This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
And Finally
Richard Hawley’s down on Glastonbury and big fests
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 11 June 2013
Richard Hawley’s no fan of Glastonbury. Or any of the big festivals really. Asked by Gigwise whether he’d been tempted to play at the Glastonbury Festival this year, Hawley said: “Nah. Good luck to everyone that does it, but I’ve done all that shit. I’d rather do these gigs at Graves Park and say something to the people of Sheffield and South Yorkshire than do Glastonbury, which has become meaningless to me”.
He added: “I got offered a lot of money to play there and I turned it down because it doesn’t have any meaning. All of the political sides of it seem to have been whitewashed and airbrushed over. The Rolling Stones are playing and that just seems weird to me if you think about what it’s supposed to be and what it’s become”.
But don’t worry Team Glasto, it’s not just your field-based extravaganza the former Long[igs guitarist man doesn’t like. Though he is about to compare your event to the V Festival. Brace yourself for that.
Hawley goes on: “It’s not just Glastonbury – I don’t like the whole corporate festival thing. I’ve done V Festival with Pulp and as a solo artist, and I hated every minute of it. It’s just nasty and not what I’m about – I want something a bit more free and organic. I want the audiences to feel included rather than trapped. They’ve paid for the privilege to be trapped in a field and marketed to. What the fuck is that all about? I won’t be there. I’ll probably be in a place I love. I love the British coast – it’s fucking awesome”.
Does that mean he’s booked for a summer season in Bridlington?
