Buzzin Music

Following concerns last year when Glastonbury 2008 tickets were still on sale until the final week, this year the promoters of the most famous UK music festival took the unprecedented step of putting the tickets on sale before any of the artists had been confirmed. It worked, and Glastonbury 2009 tickets have already sold out.

I wonder, then, how many lucky ticket holders are going to be excited by the three main headliners: Blur, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young.

Michal Eavis, the Glastonbury milk farmer and festival founder has commented that every year people ask him when Neil Young is going to play Glastonbury, so he thinks this will be a special moment for many festival-goers.

Fellow farmer and bass player, Alex James and the rest of Blur are reforming for a big bash at Glastonbury, which is sure to be an exciting occasion for everyone watching.  And Bruce Springsteen is sure to pull out all the stops in attempting to live up to last year’s amazing Saturday night headline performance from the American rapper Jay-Z.

Poor ticket sales were partly blamed on last year’s headline acts Kings Of Leon, The Verve and Jay-Z.  Noel Gallagher joined in the debate, slagging off the Glastonbury promoters for making a rap artist a headline act at what he described as a ‘rock festival’. The outburst was unwarranted, uncalled for, and totally backfired when

Jay-Z delivered one of the most exciting, exuberant and colourful Glastonbury performances of all –time.

Starting his show with a pre-recorded introduction including samples of Noel Gallagher’s rant, Jay-Z walked on stage strumming a ‘rock festival’ guitar as he began singing the Oasis song, Wonderwall; absolutely sublime.

And if that wasn’t enough, after addressing the crowd, started his set proper with the awesome 99 Problems (but my bitch ain’t one!)

I wonder if Noel Gallagher was watching at home; and whether he phoned Jay-z the next morning to congratulate him on a top show and say sorry.

Apart from the three main headline acts, no other artists have been “officially” announced for Glastonbury 2009, but rumours and self-confirmations are a-plenty.

Echo & The Bunnymen have announce that they will be headlining the ‘John Peel Stage’ performing their fourth album Ocean Rain in its entirety. I find it surprising that they are not going to play a set of greatest hits.

And following the release of their forthcoming album, Kingdom Of Rust (due for release on 6h April) the very wonderful Doves have confirmed they will be playing this year’s festival, too.

Other artists happy to confirm they will be appearing include the lovely Lily Allen, the infectious Florence and The Machine,  and bizarrely enough according to their official website Crosby, Stills & Nash are set to perform at Glastonbury on Saturday 27th.

So, will there be a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunion at Glastonbury Festival 2009 following Neil Young’s headline performance on the Friday?

I for one am looking forward to another English summer weekend of mud, rain and great live music.