Gallagher slams Jay-Z

Oasis rocker Noel Gallagher slammed the booking of US rapper Jay-Z to headline Britain's Glastonbury Festival as "wrong" in a BBC interview on Monday, following slow ticket sales.

The hip-hop star is due to headline the world's largest greenfield music and performing arts festival, but he has been forced to quash rumours he was pulling out after being blamed for slow sales at the 27-29 June event.

"If it ain't broke don't fix it," said Gallagher, whose band headlined Glastonbury in 1995 and 2004, criticising the decision to book a hip-hop artist at a festival traditionally dominated by guitar and dance music.

"If you start to break it then people aren't going to go. I'm sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance. I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong."

His sentiments were echoed by fans on the website of music magazine NME.

"A headlining hip-hop act could be good but Jay-Z doesn't stand for any of Glastonbury's values; money, guns, cars, bling, I don't think so!" wrote one fan.

Organisers of the festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, southwestern England, which attracted 177 000 visitors last year, defended their decision and played down fears that Jay-Z was about to pull out.

"I spoke to his production people yesterday and everyone is gung-ho and totally upbeat about Jay's appearance here," Emily Eavis, daughter of festival founder Michael Eavis, told the Daily Mirror newspaper.

"We have lost some fairweather friends, yes. We've made a bit of a curveball decision. But we feel we've made a really important decision and we're absolutely going to stick by it because we think it's going to be amazing."

Tickets for the festival went on sale last week and in past years have sold out within hours. But many still remain for this year's event, which will also host perfomances by Amy Winehouse, The Verve, Massive Attack and Kings of Leon.

Last year's festival, a traditional Glastonbury mudbath, was headlined by Arctic Monkeys, The Killers and The Who.

AFP

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