Louis Tomlinson has been hailed the “god of Glastonbury” after bringing a TV into the festival so fans could watch the England game.
In case you missed it, England took it right to the wire but (somehow) managed to book a coveted place in the Quarter Finals of UEFA Euro 2024 last night after beating Slovakia 2-1 in extra time, thanks to two very late goals from Jude Bellingham and captain Harry Kane, despite it being another particularly poor performance overall.
But for those who were camped out in the fields of Worthy Farm at this year’s Glastonbury festival, the chance to catch all the sporting action unfold could have passed them by.
While Glastonbury has been known to screen the football in other years in the past, this wasn’t the case for 2024, as officials had announced earlier in the week that the match would not be shown at this year’s festival due to clashes with performances on the major stages.
Louis Tomlinson hailed Glastonbury ‘god’ after bringing TV for fans to watch England game / Credit: Flickr | England (via Instagram)
This left many festival-going England fans with the dilemma of having to decide to either watch their favourite music artists, or support Gareth Southgate’s men in European football’s flagship tournament instead on Sunday night, and One Direction star – and famously a massive football fan – Louis Tomlinson was one to have found himself in this predicament.
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However, he hatched a plan… and it was this very plan that saw him hailed a “hero” and the “god of Glastonbury” by hundreds of others at the festival.
The 32-year-old Doncaster-born singer – known for being one-fifth of boyband One Direction, turned solo artist – was one of the approximately 210,000 people who attended this year’s Glastonbury festival, but after he found out that he wouldn’t be able to watch England’s Round of 16 match, he decided to head to the nearest Argos earlier that morning and buy a big flat-screen TV and a generator, so he could stream it using WiFi.
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Judging by all the pictures and videos shared on social media, and the TikTok posted by his little sister, Lottie – which has already amassed 650,000 views and counting – it looks like dozens of campers got wind of his plan, and all gathered together around the TV screen in the field to watch the drama live.
Louis, his sister, and their other friends and family who attended the festival with them, wheeled the TV into the campsite and set it up on a little stand using plastic buckets filled with stones.
Glastonbury doesn't show football. But in one of the campsites, someone set up a flatscreen to screen the England match.
Tomlinson told the BBC’s Culture and Media Editor, Katie Razzal, that it was pretty “touch and go” with at times with the signal of the live stream, but they made it work and were able to see England clinch that last-minute victory.
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“It was a little… well, we brought a TV in,” Tomlinson told the BBC.
“Very Glasto, in some stones and a little stand. It was a little bit touch and go at times, because the signal kept going in and out, but yeah, luckily we got the win.
The Three Lions will now face Switzerland in Quarter Finals of the Euros this Saturday at 5pm in Dusseldorf.
Featured Image – BBC
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Review | ‘This is a night to remember, Manchester’ – Jason Derulo’s Co-op Live debut
Amy Williams
Who’s ready for another throwback night? Because this was absolutely a night already full of nostalgia and one to remember.
American singer-songwriter Jason Derulo hit Co-op Live last night as part of his ‘The Last Dance World Tour’, famous for hit songs like ‘Whatcha Say’, ‘Talk Dirty’, and ‘Savage Love’ – we all remember the Covid TikTok dance, don’t we? – as well as many more.
With over 250 million singles sold and tens of billions of streams, you best believe his one night in Manchester was sold out.
Running through the big hits and everything in between, he and his dancers made it a proper party atmosphere on this fine Saturday evening.
He did his throwback songs and more; from the moment he said, “We’re throwing it back to the beginning, back to 2009″, we knew his first debut single, ‘Whatcha Say’, was about to grace our ears, and that it did.
He also brought back absolute classics like ‘Ridin’ Solo’ (I definitely lost my voice during this one) In My Head and It Girl.
The Last Dance run of shows has seen him visit places like Leeds, London, Glasgow and Birmingham, finishing his UK leg right here in Manchester, before he carries on to Europe, but we’re confident our date had the best crowd so far.
And just when you think this couldn’t get any better, he brought his little boy on stage to say hi to everyone, too – shattered everyone’s hearts.
He has that many hit songs, it wasn’t possible to get through them all, so his DJ halfway through did a mash-up of songs he’s also written and featured in, including ‘I Gotta Feeling’ by Black Eyed Peas, ‘Secret Love Song’ with Little Mix and ‘Replay’ by Iyaz.
We knew his voice was amazing – but can we have a moment for this man’s dance moves, keeping everyone on their feet at Co-op Live tonight, and his dancers made everyone want to start dance lessons tonight too, an absolutely incredible performance by all.
Jason Derulo told the audience, “This is a night to remember Manchester’, and that it absolutely was.
The story behind Sâlo: the rising Georgian-born Salford artist set be one of the region’s next stars
Danny Jones
We always love stories of people moving to Manchester to be more creatively engaged, but tales of entire families relocating here for a better life and art being born out of it is something truly special – and besides her obvious talent, that’s what has attracted us and plenty others to Sâlo.
This up-and-coming Salfordian artist may have been born around the border between Eastern Europe and Western Asia during a particular fraught time for her country, but she’s been raised and moulded like so many of us by this city’s rich music culture and wider artistic heritage.
She came to the UK with her family as a baby, with her parents fleeing poverty and lingering friction in Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 90s, and their journey as asylum seekers eventually brought them here to the North West.
It was clear from a young age that Sâlo (short for Salome) had a gift for the piano, but it was when her family moved to the Greater Manchester area that her own interest in genres and styles began to develop. Here’s a little snippet of her recent performance at the stunning Stoller Hall.
This short video was taken from her feature in a recent episode of Manchester: Unplugged, the web series by StreamGM that launched just last year and spotlights local songwriters.
Honing in on one of her newest releases, ‘Set Me Free’, which taps into that pure love for the keys.
While this clip shows a stripped-back version of the fully-fledged electronic studio version, with production playing a key role in defining her sound, she blends everything from classical music and jazz to neo-soul as well as drum and bass.
You hear the phrase ‘genre-bending’ thrown around a lot these days, but if this mid-20s star in the making isn’t the epitome of that term, then we don’t know who is.
Speaking more about her background in the short documentary film, which aired on YouTube this week, she talks about her first memory of visiting Forsyth Music Shop in Manchester city centre, and the inspiration behind the track in question.
You watch the Sâlo episode of Manchester: Unplugged in full here.
Detailed in the description of the newest edition of the online show, “Classically trained from the age of four, Sâlo’s journey runs through some of Manchester’s most important music spaces”, including time spent at the RNCM and Chetham’s School of Music and more.
As for the tune itself, not only do the lyrics revolve around a difficult patch in a personal relationship – this being one of the first times she felt like she’s fully opened up and not held back on letting people know what she’s speaking about – but it’s also the first track she’s produced and mixed entirely on her own.
Painstakingly mastered from a small studio at home, she almost “fell out of love” with the song altogether, but getting back to that simple joy of playing piano helped revive her passion for it.
With a stunning voice, natural musical talent when it comes to her instrument, and a great blend of different analogue and digital influences, Sâlo is definitely one to watch moving forward.
Emily Sergeant -
1st July 2024 
