Smooth Play had been joined onstage by punk duo Bob Vylan at Glastonbury 2024 – watch footage under.
Throughout their stint on the Different Stage final Sunday (June 30), drummer Isaac Holman informed the gang: “We’re gonna invite some associates onto the stage,” earlier than the band joined them for a riotous efficiency of ‘One Extra Day Gained’t Damage’.
Bob Vylan have been a major drive within the trajectory of Smooth Play, and had been partially accountable for the duo altering their title from Slaves in 2022, following conversations between Vylan vocalist Bobby and Holman.
Smooth Play and Bob Vylan…..good #Glastonbury2024 pic.twitter.com/gEY0tWHPIF
— WarrenPeace (@WarrenPeace_75) June 30, 2024
When the band introduced the change two years in the past, it was coupled with a assertion explaining that the unique title was imagined to replicate “the grind of day-to-day life,” with the acknowledgement that it didn’t “change the truth that the title Slaves is a matter”.
Holman later defined he’d mentioned the racial insensitivity of the band’s title with Bobby. “He mainly stated we had been considered one of his favorite bands however he wouldn’t put on our merch,” defined Holman.
Guitarist Laurie Vincent additionally stated on the time: “If he felt uncomfortable about liking us, there have to be others who really feel the identical method.”
Of their assertion, the band wrote that they’d “responded to criticism of the title from a spot of concern and defensiveness,” and shared fears about dropping their identification as a unit alongside the title.
“It took years of remedy to see previous that,” Vincent informed NME. “In the long run, it simply turned tiring. I didn’t need to construct a life round a reputation that clearly made individuals uncomfortable. It took quite a lot of rising up however now we’ve carried out it, it feels proper.”
Reflecting on Glastonbury’s most magical moments, NME reviewer Sophie Williams wrote that their set “celebrated their friendship and seemed in the direction of a contemporary begin” after the band have “been by way of the wringer lately”.
“The Kent punks (FKA Slaves) have overcome respective psychological well being points, life-altering grief and rivalry in the direction of their title change as a band; after Vincent’s associate handed away in 2019, the duo went on an prolonged hiatus, and for a scorching minute, it appeared like they had been intending on by no means returning to the stage,” she stated.
“By way of remedy and perseverance, they made their electrifying return to Worthy Farm this yr. Although the gang spent a lot of the set gleefully dancing and roundhouse-kicking away, it was the reflective single ‘Every thing And Nothing’ that conjured an actual second of intimacy.
Because the acoustic monitor’s ultimate chords rang out, Holman and Vincent hugged it out for a couple of minutes, proving typically a great cry is all you want. Right here, huge moshpits met even greater feelings.”
