Richard Hawley snubs “meaningless corporate” Glastonbury

In an interview with Gigwise, Sheffield son Richard Hawley has taken aim at what he sees as a “whitewashed and airbrushed” Glastonbury festival, claiming that he turned down a substantial offer to play there.

Hawley also lamented the loss of the “political” qualities of the festival, the demise of which he sees in the organisers’ decision to appoint The Rolling Stones as this year’s Saturday headliners, and said that he resented the idea of attendees paying for “the privilege to be trapped in a field and marketed to.”

Hawley told Gigwise: ”I’d rather do these gigs at Graves Park and say something to the people of Sheffield and South Yorkshire than do Glastonbury, which has become meaningless to me. I got offered a lot of money to play there and I turned it down because it doesn’t have any meaning. All of the political sides of it seem to have been whitewashed and airbrushed over. The Rolling Stones are playing and that just seems weird to me if you think about what it’s supposed to be and what it’s become.”

He claims to have “hated every minute” of his appearances at the V Festival with Pulp, and that he prefers a more “free and organic” atmosphere, the like of which he is perhaps seeking in his performance with fellow old Pulp hand Jarvis Cocker as they play together at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre tomorrow.

Hawley’s remarks about the bureaucracy of the festival will find sympathetic ears, especially in light of the recent imbroglio that saw the Stones stand fast on their plans to only allow the BBC to broadcast four songs from their set.