New music
Glastonbury festival is in full swing, and female artists are holding the occasion together. Much was made of the line-up in the weeks running up to the festival, with Glastonbury assembling an all-male run of headliners. Arctic Monkeys returned to Somerset on Friday (June 23rd) with a set that once again divided fans, leaning on their crooner-heavy newer albums and missing some old favourites. It then became Guns N Roses’ job to entertain the Glastonbury masses. In truth, the booking was always a curveball, but as the stage time drew close we began to dream that something perhaps could happen. Perhaps if the band kept it together, played a front-loaded set of celebratory rock classics, then maybe – just maybe – Guns N Roses could pull it off.
Alas, it wasn’t to be. With faltering sound, a wayward set list, Axl’s vocal idiosyncrasies, and lots – and lots – of guitar solos, this is a headline set which never quite landed. Even a later guest spot from rock’s foremost gentleman Dave Grohl couldn’t save them – Guns N Roses had about as much punch-through as a water pistol against a tank.
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In truth, female artists have held the festival together. From Fever Ray’s remarkable late night journey to Sudan Archives’ storming West Holts set, Glastonbury has assembled a slew of phenomenal female voices. Last night – June 24th – underlined this emphatically. It began with a magical performance from Maggie Rogers, the American songwriter bringing a dose of ecstatic joy to the Other Stage. A huge fan of the festival – she was spotted dancing side-stage during Carly Rae Jepsen’s set – her performance climaxed with a thrilling overhead display from the Red Arrows. Heavenly.
Lizzo’s secondary headline status seemed to fire up the much-loved artist, who responded with a phenomenal performance on the Pyramid Stage. Honed across an exhausting international tour – including a fully sold out UK run – she’s a simply lethal live artist right now. People fully believe in her self-love mantras, and with the sun beating down Lizzo is the perfect choice for Worthy Farm. There’s no solid metric to test this, but purely using our eyes: Lizzo seemed to get a bigger crowd than Guns N Roses. Yep, we’re calling it.
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And then, of course, there’s Lana Del Rey. Arriving onstage stylishly late – a mere 30 minutes – she breezed into a magical set that blended old with new. Opening with ‘A&W’ the first chapter of the set leaned into her recent album ‘Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’ before venturing into broader currents within her catalogue. A majestic ‘Ultraviolence’ seemed to indicate where the set was going next, a carefully curated journey into Lana’s majesty accompanied by a wonderful stage show, the dancers swirling around the singer’s magnetic persona.
But then the mic went out. Having started late, Lana Del Rey fell foul of the curfew. Dropping to her knees, she begged figures at the side of the stage to let her continue, but to no avail. Rules are made to be obeyed, we suppose, but there is certainly a feeling on the ground that Lana had been hard done by. Perhaps that’s apt microcosm for women as a whole during festival season – flourishing, in spite of the obstacles.
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Words: Robin Murray
