Sharing the limelight: possible festival collaborations for 2010

Who's going to join up at this year's summer soirees?

08 May 2010

Whether it’s pre-planned and worked on for months or it’s a drunken last minute request that should’ve been turned down, musical collaborations tend to take place on festival stages.

In 2000, who would have thought Stereophonics would turn the Reading main stage Welsh for the night when they were joined by Tom Jones? And no one saw Jack White coming when The Last Shadow Puppets played at Glastonbury, not at least himself who was relaxing backstage up until 45 minutes beforehand.

Last year The Boss and The Gaslight Anthem helped out each other onstage while Winehouse performed two tracks with The Specials at V Festival before gate-crashing a Babyshambles set, but who can we expect to see this year? Let’s have a look…

Dizzee Rascal and Florence and The Machine (Glastonbury Festival)
Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave this year, you will probably have come across Dizzee Rascal and Florence Welch’s mash-up ‘You Got The Dirtee Love’, performed and released at the BRIT Awards.

In previous years, Dizzee Rascal has collaborated on main stages across the country with Calvin Harris on the track ‘Dance Wiv Me’, Armand Van Helden with ‘Bonkers’ and Arctic Monkeys for ‘Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Mate’, so he’s not shy of sharing the limelight.

The Florence connection looks most likely to happen at Glastonbury where both appear on the Friday, spotters goggles out then…

Paramore and Weezer (Reading and Leeds Festival)
After a bus crash sidelined Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo in December, he still wasn’t a hundred per cent when they returned to the stage a month later in January. This led to some on stage assistance from Paramore’s Hayley Williams on smash hit ‘Say It Ain’t So’.

Hayley Williams tweeted afterwards expressing her excitement at taking the stage with Weezer, writing: "That show was ridiculous. Won't ever forget the first time I sang in 2010 was with Weezer."

It was the first, but may not be the last as Paramore are performing on the Main Stage at Leeds and Reading as the final support act to Blink182 on the Sunday. Who’s performing before them? You guessed it, Weezer.

Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson (Glastonbury Festival)
When you think of Snoop Dogg, country legend Willie Nelson isn’t the first person that comes to mind, but Snoop refers to Willie as his ‘smoking buddy’.

In 2008, Snoop Dogg released a song called ‘My Medicine’, which he dedicated to Johnny Cash on his ‘Ego Trippin’’ album. It had a country beat and heavily featured guitars - something right up Willie Nelson’s avenue.

The pair performed ‘My Medicine’ together in Amsterdam, along with collaborating on Willie Nelson’s ‘Super Man’. Coincidently (or not) the pair play back to back slots on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, surely they’ll team up?

Biffy Clyro and Queens Of The Stone Age (Reading and Leeds Festival)
Biffy Clyro’s new single ‘Bubbles’ carries additional guitars by Joshua Homme of Queens of the Stone Age.  In typical festival fashion, Biffy Clyro are due to play the Main Stage on the Friday night, immediately before Queens of the Stone Age.

It would be a crying shame if the band didn’t perform their latest song with the full recorded line-up now, wouldn’t it?

Slash and Lemmy from Motorhead (Download Festival)
Slash is an unknown quantity at festivals this summer. His debut solo album is complete and due for release early next month and is filled with star-studded guest slots including Foo Fighter’s Dave Grohl, Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale and international icon Ozzy Osbourne.

Slash has already announced that he will be performing his Guns n Roses classics, along with Velvet Revolver hits and songs from his new album.

Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge will be fronting the band which will consist of Bobby Schneck (Aerosmith) on rhythm guitar, Dave Henning (Big Wreck) on bass and Brent Fitz (Alice Cooper) on drums.

The collaboration possibilities are endless with Slash alone, however, the most likely line-up will see Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister joining the band on-stage for ‘Doctor Alibi’ as he did in the recording studio for upcoming album ‘Slash’.

World Cup Anthem ‘Three Lions’...
One highly-anticipated [erm…Ed.] collaboration we will have to make do without will be The Lightning Seeds performing football anthem ‘Three Lions’ alongside Baddiel and Skinner.

The Lightning Seeds are set to take to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, ahead of England’s second round game on the Saturday afternoon but Baddiel and Skinner have already bagged a trip to the football tournament thanks to a certain radio station. Shame.

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