With today marking the final day of Glastonbury, fans' attention is already turning to who could headline next year's edition.
Sir Elton John will close the Pyramid Stage this evening and bring Glastonbury Festival 2023 to a close. The famous Worthy Farm main stage was already graced by the likes of the Arctic Monkeys and Guns N' Roses - but one performance in particular had fans calling for an unlikely headliner in 2024.
Newton-le-Willows' very own Rick Astley made his first ever appearance at Glastonbury when he played both the Pyramid and Woodsies stages. To fans' delight, Rick, 57, joined Blossoms on stage for a secret set that was announced on the day.
READ MORE: Man dies at Glastonbury Festival 2023 after 'medical incident' at 4am
The audience was stunned when the collective covered a series of songs by The Smiths, including This Charming Man, Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now and Panic. Speaking to the BBC after their combined set, Blossom's Tom Ogden and Rick explained how their set came about in the first place.
Tom said the pair met at the re-opening of the Manchester Arena in 2017 and introduced themselves. Rick was later invited into an episode of the band's podcast, Blossoms Pubcast, where they discovered his love of the Manchester band The Smiths.
Tom said: "There was a segment which was 'pick your five favourite songs from Manchester' and three of them were Smiths songs. That's how it started." Rick added: "It's always been a dream. And the boys got in touch a little while after and said 'well, we would do that, we'd love to do that'.
"And one of the things I love about it is - obviously I'm getting on a bit and the guys are a lot younger than I am, they're in my daughter's sort of age range. But we have an absolute shared passion - and a huge passion - for those songs."
Rick had earlier appeared on the Pyramid Stage with a 12pm slot. Rick became an overnight sensation in 1987 when Never Gonna Give You Up topped the charts in 25 countries. He enjoyed several top 10 hits in the following years, but decided to quit show business in the 90s.
He later enjoyed an unlikely return to stardom in the 200s when the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up became an internet meme called Rickrolling. Users were sent a link and ended up watching the music video. The video has reached 1.4bn views on YouTube.
Not to disappoint, Rick gave fans a performance to remember with a Glastonbury rendition of the 1987 hit. One fan took to Twitter after his two performances and said "I think Rick Astley has won Glastonbury." A second renamed the festival as "Astonbury" in tribute to the pop star.
Other fans have also taken to trying to work out who will top the billing at next year's festival. The latest odds from oddchecker.com suggest Taylor Swift, who will come to Anfield Stadium for two shows next June, is 1/3 to perform, while Coldplay (6/4), Liverpool FC favourite Dua Lipa (2/1) and Harry Styles (3/1) are among other favourites for the coveted main stage headline performance.
Madonna, who despite her four decades of success has never played Glastonbury, is also 3/1 to perform, while Brit-pop sensations and two-time headliners Blur are 7/2.
Other acts that the bookies are suggesting could be favourites include Rihanna and the 1975 (both 7/2), AC/DC (4/1), Foo Fighters (9/2), Sam Fender (5/1), Dave (11/2), Pink (6/1), Bruce Springsteen (7/1), Gwen Stefani (7/1), Eminem (8/1), Oasis (8/1), The Weeknd (8/1) and U2 (8/1).
Get the top stories straight to your inbox by signing up to our what's on newsletter.
