Michael Eavis praises rapper’s headline festival appearance
Glastonbury boss Michael Eavis has claimed that he’s not worried Noel Gallagher will be offended after being dissed in Jay-Z’s intro tape. However, the organiser warned that last night’s (June 28) hip-hop set could be a one-off, as there is only one Jay-Z.
With the show beginning with a video montage that sent up the Oasis guitarist’s quote that Jay-Z would have “no fucking chance” at Glastonbury, Eavis said he was not worried the former headliner would be upset because he can take care of himself.
“He put so much into it, but he was thrilled how it went and his wife Beyonce, she was dancing around. She wasn’t tempted to get up onstage? We didn’t need it, Jay-Z held it together really well. We got a text from [Coldplay's] Chris Martin saying he watched it all on the website in America, he was really thrilled, he said it was ‘absolutely brilliant’.”
“Jay-Z’s intro tape was great, wasn’t it?” said Eavis. “Noel can take it, they’re tough fellas, aren’t they? They used to work on a building site, didn’t they? They can handle it. They’re good friends of ours though, they’ve helped us a lot in the past the Gallagher brothers, I’m not going to slag them off. It’s up to Noel if he wants to criticise the Jay-Z thing. Jay-Z triumphed in the end. Everyone knew all the words, as far back as I could see they knew them, it’s incredible. Absolutely amazing.”
When asked if Oasis could follow next year as headliners, Eavis joked: “If they like, all sins are forgiven Noel!
“Jay-Z was a good trick this year, wasn’t it? It worked really well, it was an unusual thing to do, bring hip hop from the streets of New York to Glastonbury and it be so successful, it was a real triumph,” he said.
Eavis added he had been pleased how well the festival goers had taken to the slightly different headline act, after all the speculation that Jay-Z might not go down well with the traditional crowd.
“Jay-Z just worked for us, it could have gone the other way, but the crowd were into it,” said Eavis. “They knew all the words, that amazed me, it’s very fast street New York poetry, isn’t it? It amazed me people knew all the words, and two of those were my grandchildren!
“Jay-Z was probably a one-off, we shall see, we’ve got lots of opportunities for next year. We’ve got back the respect, and everyone wants to do it next year. But you can’t get another Jay-Z, he’s a one off!�
Eavis then gave credit for booking the rapper to his daughter Emily, who co-organises the festival.
“Emily is doing very well, she makes some good decisions,” he explained. “The Jay-Z thing was her decision, but she got me to do the work on it. She said “Daddy, will you phone?” It went on for ages but we pulled it off in the end.”
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Source: http://www.nme.com/
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