Suzanne Vega has revealed that police “advised” her not to play her headline show at Glastonbury in 1989.
The singer-songwriter became the Somerset festival’s first ever female headliner with her Pyramid Stage set that year, but as she has confirmed in a new interview with The i, she had received death threats ahead of the performance.
“Scotland Yard sat me down and said, ‘We advise you not to do the show’. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” she recalled. Both Vega and her touring bassist had been the victim of death threats, the latest of which having arrived on the morning of the gig.
When she made it clear that she had no intention of pulling out of the show, she remembered that the police officer offered her his bulletproof vest, which she agreed to wear.
“A man from Scotland Yard took his and said, ‘You’ll have to wear this’. He was twice my size, so I had to gaffer tape myself into this giant bulletproof vest, and then put a denim jacket over it.”
“It felt like every song was 20 minutes long,” she continued. “It was not comfortable. We were all nervous.”
Nevertheless, the show went off without a hitch and Vega now reflects on the historic performance fondly. “I’m proud of being the first woman to headline,” she said. “There’s nothing diminished about that.”
Vega is best remembered for hits such as ‘Tom’s Diner’ and ‘Luka’, and last week (May 2) she released her first album in over a decade, ‘Flying With Angels’. She will also be touring around the UK in October and November – see the full list of dates here and find tickets here.
Female headliners have become a more common occurrence in recent years, with artists including Beyonce, Florence + The Machine, Adele, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and SZA all having filled the top slot on the Pyramid Stage since 2011.
This year’s Glastonbury, meanwhile, is set to return to Worthy Farm from June 25 to 29 and will feature another female headliner in Olivia Rodrigo, with Neil Young and The 1975 topping the bill on the other days.
Other big names across the weekend include Biffy Clyro, The Maccabees, Lucy Dacus, Father John Misty, RAYE, Wolf Alice, The Prodigy, Doechii, St. Vincent, Deftones, The Libertines, Wet Leg, Weezer, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Future Islands, JADE, TV On The Radio, Self Esteem, CMAT, Blossoms and Turnstile.
There’s a host of Glasto first-timers, too. These include Alanis Morissette, Noah Kahan, Lola Young, Myles Smith (winner of this year’s BRITs Rising Star award), Busta Rhymes, Brandi Carlile and Gary Numan.
