The Who Ditch Paris Show To Bring ‘Mod’ Revival To Glastonbury Festival
British rock legends The Who are celebrating 50 years in the music business and they are set to conclude their golden anniversary celebrations in style by headlining the Sunday evening on Glastonbury’s pyramid stage. The Who last performed at Glastonbury in 2007 in the same slot. Roger Daltry of The Who has promised that they will “do their best to close Glastonbury festival with a bang.”
“It’s great to be ending this part of a 50 year career at the most prestigious and respected music festival in the world. We’ll do our best to close this year’s event with a bang, unless of course the fireworks get wet!”
The Who were formed in 1964 and are widely considered one of the biggest and most influential bands in rock history. According to the Independent Glastonbury’s confirmation that The Who will close this years festival comes after a week of intense speculation after festival curator, Michael Eavis, announced last week that the final headline slots would be filled by two British acts.
We're delighted to announce that The Who will headline Sunday night, with Paul Weller playing the penultimate slot. pic.twitter.com/tJiDLcLtoa
— Glastonbury Festival (@glastonbury) May 6, 2015
The Glastonbury faithful will be treated to another huge name in British music immediately before The Who perform as their warm up act will be Paul Weller. This means that Sunday at Glastonbury shapes up as something as a “Mod” revival. The Who are widely credited as being the architects of the “Mod” movement with their 1973 album Tommy. Weller is so closely connected with the “Mod” scene that he is nicknamed “The Modfather.”
The Who have promised to treat Glastonbury fans with a journey through their extensive back catalogue including classic albums such as Who’s Next, Tommy, Quadrophenia and My Generation.
Whilst the announcement of The Who as headliners for Glastonbury has been well received by most the announcement has not been well received in some quarters. The Who had already been booked to play a sold out show in Paris on the same day and have cancelled that show to play Glastonbury. Some fans took to twitter to voice their displeasure at the about turn.
@GlastoFest All those poor people who have to rearrange their Paris gig plans. You don't come out of this one smelling of roses, guys ?
— p@olo (@chopmunky) May 6, 2015
This year’s Glastonbury festival has been plagued by a number of controversies, especially over the announcement that Kanye West would headline the pyramid stage on Saturday. A petition against this decision was signed by over 130,000 people and lead to organiser Emily Eavis defending the choice in the press.
The choice of The Who will undoubtably be better received in a musical sense, but the circumstances are likely to lead to further controversy.
This years Glastonbury Festival takes place at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset between June 24 – 28.
[Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images]
