Over the weekend I watched some of the highlights from the Glastonbury Festival. This is the last one for a while, as they’re definitely not doing one next year.
It’s the first Glastonbury that I can remember for a while where the weather has been good. The images seen from the site were absolutely amazing.
The headliners on Friday night were Radiohead and the headliner on Sunday night was Ed Sheeran.
It made me think about the difference between the approaches of the two artists in relation to their careers and what they have achieved.
Clearly Ed Sheeran is at the top of his game at the present time. Tens of millions of albums sold and sell out tours all over the world.
Radiohead are a different proposition. In fact I hadn’t heard much from them for a while. They had only dipped in and out of their latest material but everybody knows who Radiohead are. Everybody my age can remember Radiohead.
Ross, one of my friends, reckons that Ed Sheeran is the death of music and I disagree. I don’t think it would have been possible to perform the way that he did and the set that he produced on the Sunday night if he was just a ‘manufactured pop commodity’. I appreciate that he has somewhat diluted in his vast expanse across the globe but I still think that he had something special to deliver on Sunday night.
But it was his first headline at Glastonbury.
Compare that against Radiohead and the 20th anniversary of their first headline at Glastonbury.
It would be interesting to fast forward 20 years and see what influences Ed Sheeran’s music had had on the rest of the world, and the rest of the music industry. It would be interesting to see what his legacy was and to see whether or not he was in a position to be invited back to Glastonbury 20 years on, as a hero on the main stage.
Radiohead redefine many aspects of music, not least the way people pay for music and their musical output.
There is no question that some of Radiohead’s stuff is down right weird and a lot of it is down right morbid but it clearly is very special and very close to peoples hearts. It has stood the test of decades.
So I guess the question in comparing both acts was this.
‘Who would you choose to be, as big as you could now, leveraging as much as possible in the instant or longevity and substance over decades?’
On another note, 20 years ago when Radiohead headlined the pyramid stage at Glastonbury, some of their equipment broke down mid set and Tom Yorke nearly walked off. People were convinced to stay by one of the other band members who said “if you go now you will regret it for the rest of your life”. He now agrees with that sentiment. I think so do I. Longevity requires persistence.
Blog Post Number - 1326
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