The day that one of BritPop's biggest and best-loved stars shocked Glastonbury festival by joining hard rock legends Spinal Tap for a controversial celebration of plus-sized female buttocks

Features
By ( Louder, Classic Rock ) published

Glastonbury festival 2009 was not ready for a national treasure getting behind Spinal Tap's lewd ode to bum cakes and velvety cheeks

Spinal Tap at Glastonbury 09
(Image credit: BBC TV)

The Pyramid Stage line-up for Glastonbury 2009 was diverse to say the least. At what other festival could attendees expect to see Status Quo, Lily Allen, Tom Jones, Dizzee Rascal, The Specials, Nick Cave, and ABBA tribute act Bjorn Again among the supporting cast to headliners Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band and Blur?

While the weekend was heavily weighted towards UK indie rock - Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, Doves and Echo & The Bunnymen were among the headliners on the John Peel Stage and the Other Stage that year - the line-up also included titans of British hard rock Spinal Tap, performing mid-afternoon on the Pyramid Stage on Saturday, June 27, some 25 years on from the release of Rob Reiner's infamous 'rockumentary' about their implosion on tour in the US.

David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnell and Derek Smalls gratefully seized their moment, treating a delighted Worthy Farm crowd to a set which included the likes of Hell Hole, Saucy Jack, Sex Farm and the peerless Stonehenge. But it was the penultimate song of their set which served up a true Glastonbury 'moment'.

A high point of the English band's 1970 album Brainhammer, Big Bottom has long been a fan favourite, an unashamed, but understandably controversial, paean to the timeless appeal of the curvaceous female derrière, featuring lyrics such as "The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin' " and "The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand". Famously, the song features St. Hubbins, Tufnell and Smalls all playing lead bass, but for their Glastonbury appearance, the trio went 'one louder', recruiting any unlikely special guest star.

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker was booked to headline the John Peel Stage later that evening as a solo artist, but leapt at the opportunity to bring some added low end swagger to the Tap's booty-licious anthem.

“I was at Glastonbury, and I got a message from Harry Shearer (aka Derek Smalls), asking if I might be able to come along to Wembley Arena and do something at Spinal Tap’s show the following week," Cocker recalled in an interview with Uncut magazine. "I knew I couldn’t make that, but I was at Glastonbury, so I got in touch with them and said, I could do it today. So I ended up getting there 10 minutes before they want on stage, and offering to play on that song. It was quite a good spontaneous moment."

"I’m glad that my bass playing is finally being appreciated," Cocker added. "But it was good to unleash it in such a big arena."

Watch the performance below:

Paul Brannigan
Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

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