The Week in Light & Sound
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Other acts on this year's line-up include Afrobeats star Burna Boy, who is taking his first stride onto the Pyramid Stage; and award-winning rapper Little Simz, who will play immediately before Coldplay. Thirteen-piece boyband Seventeen will become the first K-pop group to grace the main stage - an indication of how dominant the genre has become over the last five years.
More traditional Glastonbury acts include Idles, Disclosure and The National - all of whom will headline the Other Stage, the festival's second-biggest arena. Sugababes, who shut down the Avalon field with a reunion performance in 2022, will return - this time on the much bigger West Holts stage. And pop stars Avril Lavigne, Cyndi Lauper and Camila Cabello will make their Glastonbury debuts.
Vault Closure - Vault Festival will close after failing to secure funding for a much-anticipated new central London home. Vault Creative Arts, the charity behind the festival, said the organisation had secured a "long-term home" close to its previous base in Waterloo - but money required to take the project off the ground had fallen through. Chief executive, director and co-founder Andy George said he was "devastated" by the loss and claimed the festival had been "undone" by a system that "fails and disenfranchises" artists.
Staff will be impacted by redundancies across the organisation, while donors who contributed to the Vault’s Christmas fundraising campaign will receive refunds. A planned fundraising gala to be held at Shoreditch Town Hall, hosted by comedian Sophie Duke, has also been cancelled. The move ends the mission of a fringe festival begun in 2012, which platformed more than 3,000 shows and presented work by more than 12,000 artists.
Art Deco Revival - An Art Deco theatre in Sussex is set to be revived by new owners after being closed for 50 years. Selsey Pavilion in Selsey, West Sussex, has been bought by the Selsey Pavilion Trust, which has promised the dawn of a "new era" for culture in the region. The trust is hopeful that the venue will see seasonal productions starting from the summer next year providing renovations proceed.
The venue closed as a theatre 50 years ago, and its distinctive stucco facade has remained almost entirely unchanged since it was first built in 1913. Designed by London architect Harold Arthur Woodington, it is one of only a handful of entertainment venues remaining from the period. The Pavilion staged several productions of award-winning playwright RC Sherriff’s Journey’s End during the 1930s, as well as a number of pantomimes, before its closure in 1964.
Bi-lingual - Ed Sheeran has sung in Punjabi for the first time during his concert in Mumbai, leaving fans stunned and setting social media ablaze. During the show the Sheeran invited the Indian singer Diljit Dosanjh to perform with him on stage. Crowds went wild when the duo gave a rendition of Dosanjh's hit track Lover in Punjabi.
Farewell - Steve Harley, the frontman of British rock band Cockney Rebel, has died at the age of 73. His best known song was Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) which went to number one in the charts in 1975. The musician had still been touring until recently, but cancelled dates to have treatment for cancer.
His family said Harley had "passed away peacefully at home", adding: "We know he will be desperately missed by people all over the world." Ultravox frontman Midge Ure, who produced Harley's 1982 track I Can't Even Touch You, said, "He toured until he could tour no more, playing his songs for fans old and new. Our songs live on longer than we ever can." RIP
(Jim Evans)
19 March 2024
