Friendly Fires at Glastonbury: ‘We want to be the next Chemical Brothers’

Band play their biggest Glasto show yet on the Other Stage

Friendly Fires have outlined their aim to be as big as The Chemical Brothers, who they’re sharing the Glastonbury Other Stage bill with today (June 25).

The band were chatting to NME before their early evening slot, joining acts including Bombay Bicycle Club and Wild Beasts on the line-up. They played the likes of ‘Jump In The Pool’, ‘Paris’ and newer songs such as ‘Live Those Days Tonight’ in their set, which saw girls in grass skirts and flowers come onstage to dance during ‘Hawaiian Air’.

When asked whether they see themselves as next in line to inherit the dance-infused crowns of The Chemical Brothers‘ generation, lead singer Ed Macfarlane said: “That’s definitely a goal for our band. We have a dance sensibility and euphoria to our music which I think is in common with the band. It would be nice for a change, as the same four dance acts tend to play festivals.”

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“I’ll be watching them tonight, there seems to be some good stage props hanging around behind the Other Stage so I’d like to see what happens with them,” added bandmate Edd Gibson. “I probably won’t be watching Coldplay [who headline the Pyramid Stage].”

The band have played Worthy Farm a couple of times before, but this year’s performance was by far their highest-profile slot here. Looking back to their first ever Glastonbury set, on the John Peel Stage in 2008, the band described the gig as “shite”.

Macfarlane admitted: “It was quite disheartening for the first time we played. It should be a big moment for every band, but for some reason that day it wasn’t clicking. I wasn’t very good, I didn’t sleep very much the night before which was a bit of a schoolboy error.”

Friendly Fires played:

‘Lovesick’
‘Jump In The Pool’
‘Blue Cassette’
‘True Love’
‘On Board’
‘Show Me Lights’
‘Skeleton Boy’
‘Live Those Days Tonight’
‘Hurting’
‘Pull Me Back To Earth’
‘Hawaiian Air’
‘Paris’
‘Kiss Of Life’

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NME.COM is coming live from Glastonbury 2011 this weekend ­stay tuned to NME.COM/festivals/glastonbury for news reports, reviews and photos from Worthy Farm. Then head back from Monday for backstage video interviews.

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