A big portion of the Glastonbury festival line-up was revealed this morning with one significant omission. Arcade Fire and Kasabian will headline Friday night and Sunday night respectively but on their headache-inducing new poster there is a ‘Special Guests’ hole for the Saturday night. This is unusual: Glasto’s three headliners are usually confirmed as a trio.
Glastonbury festival organiser Emily Eavis said the mysterious Saturday headliner has been booked but cannot yet be revealed. Speaking to BBC 6Music, she explained that “contractual reasons” prevented them from putting the name out, explaining that the full line-up would be revealed in May.
We can’t give you that yet. We’re under… It’s just for contractual reasons, but it’ll be with you soon. We’ve got it all booked, it was all confirmed a couple of weeks ago. It’s purely that we can’t give it to you yet. The full line-up, the thousands and thousands of acts playing across the hundreds of stages, will be with you in May. This is just 80 or 90 bands, a few handpicked to give you a taster
The plot thickens. Michael Eavis said last year that the headliners haven’t played the festival before, which set off a flurry of rumours. We should take that with a pinch of salt though considering, erm, both Arcade Fire and Kasabian have played Worthy Farm in the past. Here’s 5 acts that could be in the running…
Metallica
The Rolling Stones’ pyrotechnics in 2013 were pretty impressive but you know Lars Ulrich et al would take it to another level with fireworks and squealing riffs like a million tortured piggies. There’s no doubt ‘Enter The Sandman’ storming the roof off the Pyramid Stage as night falls on Saturday evening would be epic. Currently the bookies’ favourites, the band basically begged Eavis to book them at the end of last year. “If he ever wants to get hold of us we’re in the Yellow Pages and ready to go!” quippied Ulrich. It might make sense with the ‘contractual reasons’ as well; Metallica are down to play Sonisphere and, because of that, we could speculate that Glastonbury might not be able to announce their slot for a specific amount of time.
Prince
Prince has released new music this year with 3rdEyeGirl and he played a selection of ludicrously storming shows in London and Manchester – via a trip to Worthy Farm for a meeting in the Eavis’s sitting room perchance? When quizzed about playing in Somerset, Prince was pretty coy, saying “(I’m) concentrating on these shows in London, I don’t know what’s happening after.” Emily Eavis said they hadn’t booked him in March but Prince is known for confirming things late in the day. We know nothing but trying to harness the power of positive thinking can’t hurt, can it?
Fleetwood Mac
What would you give up to see Fleetwood Mac play out as the sun sets on Worthy Farm WITH Christine McVie? Definitely Kasabian. It’s almost too good to imagine. Yeah, Michael said it wasn’t happening, but it would make sense following their recent reunion back with Christine McVie for the first time in 16 years. Bookies are taking bets at 9/1. Bring on ‘The Chain’.
Kate Bush
A few weeks ago this would have seemed preposterous but since Bush announced her Before The Dawn tour – 22 autumn dates at the Hammersmith Apollo – who knows? I’m hoping for Bush to enter on a gold-leaf alligator to blaring whale song – a reference to the ’79 tour – before costumes changes that would include Kim Jong-Il, Lady Gaga, Harry Potter, Kurt Cobain, Christian Grey and Royal Baby George. She’s never played Glastonbury before and it would be an apt rehearsal before she hits the stage in London.
David Bowie
Bowie first played Glastonbury in 1971, the festival’s second year, when it was headlined by Hawkwind and Traffic. Then, in 2000 he headlined Michael Eavis’s ‘best festival ever’. Could he return over 40 years after he first played? He’s rarely appeared in public since his live-retirement in 2004 after the chest pains he suffered on stage in Germany were diagnosed as a heart attack. But it is the best festival in the world. And, as we know from ‘The Next Day’, Bowie likes to surprise…
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