Alex Turner was the best-dressed man at Glastonbury, the Arctic Monkeys frontman disdaining the colourful scruffiness favoured by revellers to turn out in lounge jacket and open-neck shirt, as debonair as a young Bryan Ferry, writes Neil McCormick. He was in fine voice too, worries about the laryngitis that had threatened a last-minute cancellation fading as his fulsome croon filled the night air, gliding above his band’s angular riffs and slinky rhythms.
“Wow, the Monkeys are back on the farm,” he declared, as if genuinely awed by the immense audience that had come out to see them. It felt like the whole of Glastonbury was there, flying flags and firing flares. Avoiding his usual air of ironic detachment from the rock star role, Turner vamped it up and threw guitar hero poses as he led his sleek band through a crowd-pleasing set of wordy, dazzling hits. Arctic Monkeys are sometimes spoken of as the favourite band of Generation X, but this fantastically assured and compelling performance demonstrated that they are a band for every generation.
It was what the sluggish opening day really needed. It is often said that people come to this venerable festival for the atmosphere more than the music. To be fair, at what other festival would you find Coldplay’s Chris Martin standing in as a steward, welcoming late arrivals, or movie star Cate Blanchett joining art-pop veterans Sparks on stage? But by Glastonbury’s eclectic standards the opening day’s line-up was underwhelming, getting off to a slow start with enjoyable but hardly earth-shattering bands including Texas and The Lightning Seeds rocking like the Nineties never stopped.
Newer, buzzier artists, including UK R’n’B group Flo and British-American trio Gabriels, played chilled-out soul with wondrous vocals that seemed well suited to the weather conditions. The thousands of colourful flags fluttering beneath gorgeous blues skies was a sight to gladden the heart of any British music lover. Yet somehow the music itself felt like an afterthought.
But the first truly massive audience of the day turned out for a band nobody had heard of, billed only as The Churnups. At least 200,000 people packed the Pyramid hillside in glaring sunshine as the Foo Fighters took the stage in what was evidently the worst-kept secret in Glastonbury. “You guys knew it was us the whole time, didn’t you?” winked frontman Dave Grohl.
The US rockers headlined in 2017, and this was a sentimental return as they set about putting the 2022 death of drummer Taylor Hawkins behind them. “I’ll keep it short – they only gave us one hour, so we gotta pack a lot in,” shouted Grohl, as he and his band hammered enthusiastically through one anthem after another. The Foo Fighters are punkier live than on their increasingly sophisticated records, with Grohl doing more shouting than singing. But brevity suited them, up to a point.
Despite constant hammy protestations that they were on the clock, they still managed to fit in a solo by new drummer Josh Freese, and generally tease out songs with lead guitar twiddles and tweaks and lots of false stops to encourage crowd singalongs. “We can do this all night,” promised (or threatened) Grohl, perhaps forgetting that this time around they were merely a support act.
It was only the first night of a three-day event. Yet, it was already evident by sunset that some of the festival’s more enthusiastic revellers had peaked early. You always see amazing costumes at Glastonbury, a place where people tend to leave inhibition at home and release their inner freak, but for many this year’s must-have look was essentially accessorised sunburn.
Nevertheless, a few plucky diehards remained determined to dress for the occasion rather than the weather, most impressively two fake-bearded gentlemen explorers pointlessly dragging a loaded sledge and tattered Union Jacks around the site in full Victorian Arctic outfits. “Why would you do that?” two women in shorts and bikini tops asked. “Because it’s there,” one explorer heroically croaked. We expect nothing less from Britain’s favourite music festival.
Catch up with all the Friday action from Glastonbury below!
Read Neil’s full review of headliners Arctic Monkeys
