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Man petitioning Kanye’s Glastonbury set speaks

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 18 March 2015

The guy who set up that petition calling for Kanye West’s Glastonbury headline slot to be cancelled, and for a rock band to be scheduled in his place, has spoken to the NME about his campaign.

Although he says that the petition, which has now gained over 30,000 signatures, really began as a joke, Neil Lonsdale’s “banter” does seem to come from a place of genuine anger. Largely, it seems he’s annoyed that for his first ever Glastonbury experience, come the Saturday night he will be forced to choose between seeing Kanye West perform or going to bed. There being no other options whatsoever at the multi-stage, multi-faceted uber-fest.

“I fought the temptation to scream and instead opted to hurl my iPhone across the room”, he said of the moment he heard the news of West’s booking. “Two years ago we had The Rolling Stones playing the Saturday night, and this year we get Kanye West? It’s an outrage!”

Despite his stated desire for a rock band to headline in place of Kanye, Lonsdale said that he had no specific problem with hip hop. “My beef is not with the genre. My beef is with the stage and the fact it’s a headline slot … Glastonbury needs upbeat major artists. Glastonbury is an institution. It is expected that it has the biggest names. The biggest performers. Kanye does not represent that”.

Lonsdale also noted that West “totally disrespected” Beck at the Grammys, and that his performance at the BRIT Awards, surrounded by numerous members of the British hip hop community, was “just threatening”.

So, once again, he doesn’t dislike hip hop, he just finds it threatening. Michael Eavis though, not threatened at all.

You can read the NME’s full chat with Lonsdale here. Though if you were really concerned about this year’s Glastonbury headline bookings, you’d ignore him entirely and just sign this petition right away. Ban this sick filth!