Irish rock giants U2 have been forced to pull out of this summer’s Glastonbury festival.
It was set to be one of the summer’s biggest live music events. U2 were confirmed to play an extremely rare British festival date, taking to the Pyramid Stage for the 40th anniversary of Glastonbury.
However it now seems as if the performance will not now go ahead. U2 have been forced to pull a series of dates in order to give frontman Bono time to recover from an emergency operation on his back.
Fans feared the worst, and now Michael Eavis has confirmed that U2 have been forced to pull out of this summer’s Glastonbury.
In a statement Bono expressed his sadness at missing out on the festival. “I’m heartbroken. We really wanted to be there to do something really special – we even wrote a song especially for the Festival.”
Continuing, Michael Eavis apologised to fans but refused to be drawn on the subject of who would replace the band. “It was obvious from our telephone conversation that U2 are hugely disappointed.”
“Clearly, they were looking forward to playing the Pyramid Stage as much as we were looking forward to watching them. At this point, we have no comment to make about possible replacements for U2’s Friday night slot. Instead, we would simply like to send Bono our very best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.”
This isn’t the first time the headliner has been forced to pull out. In 1995 The Stone Roses missed Glastonbury, with Pulp stepping in at the last minute to entertain fans.
The set has gone down in festival history, with the Sheffield group debuting a new track named ‘Common People’.
