Friday June 28, Other Stage: Making dedications to the people of Palestine and “the immigrants who built our country”, the Bristol punks make a claim to headline the Pyramid in the future “Any scumbags in the audience?” Joe Talbot leers at a seething Other Stage crowd by way of introducing the bovver boot chant ‘I’m Scum’. There’s a distinct sense that the outsiders have stormed the gates during IDLES ’ headline set, which pits them against fellow post-punks Fontaines D.C.
on the Park Stage. Perhaps the clash gives Talbot and the gang something to prove: this is a bravura show that pops with cartoonish rage and flows with compassion, righteousness..
. and even a few chuckles along the way. Talbot sports a shock of pink hair; guitarist Mark Bowen a sort of sheer onesie covered in roses.
The frontman proclaims of the aforementioned track: “This is for the people of Palestine and this is for you.” He repeatedly announces “Viva Palestina!”, incites a crowd to bellow “Fuck the King!” and demands a circle pit so massive it makes “the whole fucking field spin”. He almost gets his wish.
Idles at Glastonbury 2024. Credit: Andy Ford for NME IDLES are the Looney Tunes of punk – a fact that draws devotion and opprobrium in equal measure, and results in colourful, larger-than-life stagecraft. Guitarist Lee Keirnan is out in the audience by the second song and spends much of the show windmilling around the stage, hair flailing as he attacks his guitar lik.
