More intrigue. While chewing the fat with some bar staff, MOJO learns that in the days before Glastonbury began, festival organiser Michael Eavis played a special live set for the workers, including his version of Elvis’ 1969 smash Suspicious Minds. Might he reprise the performance in a bigger stage?
The game is certainly afoot: The Hives, early openers on the Other Stage, know that 99 and a half just won’t do, and have the weight-loss-by-sweat to prove it: a showbiz Stooges in matching suits who fire a ticker tape cannon: Howlin Pelle Almqvist has a fantastic way with talking trash with the audience: as well as advising us to punch ourselves in the face, he thanks all the bands beforehand for warming up the crowd and those who’ll follow on for cooling them down. The energy and the crowd response doesn’t let up, but Hate To Say I Told You So gets a particularly furious crowd singalong, and when Pelle gets among the crowd, a ninja-masked roadie handles his microphone lead.
A startling contrast is available on the Park stage, early doors. Poet-saxophonist Alabaster DePlume combines quirky wisdom à la Ivor Cutler with improvisational musical environments. His in-the-moment aesthetic is made for Glastonbury and today his familiar songs are delivered with heavy bass and distorto-box vocals, as if the ghosts of his extreme metal-obsessed youth are catching up with him. Don’t Forget You’re Precious is delivered a cappella with his rhythm section hitting some challenging harmonies. Reassuringly, he congratulates us all for keeping on keeping on. “Life – that’s a lot of faff,” he notes, winningly. “It’s a lot of paperwork.”
Up in the Bimble Inn, Mozart Estate, the new vehicle of Lawrence from Felt and Denim, gets a big response with serious novelty rockers I Wanna Murder You, Electric Rock And Roll and – like Lionel Bart on income support – Relative Poverty. It’s hard to square these portraits of urban grot in these sunlit sylvan surroundings, but it gets no realer. Weller bassist Andy Lewis is on hand for bass and some just-so vintage flared strides that no doubt got the Lawrence fashion thumbs-up.
Masters of their own genre, Sparks are joy unbridled and make the Park stage erupt with Number One Song In Heaven, When Do I Get To Sing “My Way” and This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us. For The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte, video star Cate Blanchett comes on and reprises her expressive dancing role from the video wearing the same fetching yellow suit; Ron Mael does his dance and Russell Mael scorns the years with commanding dance moves and a voice fit for Broadway. A unique and glorious spectacle.
Our Friday Glastonbury 2023 reviews: the Arctic Monkeys is here. Foo Fighters is here.
Our Saturday Glastonbury 2023 reviews: Lana Del Rey is here. Guns N' Roses is here. The Pretenders is here. Generation Sex is here.
Join us back here tomorrow for all the action from Sunday, including Elton John and much more.
And catch up with our expedition to the wilder corners of Glastonbury on Thursday here.