Fatboy Slim has claimed Glastonbury festival is running out of headline acts.
In an interview with NME, the DJ, whose real name is Norman Cook, said the festival has become “more middle class” and “less dangerous”.
Cook, who has played at every Glastonbury for the “last 17 years or so”, said he didn’t mean his comments as a “diss”. However, he went on to say: “Glastonbury are kind of running short of legends … even on their Sunday night legends’ slot. It’s only because everybody wants to do it that they’re kind of running out of people who haven’t done it yet.”
He continued: “Once they’ve got Springsteen and the Rolling Stones, they almost got Prince, then he died. They’ve run out of people who would really impress you as a headliner, so poor old people like Muse and Coldplay keep coming back and people are like: ‘Oh Christ, Coldplay and Muse again!’
This year’s festival will be headlined by Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran. It will be Radiohead’s third headline slot; they previously topped the bill in 1997 and 2003.
Foo Fighters last played in 1998. They were due to headline in 2015 before Dave Grohl broke his leg during a performance in Sweden.
Cook said Fleetwood Mac would make for a good future headline act. “I didn’t realise [they] hadn’t done it,” he said.
“I think everyone, even the people who think they are too big to do it, actuallyrealise that Glastonbury is bigger than them. U2 and Prince didn’t do it for a long time, and it took Prince so long to come around.
“It got to a point that Glastonbury became so much bigger than any band and no band can go out without doing it.”
Last month, Emily Eavis dismissed such criticism, saying that bands such as Royal Blood, the Courteeners and Alt-J were on their way to headline status.
She said: “There are bands that are really, really big that are coming through rapidly and could easily be there in a couple of years. The Courteeners are massive, too. I mean massive. They’ve sold out Old Trafford LCCC [Lancashire county cricket club] in Manchester, which is huge.”
