Brit Beat: BBC Gears Up for Biggest Glastonbury Broadcast Yet

BBC

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for U.K. festival-goers: Glastonbury Festival returns this weekend. 

Most of the 200,000-strong crowd – including a large chunk of the U.K. music industry – are already on site at Worthy Farm but, for those unable to get a ticket, the BBC is promising more coverage than ever. 

The corporation scored record viewing figures for Glastonbury 2023, with Sir Elton John pulling in 7.6 million viewers for his Sunday night farewell performance. But the BBC’s head of popular music TV, Jonathan Rothery, says he doesn’t feel any pressure to beat those stats. 

“Record figures are always good but as long as we’re entertaining people, it’s good,” Rothery tells Variety. “Glastonbury coverage ain’t broke so we don’t need to fix it, and whatever we add needs to be to the benefit of the viewer. The thing I’m avoiding is creep, and things just growing year-on-year for the sake of it.” 

The BBC’s iPlayer streaming on demand platform is adding a second Glastonbury channel this year, which will feature a rolling line-up of festival highlights and talking point sets for the more casual audience, while Glastonbury-related coverage – commissioned by BBC Director of Music Lorna Clarke, with TV coverage produced by BBC Studios Music Productions – started on June 3 and runs across TV, iPlayer, radio and BBC Sounds until July 14. And, for the first time ever, two headline performances (Dua Lipa on Friday and Coldplay on Saturday) will be livestreamed worldwide on BBC.com. 

SZA completes the headliner line-up and Glastonbury TV presenter Clara Amfo says she’s pleased to see two female headliners after controversy over last year’s nearly all-male bill-toppers (Guns N’ Roses keyboard player Melissa Reese being the exception).

“Seeing someone like Dua headline on the Friday is really exciting,” Amfo tells Variety. “Ten years ago, or maybe a bit longer, there were definitely people who would have pooh-poohed the idea of a pop star having the gravitas and the pull to hold down that slot. There’s still that mundane conversation about ‘real music’ being only four guys with guitars, and what constitutes a great headliner is so much more layered than that. I’m delighted there are lots of women on the line-up.” 

This year’s festival will face stiff competition for attention with soccer tournament Euro 2024 and a chaotic General Election campaign entering its final week. 

“If the linear broadcast has to work around certain big news events or football matches, we’ve still got eyeballs straight to iPlayer,” says Rothery. “It gives me good comfort knowing there’s a great user journey and you can watch whatever you want, whenever you want.” 

Meanwhile, Amfo declares that, with great viewing figures, comes great responsibility as she and her fellow presenters – including Lauren Laverne, Jo Whiley and Jack Saunders – guide the nation through the festival. 

“Our thing is never, ‘Na-na-na-na-na, we’re here and you’re not’,” she says. “I don’t like that. It’s impossible for everyone to go, so it’s our duty to be like, ‘We’re delighted to be here, we know how lucky we are, so let’s share that excitement with you and make it as interactive as possible.’” 

“Glastonbury is now this cultural moment,” Rothery adds. “It’s not like a drama or a piece of social media content you could leave alone or wait for word of mouth on; it’s there and it’s immediate, and that’s why we’re getting so many people watching. It’s the Wimbledon [tennis tournament] of music and long may it continue.” 

Outside of Glastonbury, both Rothery and Amfo are doing their bit to get more music on TV. 

Amfo recently stepped down from her hugely influential “Future Sounds” BBC Radio 1 show, but still features on the station, including its recent Dua Lipa special. But she has also fronted ITV’s BRIT Awards coverage (saying she’d love to return in 2025 if asked) and the channel’s Studio Sessions, a live performance and chat show that featured the likes of Jess Glynne and Yungblud in its first season. 

“We’ve had the figures back and they’re looking good,” Amfo says. “I’m as addicted to TikTok as the next person, but there’s something to be said for watching your favorite singer perform a few songs and delve a bit deeper into their real opinions. More performance telly!” 

Since returning to the BBC from Channel 4 two years ago, Rothery has overseen more TV content, including documentaries and BBC2 themed nights, plus the visualization of radio franchises and events such as Radio 1’s Big Weekend and Radio 2 In Concert. 

“Music TV has been on this circular journey,” he says. “It’s a genre that’s punching above its weight, whether that’s in the live events space like Glastonbury or in the docs space. There’s a real will at the BBC to place music and do it well.” 

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Meanwhile, one of last summer’s biggest U.K. live events is coming to the big screen. 

“Blur: To the End”, a new fly-on-the-wall documentary charting the band’s 2023 reunion album and tour, culminating with two headline shows at London’s Wembley Stadium, hits U.K. cinemas on July 19, with a U.S. release to follow. A full concert film, “Blur: Live at Wembley Stadium” has also been made and will be released on Sept. 6. 

Both films have been directed by Toby Langley, better known as Toby L, also co-founder of the independent Transgressive Records label. Transgressive has previously released non-Blur projects by the band’s frontman (Damon Albarn) and guitarist (Graham Coxon) and L has also directed music-related films such as “Liam Gallagher: Knebworth ‘22” and “Olivia Rodrigo: Sour Prom”. 

The director says it was important that the Blur documentary showed the true story of the band’s reunion. 

“There are too many stage-managed documentaries,” he says. “I’m not a fan of glossy docs, because is it real life or is it not? If it’s not, just do a hyper-real, fictionalized version of your life, don’t fucking pretend this is a documentary, it’s a different thing. Thankfully, Blur are of a certain disposition of honesty and truth where they’re like, ‘Yeah, we want this to be fucking real’.” 

The end result is both hilariously funny and surprisingly emotional as the Britpop band overcome early tensions to rediscover the spark and bond that made them one of the biggest bands in Britain during the ‘90s. 

“When I saw them first get in a room together, it felt like “Avengers Assemble”,” says L, whose first gig as a child was Blur at Wembley Arena. “These four superheroes with completely different personalities and talents that emerge and become this unit, then retreat into their own worlds again.” 

The band’s comeback album, “The Ballad of Darren” hit No.1 in the U.K. last year but, despite the success of the record and the tour, it’s unknown whether the band will carry on – and the documentary deliberately leaves things open. 

“Does it matter?” asks L. “These moments live forever, because you can keep retelling and watching them. Ultimately, the band members have their own view on whether the band will continue or not, and that’s for them to work out. But I personally can enjoy the ambiguity.” 

L says he’d love to work with Rodrigo again (“She’s the real fucking deal, the full package”), but intends to concentrate on “the day job” in Transgressive’s 20^th anniversary year. A series of special releases, gigs and events will celebrate the milestone starting at Glastonbury Festival this weekend and including a New York City Party at The Knitting Factory on September 24. 

“We’ve now outlived Creation Records and that’s fucking nuts,” says L, who runs the label with fellow partners Tim Dellow and Lilas Bourboulon. “I feel very lucky and motivated to keep it going, because the industry’s gone insane again and no one has any answers. When we’re an underdog or things are tough, that’s when we make more sense as a company.”

“If you’re in it for the right reasons, both as an artist and a music company, there will always be a way to fight through, you’re just going to have fight a bit harder,” he adds. “With independents it’s always been that way. I’ve never had a month where I’ve sat back and thought, ‘Things are alright’. I’ve always worried about the next meal, and that’s OK.” 

The label, which also has publishing and management divisions, has released the highly acclaimed likes of Arlo Parks, the Mystery Jets and Sophie over the years and sold a minority stake to Firebird Music Holdings in 2022. But L says the team has no plans to sell up or pack things in anytime soon. 

“We’ll keep going as long as there’s a desire from everyone involved – the artists that want to work with us, the team behind the scenes and the audience that ultimately listens to the music,” he says. “We can be the biggest independent music company on the planet. I don’t mean that in an egotistical way, it’s just based on the knowledge we have, the relationships we’ve invested time, love and passion in, and our ethical approach. 

“That’s why Transgressive has survived,” he adds. “Because, putting business models and industry bullshit aside, it’s always been a pure entity.” 

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Legendary publicist Alan Edwards has seen most things in a 50-year music industry career that has seen him represent the likes of David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Prince, Blondie, the Spice Girls, Sex Pistols, Amy Winehouse and Luther Vandross. 

And he’s now written a a hugely entertaining and insightful book, “I Was There: Dispatches from a Life in Rock and Roll” about his experiences behind the scenes of the media and music industries. 

“I’m a bit like Forrest Gump,” Edwards quips. “I’m just there when these things happen. It was great to be on the side-lines to witness things happen which change the music industry.”

Edwards – founder of one of the U.K.’s leading PR firms, The Outside Organisation – has certainly seen plenty of momentous events. On his first day working as a PR for Keith Altham, he watched helplessly as legendary Who drummer Keith Moon trashed Edwards’ boss’ office. When Altham returned, he simply murmured: “Moon’s been in, has he?” 

“I thought, ‘Fucking weird job, this!’” laughs Edwards, who later formed his own agency and established a reputation as a punk PR, and now oversees a company that handles numerous high-profile global accounts. His book contains numerous tales about his celebrity clients – Debbie Harry looks after him on the road, ensuring he gets a hot meal; while Mick Jagger fires and then rehires him – but Edwards was determined it wouldn’t just be another tell-all rock’n’roll memoir. 

“I didn’t want to just tell a load of salacious stories, I wanted a bigger tapestry,” he tells Variety. “I’ve read books where you read four or five chapters, they go out with Lou Reed and then Geezer Butler and everyone gets off their heads… Yes, but what? What’s the context, what did it mean? I’ve lived through incredible changing times and I’ve seen some extraordinary things, so I was trying to tell a bigger story.” 

The industry has changed immeasurably since Edwards started out but, despite many record labels dispensing with in-house publicists and the decline of music magazines, he insists press and PR remain vital to music careers. 

“You need PR because, to stand out from all the hubbub, you need to be clever, interesting and have something to say – and very few artists are going to be able to craft all of that on their own,” he declares. “Not having a story is a false economy because, if you don’t develop a narrative, are you really going to sell [an artist] long term? I don’t think so…” 

Edwards admits PR is undervalued by the music biz (“When you open the trade mags and there’s a picture of everyone with the gold disc, the PR is very rarely there”), but says the industry’s obsession with “storytelling” should be left to the professionals.

“Storytelling is not just being a parrot or repeating what the manager told you,” he says. “A PR should be like a journalist, you’re investigating a story, dismantling it and then re-assembling it in a way that’s more interesting.” 

One client who understood that was Bowie, who Edwards worked with for decades in various capacities, right up until the star’s untimely death in 2016. In the book, Bowie often questions Edwards’ strategy, but it usually works out, although Edwards says he learned much more from Bowie than vice versa. 

“I learned a lot about technology from him,” he says. “When email came in, David was completely on it. He was ringing me up regularly to tell me off saying, ‘You’ve got to use this and embrace it’. He forced me all the time to stretch my thinking in practical ways,” he adds. “We need David Bowie here to tell us what’s going to happen in the next 50 years…” 

For now, Edwards is contemplating film and TV offers for the book, but says he has no plans to retire from his PR role. 

“I did try playing golf a couple of times and that didn’t go well,” he laughs. “This is such an interesting role to be in – I’ve got nothing else I’d rather do.” 

“I Was There: Dispatches from a Life in Rock and Roll” is out now, published by Simon & Schuster.