The Maccabees explain decision to reunite ahead of Glastonbury set: “Who wouldn’t do that?”
In a new exclusive interview with Far Out, The Maccabees have opened up about their reunion ahead of their headline set on The Park Stage at Glastonbury.
Last year, The Maccabees began teasing on social media that they were set to make their comeback after bowing out in 2017 with three sold-out shows at Alexandra Palace in London. Shortly afterwards, it was made official that The Maccabees would be curating their own one-day festival as part of All Points East on August 24th.
For the huge homecoming show, The Maccabees are bringing along a series of their favourite acts, such as Bombay Bicycle Club, CMAT, Dry Cleaning and The Cribs.
As told to Far Out for our latest cover story, the Covid-19 pandemic was when the band first started to contemplate the prospect of returning. Frontman Orlando Weeks reflected: “There’s every chance that you don’t ever get to do this again, and there’s every chance that if you don’t take the opportunities, then you’ll regret them.”
Weeks then said how he also had a “very small baby”, which was another reminder that “when you get offered things, maybe it’s good not to just dismiss them.”
The band’s Felix White explained how there was a “feeling in the air” from promoters because of how much time had passed, which led to “people sending some offers”. He added, “It felt like we were getting closer, but for reasons, not to do with the band on that or that obligation you made as a teenager for the thing, and all the heaviness that comes with that.”
White regularly attends All Points East but admits it “stung a bit sharper” because The Maccabees had never played it, which is why the prospect of performing at the Victoria Park festival was so appealing. “You’d always be there and playing in your head like, ‘Oh my god, would we have been top of this bill? Second to the top of this bill.'”
He continued: “So the idea that they were like, ‘You can put your own festival together, Maccabees at the top of the bill’, and that we were speaking again, and it was feeling much lighter. Who wouldn’t do that?”
In the same conversation with Far Out, The Maccabees also looked ahead to their performance at Glastonbury with White revealing he’s not attended the festival since the band last played Worthy Farm in 2015, “I remember years ago seeing Roots Manuva there. I think he was doing The Park stage, but he was saying down the mic, ‘It’s been ten years.’ I remember thinking like, ‘God, how long a period of time, ten years is,’ but when you get older, time shortens.”
The full interview with The Maccabees is available to watch below.
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