Glastonbury Festival

“The Glastonbury Festival aims to encourage and stimulate youth culture from around the world in all its forms”

BULL SHIT!

This is the first line of the objectives set out by the organizers of the Glastonbury festival. Nothing could be further from the truth. Granted the event does not claim to be a music festival but a performing arts festival. Seeing as this blog is going to take a metal view on life then I thought it would be interesting to see why Hard Rock and Metal is extremely badly represented at the nation’s largest festival.

It would be very easy to say; “well they are not the kind of acts that would go down very well at an event like this.” I couldn’t disagree more! Some of the best most innovative live music shows are Metal. I am sure there is the odd hippy fire breather wandering around the site so why not get Rammstien to headline a night and show people how to do a show with fire. Anyone who has seen Rammstien live even non believers would be hard pressed to think of a better live act in the world in terms of showmanship, stage presence, quality musicianship and special effects. I think the people attending Glastonbury would love it!

I thought I would trawl through the past line ups and see what hard rock acts there have been in the last ten years. An argument could be made for Muse but I am not counting them as most people who listen to them are completely unaware of the huge mid 90’s metal influence (Rage Against the Machine, Deftones) in some of their music and they draw a mainly indie crowd. (Classification is a whole huge subject I might tackle in my own way another day). So last year 2010 had a grand total of two Hard Rock bands Slash (low down on the main stage) and Coheed and Cambria on very early on a secondary stage, cheers for that! In fact you have to go back to the year 2000 till you get another one, Nine Inch Nails headlined the Other Stage with A Perfect Circle criminally low down the bill on the same stage. (I am surprised Maynard even turned up seeing as Bloodhound Gang were above them on the bill) You have to go back into the 90’s to get a much better representation of the genre at the festival.

Ironically Acoustic duet Rodrigo y Gabriela have played the festival a few times, they are of course famous for doing acoustic covers of famous metal songs such as Orion and One by Metallica.

So why do the Glastonbury organizers have such an apprehension when it comes to signing a metal band?  

Well the fact that the Year 2000 saw the last of the quality hard rock acts is no coincidence. In that year there was the tragic accident where nine people lost their lives in a crowd crush during a Pearl Jam set at the Roskilde festival in Denmark. The following year Glastonbury was cancelled as it did not feel its safety planning was sufficient. And since then it seems that our music is not wanted! In 2001 Roskilde despite the tragedy opened the gates to 92000 festival goers with headliners Guns and Roses notorious for their crowd troubles.

So do the big metal bands want to do it?

Of course they do! Headlining or playing such a well publicized event could do untold good to the world of Metal. Lars Ulrich of Metallica revealed that having headlined the 2008  Reading and Leeds Festivals, the band had  the Glastonbury Festival firmly in their sights for 2009. The drummer felt that after, "Having Jay-Z headline this year, it might open doors for other people and genres - maybe us." Metallica are without question one of the biggest bands in the world and an incredible live act so surely the people who pay top money to go to Glastonbury deserve the best?

Metallica Selling Out Wembley Stadium

There are as I have stated in a previous blog a lot of dedicated Hard Rock Festivals in the UK alone, this is because Metal looks after its own and its self. I think this is a shame I would like nothing more than to see the best acts blowing away so called “cool” and “popular” music at events all round the world.

When you think about it though what is the best thing about seeing quality metal live, its knowing that you are stood shoulder to shoulder with people who are there for the right reasons and that’s the love of the music. No one goes to a Metal festival for any other reason than the primary reason of seeing good music. This makes the atmosphere at any metal gig exciting and incredible safe as everyone looks out for each other. If you have ever seen Metallica and seen the bit where James asks how many people have seen Metallica before there is a huge cheer as nearly every hand goes in the air. That is why we have our own festivals we are loyal and stand by our acts, go and see them again and again.

So do Metal acts deserve a place at Glastonbury – Fuck Yea James!

Do we want them to go – Fuck NO James! 

UPDATE: Its been three years since i wrote this post and I'm shocked how many people read what i write on here, its very much appreciated. Looks like the powers that be at Glastonbury may have read my post sat he might Tallica are headlining the biggest festival in the world, quite deserved as well, i hope the Glastonbury crowd get it and enjoy it. Now Iron Maiden..

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