The RHCP bassist has re-tweeted a drawing sketch of the Pyramid Stage via his official Twitter account
Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ bassist, Flea, has got fans speculating as to whether the California-formed band could potentially play Glastonbury Festival.
The guesswork game was triggered after Flea retweeted an image sketch of the Pyramid Stage created and originally shared by Glastonbury artist Stanley Donwood, yesterday evening (19th January) – as seen below.
Along with being responsible and creating the artwork for Glastonbury Festival, Donwood is known internationally for his creative and artistic input into the band Radiohead, whose work explores the darker and more mystical side of the natural world, folklore and society.
In his retweeted post, Flea simply added the comment “Yes”, which was enough to get the Glasto Rumour Mill speculations spinning in that direction.
— Flea (@flea333) January 19, 2023
Red Hot Chili Peppers were scheduled to play Glastonbury back in 1993 before it was reported that due to Flea’s chronic fatigue syndrome, they had to drop out – and eventually replaced by Lenny Kravitz that year.
While speaking to a crowd assembled at the Acoustic Stage back in 2019, the legendary Festival founder, Michael Eavis, responded to a question from the audience regarding the probably of Red Hot Chilli Peppers playing at the Worthy Farm event, to which he responded by saying: “Red Hot Chilli Peppers? That was years ago… And they didn’t turn up, do you remember? We’re not very forgiving for bands that don’t turn up.”
Looking at their 2023 summer tour dates, the band are set to play in Warsaw, Poland on Wednesday the 21st of June, followed by a performance at the Festival Odense, in Denmark on Saturday the 24th of June and then a gig in Mannheim, Germany on Monday the 26th of June.
However, in addition to already also announcing two UK shows for this year in London on the 21st of July and Glasgow on the 23rd of July, seeing that Glastonbury is set to run from Wednesday the 21st to Sunday the 25th of June, although not impossible, it would be quite the stretch for the band to try and also fit in a headliner slot at Glasto on one of their off-days – presumably the Friday of the Festival (23rd June).
Although rather tenuous, it’s worth mentioning that Flea could also appear as part of the supergroup Atoms for Peace, comprising of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano), the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, Radiohead’s producer Nigel Godrich (keyboards, synthesisers, guitars), the drummer Joey Waronker of Beck and R.E.M., and the percussionist Mauro Refosco – More on this as we hear it.
In other Glasto news, Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan appears to have confirmed the band for playing at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, after saying on his radio show that “Glastonbury is gonna be iconic”.
The news comes after the American hard rockers have been strongly rumoured for a Saturday night headline performance at the 2023 edition of the Worthy Farm-held event for quite some time, which has so far only officially confirmed one headliner in Elton John.
Aside from Sir Elton John, who will be taking to the Pyramid Stage on the Sunday night of the Festival, no other acts have yet been confirmed for Glastonbury 2023 – although Arctic Monkeys are the top talked-about contenders for headlining the iconic Stage on the Friday night.
Speaking of self-confirmations – Gabrielle Aplin also confirmed she will be playing the Avalon Stage at Glastonbury this summer on BBC Radio 2 earlier this week.
Elsewhere, Robbie Williams has once again expressed his desire for playing at the Festival after being asked what his thoughts are about doing the Legends Slot at the Worthy Farm event.
The Legends Slot, often seen as being the 4th headliner slot of the Festival, takes place on the last day of Glastonbury on the Sunday afternoon.
Previous Legends who took to the Pyramid Stage to perform at the coveted slot include Diana Ross (2022), Kylie Minogue (2019), Barry Gibb (2017) and Jeff Lynne’s ELO (2016), to name a few.
Other acts rumoured as being possible contenders for this year’s Legends Slot include Bon Jovi (whose guitarist Richie Sambora recently teased the “possibility” of the band playing at Glastonbury 2023), as well as Roxy Music (who are now actually said to be unlikely for playing the slot).
Meanwhile, the Spice Girls, who have also been mentioned countless times over the past years in the Legends Slot context, are unlikely to be playing Worthy Farm in 2023, after Victoria Beckham ruled out a Glastonbury appearance as part of a Spice Girls reunion, following long-time speculation fuelled by her former band mates.
Additionally, Emma Bunton, aka Baby Spice, also revealed in an interview last year with BBC Radio 2’s Dermot O’Leary, that the Spice Girls “have actually been asked” to play at the Festival – but said that they “won’t be doing it next year [2023]”.
Although the first line-up poster doesn’t usually get revealed until around March/April time, followed by the full line-up announcement sometime at the end of May/beginning of June – there are many artists who ‘self-confirm’ prior to the official announcements by divulging the news via interviews, social media or website listings to accompany the ever-growing rumours.
Along with Kraftwerk and Jack Johnson, some other acts rumoured for this year’s event include The 1975, who are once again mentioned in the Glastonbury context after speculation started building throughout the web when the Cheshire band confirmed new tour dates – leaving them wide open over the 2023 Glastonbury weekend.
Pulp revealed dates of their upcoming reunion tour scheduled for this summer – while leaving plenty of room for a Glastonbury performance.
Eminem (who is another act to yet step foot on Worthy Farm) was said to be in “advanced talks” to headline the Pyramid Stage at the Festival this year – now looks highly unlikely.
Rihanna‘s name had also been mentioned as a possible headliner for 2023, while Taylor Swift, however, effectively ruled herself out of the run for 2023 after announcing her long-rumoured return to the road – scheduled to hit U.S. stadiums beginning in March 2023 and running into August.
It is worth noting though that Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis did however say last year that all three headliners for the 2023 Festival have already been booked.
Therefore, some of these rumours are obviously to be taken for what they are, rumours – any insider claiming to know anything about anything, either has access to unreleased information or is outright mistaken.
Stay up to date with all the latest artists that have been officially confirmed, self-confirmed or are rumoured for Glastonbury 2023 via our daily updated line-up & rumours list.
Glastonbury 2023 takes place from Wednesday 21st to Sunday 25th of June 2023, and with both the main ticket sales, as well as the local & Sunday ticket sale now out of the way, the next option to bag tickets to this year’s Festival will be when the resale of any unpaid and/or cancelled tickets takes place in the Spring (around April time).
As part of Glastonbury’s ongoing efforts against ticket touting, anyone who would like to attend this year’s Festival will need to have registered in advance.
As in previous years, registration remains free of charge and only takes a few minutes at glastonburyregistration.co.uk.
Those who have already registered in the past can also check their existing registration here.
In addition to the upcoming ticket resales, some other opportunities for getting to Glastonbury include working at the Festival, volunteering and entering competitions – once these options make themselves available.
To learn more about registration, the sale process and how you can maximise your chances of getting Glastonbury 2023 tickets, click here.
Don’t be fooled
Glastonbury Festival would very much like fans to be aware that there are people out there who will try and sell fake Glastonbury tickets to unsuspecting, willing and innocent potential purchasers.
Although Glasto-veterans who have been going to the Festival for quite some time may recognise these scams for what they are, newcomers might not.
Therefore, please remember that tickets are only sold on one site, which is: glastonbury.seetickets.com.
