Craig David has spoken out about Jeremy Corbyn’s powerful speech at Glastonbury 2017 – and how he was hoping that the Labour leader would just ‘spit 16 bars and drop the mic’. Watch our video interview.
The crowd for Corbyn was one of the biggest in the festival’s history, dwarfing that of many headliners and seeming even larger than that which gathered for Dolly Parton’s now legendary performance in 2014. Craig David played on the Pyramid Stage just before the Labour leader’s speech.
“Do you know what it was, yeah – I was waiting for my man to come out and just go ‘spit a 16, spit a 16, I were doing this since I was 16’,” David told NME. “If he just did that yeah, didn’t speak about politics or anything, he could have just dropped the mic, walked off, it would have been done. He would have got a standing ovation.
“I was waiting for it, like ‘please man just spit some bars’. I think he was ready, man. It’s a spontaneous thing and you’ve got to know when and where not to.”
Speaking of the spirit of Glastonbury and the importance of music, Corbyn said during his speech: “So it is about bringing those ideas together. It is about the unity that we achieve. We achieve inspiration through lots of things. In every child there is a poem, in every child there is a painting, in every child there is music. But as people get a bit older they get embarrassed about it, ‘Ooh, can’t be thinking that sort of thing, can’t be writing poetry.’ No! I want all of our children to be inspired, all of our children to have the right to learn music, write poetry and to paint in the way that they want.
“This festival, this wonderful festival and all of its stages and music gives that chance it that opportunity to so many young musicians, that they may achieve and inspire us all. And I’m proud to be here for that. I’m proud to be here to support the peace movement here and the way that message gets across. But I’m also very proud to be here for the environmental causes that go with it.”
Glastonbury 2017 continues this evening with performances from Foo Fighters, The National, Katy Perry, Wiley, Stormzy and many more. Check back at NME for the latest news, reviews and interviews from Glasto.