George Ezra’s Friday evening set was described as a “sunbeam blast of charisma” by the Guardian’s Laura Snapes, proving irresistible to a crowd very much in the mood for genial summer anthems like Shotgun – which prompted one of the biggest singalongs of the weekend. We chatted to him backstage.
Hello George! Now you’ve hit the big time, weren’t you tempted to arrive in a helicopter?
No! Noooo! I really wanted to camp but I was told that staying in a tent wasn’t the best idea.
Is that because you’re too famous now?
Well, after my last record, I’m kind of in the public eye in a whole new way. It’s definitely dying down, which is good, but I guess you don’t want to tempt fate. I want to be able to enjoy myself, so I’m just 10 minutes down the road in a tent in the field.
You’re in a tent?
Look, I’m in a nice tent thing, I’m not roughing it. The first year I played, I roughed it and loved it. But once you’ve had a taste of the other side, it’s hard to go back. I’ve got lots of friends and family with me: my mum and dad are here, and my brother’s playing on Sunday night too.
You’ve played a lot of festivals. What have you learned?
When you see old footage of Woodstock, all the people there were in their own world. They were sat down, talking, dancing. As a musician, you’re just one part of that. Glastonbury is the only festival where it feels like, for the audience, the event itself is so much more important than a set. As a performer, it’s a really beautiful feeling to walk on stage because it feels like you’re part of something.
Are you going to go out after your set and enjoy yourself?
Oh yeah, and tomorrow and the night after probably. I went out last night too.
Last night? That’s wild!
My tactic this year has been to treat it like any other show. In the past, I wouldn’t have had a few drinks the night before a big show. But I did and I just thought: “Well, actually, I love our set and I love our band and there’s really not much to overthink with an hour-long set.” It’s really short. We call it the “power hour”.
Are you going to play all the hits at the beginning, or save the bangers until last?
We still have to be economical with our songs. If we played our biggest hits, it would just be two songs and the audience would definitely filter out!
That’s very self-depreciating.
You can’t be too precious: there are songs we’ve had to lose for the set, but it doesn’t matter. Honestly, you just think: “It’s not about me today.” There’s hundreds of acts on. There are kids who will have their minds blown by someone they’ve not even heard of yet.
There were people at the Pyramid stage at 9am to get a good spot to see you. How does that make you feel?
That’s very sweet but my advice would be not to do that. Because they’ll be missing other stuff.
They just want to be close to you.
They’re not going to be close to me. There’s a huge pit between me and them.
This is your biggest ever billing. Does it matter to you where you are?
Yes. But only in that I’d want to do anything but headline.
Really? But you’re almost headlining this year!
In three or four albums’ time, headlining the Other stage would be incredible. Maybe it’s a lack of confidence, but that slot as a headliner – I’m just not there yet. I interviewed Emily Eavis for my podcast and I asked her if anyone had ever turned down a headline slot, because I would. She just chuckled.
