Glastonbury 2017
Festival guide
It doesn’t seem a year since Coldplay closed the Pyramid Stage but here we are again, days away from the UK’s most prestigious festival. Topping the bill at Worthy Farm this year are Britain’s biggest singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran plus previous headliners Foo Fighters and Radiohead but, don’t worry, the line-up gets a lot more imaginative elsewhere. Here’s who we’ll be watching between the 21st and 25th June.
Top picks
Lorde
As if platinum record sales and rave reviews hadn’t already piled on enough early pressure for the follow-up to Pure Heroine, New Zealand’s Ella Yelich-O’Connor was then branded “the future of music,” by the late, great David Bowie. Still, she’s held her nerve on Melodrama, documenting an adolescence under the spotlight with striking candour, while offering up massive melodies. Hear ‘Green Light’, ‘Royals’ and the rest on Friday night.
The National
If you’re looking for an excuse for a bleary-eyed singalong while arm in arm with all your pals, The National’s Friday night set on the Pyramid Stage is the one. ‘England’, ‘Fake Empire’, ‘I Need My Girl’ – the Brooklyn-based band have more than enough melancholic classics to soften the hardest of hearts, plus they’ll be previewing material from their much-anticipated seventh album, Sleep Well Beast. Be there and be amongst the first to hear it.
Wiley
The last time grime-trailblazer Wiley was scheduled to play Glastonbury – back in 2013 – he lasted approximately an hour on the water-logged site before cancelling his set and embarking on a Twitter tirade that culminated in the words, “F**k them and their farm.” Thankfully, the UK’s greatest MC has had a change of heart and will be returning to the Other Stage on Saturday to perform highlights from January’s superb LP, Godfather. You'd be mad to miss him.
Big names
Don't miss
More from the line-up
- Songwriting is almost a therapeutic thing; a way for me to process details of my life.
- I’ve learned to open up a lot. There are so many things bottled-up inside of me...
- We hung out with Jimmy Page in our dressing room, and grilled him about Led Zeppelin.
- We’ve had the most fun year of our lives! We just don’t want it to end...
- People are still holding on to that idea that age and wisdom correlate, but I know a lot of young people who are a lot wiser than older people.
- It was a big period of transformation for me: of coming out of a difficult time into a time of joy and rediscovery.
- It’s good to feel like you’re ahead of the game a little bit.
- I was scared; I didn’t want people to be able to see into my soul.
- We’re in a much better mind-set and I think we’ve got the best record we’ve ever done.