Police “suggested” me to not play Glastonbury headline present
Suzanne Vega has revealed that police “suggested” her to not play her headline present at Glastonbury in 1989.
The singer-songwriter turned the Somerset competition’s first ever feminine headliner together with her Pyramid Stage set that 12 months, however as she has confirmed in a brand new interview with The i, she had acquired loss of life threats forward of the efficiency.
“Scotland Yard sat me down and stated, ‘We advise you to not do the present’. I used to be like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” she recalled. Each Vega and her touring bassist had been the sufferer of loss of life threats, the newest of which having arrived on the morning of the gig.
When she made it clear that she had no intention of pulling out of the present, she remembered that the police officer supplied her his bulletproof vest, which she agreed to put on.
“A person from Scotland Yard took his and stated, ‘You’ll need to put on this’. He was twice my measurement, so I needed to gaffer tape myself into this big bulletproof vest, after which put a denim jacket over it.”
“It felt like each track was 20 minutes lengthy,” she continued. “It was not comfy. We have been all nervous.”
Nonetheless, the present went off with out a hitch and Vega now displays on the historic efficiency fondly. “I’m happy with being the primary girl to headline,” she stated. “There’s nothing diminished about that.”
Vega is finest remembered for hits akin to ‘Tom’s Diner’ and ‘Luka’, and final week (Could 2) she launched her first album in over a decade, ‘Flying With Angels’. She may even be touring across the UK in October and November – see the total listing of dates right here and discover tickets here.
Feminine headliners have turn out to be a extra widespread prevalence in recent times, with artists together with Beyonce, Florence + The Machine, Adele, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and SZA all having stuffed the highest slot on the Pyramid Stage since 2011.
This 12 months’s Glastonbury, in the meantime, is about to return to Worthy Farm from June 25 to 29 and can function one other feminine headliner in Olivia Rodrigo, with Neil Younger and The 1975 topping the invoice on the opposite days.
Different large names throughout the weekend embody Biffy Clyro, The Maccabees, Lucy Dacus, Father John Misty, RAYE, Wolf Alice, The Prodigy, Doechii, St. Vincent, Deftones, The Libertines, Moist Leg, Weezer, Nile Rodgers & Stylish, Future Islands, JADE, TV On The Radio, Self Esteem, CMAT, Blossoms and Turnstile.
There’s a number of Glasto first-timers, too. These embody Alanis Morissette, Noah Kahan, Lola Younger, Myles Smith (winner of this 12 months’s BRITs Rising Star award), Busta Rhymes, Brandi Carlile and Gary Numan.