Glastonbury Festival has returned in emphatic style this weekend after a three-year absence.
The event has hosted legendary artists from all over the world including David Bowie, Jay Z, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, T. Rex, Pulp, Blur, Oasis, the Arctic Monkeys and many more.
From its inception in 1970 Glastonbury has grown from a small blues, pop and folk gathering into an international event broadcast to an audience of 3.2million viewers.
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Liverpool has had its fair share of solo singers and bands who have played, all the way from the festival’s main stages to its smaller tents. Paul McCartney headlined the Pyramid Stage this year with a showstopping performance on Saturday night - while Jamie Webster wowed fans old and new with his own show on the Left Field stage on Friday.
To mark the weekend and our region's links to 52 years of music history, the ECHO has looked back at seven bands and artists with connections to Liverpool who have played the world’s most famous music festival.
The La’s
The iconic Liverpool band first performed Glastonbury 2005, when the site was hit by two months of rain over the Friday and Saturday. Fortunately, the band played on the Sunday, when flooded-out fans finally basked in the glorious sunshine.
The La’s played 8 of the 12 songs from their self-titled debut album, with hit single There She Goes receiving a rapturous reception. The legendary musicians had reunited at the start of 2005 before making their first appearance at Glastonbury in June.
The band was co-founded by Liverpool guitarist and song-writer Mike Badger in 1983. Badger would leave the group in 1986, going on to record solo material and found The Viper Label with fellow ex-La Paul Hemmings.
Badger and Hemmings also co-wrote the theme tune to BBC One daytime television programme, Doctors.
The 2005 lineup featured vocalist Lee Mavers and Cast frontman John Power after the pair reunited.
The Wombats
The Wombats have played Glastonbury four times since their debut showing in 2009. The trio has appeared on the John Peel stage once, where they were the penultimate act before fellow Liverpool band Echo and the Bunnymen in 2009, and the Other Stage three times.
The three friends met at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and formed in the city in 2003. Their most recent performance at Worthy Farm was in 2019 when they blasted out old classics and new singles from their fourth album, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life.
Paul McCartney
The famous Beatle, singer-songwriter, poet, multi-instrumentalist and painter has an enormous discography.
At the age of 80 Sir Paul was Glastonbury’s oldest headliner. He last topped the bill 19 years ago in 2004, when he played 33 songs (including 28 Beatles covers) to 100,000 fans.
The Liverpudlian headlined the festival with Muse and Oasis that year. Fittingly he was preceded by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds on Saturday evening this time round.
He was arguably the event’s biggest act in 2022 and played for an astonishing two hours and fifteen minutes.
Who is your favourite act, singer or band to have played Glastonbury? Let us know in the comment section below.
Lightning Seeds
Lightning Seeds were formed in 1989 by frontman Ian Broudie. Since their formation the band has sold a million copies of 1994’s Jollification - their third and arguably most famous album.
They have played the festival three times and all of their appearances have been on the main stage. The Lightning Seeds’ most notable performance came in 1998 when they were fourth from top on the billing.
In 1998 there were more than 1,000 different performances on 17 stages. Attendance for the festival broke the 100,000 mark and tickets were just £80.
Echo and the Bunnymen
The Liverpool group had a number of psychedelic hits and gained prominence in the 1980’s. Their most popular song, The Killing Moon has been played more than 100million times on Spotify.
Frontman Ian McCulloch said the blockbuster tune could be an answer to the meaning of life. The Bunnymen first played Glastonbury in 1985 and last played there in 2003.
Their most high profile performance came in 1985 when they were penultimate on the Pyramid Stage. The band played a mammoth 21 songs, ending with a cover of the Doors' Soul Kitchen.
Circa Waves
In 2017 Circa waves talked up their ambitions of headlining Glastonbury one day. The quartet told NME that “we are the future”.
They played Worthy Farm that year and two years later played the Other Stage again. They treated fans to some indie floor fillers - such as Stuck in my Teeth and T Shirt Weather.
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