This year’s Glastonbury headliners U2, Coldplay and Beyonce on the Pyramid stage and The Chemical Brothers, Primal Scream and Queens Of The Stone Age headlining the Other stage, would be more than enough to keep most festival-goers very happy.
But for a few lucky punters this year Radiohead and Pulp made some surprise appearances on the Park Stage while Mumford And Sons played an impromptu set of five songs at the Strummerville campsite area.
Mumford And Sons attracted a massive crowd at the Other Stage on the Friday at the festival so a few fans were delighted to chance upon seeing the band in a much more intimate setting where they played Roll Away Your Stone, Lover’s Eyes, Nothing Is Written, The Cave and a cover of Neil Young’s Dance Dance Dance.
Every year secret sets pop up at The Park stage and just about every year a rumour goes around that Radiohead are playing one of them. Last year the rumour was half true with Jonny Greenwood and Thom York playing a secret set, but this year it finally happened with the Parklife stage being closed off well before the surprise Radiohead set began. Their set included Lotus Flower, Staircase, I Might Be Wrong, Daily Mail and Street Spirit as their encore.
Where Radiohead’s set was dampened by the usual Glastonbury rain, Pulp brought the sunshine with them for their set on Saturday and a cheeky Jarvis Cocker couldn’t help but take credit for it, declaring “We couldn’t think of anything to get you so we brought the sunshine”. Unlike Radiohead who mostly steered away from playing their hits, Pulp were there to give the crowd just what they ordered, opening with Do You Remember The First Time?, then Razzmatazz, Something Changed, Disco 2000, Babies, This Is Hardcore and finishing with Common People.
Next year the festival will have a year off for the grounds to recover, but Michael Eavis has said that he has three headliners for 2012 confirmed.
