Today marks the end of the 41st anniversary of the world’s best known music festivals, Glastonbury. This year the bill featured the usual mix of brand new talent, big time buzz bands, indie stalwarts and bona fide legends including: the Wu Tang Clan, Morrissey, Pulp, Tame Impala, TV on the Radio, Warpaint, Eels, Yuck… plus a secret gig from an English band called Radiohead.
Here’s a breakdown of what happened over the five days of music, mud, rain and human poo…
Received a message at 7:59am EST from a source onsite that read: Holy shit. Watching Beyonce. She is hot.
Beyonce made her headlining debut at Glastonbury this year (she has made onstage cameo appearances in the past but never played as a billed artist), and is one of the few female performers in history to close the festival (previously Sinead O’Connor and Suzanne Vega). Here’s footage of her opening number which is also one of the greatest singles of the last decade. Two words: Nailed it.
Morrissey welcomed the crowd with the words “Hello Glasto… fancy seeing me here,” before launching into a brilliant set of tunes, which included some of the best of The Smiths singles, and closed the show with “This Charming Man” – a most apropos choice.
For many, one of the most anticipated acts to play this year’s Splendour In The Grass would have to be the newly reformed Pulp. The following footage was taken by a punter from way back in the crowd so you can’t exactly see the band, but you can hear them perfectly and they sound… pretty much perfect.
Someone set off a flare during the Queens Of The Stone Age set. Of course. And you know you’ve written an epic tune when the entire crowd shouts along to the opening guitar riff.
One Australian band on the bill was drum n bass outfit Pendulum who attracted a crowd of puzzle solving intellectuals.
Thom Yorke dedicated “The Daily Mail” to the liberal, free-thinking people in the country. Ho ho! The irony!
Musical highlights, for which we can’t find any footage, include: Yuck, D/R/U/G/S, Paul Simon, the Walkmen and Eels.
The festival was not without incident. Sadly, Christopher Shale a Tory member was found dead in toilet at the VIP backstage area on Sunday morning after reportedly having suffered a heart attack.
Violence broke out at U2‘s headline set after security guards intervened with a protest by demonstrators from anti-capitalist group Art Uncut.
