The Who have been confirmed as the Sunday night headliners for Glastonbury, in a repeat of their 2007 appearance in the same slot. They will be preceded on the Pyramid stage by Paul Weller, making Sunday night mod night in Somerset.
The announcement from Glastonbury was not exactly unexpected — the Sun had predicted the Who would be the headliners on Sunday — and confirms Michael Eavis’s remark that the final headliners would be two British artists, given that the only remaining core members of the Who are singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend.
What’s unusual is that the band’s last appearance at the festival came as they promoted their 2007 album Endless Wire. Since then, they have not recorded a new album, though one new song, Be Lucky, appeared on last year’s 50th-anniversary compilation The Who Hits 50!
That at least suggests that the Who are likely to play an unadulterated greatest hits set to close the festival — their 2007 set featured two songs from Endless Wire alongside the likes of Who Are You, My Generation, Pinball Wizard and I Can’t Explain.
Weller also appeared on the Pyramid stage in 2007, though on Saturday, rather than before the Who on the Sunday. He later told the Guardian how his appearance at the festival that year prompted him to realise he “felt creatively empty. I realised I couldn’t take the ‘Weller sound’ ... any further”. That prompted his remarkable creative revival over the last five years, over the albums 22 Dreams, Wake Up the Nation and Sonik Kicks. His newest album, Saturns Pattern, will be released on May 18.
