‘Everyone danced backwards’: Fatboy Slim and Becky Hill
Norman Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim, first played Glastonbury with the Housemartins in 1986 and has appeared every year since 1996. The chart-topping Brit awards best dance act winner Becky Hill is making her solo debut at the festival.
Norman Cook: When I played with the Housemartins on the Pyramid stage, we thought everyone would have beards and throw mud, but it wasn’t like that. It opened us to a whole different audience. I’ve played countless times since, sometimes five or six shows across the weekend.
Becky Hill: I went with Rudimental when I was 19, but I had tonsillitis and spent most of the festival sleeping, so I’m counting this year as my first. I was arguing with my manager about whether to do Eurovision – I didn’t want to get “nul points” and ruin my career – when the call came to do Glastonbury. I’ve spent the price of a house on the show, so I’m very excited. My music taste is cooler than some of the dance music I’ve done. I’m a huge drum’n’basshead; electro, dubstep, house. I want to show people how a female live singer can become a real dance music experience, with massive smileys on stage.
Cook: Glastonbury is very visual. On the more “rabbit hole” stages, I might be dressed as the Pink Panther or taking my clothes off. My favourite Glastonbury moments are things like being so high that I decided to play a vinyl record backwards. People did the Twin Peaks “dwarf dance” backwards! Or playing the Miniscule of Sound, the world’s smallest nightclub.
When Paul McCartney headlined, someone said: “Wouldn’t it be great if he played Live and Let Die next?” Macca was my neighbour and I’d seen his show, so I knew that song was next, but I said I’d text and ask him to play it. This went on all night with different songs. Not only did everyone around me believe that Paul McCartney had a phone on the piano and I was texting him what songs to play, but I was starting to believe it as well.
Hill: My generation missed out on loads of stuff from the 80s and 90s, like the M25 illegal raves, free parties, trance music. So to see some of that coming back and be part of the plethora of music at Glastonbury is going to be really something. I really wanna see [the queer nightclub] NYC Downlow, where some of my drag performers are on.
Cook: Everybody has to wear a moustache on the way in! Communing over music is so powerful and Glastonbury epitomises that. Of all the festivals, it’s the one where people aren’t going to see individual acts, they’re going to see Glastonbury. It’s like the biggest cuddle you could ever have, then you end up at the Stone Circle watching the sunrise with everyone playing bongos.
Hill: I can’t wait!
‘It’s like Game of Thrones’: Thundercat and Yusuf/Cat Stevens
The genre-blurring US bass wizard Thundercat made his Glastonbury debut in 2017. Yusuf Islam, AKA Cat Stevens, is making his festival debut at 74, sharing the Pyramid stage’s hallowed legends slot with Blondie, who will follow him.
Thundercat: Remember that scene from Game of Thrones where the guy is crawling through the bodies? That’s what Glastonbury is like. It’s a sight to behold. It’s massive. It’s fantastic. You will feel that energy to the tips of your toes. Getting up there is like drinking espresso.
Yusuf Islam: There’s gonna be, what, 70,000, 80,000 people in the Pyramid field? I was aware of Glastonbury in the 70s and 80s when it was ramping up, but also scared of it, because it’s so huge. I was always disappointed that people sat down when my music came on, but I’ve learned that festivals are a different experience, a different audience.
I must tell you, man – I love your music. It’s beautiful and incorporates all the things I love: funk and jazz and inventiveness.
Thundercat: People know your music and who you are. It’s timeless. For the TikTok generation, everything is new, so when you’re able to pull from different eras, it’s going to be magical.
Islam: I understand that looking at a grey-haired guy with a beard may not be that attractive, so I’ve gone deep into visuals. I watched Dolly Parton do the legends slot with the LED machine turned off and light in her hair, but I’m not Dolly! So I’ve done something special with animations. I’ve actually got a clip of me singing Matthew and Son in 1967.
Thundercat: Talking about timelessness, in a digital world, nothing compares to the live performance. The pandemic reminded everyone that we’re actually really fortunate to experience something that can stop you in your tracks.
Islam: When you started, was your ambition to make a living or change the world?
Thundercat: I always wanted to change the world, in a thoughtful way. As a kid growing up in the age of hip-hop and sampling, I realised that we’re part of an engine. I’d hear Warren G and realise he was sampling a Michael McDonald song, so I’d find out who Michael McDonald was. I remember wanting to be part of that, the person that sows a seed and changes something.
Islam: When I look back at what I did, in the 60s you could do almost anything. People like the Beatles and the Yardbirds were breaking sound barriers. The Who were punk. In certain clubs, I’d turn round and there was Keith Moon dancing naked! Breaking the rules was the rules. I remember seeing an Orwellian TV show where the future was divided into people who watched television and people who made television, which is why we need Glastonbury! It’s a sea of humanity, hearts talking to each other, and that’s a beautiful thing.
‘The energy feels magically demonic’: Jake Shears and Weyes Blood
The former Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears returns as a solo artist. The acclaimed chamber-pop singer Natalie Mering, AKA Weyes Blood, has everything to look forward to.
Jake Shears: My first Glasto with Scissor Sisters, in 2004, was one of the most insane days of my life. On the way, our drum tech, Nigel, gave us a pep talk: “This place can change your life and it’s yours for the taking.” My life changed over the next 24 hours. We played the Pyramid stage on the Saturday afternoon and it was super fun, then we played the dance tent and the temperature really started climbing. The energy was so intense; it felt magically demonic. I’d met this guy Chris [Moukarbel] in London and invited him to Glasto – I fell in love with him that night, we got engaged in [the after-hours area] Lost Vagueness and were together for the next 11 years. After midnight that night, I couldn’t move without people coming up to me. The next week, the record went to No 1 and ended up becoming the bestselling album of the year in the UK.
Then, in 2010, we played the Pyramid stage before Muse, with people singing the songs back at us as far as I could see, and Kylie did a guest spot. It was just wonderful. I missed the tour bus leaving and slept under a bench, but I didn’t care. Glastonbury is a magical place where you can have adventures.
Natalie Mering: I’ve heard nothing but mystical things, that it’s a magical, kind of esoteric festival. I’ve just done Coachella, which might be comparable in terms of size, but doesn’t necessarily have that laid-back, hippy desert spirit.
Shears: Natalie, what’s it like playing festivals with the kind of music you make?
Mering: I’ve been really lucky. I’ve never had people talking over my music or being subdued. They seem to take a break from the blaring aspects to unwind with my set. Our club shows are so focused and intimate that it’s nice to have a more extroverted energy, and shorter [festival] sets mean its like a very fast-burning star. I’m not gonna suddenly become this extremely rowdy, hands-in-the-air festival band, but between the sad songs there’s a lot of humour and banter and they really respond to that.
Shears: I like multiple things to tear off. Last time, there were complaints to the BBC because I had my ass out. But ripping your pants off when you’ve got something underneath is a great gag.
Mering: I played a festival in Italy and a huge windstorm blew up. They were screaming: “Get off the stage!” because we were on the verge of electrocution. It came out of nowhere and was very intense, almost like we’d summoned it with the music.
Shears: I was at Jazz Fest in New Orleans when a hurricane blew through. It was harrowing, but at festivals the fact that anything can happen is part of the fun. We live such mediated lives through screens, so it’s really important to be where people are gathering and you’re making new friends, but in person.
‘It’s going to feel like gladiators in Rome’: Billy Bragg and Benefits
The singer-songwriter Billy Bragg has been performing at Glastonbury since 1984 and, as the Left Field curator, invited the Teesside agit‑electro act Benefits to make what could be a fearsome debut.
Billy Bragg: In the 80s, it was a big event, but different. There weren’t any late bars, but there was a West Indian blues tent where they’d play heavy dub and sell cans of Red Stripe, so you’d feel you were part of something bigger than a rock festival. It still feels like that to me. My brother came last year and spent most of his time in the tango tent, where they were teaching Latin American dancing. Because you can’t walk from the site to a railway station, once you’re there you have to commit yourself to mother nature. My memories from the early days are playing football backstage with the Housemartins or the Smiths, or bumping into people I wouldn’t normally meet, like Dr John. Now, it has a global reputation.
Kingsley, it must feel very exciting to be playing for the first time.
Kingsley Hall (singer, Benefits): It feels like we’re Middlesbrough FC playing the Champions League of festivals. It’s seismic, it is. Glastonbury still retains that magic from hippies; David Bowie sitting on an empty stage at 5am in 1971; CND protests or travellers taking refuge; the BBC getting involved; the furore when the fence went up. It evolves all the time, but still has that pull. I’ve been as a punter. I was there the year a bloke turned up carrying a green door to see Shakin’ Stevens.
Bragg: When I first played, it was also a big focal point for everybody who opposed Margaret Thatcher. Now, with the Left Field stage, our criterion isn’t that acts do political songs, it’s that they do songs that reflect the pressure people feel under. Which, obviously, Benefits do really well. They’re confrontational, but they draw you in.
You have to suss out what mood the audience is in and sometimes events write the script for you. I played in Left Field the morning after the Brexit vote. The tent was packed and everyone was angry. It was probably one of the most incredible gigs I’ve ever played. Kingsley, the audience will be tuned in to your wavelength. You just need to show them why you’re the most important band in Britain today.
Hall: For us, it’s going to feel like gladiators going into Rome to scrap at the Colosseum. It’s exciting, because our performance exists on an edge and has the potential to fall apart at any second. But I like that. It’s like being in the swimming pool where your feet aren’t quite touching the bottom.
Bragg: The thing about music is that it can’t change the world, but it can make you feel the world can be changed. And you don’t feel you’re alone in caring. That’s especially so at Glastonbury; there’s an emotional solidarity that you can’t get online. That kind of mass experience is crucial to our ability to exist as human beings.
‘The crowd is very diverse and very open’: Stefflon Don and Yaya Bey
The rapper Stephanie Allen, AKA Stefflon Don, won over a Glastonbury audience in 2019. The US R&B/soul star Yaya Bey is a new addition to the festival.
Stephanie Allen: When I first went to Glastonbury, I couldn’t believe the size of it or how long it takes to walk from one side to another. It’s a massive deal and when you go in as an artist, you’re really giving it your best shot. What does it mean in America, Yaya?
Yaya Bey: We hear a lot about it, because it’s definitely one of the biggest festivals in the world. Our nearest equivalent is probably Coachella, which also has a lot of greenery, but perhaps isn’t quite as out in the wild as Glastonbury.
Allen: It’s also always been perceived as more eclectic than most festivals and has a long tradition with Black music. Kendrick [Lamar] did it last year and it’s a big deal in the hip-hop community for artists coming through. Obviously, I remember the controversy when Jay-Z headlined and Noel Gallagher said hip-hop doesn’t belong at Glastonbury. Hip‑hop is one of the most influential genres in the world, so saying it doesn’t belong there is like saying good music doesn’t belong there.
Bey: Had that not happened, I don’t think I would know Noel Gallagher, because it’s not my world.
Allen: He got a lot of free promo saying that! If someone films you, the whole world could see you. I’m on the Pyramid stage this year, so I might have a couple of extra dancers. You want to try to stand out and hope people go home and remember you.
Bey: This is my first big show of a European tour, so it’s nerve-racking that the first show is the biggest. I find talking between songs helps with any nerves. It helps to ground you and understand who you’re playing to. I address a lot of political things. I’m from New York, where our mayor is a piece of shit and we’re in the middle of a housing crisis. So when you talk to the crowd, you get a sense of who isn’t politically aligned with you and kind of figure out the boundaries.
Allen: Since the pandemic, I feel like people haven’t taken their freedom for granted as much. So festivals are becoming part of people’s lives now in the way a club on a Friday night used to be. The Glastonbury crowd is very diverse and very open. My advice to you, girl, is: your songs are amazing and you’re going to kill it.
‘It’s like the FA Cup final’: Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Rick Astley
Sophie Ellis-Bextor first played Glastonbury with Theaudience in 1998 and made her solo debut in 2014. Rick Astley plays the Pyramid stage for the first time.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor: This will be my fourth. I was 18 when I first played, so whenever I come back I feel like a tiny part of me goes back in a portal to that moment. I’ve never played the Pyramid stage before, so I keep picturing myself walking out, seeing that crowd for the first time and feeling that energy. I’m really excited.
Rick Astley: I’ve never been before, but I’ve dropped my daughter off and been staggered by the size of it and the buildup. Even watching on TV from the couch, you can feel people are getting up there not necessarily nervous, but knowing they’ve got to get it right. It’s like the FA Cup final. They want to leave everything on that stage. There’s a sort of mystical element to it. I’m not going to say druids [laughs], but there’s something in the soil. Music isn’t so segregated as it was, but from a distance I get the feeling everyone’s in it together.
Ellis-Bextor: I’m looking forward to seeing Blondie, Lil Nas X and Elton John and then we’ll disperse in the fields. The magic of Glastonbury is that you can stumble across a new band or someone doing a surprise acoustic set.
Astley: There’s an audience for everyone. I’m going to play the hits and things that make sense for me to play there. Playing working men’s clubs in the 80s, I learned to get a sense of humour about myself or I’d walk off in tears every night. I once had to go on after a comedian who said he did impressions. Someone yelled: “Well do one of a fucking comedian then!” Tough gigs like that add wire to your spine and mean that you can walk out at Glastonbury all these years later.
Ellis-Bextor: It’s not a bad thing to be a bit nervous or out of your comfort zone. I like that little fizz in your stomach and sometimes the element that you can’t control can take it to the next level. People still talk about Radiohead’s amazing set in a monsoon in 1997, which was a gamechanger for them. That could happen to somebody this year.
Astley: I’m on at noon, so I’m just hoping somebody turns up! But I’d play to an empty stage to say I’d played at Glastonbury. It’s nice to have every bit of comfort you can, so I’ll take Yorkshire Tea.
Ellis-Bextor: I always ask for a gherkin. “No gherkin, no workin’!”
Astley: That’s possibly the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard [laughs].
The Guardian is an official media partner of the Glastonbury festival. Full details of the lineup and stage times are at glastonburyfestivals.co.uk. Yusuf/Cat Stevens’ new album, King of a Land, is out now, as is Jake Shears’ Last Man Dancing, Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Hana, Yaya Bey’s Remember Your North Star and Benefits’ Nails. Thundercat & Tame Impala’s single No More Lies is also out now.
