Secret sets at Glastonbury are notoriously unpredictable, and over the years stricter health and safety standards and larger crowds have changed the rules. But guerilla gigs still happen in many different forms – here’s 16 we’d love to see in 2016.
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1. Radiohead:
There are plenty of rumours about Radiohead, who have a Glasto-shaped hole in their tour schedule. Michael Eavis himself mentioned their name while discussing this year’s festival at the Oxford Union in May. The last time they played a secret set was in 2011, soon after the release of ‘The King of Limbs’. Will they do the same following the recent release of their ninth album, ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’?
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2. Catfish & The Bottlemen:
Catfish play the last show of their US tour on Tuesday 21 June – the day before Glastonbury begins – and hit up Bristol on Saturday 25. They were a late announcement for the Other Stage on Sunday, but they could conceivably do a warm-up show on Friday as well. Bristol’s not far.
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3. Blur:
“Collectively, there’s no plans,” guitarist Graham Coxon told us of Blur’s future at the NME awards in February. Nice try Graham, you big tease. We know you’re up to something. We hope you are, at least.
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9. All Saints:
Come on. Who doesn’t want to see this lot doing ‘Pure Shores’ after their reunion this year?
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10. Bastille:
The phenomenally successful Londoners behind ‘Pompeii’ and ‘Flaws’ played a secret afternoon set last year and are already due an Other Stage appearance this year. They’ve been teasing their second album ‘Wild World’ recently, and if it doesn’t arrive before Glastonbury, a secret second set would just add to the intrigue.
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11. Arctic Monkeys:
Alex Turner’s playing with The Last Shadow Puppets on Saturday evening, so he’ll be on site, but who knows about his AM bandmates. It’d be nice though, wouldn’t it?
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12. Florence And The Machine:
There’s a significant gap in the diary for Flo between her departure from Croatia’s INmusic Festival (June 22) and her arrival at Poland’s Open’er (June 29). After last year’s storming headline slot, maybe she’ll strip her music back a bit for a surprise set this year.
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13. Kendrick Lamar:
The only reason the Compton rapper might do this is because he’ll be in the UK for his Hyde Park show before Florence on July 2. If he comes early, he might deign to make the journey down to Somerset. And it would be amazing.
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15. James Murphy:
The LCD Soundsystem frontman has done secret Glasto DJ sets in the past. Outside of LCD’s Sunday evening Other Stage headline performance, surely he’s a shoe-in for a DJ appearance elsewhere?
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16. Mumford & Sons:
These guys have done either secret sets or proper ones at Glastonbury every year since they broke through, so not doing a secret set would break tradition. And their pal Baaba Maal, with whom they’ve just made a mini-album, is playing the Pyramid Stage on Saturday. See ya there, Mumfords!