As a result a series of rather quirky events Florence + the Machine has been chosen to headline at Glastonbury this Friday night. The place was originally taken by Dave Grohl, but after he recently broke his leg at a concert in Gothemburg, and the Foo Fighters pulled out, Florence was bumped up to take the spot. Even more weirdly, she recently broke her own foot on stage.
Florence spoke to The Guardian about her latest album, and the curious situation that she’s found herself in, as she prepares for what will be one of the biggest nights in her life.
“It’s the broken hearts and broken limbs that led to Glastonbury… It’s a strange and quite cracked way to get there. Literally. If I’d had six months knowning that I was going to do this [headline slot], I think I would have slowly descended into madness. But Glastonbury is such a powerful place that I feel we should get everyone in the crowd to use their healing powers – utilise the ley lines – to help Dave’s leg.”
Florence will also be performing at Splendour in the Grass, playing songs from her new album How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, as well as her old stuff. Fittingly, the new album is about breaking, crashing and falling, though in a more spiritual sense. Florence was thrown into fame, and the lifestyle that goes with it a young age. It’s only recently, with moving out of home that she’s realised that her life was falling apart. That she needed to grow and discover who she was as a person rather than rely emotionally on other people.
“I think living on my own for the first time showed me that I was actually quite sensitive, and was prone to highs and lows, and maybe needed to figure out a way of managing that a bit more, because when you’re left to your own devices and you find you can’t actually leave the house … some of it was desperate.”
The album has been an incredible success, you can read our review of it here. Let’s just hope that Glastonbury goes smoothly, and from now on all of the breaking and falling is metaphorical.