A voiceover introduces “the very sexy CMAT band” – the first of many prompting reminders of the apparent sexiness of Irish alt-folk-pop troubadour Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson and her fabulous ensemble. With blue PVC outfits, cowboy clobber and a stage show befitting Dolly Parton, all notions of rockstar grace are immediately thrown down the Glastonbury long-drop toilet as Thompson intentionally falls to face-plank the floor of the Pyramid Stage.
She doesn’t need any pretence or Bono-isms to earn this. Pulling a massive crowd to Worthy Farm’s most iconic of stages is ‘big time’ enough. Now, she just needs to find a way to make it one of those ‘Glasto moments’. Tongue in cheek with all the piss for the taking, she lays the table and gets those jazz hands in the air for ‘Have Fun!’ Don’t mind if we do.
Resplendent in international blue to mark her upcoming third album ‘Euro-Country’ (and a jacket emblazoned with ‘The Dunboyne Diana’), CMAT is a high-kickin’, rootin’ tootin’ good time, complete with – in her own words – “middle-child syndrome, an amazing ass and the best Irish rock’n’roll country band in the world”. From her full-band line-dancing, bum slappin’ moves and effortless crowd control, she’s the everywoman people’s champion that Glasto needs. There’s nothing cooler than truly not giving a fuck, and Thompson’s a real one, oozing with confidence and abandon like she’s on a never-ending night out.
She wins hearts with her relatable tales, notably her memories of getting big when videos of her ever-growing live shows would attract “very nasty comments about my physical appearance”. She goes on: “Which is crazy because, as you can see…” – shedding down to a blue leotard to introduce the pop-tastic ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’, complete with everyone having a go at that viral ‘woke Macarena’ dance.
It feels like the set is reaching the level of ‘Glastonbury moment’, when the deal is sealed with spirited new album highlight ‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’ (not a Jamie Oliver diss track, she tells us, but “a meditation on hatred and how it does not serve me”), a mass sing-along for the radio-dominating ‘Running/Planning’ and what she calls “the best bit of the entire show” with Pilton coming together for the “Dunboyne County two-step” – a feat “never attempted by this many people”, she beams.
With a nod to her mum side of stage (“I love that bitch, she’s gas”), a tribute to the “gay people” that love her so, pegging it into the crowd to dance to the closing ‘Stay For Something’, and the exit chant of “free, free Palestine”, CMAT captures the spirit of Glasto and sets the bar for the coming weekend – and her life, it seems. “This is the scariest moment of my life, but also single-handedly the most amazing and the best thing I’ll ever do,” she ends. Moments like this don’t come often.
CMAT played:
‘Have Fun!’
‘I Don’t Really Care for You’
‘2 Wrecked 2 Care’
‘Aw, Shoot!’
‘Take a Sexy Picture of Me’
‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’
‘Running/Planning’
‘I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby!’
‘Stay for Something’
Check back at NME here for the latest news, reviews, interviews, photos and more from Glastonbury 2025.