Darkness at 3AM: Jay-Z is coming

Glastonbury are clearly heavily-humped with The Sun; they've given the Mirror an exclusive interview knocking down Smart's 'Jay-Z no show' scoops.

The Mirror aren't that bothered, though: there's a small piece in 3AM:

Festival guru Emily Eavis told 3am Jay-Z WILL still headline this year's Glastonbury.

She said: "Who wouldn't want the greatest living hip hop artist playing? If we had Coldplay again we'd be criticised."

Blimey, they've got Afrika Bambaataa playing as well, have they?

We love the idea that Emily Eavis is a "festival guru"

Actually, having read the full interview, which the Mirror shovels off as web-only, it's possible the paper thought that was the only usable bit:

“I spoke to his production people yesterday and everyone is gung-ho and totally upbeat about Jay’s appearance here. Obviously, there’s been a lot of hoo-ha about it elsewhere, but the response we’ve had from the public has been incredible.

“We’re just so excited that we’re having a legend on the farm and the overwhelming reaction we’ve had has been really positive, there’s a real buzz.

So, it's a gung-ho buzz despite hoo-ha; a positve response to an upbeat decision which has been incredible.

While Eavis senior was fairly blunt about pointing the finger of blame for the story at the Millennium Dome, Emily's not quite so keen to name names:

"But we’ve been coming up against some underlying ill-feeling from certain quarters that we don’t really understand.”

If Emily ever follows her Dad into politics, she's never going to be accused of dealing in soundbites.

She then tries to spin 'Glastonbury tickets left unsold' as somehow being down to people's perceptions:

"It’s been a really great response, quite overwhelming. We think some people just didn’t know about registration, or they just thought they didn’t have a chance of buying a ticket even if they did.”

Well, yes, the demand was overwhelming, taking down websites, so in that sense it's true. Underwhelming, though, when compared with responses in previous years.

But what of the explanation about registration causing low sales? Is it really likely that fewer people would have known about registration in the second year of operation? Admittedly, we've all forgotten about that big battle of cybermen and daleks over Canary Wharf; perhaps as a nation we've forgotten that, too.

Then, we're expected to believe that people went to all the trouble of registering - photos, passwords, account creation - but then, when the tickets went on sale, decided "oh, there's no chance to getting a ticket" and didn't bother to log on. In large numbers.