Beyonce, others enjoy "Glastonbury effect" in UK charts (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – Beyonce heads the British album charts at the midweek stage, with "4" outselling its nearest rival by three to one boosted by her weekend appearance at Glastonbury, sales data showed on Wednesday.

According to the Official Charts Company (OCC), the 29-year-old R&B star is set to top the ranking by the end of the week, which would be her second British number one.

She was one of several acts to enjoy the "Glastonbury effect," where media exposure of one of the world's biggest music festivals boosts performers who appear.

The event ran from Wednesday to Sunday, with U2, Coldplay and Beyonce grabbing most of the limelight with their headline slots on the final three days.

Besides her new album, Beyonce's single "Best Thing I Never Had" was on course to enter at number six, one of seven tracks by the singer in the Top 75.

Among others to benefit from Glastonbury with big gains in the album rankings were Chase & Status, Mumford & Sons, Aloe Blacc, Noah & The Whale, Plan B, Elbow and Coldplay.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Mud rivals music at Glastonbury festival (Reuters)

PILTON, England (Reuters) – Mud matched the music as the abiding memory at this year's Glastonbury festival, where U2, Coldplay and Beyonce played the top slots and 180,000 people braved boggy conditions to hear their favorite

acts.

Getting from one stage to another on the 900 acre site in southwest England was a major undertaking, requiring the "zombie walk" that did not prevent rain boots being sucked off people's feet and dozens of fans ending face first in the mud.

Patience paid off and raincoats were ditched for bikinis when the sun came out on Saturday and Sunday, making the festival site easier to navigate.

"I think the main memory has to be the mud," said Matt Bennett, in his early 20s, sitting at the Other Stage and basking in the hot sunshine.

His friend Amy Mortimer added: "You do get used to it, and once the sun came out you could concentrate on the music."

Michael Eavis, founder of Glastonbury who owns the picturesque dairy farm where the event has been held most years since 1970, praised the stoic spirit of festival-goers.

"We managed to survive in the most adverse conditions," he told reporters. "We are survivors after 41 years."

There will be no Glastonbury in 2012, Olympic year in Britain. Eavis said he already had three major acts lined up for the 2013 edition, but he would not name them.

U.S. superstar Beyonce Knowles was the closing performer late on Sunday, making her Glastonbury debut three years after husband Jay-Z proved a surprise hit.

Jay-Z was in the boisterous crowd of tens of thousands as Knowles gave a high octane performance of her own hits, cover versions and a medley of well-known tracks by her old band Destiny's Child.

"I want you all to know right now you are witnessing my dream," she called out. "I always wanted to be a rock star and tonight we are all rock stars ... I want you to get lost in this music tonight."

U2 PROTEST, POLITICIAN DEATH

On the eve of the festival, Eavis had bemoaned the lack of political activism at Glastonbury in recent years, reflecting some people's feeling that it was being taken over by middle class music fans out solely to enjoy themselves.

He got his wish in the form of a small protest during Irish rockers U2's Friday night concert held in the driving rain.

A pressure group called Art Uncut inflated a large balloon with the words "U Pay Tax 2?" in protest against the band's decision several years ago to relocate its operations from Ireland to the Netherlands for tax purposes.

Campaigners complained of rough handling by security guards who forced them to take the balloon down, but Eavis shrugged off the criticism, saying the story had been exaggerated.

"It was only one balloon," he said. "It was all churned up as being a huge thing, but it wasn't at all."

Headliners Coldplay, "surprise guests" Pulp, blues veteran B.B. King, London rapper Tinie Tempah and Manchester rockers Elbow were all named as favorite acts by fans and critics.

Hundreds of other bands fought for attention in venues across the site, and a handful of celebrities braved the conditions including soccer star Wayne Rooney and supermodel Kate Moss, who watched her fiance Jamie Hince of The Kills.

Casting a shadow over the event, Christopher Shale, chairman of West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, was found dead in a portable toilet in the VIP camping area on Sunday morning.

Prime Minister David Cameron said he and his wife Samantha were "devastated" at the loss of their friend.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

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All eyes on Beyonce as muddy Glastonbury nears end (Reuters)

PILTON, England (Reuters) – Pop star Beyonce takes the main stage at Glastonbury on Sunday as the closing act, hoping to repeat husband Jay-Z's success in 2008 and help a huge crowd banish thoughts of mud and the long trip home.

Around 180,000 people crammed on to Worthy Farm in picturesque southwest England for three days of music and fun at one of the world's biggest music festivals. The abiding memory for many this year will be the mud.

Heavy rain on Friday and before turned the 900 acre site into a giant bog, but it failed to dampen the mood among music lovers who came to see a bewildering choice of hundreds of acts across dozens of stages.

"We managed to survive in the most adverse conditions," said festival founder Michael Eavis. "We are survivors, after 41 years," he told reporters.

The sunshine broke out on Sunday and bikinis replaced raincoats as the festival geared up for its Sunday night climax.

Jay-Z headlined in 2008, causing controversy among some of British rock's biggest names who said hip-hop had no place at the revered event. But the performer silenced his critics and rap is now a major part of the Glastonbury schedule.

Fans speculated that Jay-Z might join Beyonce on stage and that she may also reunite with members of her former band Destiny's Child.

Eavis was briefly distracted by questions about the death of a senior member of Britain's ruling Conservative Party, who was found in a luxury accommodation area on Sunday morning.

He did not name the deceased, but British media said he was Christopher Shale, chairman of West Oxfordshire Conservative Association. Initial reports gave the cause of death as a heart attack, but Eavis said he understood it was suicide.

U2 PROTEST GRABS HEADLINES

Friday night's headliners U2 impressed critics with a string of their greatest hits performed in the driving rain.

A small pressure group called Art Uncut inflated a large balloon with the words "U Pay Tax 2?" in protest against the band's decision several years ago to relocate its operations from Ireland to the Netherlands for tax purposes.

Campaigners complained of rough handling by security guards who forced them to take the balloon down, but Eavis shrugged off the criticism, saying the story had been exaggerated.

"It was only one balloon," he said. "It was all churned up as being a huge thing, but it wasn't at all."

"We didn't want to upset anyone," he said, adding that U2 lead singer Bono had been aware of the protest. "It was all done very, very gently."

Coldplay played the main Pyramid stage slot on Saturday, watched by tens of thousands of people as they worked their way through a set of songs old and new.

Pulp were surprise guests on the smaller The Park stage, and drew a record crowd there of around 30,000. London rapper Tinie Tempah was one of the most popular performers this year, as were the Chemical Brothers, blues veteran B.B. King and Elbow.

Glastonbury has grown from a humble gathering of 1,500 people on Eavis's dairy farm in 1970, each paying one pound ($1.60) and receiving free milk, to a giant celebration of music costing 195 pounds for a basic ticket.

There will be no festival in 2012, but Eavis said he already had three major acts lined up for 2013.

(Editing by Jan Harvey)

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U2, Coldplay, Beyonce lead line-up at Glastonbury (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – The Glastonbury festival opened its gates on Wednesday to 150,000 fans ignoring forecasts for rain and muddy fields to hear U2 and Beyonce alongside a bewildering choice of smaller acts from Spliff Richard to punk poet Attila the Stockbroker.

Now in its fifth decade, the event has grown from a humble gathering of 1,500 people on Michael Eavis's Worthy dairy farm in 1970, each paying one pound ($1.60) and receiving free milk, to a giant five-day celebration of music costing 195 pounds for a basic ticket.

The main talking point in the build-up to the festival, held most years on a sprawling site set in picturesque southwest England, is the weather, and the outlook this year looks more mixed than the sun-baked 2010 edition.

Heavy rain means shin-deep mud, leaking tents and sodden crowds, but Britain's Met Office is predicting sunshine, clouds and light rain at the event which ends on Sunday night, and punters are advised to pack sun cream as well as raincoats.

The biggest shows kick off on Friday, when the main Pyramid stage will host blues guitar legend B.B. King and contrarian Manchester singer Morrissey in the lead up to Irish rockers U2, the opening headline act.

The band had been scheduled to perform in 2010, but were forced to cancel when lead singer Bono injured his back.

Drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. said the set, before a crowd of some 100,000 standing on a grass slope leading down to the stage, posed a new challenge for the group, which has honed its live act on a record-breaking world tour that is still ongoing.

"It's not the 360 Degree show, we're out of our comfort zone and that's important for us," he told BBC Radio.

"Despite everything we have something to prove and it's about the songs. It's about a band being able to get up and play the music and there aren't bells and whistles necessarily. That's a challenge for us and we've got something to prove."

Coldplay, who fill the headline slot on Saturday night and release a new album soon, confessed to some nerves, despite, like U2, being one of the biggest bands on the planet.

Glastonbury is part of an increasingly crowded live music calendar in Britain, but remains the "mighty mother of all festivals" in the words of music website Pitchfork.

"It's one of the few shows that we'll get really nervous about," said Coldplay drummer Will Champion. "When we're doing our own stuff there's a very set routine ... At a festival it's different," he told BBC, the festival's official media partner.

According Eavis's daughter and Glastonbury co-organizer Emily, Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin helped the festival secure Beyonce Knowles for the final headline slot on Sunday, which brings the curtain down on the event.

Knowles' husband Jay-Z performed at the event in 2008, a choice which upset some members of the British rock establishment like Oasis, who argued that Glastonbury was not the place for U.S. hip-hop.

The rapper answered his doubters with a rousing set, and the choice of Beyonce this year barely raised an eyebrow.

Pop pundits have singled out performers including Tinie Tempah, Plan B, Paul Simon, Primal Scream, Mumford & Sons, The Chemical Brothers, White Lies, Queens of the Stone Age, Cee Lo Green and Ke$ha as ones to watch across dozens of stages.

Michael Eavis recently lamented the decline of political activism at Glastonbury, which he conceded was an event not everyone could afford, and those who could came chiefly "to have a good time.

"It gives Glastonbury soul and gives it back its purpose," he said.

"I place these values very highly, and recently I've been lamenting a bit of a decline. Tickets are good value, but not everyone can afford them. I hate to admit it, but the political platform has been reducing."

Some of that spirit may be restored if Art Uncut, a small pressure group lobbying for funding for arts and public services in Britain, manage to drum up support for their "Bono Pay Up!" protest at this year's festival.

The group plans to demonstrate against U2's decision several years ago to move part of its operations to the Netherlands from Ireland for tax purposes, a move that split opinion among fans.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Glastonbury gig for Wombles upsets festival founder (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – The founder of the Glastonbury music festival is unhappy that novelty 1970s act "The Wombles" had been booked to appear at this year's event, the BBC reported on Thursday.

Michael Eavis said booking the band, based on the furry characters who tidied up litter on London's Wimbledon Common in the children's books and TV show of the same name, was "a bit of a mistake."

"I've got about 25 stages and managers and bookers for each of the stages. I can't control every single one of them but I do get cross about that kind of thing," the BBC quoted Eavis as saying.

The Wombles, who had a series of hits during the 1970s such as "Remember you're a Womble," will join the likes of U2, Coldplay, Beyonce and Morrissey at the festival which runs from June 24-26. The band will be performing on the Avalon stage.

"He probably doesn't realize what a fantastic live act the Wombles are," the band's creator Mike Batt told the BBC.

"Uncle Bulgaria (one of the characters) told me he thinks Mr Eavis is probably perfectly aware that festivals like his are so popular because they offer an eclectic mix for everybody."

(Reporting by Michael Holden, editing by Paul Casciato)

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