Glastonbury Premieres

And Eavis reveals Kylie may play 2007's event

13 April 06 - It's taken more than three years to make but finally Glastonbury: The Film hit the big screen in London last night.

Billy Bragg, Ed Simons from the Chemical Brothers and Rolf Harris were among the music names who hit the fake grass green carpet outside the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square.

The screening of the docu-film, which charts the 35-year history of the UK's biggest greenfield event was well received by fans and previous performers.

Also in attendence were festival organisers Michael Eavis and his daughter Emily, as well as the film's director Julian Temple - whose credits include The Sex Pistols' The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle.

Festival organiser Micheal Eavis told 6 Music:

"I saw it on Sunday and it's a thumping good film isn't it? It's such good fun and races through, you've got no idea you've gone through two hours, it seems like 40 minutes."

"it's a thumping good film isn't it?"
Micheal Eavis, Glastonbury organiser

He also added that last year's headline cancellation, Kylie, may be able to perform next year after recovering from the breast cancer that forced her to pull out last summer:

"She wants to do it actually, so I do hope she's fit enough. She really wants to do it, so fingers crossed and that sort of thing."

The Glastonbury doc features a mix of professional footage of bands performing with festival-goers' own home-made videos, including the daft private recordings of Damon Albarn, Damien Hurst and Keith Allen.

Interviews with Michael Eavis provide a loose narrative to the film, which is over two hours long, and moves through a three-day cycle like the timescale of the festival itself.

As well as the colourful scenes of spaced-out druids, fairies and hippies, the warts-and-all film also charts revellers' clashes with police over the years as well as gate-crashers trying to scale the fence - plus the stomach churning toilets and muddy quagmires that have become part of the Glastonbury legend.

Director Julian Temple says he was inundated with over 900 hours of film after putting out a public appeal, and last night told 6 Music he's only just stopped having nightmares about making his way through it - despite the movie being in the can for over six months.

Pulp's Candida Doyle and Nick Banks were also at the premiere, and the band's now legendary 1995 headline set (where they stepped in at the last minute to replace The Stone Roses) was among the highlights of the film.

Recalling their career-making moment, Candida told 6 Music:

"Oh, it was very special for Pulp. It really helped. When we did it it was just - well, words couldn't described what it was like."

And she also made the surprise revelation that veteran rocker Rod Stewart was the alternative choice for the replacement headline slot.

Meanwhile, other featured sets in the film included those by Primal Scream, Radiohead, Toots And The Maytals, Nick Cave, Bjork and Joe Strummer.

Despite strong rumours, there wasn't a surprise live performance at last night's screening from one of the acts featured in the movie - instead both Julian Temple and Michael Eavis gave short introductions to the film.

However, Glasto veterans The Levellers are still due to play the Bristol screening tomorrow (Wed), with Starsailor scheduled to play Leeds on Thursday and Belle And Sebastian set to hit the decks for a DJ set in Glasgow on Friday, with the film also getting a selected release at cinemas around the country.

Kellie Redmond