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Festival season is well and truly upon us.
As the Parklife revellers continue to wash mud out of their hair, others are looking ahead to the festival of all festivals – Glastonbury – and praying to the weather gods to hold off the rain for just a few days.
The legendary get-together down on Worthy Farm kicks off this week, and will see huge performances from acts such as The Cure, Stormzy, Vampire Weekend, Miley Cyrus, Kylie Minogue, Tame Impala, Janelle Monae, Kamasi Washington and literally hundreds more.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, Glastonbury royalty Emily Eavis has quashed the rumours of a Brad and Gaga surprise appearance, though A Star Is Born will be playing in one of the cinema tents over the weekend. Is she double-bluffing us? Probably not, but one can dream.
And while the calibre of acts on the lineup is always something to get excited by, Glastonbury also traditionally reserves a few slots on certain stages so surprise acts can pop up and wow the unsuspecting crowds.
These surprise performances are usually hidden in plain sight by ‘TBA’ on the festival lineup, normally on the slightly smaller stages like the Park Stage or West Holts.
Often it’s a much bigger band deciding to do something different, test out some new material or play a stripped back set away from the limelight.
This year, not long after they performed on the Pyramid Stage to capture footage for A Star Is Born, it seems Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga may just be one of those (not so) surprise sets.
Edith Bowman let the news slip after she spoke to the actor on her podcast. It seems Cooper, who took to the Glastonbury stage to capture footage for his film a couple years ago, is keen to return – and may even bring his co-star with him.
Speaking on Sunday Brunch this weekend, Bowman said:
On my podcast I had Bradley Cooper talking about A Star is Born, and when I spoke to him I was like ‘I just want to see you guys do a gig, you know, play it live’.
He was like, ‘Well, we have been talking to Nick (Dewey) and Emily Eavis about it, we’d do the Park Stage,’ and I said ‘That would be amazing! Bradley Cooper and Gaga doing the Park Stage!’
A quick look at the Glasto lineup, and there are indeed a few ‘TBA’ slots on the Park Stage…
Though it seems he’s not keen to reprise his role as Jackson Maine, Cooper continued, as per Metro:
Jackson is gone, he’s gone. There is nothing I would want more than to watch me try and do it.
But I did speak to Nick [Dewey] and Emily [Eavis] the other day, maybe we could pop up on the Park Stage and maybe do six songs. That would be the only thing I would maybe do.
But we wouldn’t announce it… even though I’m talking about it now with a microphone in front of my mouth.
Considering the hugely positive reaction to A Star Is Born, and Cooper’s and Gaga’s performances for it, a surprise set from the pair would no doubt go down very well with the Glastonbury crowd.
UPDATE: Though Emily Eavis has put to bed the rumours of Cooper and Gaga setting foot on a Glasto stage for now, there’s still those cheeky ‘TBA’ slots to keep an eye on this weekend.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.