R.E.M’s 1999 Glastonbury headline to be screened in full on YouTube


Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2019 (Richard Bowes for Live4ever)

Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2019 (Richard Bowes for Live4ever)




Last month was a time for classic Glastonbury sets with the BBC screening past headline and notable performances across its platforms – such as David Bowie’s Pyramid Stage appearance in 2000 – to both fill the void left by the festival’s enforced cancellation and celebrate its 50th anniversary.

R.E.M. were a part of all that, and they’ll be continuing the party by screening their 1999 Worthy Farm gig in full on YouTube next Thursday, August 6th.

The main stages at Glastonbury had never been on the R.E.M. agenda as they made their way from alternative US rock radio favourites to global superstardom during the course of the eighties and nineties, but they finally made their bow there on June 25th, 1999, ending a Pyramid Stage line-up that sunny day which had also featured Blondie, The Beautiful South and Hole.

“Hole did such a great set, I was like, ‘I’ve got to ramp this up, I’ve got to be great’,” Michael Stipe remembers. “I think it was maybe a moment for R.E.M. and the UK where we had kind of been forgotten or pushed aside by younger bands, and that was a particular moment at Glastonbury where I think we pulled ourselves back to the front of the line and actually proved, this is what we’re capable of. It was a great show for us!”


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