Blur and Gorrilaz’s Damon Albarn made a surprise guest appearance to join Bombay Bicycle Club during their set at Glastonbury yesterday (June 28) afternoon on The Other Stage. He gave a passionate speech on the importance of voting as well as the Israel- Palestine conflict. The London indie band brought Albarn out to perform a rendition of Blur’s ‘Tender’ as well as a performance of Bombay Bicycle Club’s ‘Heaven’ from their last album ‘My Big Day’ which features the Blur frontman.
The London band had previously promised via Radio X that they would bring out a special guest for their performance at Worthy Farm who had appeared on their album ‘My Big Day’. Then X account @secretglasto hinted at who the mystery guest was going to be saying that the guest “could make Bombay Bicycle Club’s set go by in a Blur.”
Albarn thanked Jack Steadman of Bombay Bicycle Club’s Jack Steadman and then and then took to the stage and addressed the crowd on “three things” that “You have to show me how you feel about it,” which he said during the performance of ‘Tender’. He then attempted to encourage the Glastonbury crowd to vote in the coming UK general election which looks like it is going to be an overwhelming victory for Labour over the conservatives.
He addressed the crowd on how they felt about Palestine. “Are you pro-Palestine? Do you feel that’s an unfair war?”
He then continued, telling fans they need to vote. “The importance of voting next week. Now I don’t blame you for being ambivalent about that, but it’s still really important.”
Before saying “And thirdly, maybe it’s time we stop putting octogenarians in control of the whole world” probably in reference to the USA election which will see voters choosing between 81-year-old Joe Biden and 78-year-old Donald Trump. The two engaged in a debate on the 27th of June.
Speaking to Sky News Bombay Bicycle Club said that they “were never expecting to have him on the record or to be playing a show with him, but… we just kind of asked, and he was really up for it. You don’t ask, you don’t get.”
The first day of Glastonbury also saw a secret DJ set played by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker in the early hours of Saturday Morning. This came after Kevin Parker appeared alongside Dua Lipa on her headline set of the Pyramid stage on Friday (June 28). The two had previously collaborated on Dua Lipa’s last album ‘Radical Optimism’ and they paired up for a performance on Tame Impala’s huge psychedelic hit ‘The Less I Know The Better’.
As well as this, elsewhere in Worthy farm on the first day of the festival Paul Heaton and Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) paired up for a Housemartins reunion where they performed their 1986 hit ‘Happy Hour’ on the Pyramid stage. IDLES also brought out Danny Brown as a special guest during their closing set on the Other stage where the rapper joined the Bristol band for a performance of the band’s song ‘Pop Pop Pop’.
