Glastonbury returns to roots with Springsteen

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Bruce Springsteen will be the main headline act at this summer's Glastonbury Festival, it will be announced today.

The American heartland rocker, nicknamed "The Boss", had been widely rumoured to take the top spot on the festival's pyramid stage in what has been received as a "return to roots" for Britain's best-known music event.

Last year's choice of headliner - rapper Jay-Z - ignited resentment among traditionalists who felt the Somerset event was straying from its guitar-based heritage, and was blamed for slow ticket sales. Michael Eavis, the Somerset farmer who has hosted the event since 1970, was vindicated when performance was lauded by critics, many of whom judged the festival one of the best of recent years.

But the following day Eavis indicated that while he was pleased critics were won over by Jay-Z, he hoped Glastonbury 2009 would "revisit its musical roots". Yesterday he seemed satisfied. "I'm so pleased that Bruce Springsteen has agreed to come to Worthy Farm for the first time. He's one of the all-time rock legends," he said, adding, as always: "I'm confident that this will be one of our best shows ever."

Springsteen's accessible rock anthems - epitomised by the 1984 hit Born in the USA - is unlikely to spark controversy. His progressive politics and vocal support for Barack Obama in the US elections are also likely to endear him to a festival known for its liberal outlook. If anything, there may be complaints that this year's musical line-up, spearheaded by a 59-year-old New Jersey rocker whom a fair proportion of festival-goers would place in the category of "Dad music", is too old.

The other acts rumoured but not confirmed to headline the pyramid stage are Neil Young, the 63-year-old Canadian folk-rock singer, and a reformed Blur, the band who helped define the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Most of the band are now in their 40s.

Michael Eavis's daughter, Emily, who co-runs the event and lobbied hard for Jay-Z's inclusion last year, indicated that the rest of the roster would, as always with Glastonbury, boast the full panoply of music styles. She confirmed that several bands who "self-announced" their presence at the event, such as Florence and The Machine, The Ting Tings, Doves and Franz Ferdinand, are indeed playing.

Tickets for this year's festival have now sold out but a limited number of cancelled tickets will go on sale at 9am on 5 April.


Glastonbury returns to roots with Springsteen | Music | The Guardian