Credit: Tom Jackson

Lauren Hunter

Mon 23 June 2025 11:52, UK

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The keyboard player for Pulp, Candida Doyle, has claimed organisers at Glastonbury Festival “weren’t interested” in welcoming the band back to Worthy Farm this year, despite it being 30 years on from their legendary headline appearance on the Pyramid Stage in 1995.

Doyle was speaking to BBC Radio 6 Music ahead of the festival kicking off this weekend, and when asked if the band could be fulfilling one of the surprise slots, she said: “We wanted to, just because it’s the 30th anniversary and that kind of thing, and they weren’t interested.”

She added: “And then we were thinking maybe next year, and then they’re not doing it next year,” referencing the planned fallow year Glastonbury is set to take.

This comes after the band’s frontman Jarvis Cocker previously said of Pulp’s chances of performing at the festival, “I don’t think that’s going to happen. If it was a life-or-death situation, but I really don’t think it’s going to happen.”

However, it is being widely speculated that this is perhaps a ruse from both Doyle and Cocker, as rumours increasingly swirl that the band could be the mysterious Patchwork playing the Pyramid Stage on the evening of June 28th.

The slot would be fitting, given not only the three-decade anniversary of their iconic Glastonbury performance, but in the comeback spirit of their latest album More, which was released on June 6th to critical acclaim as their first musical effort in some 24 years.

Pulp also have form for staging surprise slots at Glastonbury, after they made a last-minute appearance on the Park Stage back in 2011.

Elsewhere, others names being rumoured to take either the Patchwork slot or one of the other surprise performances include Haim, Lorde, and Lewis Capaldi.

The festival will be headlined by Neil Young, Olivia Rodrigo and The 1975, with other notable acts including Raye, Charli XCX, Biffy Clyro, Loyle Carner, The Prodigy, Rod Stewart and John Fogerty.

Far Out will be at Glastonbury Festival to provide coverage directly from Worthy Farm

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