Glasto Day 2

Iggy exclusive... and The Killers to headline

23 June 07 - Iggy Pop has given 6 Music an exclusive interview as he prepares to play a headline set at Glastonbury - his first time at the festival.

Iggy and the Stooges headline the Other Stage at 2300, and they'll be competing with The Killers who are topping the bill on the Pyramid Stage, while The Twang will be playing the John Peel Stage at the end of the day.

After a storming set at Meltdown and an astonishing bare-chested performance of I Wanna Be Your Dog on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, Iggy spoke with 6 Music at his London hotel before travelling down to Glastonbury. And he admitted to being a Glastonbury virgin.

"It's our first," he said. "I was surprised to be invited actually and I was rather pleased - I guess we're okay. I get the feeling that it (Glastonbury) is its own beast and that the music is, perhaps, even more secondary than in other festivals."

"I was surprised to be invited actually and rather pleased"
Iggy Pop on Glasto

With this year's new Stooges album, The Weirdness, following their reunion in 2003, the band have old classics and new material to play at Glastonbury. And even though it's his first, Iggy told 6 Music he's not too anxious.

"There's really nothing to get up and nervous about," he said. "The sheer number and magnitude of the acts they get is such that there's really no point in trying to go there to slaughter the competition, because you're not going to - you'll be overwhelmed."

He added: "Were it something draggier, I'd be more nervous. I'll be getting nervous by the time we work, you know."

But even though Iggy is a hero to loads of other bands playing Glastonbury this year, he won't be hanging out at the festival. "No, I'm going to catch a small plane at two in the morning to Poland - I have a gig the next day," he told 6 Music.

The Stooges' set will be broadcast on BBC4 tonight.

At 60, Iggy still managed to stage-dive at the Royal Festival Hall this week when the band played Jarvis Cocker's Meltdown festival. And he described the audience's reaction: "I'd say about half a second of shock, immediately followed by subdued glee. It was not expected - and it was dangerous in that particular set-up. The seats were sharp!"

And Iggy told us about hanging out with another music legend recently - Morrissey.

"He showed up at the Stooges' gig the other day in Los Angeles," said Iggy. "Nicely dressed, suit and tie, brought his photographer with him - it was very pleasant. We took a picture, I got one for my shelf, and it was nice to meet him, because he's rather good."

Iggy and The Stooges will return to the UK on 31 August, with a charity gig for the Children's Society. Rock The House Live is being staged at Harewood House in Leeds and will also feature The Horrors.

Saturday's Glastonbury bill also includes Editors, Maximo Park, Babyshambles, The Killers, The Kooks, Paul Weller, Lily Allen, Klaxons, Bat For Lashes and the Pigeon Detectives.

Lilly Allen was joined on stage by Lynval Golding, former guitarist with The Specials, to perform Specials classic Blank Expression, and then Terry Hall arrived to perform Gangsters with her, our 6 music reporter has said it's the best moment of the day so far.

Another highlight of the afternoon included The Bees performing an appropriate song of theirs called Wash In The Rain.

By Saturday afternoon, there had been 163 criminal offences recorded, compared to 154 at the last festival in 2005. Of these, 111 offences were drug-related.

There have also been 28 thefts from tents, and so far there have been 121 arrests compared with 112 in 2005.

And while there have been no major incidents on site, organisers have recorded 1,268 casualties, with 32 people needing to leave the festival for treatment. 

Andre Paine