Gorillaz In The Mist

In the five minutes where Glastonbury was without a headliner, a wave of snidey glee was unfolding on Twitter about U2 pulling out yesterday – after carrying the load of the world for so long, Bono’s FINALLY done his back in, eh? I was watching it, thinking ‘whoever Beardy Eavis gets to replace them, there’s gonna be an uproar’. And there’s nothing quite like a Twitteruproar, where the same 140 characters with a couple of words changed swirl round in an angry, Bono-baiting cycle.

Then, people REALLY started losing their minds – they said Led Zeppelin were gonna replace them, which, if anyone had actually stopped and used their brains for a nanosecond, is about as likely as Liam Gallagher’s new band being any good. It looked set for whoever the replacement was – whether that meant pushing Dizzee Rascal up a slot, or Michael Eavis forming a band himself – to be met with scorn. That the announcement that Gorillaz would be filling in has been met with excitement underlines what a bleedin’ coup it is – indeed, why weren’t Gorillaz already headlining any UK festivals this summer? They’re a massively successful British (well, sort of) band who’ve just released the biggest and best album of their career – seems like an oversight on the part of festival bookers that, on the Friday of Glastonbury, they would’ve been sitting there twiddling their animated thumbs, doesn’t it?

Good as Gorillaz will be, though, there’s still one band I would’ve liked to have seen headline more. Had Pearl Jam’s Hyde Park show not been on the very same Friday that Glasto were without a headliner, maybe Ed Ved & co. would’ve been filling in. Again, I can’t understand why they’re in the country that weekend and not playing Glasto – their headline set at Reading a few years ago was jaw-droppingly good, as was their Shepherds Bush Empire and O2 Arena shows last year. But still, I’m just moaning for moaning’s sake – Damon & co. will be setting a high standard at Worthy Farm for Muse and Stevie Wonder to live up over the rest of the weekend…