Why rockers like Neil Young banned the BBC from showing Glastonbury sets

Neil Young is top of the bill on Saturday night, a slot that is traditionally reserved for the Glastonbury’s biggest star - Jo Hale/Redferns

BBC publicists used more than 3,300 words to promote the Corporation’s wall-to-wall coverage of Glastonbury this year. iPlayer is, apparently, the “ultimate place to watch” the festival, with more than 90 hours of live performances, while Radio 6 Music will broadcast 58 hours.

The 1975, Friday night’s Pyramid Stage headliner, are hailed as a “Brit Award-winning, chart-topping band”; Olivia Rodrigo, who has the same slot on Sunday, is labelled a “global megastar”.

On and on it goes. But amid the reams of breathless PR puffery, two words were notable by their absence: “Neil Young.”

Young, 79, is top of the bill on Saturday night, a slot that is traditionally reserved for the festival’s biggest star, but his set will not be broadcast by the BBC, depriving his millions of British fans the chance to watch what might be one of the last chances to see him live in the UK. Those at home will have to make do with the likes of Brat star Charli XCX, Scissor Sisters or Doechii, the American rapper.

The Canadian-American singer-songwriter has built his long career by only doing what he wanted to do – and refusing to do what he didn’t. And it has long been clear that Young does not like his live shows being broadcast, lest the gigs lose their mystique.

“At the artist’s request, we won’t be live streaming Neil Young’s set,” a BBC spokeswoman says. “Our plans, including those for our TV highlights shows and on-demand coverage, continue to be finalised right up to and during the festival.” Reading between the lines, that means Corporation bosses are still trying to convince Young’s team to allow snippets of the set to be made available afterwards.

For the three decades Glastonbury has been televised, there have always been artists who object to their sets being broadcast to the nation and the world, whether out of a desire not to give their best material away for free, a wariness of becoming over-exposed or a fear of debuting new material midway through tours. Young follows the likes of Elvis Costello, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and, erm, Neil Young.

Young made his displeasure about the BBC’s involvement in Glastonbury widely known in January, when he pulled out of headlining the festival (before it had even been revealed that he would play) because the broadcaster “wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in” and “it seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being”.

Neil Young made his displeasure about the BBC’s involvement in Glastonbury widely known on his website in January - Neil Young/PA Wire

He wrote on his website: “We will not be playing Glastonbury on this tour because it is a corporate turn-off, and not for me like it used to be. Hope to see you at one of the other venues on the tour. Love Neil.”

Within two days he had reversed course and claimed that there had been “an error in the information received”. The headline slot was back on, but Young’s brinkmanship seems to have ensured that his set would not be broadcast against his wishes.

“Neil Young is an artist who’s very close to our hearts at Glastonbury,” organiser Emily Eavis said in January. “He does things his own way and that’s why we love him. We can’t wait to welcome him back here to headline the Pyramid in June.”

The last time Young played Glastonbury was 2009, and there was a similar row about what would be broadcast then as well. After much to-ing and fro-ing, he reluctantly allowed five songs from his set to be aired before the TV feed cut away – sparking a barrage of complaints from angry viewers. This time around, he seems to have avoided even making that compromise.

There is a sense among some in the music industry that Young has been allowed to dictate his terms at Glastonbury because the festival’s founder, Michael Eavis, adores his work and this booking is something of a birthday present for the dairy farmer.

“Neil Young is one of my dad’s favourite artists of all time, and mine,” Emily Eavis told Cosmopolitan this week. “We’ve sort of grown up with him. He played in 2009, and it was an incredible set, so getting him back has been a really important thing for us – and especially in my dad’s 90th year to have him back singing all his beautiful songs will be something very special.”

That 2009 show was the culmination of decades of lobbying on the part of the Eavises to get the Heart of Gold and Rockin’ in the Free World star down to Worthy Farm. He had been booked to perform in 1997, but was forced to pull out after cutting his finger while making a ham sandwich on the eve of his European tour. At the time, he joked: “I’d have eaten the thing in one piece if I’d known that cutting it in half would jeopardise the tour. It’s macaroni and cheese from now on.”

Michael Eavis, Glastonbury founder, is said to adore Neil Young’s work - Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images

“Neil Young to play this year is a dream come true for me personally. He is one of my all-time favourites and we have always wanted him to play,” Mr Eavis said when he finally got Young to play 16 years ago. “Every year people come to the festival and ask the same question: ‘When is Neil Young playing?’ So this is big news for us. I’ve seen him play many times over the years but I think he’s better than ever at the moment, it’s one hell of a show.”

Before Young

The tension between Young, Glastonbury organisers and the BBC cuts to the heart of what Britain’s biggest music festival ought to be. More than 200,000 revellers make the pilgrimage to Worthy Farm, but it has become a national institution and cherished just as much by those on their sofas at home as those there in person. To quote Lorna Clarke, the BBC’s director of music: “Glastonbury is theirs and the BBC brings it to them.”

Glastonbury only started being televised, on Channel 4, in 1994. The BBC took over the rights three years later, and the jamboree has become one of the Corporation’s biggest events. Hundreds of staff descend on Somerset for the week and its scale is comparable to World Cup or Olympics coverage. Without Glastonbury, the BBC would find a huge hole in its summer schedules, and it is particularly important this year as there is no international men’s football tournament being staged.

Young is far from the only star who does not want their Glastonbury set broadcast to the nation and the world, whether out of a desire not to give their best material away for free, a wariness of becoming over-exposed or a fear of debuting new material midway through tours.

Elvis Costello started the mini-tradition of artists refusing to film his set in 1994 - Jim Dyson/Getty Images

Elvis Costello started the mini-tradition of artists refusing to film his set in 1994 when he banned Channel 4 from doing so because, apparently, the request to do so had been made too late. Instead, viewers at home saw Mark Radcliffe addressing the camera as the sun set while strains of Costello’s performance could be heard in the distance.

More recently, The Rolling Stones only allowed one hour of their bravura 2013 headline set to be broadcast. “I think Mick Jagger wanted to play to the people here, rather than a TV show,” Mr Eavis said after the tortuous negotiations.

The drama of David Bowie’s 2000 set – widely regarded as one of the greatest in the festival’s history – is perhaps the most famous instance of a star refusing to let the cameras capture the magic. BBC bosses were inundated by letters from viewers who were angry that the performance had been abandoned in favour of a short film about underground theatre at the festival presented by Jools Holland.

David Bowie’s 2000 Glastonbury set is widely regarded as one of the greatest in the festival’s history - Dan Chung/Reuters

For the rest of his life, Bowie refused permission for the whole set to be released; a recording was first made available in 2018, two years after he died, and was not broadcast on TV in full until 2020, when the pandemic cancelled the festival.

Cause for concern

Young is not the only cause for concern among BBC bosses at the festival this week. Kneecap, the controversial Irish republican rap trio, are playing their highest-profile gig since one of their members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, appeared in court charged with a terror offence.

The 27-year-old, who goes by the stage name Mo Chara, was released on unconditional bail last week after being accused of displaying the flag of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah and chanting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” at a gig last November.

Both the Prime Minister and Culture Secretary have called for the band to be dropped from the festival bill and urged the BBC not to broadcast their performance. Kneecap’s set, at 4pm on Saturday, ends before coverage gets underway on BBC Two at 5pm, but footage from the West Holts stage is likely to be streamed live on iPlayer.

“As the broadcast partner, the BBC will be bringing audiences extensive music coverage from Glastonbury, with artists booked by the festival organisers,” the BBC said. “Whilst the BBC doesn’t ban artists, our plans will ensure that our programming will meet our editorial guidelines. Decisions about our output will be made in the lead up to the festival.”

What BBC bosses would not give for Kneecap to adopt Young’s attitude to gigs being broadcast – and for Young to crave attention like the young Irishmen.

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