It’s the Worthys: Glastonbury 2019, rated by Drowned in Sound
Mark Muldoon and David Edwards went to Glastonbury and here’s what they thought. Photos by Mike Burnell.
Glastonbury has sort of got into a rhythm of being consistently astonishing now, hasn’t it? Every year the nuts-and-bolts organisation behind it gets a little better and every year the crowd tangibly seems to respond with a kind of perpetual elation that they are the people that actually get to be there.
A less welcome return though, for The Worthys — DiS’s tired Glastonbury awards format somehow returning for a third year. Here’s DiS’s Dave Edwards and Mark Muldoon to garland everything on site that remotely deserved it.
Most triumphant set: Stormzy
We’re used to having a bit of a backlash to headliner announcements by now of course. It’s probably reasonable to say that this announcement back in November generated its fair share of ‘online comment’.
In fairness, Stormzy does feel like something of an incongruous booking, when — quite apart from anything else — he’s playing a stage that otherwise tends to be pretty resolutely Radio 2-leaning. On the Friday, warming up the Pyramid Stage for Stormzy are a not exactly confrontational rollcall of acts including George Ezra, Tom Odell, Sheryl Crow and an ABBA tribute band.
There’s no doubt a backlash can make for a more exciting set, mind. With so much to prove, then, it’s clear that this show has had one hell of a lot of thought put into it. Staging, messaging, crowd-pleasing covers/samples, artful touches from ballet to Banksy and seemingly a warehouse full of pyrotechnics all combine to make a show where it’s difficult to think how he could’ve tried any harder.
In a weekend when you’re somewhat bombarded by musicians telling you how it’s their dream to be performing here, you really, really felt that Stormzy was enjoying the peak of his career so far. Some special guests are also wheeled out to join the party, but nothing to overshadow the fact that this is his moment. He’s proving he can do this on his own. And now we know: without question he can.
Best scene: UK hip hop
It’s a weekend that more generally shows the breadth and talent of UK hip hop right now — and there’s an enormous amount of fun to be had exploring it. So as well as Stormzy, you may well have seen the widely circulated clip of #AlexFromGlasto being picked out the crowd by Dave to join him rapping on stage (if you haven’t, it’s one for the Glasto hall of fame. Full uncensored clip here). The crowd hadn’t generally clocked that to be invited on stage he’d already demonstrated knowing the words to a fairly impressive extent. Everybody around us was braced for an awkward moment. He turned out to be fantastic and in response we completely erupted.
Loyle Carner, meanwhile, got two mates up on stage during his set to celebrate it being their first ever Glastonbury, before the actual reason becomes apparent: a very nicely orchestrated marriage proposal in front of 15,000 odd people. Which makes it two Glastonburys in a row now that Carner has made me cry during his set.
Carner also pops out during Slowthai’s (ridiculously fun) set to join in one of the regular moshpits the Northampton rapper’s performance attracts. His hypeman is arguably braver — one of the most arresting visuals of the weekend is him stood alone at the centre of a massive circle, before 150 odd people simultaneously charge straight into him from every direction. An alarmingly brutal sight but naturally, everybody involved appears to be thoroughly enjoying themselves.
Best headlining strategy: play the hits
The Killers’ set feels like quite a close relation to — and near equal of — Blur’s legendary 2009 headline performance. It follows the obvious blueprint for how to nail your Glastonbury show: have a real arsenal of hits and don’t be tight about playing them all.
Alongside similar crowd-pleasing sets from Kylie and The Cure, you do get the impression that this vital message has been successfully disseminated around the headliner community. Which is absolutely ideal news.
Most supercool music reviewers: Drowned in Sound’s reviewers
Hey Dave, we’re not going to mention in the review that the only set both you and I watched together all weekend was Keane, right? DiS has got an 18-year long reputation to uphold, here.
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