this year, and fresh from their revolutionary gig in Cuba are the Manic Street Preachers - the group described by Fidel Castro as the only band "louder than war".

They will be joined by Travis, PJ Harvey, Queens of the Stone Age, fun-punk legends Green Day, New York wise-guys the Fun Lovin' Criminals and Wheatley's very own Supergrass - with their first festival performance since last month's Radiohead gig in Oxford's South Park.

Weekend tickets are already reported to have sold-out for the three day extravaganza, and the festival is rapidly heading for a 250,000 capacity sell-out. This is no doubt largely due to the absence on this year's festival diary of Glastonbury - to which Reading has always played a poor second fiddle.

Yet despite complaints levelled at its tacky overt consumerism and lack-lustre venue, Reading has evolved into an exciting showcase of global talent. If it is wall-to-wall music you want, then Reading this weekend, is the place to be.

The Reading Festival takes place at Richfield Avenue, Reading, from Friday to Sunday (August 24-26).