Jay-Z talks about his Glastonbury Festival experience

In an article in yesterday's Observer Music Monthly, (here) there is an exclusive interview with Jay-Z about his now fabled Glastonbury Festival 2008 performance. The article is well worth a read in full.

The article makes it clear the Jay-Z instantly understood what the festival was about from the moment he saw the Pilton event. Describing his arrival at the festival the rapper says, "What was breathtaking was the entrance to Glastonbury, when you come over the hill and you see all those tents. I was like, 'Wait a minute, this ain't a festival. This is a country! This is tent city.'"

Jay-Z clearly realised at that moment that the scale of his Festival appearance would be special, "That's when it stopped being a concert. Before it was like, 'Let's go play a concert. Let's have some fun.' Then we came over that hill. I just played the Hove festival in Norway a couple of days prior and I thought I knew what Glastonbury would look like. But this was like, 'Woah! It's not big, it's huge!'"

It was Emily Eavis, daughter of the festival's founder Michael Eavis, who suggested that Jay-Z was approached for the headlining slot. Emily who is increasingly getting involved in organising the festival felt there was a need to change things, she says in the article, "We just felt we really needed to shake things up. We sat down and asked ourselves a lot of questions about where the festival was going. We'd been going with the same formula for a few years and there was a danger of repeating ourselves."

Emily Eavis wasn't expecting the music press to start such a furious debate about the rapper's inclusion on the bill, describing what she calls 'an interesting undercurrent' to some of these arguments. She politely says, "I'm not sure what to call it, at least not in public. But this is something that causes me some disquiet."

Jay-Z also comments in the article on the huge furore that developed when the rap star was announced as the Saturday headliner at the festival. Jay-Z confesses that he had never even heard of Glastonbury until January when he was told that it was 'an inclusive, eclectic event - a celebration of musical diversity.'

Which is how it should be, however Oasis' Noel Gallagher became embroiled in the debate when he was reported as saying, "I'm sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance. Glastonbury has a history of guitar music." The rap star says this led him into what he has described as 'the biggest controversy I've ever been involved in.'

Jay-Z reveals in the article that upon hearing Gallagher's statement his response was, "I didn't feel anything because he doesn't know me. It wasn't a personal thing. Maybe he just has something against hip hop. There's an education process that needs to take place.

"I'd like to sit him down, play him some really great poetic music, some incredible, well-produced hip hop. He made a blanket statement. He hasn't heard every hip-hop record and I haven't heard every rock record so I can't make a blanket statement and say rock doesn't belong somewhere. I can't say that. I can say Noel Gallagher rips off the Beatles. I can say that. Because I've heard his music. But I can't say, rock music rips off the Beatles. It's too general." The article says that Noel Gallagher declined to comment for the piece.

The rapper felt that the argument was blown out of proportion, "It was just a couple of people speaking out of ignorance. And then it kept going back and forth, a little game of tennis."

However if anything the argument about his suitability as a headliner and the words of Gallagher actually set up one of those legendary moments in Glastonbury's history. Jay-Z responded with wit, humour and energy and silenced his critics with that now famous video montage of clips of celebrities and world leaders all cut together together, as if they were also joining in the controversy over his headlining slot.

Noel Gallagher's words were brilliantly thrown back at him with gusto and Jay-Z's first number was a cover of the Oasis classic 'Wonderwall'. Jay-Z rightly predicted the effect it would have, "I knew I had an ace with Wonderwall. I knew they'd appreciate the humour in that, so I'd at least get to the third song"

Everyone who was there did indeed appreciate the tongue-in-cheek humour of this well executed conclusion to the debate, and it went perfectly, defusing his detractors and winning over the partisans in the audience, and he set down another moment in Glastonbury Festival's illustrious history.

Emily Eavis reveals in the piece that the organisers themselves were clearly overjoyed at how well Jay-Z's performance was received. She says, "We're just so relieved. We're over the moon. He was just amazing, phenomenal. After two seconds he had the whole thing in the palm of his hand. I have never seen that field so packed. It was the most brilliant pop cultural crossover moment. So inspiring."

The article also reveals what Jay-Z felt about his Glastonbury appearance, he says, "It was fantastic. It was better than expected. What it represented was a beautiful thing. Because the people in attendance, the way they embraced the music, that was them saying, 'We're not like that. We're open to new things.'"

Jay-Z sums up the whole debate, about Glastonbury Festival and the choice of him as headliner concisely saying, "Things have to change. Just because something has been a certain way doesn't make it right. To me, music is music. People were saying hip hop couldn't play Glastonbury. I think it can. Just like I think rock bands can play [American hip-hop festival] Summer Jam."

Jay-Z also says in the article that his performance after Glastonbury Festival on the Sunday, when he played Projekt Revolution in Milton Keynes, was "anti-climactic" after such a great show on the Pyramid Stage.



The dates for the 2009 Festival are confirmed as Friday 26th to Sunday 28th June, with the site open from Wednesday 24th June.

Tickets are not yet on sale. It is likely (but not confirmed) that the festival will continue with its anti-touting registration scheme for those wishing to buy tickets, with registration likely to open for those who need to register sometime around February 2009. Registration involves submitting your photograph and address details in advance of buying your ticket, so that each ticket has the buyer's photo printed on it.

Tickets are likely to go on sale in early April 2009, thought this is to be confirmed. Tickets are likely to be priced at around £160 which includes a FREE programme and access to the site from the Wednesday at no extra charge.

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