Noel Gallagher Dissing Jay-Z at Glastonbury

Umm.. I'm posting this but I'm not gonna pretend I care about it. Other than my hopes that the event will lead to a Jay-Z/Leonard Cohen collabo.

Some People Reportedly Still Listening When Noel Gallagher Talks
the independent

Noel Gallagher, the notoriously outspoken Oasis guitarist, criticised the organisers of the Glastonbury Festival yesterday for featuring the American rapper Jay-Z as a headlining act, declaring hip-hop "wrong" for the annual event.

Saying that the festival was "built on a tradition of guitar music", Gallagher said that the scheduled appearance of a rap star on the central Pyramid stage could be the reason why tickets for the summer festival had not yet sold out.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," he said. "If you start to break it then people aren't going to go. I'm sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance."

Gallagher added: "Glastonbury has a tradition of guitar music and even when they throw the odd curveball in on a Sunday night you go 'Kylie Minogue?' I don't know about it. But I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong..."

This year, there were 100,000 tickets sold for Glastonbury on the first day but in past years all tickets have sold out in a matter of hours. Oasis appeared as the headline act on the Pyramid Stage in 1995 and 2004.

The Somerset festival, which prides itself on its "inclusiveness", has showcased a dizzying range of musical acts since its inception in 1970, ranging from Al Green to Fat Boy Slim.

Writing in today's Independent Emily Eavis, co-organiser of the festival, defended the choice of musical acts following "hysteria in sections of the press", saying that, "Glastonbury must continue to evolve and develop".

She says: "Maybe what the critics have really revealed is something about attitudes that are still all too prevalent in Britain: an instinct to go back to base and play safe. An innate conservatism, a stifling reluctance to try something different.

"In the end, the hot air surrounding Jay-Z's performance will blow away."

Organisers also pointed out that the festival's nine other stages would undoubtedly cater for those who were not fans of the rapper, including acts such as the Verve, Kings of Leon, Leonard Cohen, Panic at the Disco, Goldfrapp and Jimmy Cliff.