Glastonbury Festival – at Worthy Farm – Pilton, England

One of this year's headlining acts was causing a major controversy - Metallica, a brave choice by Michael Eavis. Heavy metal was coming to the Pyramid stage, where so far no metal band had graced the stage.

The previous day lightning had forced the closure of some area, but when Metallica took to the stage there was electricity in the air.

It started with a Julien Temple video about deceased actor Eli Wallach, which then turned into a video about fox hunting. This was this a dig at the UK as there had been a petition to try and get the band removed from playing due to James Hetfield's recent controversy of narrating a documentary about bear hunting. The video ended with four bears wielding rifles shooting the fox hunters, when the bear masks were removed it revealed the four members of Metallica in the costumes. A huge roar went up and the screen said "Are you ready for Glastallica?" James Hetfield strolled on to the stage to say "we are proud to be here and bring the heavier side of music to Glastonbury".
There wasn't as big a crowd as the previous night's headliner Arcade Fire, but there was still a healthy draw to see them. As soon as they started "Creeping Death" metal was finally here, the crowd was really getting into it by the second song "For Whom The Bell Tolls".
In between songs Hetfield said how grateful they were to be there and represent the heavier side of music. They have apparently been wanting to play for years. As a band that has played most places coming up with something that you haven't done must be quite a rarity. "Master of Puppets", "Nothing Else Matters" and "Enter Sandman" all had the crowd singing along. The band went off and came back on to do Thin Lizzy's "Whisky in a Jar". They released loads of Metallica beach balls into the crowd to throw about which was great fun.

Other highlights were:

Manic Street Preachers - it had been a while since the Manics had played Glastonbury. They were straight in with "Motor Cycle Emptiness" which was quickly followed by "Your Love Alone is Not Enough". Nicky Wire was jumping all over the place, 20 years after their Glastonbury debut they were on form as the sun was going down.

Robert Plant- it was absolutely pelting down with rain when Robert Plant started, but it was a must see show with everyone hoping for some Led Zepplin classics. We only got one, "Whole Lotta Love" but his distinct vocals make it worth while.

Anti Flag - legendary US punk quartet brought some fiery anthems and political songs to the festival. I only caught 3 songs but they were sounding good, loads of fast played guitars and jumping about.

Maxi Priest - I legged it up to the Gully stage for 11pm for the Maxi Priest gig, only to be kept waiting for them to do a 40 minute soundcheck. Finally they came on and we were hoping for some relaxed reggae vibes, but what we got was "Wild World" and "Some Guys Have all the Luck". They are classics but Maxi kept putting his guitarists on the speakers to play solos, which to me seemed more rock than reggae. I left early disappointed.

　
Yoko Ono - I could see 81 year old Yoko standing at the side of the stage, dancing about looking excited about being there. She came out and and launched into a rant about fracking and looking after your country that our ancestors saved for us. She was literally screaming down the mic, with vocals added in now and then. There were no sing alongs here, it was experimental, sometimes quite zany, and was one of those must see shows but once would probably be enough.

Dolly Parton - This was easily the most anticipated gig of the whole festival, and Dolly drew in the biggest crowd of the weekend. She did not disappoint, with her dry humor and clear vocals she put on an excellent show. Despite playing a few new songs the crowd were kept happy with her classics.

"Jolene" was fun and "9 to 5" was obviously a hit. She even played a song which was written that morning and inspired by the festival. Entitled "Mud" it went down a treat with everyone singing along! As an extra surprise Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi fame joined Dolly on stage for her rendition of "Lay Your Hands on Me". She finished off with "I Will Always Love You", which she actually wrote.

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 

-Dod Morrison-
Big Wheel Overseas Staff Reporter

 

 

 

 

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