Key events
Squeeze reviewed!
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Pyramid, 12.00pm
Generally the Pyramid stage opening act gently eases you into the day but Squeeze get you on your feet, shove a largarita in your hand and tell you to get back in the game. Snappily dressed in sharp tailoring, they kick Take Me I’m Yours instantly into a high gear, almost towards a rockabilly tempo, with Glenn Tilbrook’s soul-boy voice heated up into rock’n’roll. Suitably warmed, he swerves expressively around his upper register for Hourglass as the backing band prop him up with five-way vocal harmonies. Later, his songwriting partner Chris Difford gives Cool for Cats quite the opposite vocal treatment. On release in 1979 it was the pub-bar chatter of a twentysomething likely lad; grizzled and even deeper-voiced, he now sounds like the pub’s landlord delivering an old yarn.
New song One Beautiful Summer gets a warm reception, and when I interviewed Difford earlier this week he told me it was inspired by a Guardian article about late-in-life romance at an Eastbourne care home. “Unfortunately the guy passed away and she was left to pick up the pieces of her heart,” he said. “We’ve written this song to reflect what it must be like to be in a care home and have a relationship at very late stage of life. Because it’s just around the corner for us!”
He and Tilbrook celebrate 50 years together this year, and as this set shows, seem energised by the very spunk that fires up the songs they wrote in their youth. Difford told me they’re even planning to revisit some unrecorded mid-70s demos. “It’s been kind of like an archeological dig, we’ve going around with a brush with each song and taking it out of the ground,” he said. “I think: those young lads had incredible ambition and commitment to writing those songs, and here they are all these years later.”
While Tilbrook and Difford remain the heart of the band, the supporting players are terrific: their keyboardist doing an analogue synth solo in Slap and Tickle by karate-chopping the keys, while Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) has hard-pounding piano and punchy congas, and later their pedal steel player gives a magnificently gurning solo. But this Pyramid crowd pull their weight too. Up the Junction provokes one of the loveliest sounds you get on this stage – thousands of people wordlessly singing a riff – and Tilbrook leads a giant call and response for Black Coffee in Bed. “You’ve made an old man cry,” says Difford, and the wave of love surges back towards him.
Voice of Baceprot reviewed!
Gwilym Mumford
Woodsies, 11.30am
How best to open a festival? Some winsome, gently cooed folk ballads, to ease hungover punters into the day? That’s one option, but the schedulers at Woodsies have instead opted for a bracing blast of thrash metal to blow away the cobwebs. The first Indonesian band to ever play at Glastonbury, Voice of Baceprot are a female power trio whose cheerful onstage disposition masks an impressively beefed up brand of old-school metal. Dressed head to toe in black, including hijabs, it’s immediately clear they mean business from the very first chugging drop D riff they launch into.
Their sound owes much to the big four of 80s thrash, but there’s a hint of System of a Down in their off kilter melodies and a dash of Primus in Widi Rahmawati’s frenetic slap bass riffs. She’s given plenty of room to show off her chops, as is drummer Euis Siti Aisyah, whose extended mid-set solo gets the biggest cheer of the day. But perhaps most impressive of all is vocalist Firda Marsya Kurnia, who is equally at ease delivering a lacerating growl or a clean, soaring pop-metal melody. There’s a lovely moment where, right after concluding one of their many bruising breakdowns, the band pause to wish Rahmawati happy birthday and Kurnia gets a little teary at the sight of hundreds of Glasto punters joining in. “This is the best gig ever” she yelps, and in the moment it’s hard to disagree.
Lambrini Girls reviewed!
Tim Jonze
Woodsies, 12.45pm
Pouring Red Stripe down each other’s throats at midday, here come Lambrini Girls, careering around the stage in a blaze of guitars-aloft feedback, blitzkrieg drums and savage lyrics that cut through the bullshit of 2024 culture wars.
“Big dick energy / You’re such a fake / Stay the fuck away from me!” screams singer Phoebe Lunny, before asking for a show of hands for “queer legends and non-binary legends” and launching into Help Me I’m Gay. Then during Terf Wars there’s a call and response routine: “Shut your stupid fucking mouth,” yells Lunny while the crowd yell back “You stupid fucking terf!” One suspects the Radio 2 playlist does not beckon.
But in a year in which Coldplay, Dua Lipa and Shania Twain are taking the plum spots it’s thrilling to hear the exact polar opposite, a truly righteous racket of youthful anger.
Elle Hunt, in the field, sends an important update:
Long, dusty trudges across the countryside are a hallmark of the Glastonbury experience but people’s fits often provide food for thought. I’ve just passed a man whose slogan t-shirt has given me food for thought to sustain me for the entire walk from Park stage to the Pyramid. It read: “STOP GLORIFYING RATS”. They’ve had it too good for too long!
A couple of lovely snaps from our intrepid photographer David Levene from yesterday.
Yoko Ono’s Voice Peace for Soprano – reviewed!
Elle Hunt
Park, 12.25pm
Just after Lynx at Park, Bishi – wearing a gold kaftan and a white feathery headdress – performs Yoko Ono’s Voice Peace for Soprano before leading the crowd in a primal scream for peace, power and whatever you fancy, really. (If collectivism isn’t your thing, she suggests it could be a warmup for Dua Lipa later on the Pyramid stage.)
The crowd doesn’t quite match her intensity – one guy standing very close to the stage carries on eating throughout – but some certainly seize the opportunity to get something off their chest. (In my case it’s the £2 increase in cost of lageritas at San Remo.) The event was brought to Glastonbury by Tate Modern Lates, inspired by exhibition Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind.
Lynks reviewed!
Elle Hunt
Park, 11.30
As they themselves acknowledge, 11.30am isn’t the obvious timeslot for Lynks and their raunchy, verbose electro-clash, but they’re not letting scheduling stop them from imbuing late-night energy to the blustery Park stage. “Welcome to drag brunch,” they joke, two songs in. “Honestly, why are you all awake?”
“To see YOU!” shouts someone behind me.
Lynks certainly commits to putting on a show, starting with the lewks. They’re known for their extensive performing wardrobe of elaborate masks, and shows self-effacingly likened to the low-budget version of Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour; today it’s a tartan bodysuit covering their face, which is already obscured by a tremendous wide-brim hat. They’re flanked by dancers (named Lynks Shower Gel), likewise clad in tartan, whose playful energy is eagerly reciprocated by the crowd. Bass-heavy opening song Abomination dwells on sexual shame, cut with cheeky humour: “Since age 11, I’ve been told that I’m a heathen / So you best believe I’m on the guest list for Armageddon.”
After a cheery “good morning!”, Lynks launches into Pedestrian at Best, the Courtney Barnett cover with the lyric warning that they’ll “only disappoint you”. Today it sounds like false modesty, as the crowd in front of the Park stage grows steadily bigger: it’s a delightful show thanks to Lynks’ irrepressible stage presence and deadpan comedy. Having warned that they’re about to get vulnerable (“If I cry, don’t film it”) Lynks launches into How to Make a Béchamel Sauce in 10 Steps (With Pictures) – which is exactly as it sounds, down to the print-outs illustrating each step flaunted by the dancers. “Continue adding milk” has never sounded so sexy (and having recently made my first Béchamel sauce, I can attest to the steps). It’s ridiculous, but wonderful fun; I see a woman laughing with her kids about the unlikeliness of the beat, moving their feet.
It may be a more PG show than their usual, given the hour – “There are children here, I can’t do that!” Lynks checks themselves during Hot Straight Boys – but their show is full of words of wisdom, and not just for the kitchen. Having led the crowd in a call-and-response (“because I’m all about inclusion”) of “you silly little boy”, Lynks gets their biggest cheer for the true statement: “NOBODY CARES THAT YOU’VE WATCHED PULP FICTION!” “Friends don’t give each other head!” from New Boyfriend also gets gleefully shouted back by the crowd. Someone give Lynks an advice column.
Lynks has other ideas for empire-building, concluding a particularly high-energy number, flushed beneath their plaid, with a shout-out to Joe Wicks, who gave a workout class earlier: “I’m open to collaboration.” With the crowd, they’re flirtatious and courteous, introducing Everybody’s Sexy and I’m Not as a song about being a “big uggo in a field full of sexy people. None of you would relate to that, though”. A moody, down-tempo breakdown is truncated in favour of a quick finish: “Everybody’s bored of this bit, right?”
By the time Lynks has donned an extravagant bridal veil and Lynks Shower Gel are spraying water (at least I think it’s water) over the crowd, I’m guessing that they’ve won over a lot of new fans, not to mention a bigger crowd for their DJ set later on at Scissors. It might be Lynks’s “special day”, as they yell from beneath their veil, but they’ve got ours off to a great start.
From Ben at the Pyramid stage, on flag watch (also shoutout to the Bob Mortimer one I saw at Sofia Kourtesis earlier):
Tyskie (leftist ref as I discovered from Zoe last night!), late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, a red flag with RED FLAG on it (classic Glasto, ahem, humour), and strong showing for Wolves, Brighton, Bath City, Scarborough Athletic FC. Annoying to see four with Radio X branding which is totally against the spirit of anti-commercial Glasto. Surprising lack of Palestine ones too.
A few more views from the site today and yesterday.
Last night Jonny Weeks was out capturing the fun around Arcadia and Silver Hayes – which, as ever, were colossally busy on Thursday before the main programming has kicked in.
Rick Williams has also written this nuanced profile of the troubled life of ska pioneer Don Drummond – a founding member of the Skatalites, who celebrate their 60th anniversary at Glastonbury this weekend.
And here’s another great interview with Ayra Starr, by Jason Okundaye – who’s out reviewing for us right now – about the Nigerian superstar’s Glastonbury debut this weekend.
Ben is at the Pyramid stage watching openers Squeeze, who we can hear chugging away joyously from the cabin. He says:
First song of the day on Pyramid: Take Me I’m Yours, with Squeeze in terrific tailoring. Funky and driving it really hard, with an almost rockabilly feel – and amazing soloing from Glenn Tilbrook. Superb opening!
To whet your appetite for the weekend, here’s some we made earlier. The cover of today’s Film & Music is an excellent interview by Elle Hunt with the Last Dinner Party, who everyone thinks are going to steal this year’s “Glastonbury moment” – as Wet Leg did in 2022 – when they play the Other stage tomorrow afternoon. But success, it seems, has been a bit of a mixed experience for them. Read on!
Welcome to Glastonbury 2024!
Laura Snapes
Hello from Worthy Farm! It’s an overcast day here so far, although Sofia Kourtesis warmed things up on the West Holts stage with her delightful stage presence and softly ecstatic club music (and prompted a cheering “booooo!” from the crowd when she introduced one song about being ghosted by some cad). Our reviewers have been dispatched out into the field – after varying degrees of late Thursday bedtimes – and their takes on the day’s acts from Lynks to Squeeze, LCD Soundsystem to Dua Lipa, will start arriving in due course.