Glastonbury will honour Jackson

Bands playing at Glastonbury Festival this weekend are set to pay tribute to the King of Pop – Michael Jackson – who has died at the age of 50.

Festival organiser Emily Eavis, writing on the social networking site Twitter, called Jackson a “truly great artist”.

She added: “There will be tributes all over the site, all weekend”.

Gabriella Cilmi will sing a tribute to Jackson on the Pyramid Stage, where she will perform a cover version of his hit song Billie Jean on Friday.

Dave McCabe, singer with The Zutons, told the News more cover versions are inevitable: “Hopefully, ‘cos he’s got good songs and it’s always a winner.”

A Glastonbury spokesman said there was nothing formal planned to mark Jackson’s death, but said: “A lot of the performers will be talking about it during their sets”.

Many festival-goers learned of the news late last night as DJs scattered around the festival site began playing Jackson tracks.

One fan said: “They started playing loads of his music and we thought, ‘Oh, that’s really strange’ and then someone said, ‘Michael Jackson’s dead’ and we were like, ‘No way’.”

Another reveller added: “Everyone thought it was a joke at first – then people started watching the news and saw it was true.”

“Knocked sideways”

BBC Radio 1 presenter Jo Whiley is at the festival site and noted a muted mood at Worthy farm on Friday morning.

She said US artists performing later today, such as the Black Eyed Peas and N*E*R*D, would be “knocked sideways” by the news of Jackson’s death.

She added: “Everybody will be celebrating the music of Michael Jackson. You can guarantee tonight there will be loads and loads of Jacko coming out of sound systems here.”

Tommy Bowen, keyboard player for the band White Lies, who play the Other Stage on Friday, said most of the bands playing the festival “can’t help but be touched by what’s happened”.

He added: “He’s such an influential artist, I think many of the people here have been brought up on Michael Jackson.

“His music crosses musical boundaries, it’s a big shock.”

Artists including Lily Allen, Lady GaGa and Neil Young will all play at the festival later.