Rick Astley tells us about his Glastonbury secret set of Smiths covers with Blossoms

nme.com:

Rick Astley and Blossoms have announced the return of their Smiths supergroup covers band for a secret set at Glastonbury 2023, with the pop icon telling NME about what went into it and the backlash from Johnny Marr.Astley, who this weekend made his Glastonbury debut by opening up the Pyramid Stage, made headlines last year when he joined Blossoms on stage in London to perform a number of Smiths covers – before they then played a number of full gigs dedicated to the iconic ’80s indie icons.

Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr was less than pleased having not been told about it, before telling NME that he’d been in touch with Blossoms and “dealt with it“.Now, they’ve announced that the tribute project will be performing at Glastonbury on the Woodsies stage at 6pm tonight (Friday June 23), filling in one of the TBA slots with a secret set.“I can’t tell you how much I love doing this,” Astley told NME of the covers band. “I know it’s sacrilege and they should hang the lot of us on the line for doing it, but I also just don’t care.

I’m 57. I’ve talked it over with the guys from Blossoms many times and said, ‘If at any moment any of you decide that you don’t want to do this, just holler’.

They’re in the middle of their career, four albums in. I’ve got nothing to lose. You can hang me, you can do whatever you want.