We’re very pleased to report that Michael Eavis’s beard has been voted Beard of the Noughties by 200 members of the beard campaign group, the Beard Liberation Front.
“Michael Eavis is a true hirsute icon of the Noughties and he beat [Fidel] Castro to the accolade by the merest whisker,” organiser Keith Flett told the Telegraph.
Amazing.
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On New Year’s Eve, BBC TV is offering two chances to relive Glastonbury 2009. At 6.30pm on BBC1 there will be some Glastonbury highlights included in the Top of the Pops review of the year in pop. Then, at 1.15am in the very early hours of New Year’s Day, BBC2 will be showing a two hour Glastonbury 2009 Highlights programme. What better way to kick off the new decade…?
Hello Emily, how are things at the farm?
Great, thanks. We’re all geared up for Christmas!
Were you pleased with the reaction to the U2 headline announcement?
Yeah, it was a brilliant reaction. We normally let Christmas come and go before entering into the whole Who’s Playing Glastonbury? thing. But the early announcement of U2 was great, because it gave us a real reminder that everyone is really excited about next year. The feedback we had was fantastic. And we had a record amount of people paying the balance on their deposits immediately after it was announced. That really proved that people want to see them. But then obviously they do – they’re U2! When you think of those anthems in the context of Glastonbury – you know it’s going to be special.
They are, of course, a band who polarise opinions.
Yes. I think if you’re a band with a serious level of success over a long period of time, then you’re always going to have that, particularly in Britain. But U2’s songs are phenomenal. To see them singing With Or Without You or Where The Streets Have No Name will just be amazing. And I think U2 and Glastonbury have actually got real similarities, in terms of campaigning, positivity, and being very un-cynical. That’s why it’s really exciting. People get quite scared to be positive, because it’s such a cynical world. I think it’ll be a great coming together.
Was booking them a smooth process?
It was, actually. It was a really direct, very simple conversation. The deal was done very quickly and without any hoo-ha from their whole team. It’s amazing for a band that size to want to deal with us directly and keep it really simple. I really admire them for that. You get much smaller bands with a far more difficult system around them.
How are the other two headliners coming together?
Well, Saturday night is confirmed. And for Sunday night, we’re looking at three main options right now. That’s all being sorted out at the moment.
When do you think they’ll be announced?
I can’t give you a date yet, but probably early next year. We’d like to let people know. The great thing about next year is that there’s a lot of bands who’ve been a big part of the Festival who really want to get involved and not necessarily in the slot that they would normally have. A lot of them are much bigger than where they’re going to be playing. But there are some real Glastonbury heritage bands that mean a lot to us and mean a lot to the audience. I think people will be really, really excited about the line-up.
Sounds like it’s going to be hard to match it in 2011?
Well, you say that, but that’s actually coming along nicely too!
So, it’s looking like England will be playing a couple of World Cup games during the 2010 Festival. Will you be showing the matches?
Yes. The game on the Wednesday night will definitely be showing on the Pyramid Stage screens. The other game, which it looks like they’ll be playing on the Saturday or Sunday, obviously won’t be on the Pyramid. But it will be shown on site somewhere, we’re just not quite sure where yet. There was an England game on the Friday night at the Festival in 1998, and we showed that in the cinema field. It was during the Foo Fighters, and it was still absolutely packed at the Pyramid.
What else are you busy with?
This week, we’ve been working on the Shangri-la area. We’re opening that out a bit. It’s going to be expanded into a field called Clapps Ground which is behind it. The plan is that it’s going to be much easier to get into in 2010. There will be multiple entry points, but it will also be more spread out, so that more people can get down there and enjoy it.
So, do you look at problems from the previous Festival and try to address them?
Absolutely. The stuff that’s going on down there is really incredible and most people want to get over there, particularly after hours. I was caught in one of those jams on the railway line this year and it’s not great. It’s pretty uncomfortable and it’s not very nice having someone shouting, “Stick to the left!” So we’re hoping to avoid all of that by opening it out. And Shangri-la’s plans for the area itself are, once again, looking pretty incredible.
They’re already in full-swing with planning?
Yeah, we’ve been looking at plans and new ideas. And the Arcadia lot were down yesterday discussing all kinds of crazy plans. We’re going through a lot of that planning at this point. We’re also talking about doing something to mark the 40 years. There are lots of ideas flying around, but we want it to be something which everyone can access. So possibly something in the air.
Looking back on 2009, it’s been a pretty good year?
It was a brilliant year. 2008 was a really important year for us and, I think, enabled us to have such a good year in 2009. It was a really successful year with some amazing acts. Blur obviously had a phenomenal gig. That’s gone down as a little part of folk history. And Bruce and Neil were pretty phenomenal too. We really did have a great year.
And now you’re looking forward to 2010?
Exactly. Really looking forward to it. It’s incredibly exciting. The fact that the Festival’s been going for 40 years, with a lot of the original people still working on it, is fantastic. And I think the Glastonbury crowd is without doubt the best in the world, too. They’re a really generous, un-cynical crowd. People come here to enjoy themselves, whatever the weather or the conditions. The Festival just wouldn’t work without that commitment from the people who buy the tickets. So, yeah, I think the anniversary is giving everyone a chance to take stock. There’s a real feeling of pride and excitement and love for the Festival. It looks like 2010 is going to be a pretty special year for us.
Festival organiser Michael Eavis visited the Copenhagen climate change gathering last week as an ambassador for the UK’s music scene. His visit, organised by the Europe-wide campaign “Play to Stop: Europe for Climate”, included a tour of green initiatives called Hopenhagen and a concert by the Backstreet Boys.
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“Climate change threatens us all,” said Michael. “There are huge consequences, and we’re as desperate as anyone else to help solve the problem.
“The message I took to Copenhagen was that we all need to make a contribution in our personal lives to reduce our carbon footprint. We’ve already done quite a lot at the festival but we’d like to do some more, especially introducing more renewable energy.”
You can watch a video interview with Michael at Play to Stop’s website by clicking here.
The BBC has published a list of its Top 2009 Music content on the Red Button interactive service, in terms of audience. The Top 5 is as follows:
1. Glastonbury 2009 – 6.06 million
2. Electric Proms – 2.56 million
3. T In The Park – 2.05 million
4. Reading and Leeds Music Festival – 1.85 million
5. Robbie Williams on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross – 1.19 million
Pretty amazing!
Picture: John Bullock
You might remember that eclectic folk-popsters Stornoway were one of the finalists for the 2009 Emerging Talent Contest (click for info on this year’s ETC). Well, Brian Briggs from the band is currently in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Summit and he’s written this blog on behalf of one of the Festival’s good causes, Oxfam.
I don’t like to think about climate change and I’m sure most people are the same. When I was 10 years old I first learnt about it at school and I had terrible nightmares about drowning in the rising seas. I still get properly scared when I think about the implications of climate change for people around the world. We are crammed onto a planet which quite simply cannot support our current lifestyles – people have calculated that we would need 3 Planet Earth’s to support our current rate of consumption. The effects of climate change are going to result in even less resources to go round, and more fighting over who gets what. People need to accept that we’ve had it too easy, and that we need to start making significant lifestyle changes.
The good news is that reducing our carbon emissions needn’t result in any loss of quality of life or happiness. In fact many studies show that a less polluting lifestyle, for example through eating less meat and cycling to work, can actually make us feel happier, as well as saving money. It might even help to save the rapidly fading concept of ‘community’. I personally believe that a sense of community will be vital to the process of cutting back, since at all levels (from the White House to your house) it requires EVERYONE to do their bit – it only takes one selfish thinker to drag everyone else down.
And while I’m on that point, there is nothing that riles me more than climate change deniers. What an uncaring, greedy standpoint to take. The facts are clear. If we don’t act now this world is going to become a very ugly place within a short space of time, and our children will never forgive us. And the other frustrating thing is that most people don’t even realise people in developing countries are ALREADY hugely affected. But at least organisations like Oxfam are pushing for something positive to come out of Copenhagen on this front. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that the future quality of billions of lives is at stake.
Brian
Sign up to demand change at Copenhagen at www.tcktcktck.org
Tonight on BBC Radio 1, their Story of the Noughties reaches 2008 and the show is set to feature a look at the controversy around Jay-Z’s (awesome) appearance on the Pyramid Stage. Click here to listen live at 9pm, or use the Listen Again option to hear it until 28th December.
Picture from bbc.co.uk
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This week, world leaders are in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Summit which will decide what shape the global fight against climate change will take. One of the Festival’s worthy causes, Greenpeace, is over in Denmark for the whole summit – click here to check out reports and updates on their website.
We thought you might like to see this video report, which was put together by the children from West Pennard Primary School, the Festival’s local school. “It’s the perfect little trailer for the Festival,” says Michael.
Picture from the Observer’s piece
There was a great interview with Michael in the Observer Music Monthly’s review of the noughties yesterday, headlined “Michael Eavis: farmer of the decade”. Click here to read it.