Glastonbury Interview // Peggy Sue
Ahead of their set on The Park Stage, Noize topped up on dry shampoo and caught up with the the relentless tourers that are Peggy Sue to find out how they were feeling about kick starting this year’s festival…
NOIZE: What day are you playing at the festival?
PEGGY SUE: We’re playing on the Friday so the first proper day which is good because then we can have too much fun over the rest of the weekend without worrying about falling asleep on our instruments. Also we might still be quite clean.
NOIZE: What can fans expect from your set at this year’s Glastonbury? Any surprises or special features?
PEGGY SUE: We will have just got back from America, and driven straight there, so I reckon unless we pick up a travelling circus it’s likely to be just us on stage. You can definitely expect to hear songs from our album that just came out, and we might try out some new ones we’ve just written that we’re pretty excited about.
NOIZE: What does it mean for you to be playing at the festival and on its 40th anniversary?
PEGGY SUE: It means a lot. We’ve been going to Glastonbury with big groups of friends for the last four years, and it’s become a big part of the summer. It’s obviously a real institution amongst the British festival scene and playing where so many greats have played before is always going to be exciting. I suppose a celebration of its forty years is just even more of a marker of the history that you’ve got behind you.
NOIZE: Are there any bands playing this year you hope to see play?
PEGGY SUE: We’re all most excited about watching The National. We also want to see Strange Boys and Dirty Projectors again. We’re on tour with Archie Bronson Outfit in Europe at the moment. They’ve always been one of our collective favourite bands and they’ll be a great festival band. And of course Stevie Wonder.
NOIZE: What are your festival survival tips for Glastonbury-goers?
PEGGY SUE: Wellingtons, face wipes, and whisky.
NOIZE: What do you think are some of the most memorable moments from Glastonbury over the past 40 years?
PEGGY SUE: I’m not sure about all forty years but in the last years we’ve been going we’ve seen The White stripes, Neil young, Leonard Cohen, Blur, Bon Iver and Kings of Leon, and they’ve been some of the best musical experiences ever. Also for us it’s amazing when you see your friends playing for the first time, so watching the Maccabees and blood red shoes have been big moments for us. Three years ago I managed to steal a security guards jacket and went round performing stop and searches and getting people to give me there alcohol until I got chased round a field by a real security guard and had to give it back with much apologies. That was a more personal memorable moment though.
NOIZE: Why do you think Glastonbury has been so successful for so long?
PEGGY SUE: Because it’s not so stuck in its ways that it’s afraid to try new things. When I look at the headliners there tends to be two I get excited about and one I think is a real disappointment. The thing is though when you watch the thing you think isn’t a good idea, you realise it’s a great choice for a festival. I would never choose to listen to Coldplay, but standing in a field with thousands of people singing along was incredible. All the fuss about Jay Z playing last year was pretty ridiculous. Jay Z may not be everyone’s dream, but I remember standing near the pyramid stage thinking I’m in a big green field, and somewhere in this field of mud and cigarette butts Jay Z is standing too, and that’s so far removed from that American rap idea that I loved it. Glastonbury is pretty good for choosing good, up and coming bands as well as having huge historically important musicians like Neil Young. In the last two years we’ve been going much more to the smaller tents around the festivals, like the green peace tent, or strummerville – They tend to have music we’re less likely to have heard before, or bigger bands doing small acoustic shows
