THERE have been few performances this weekend as moving as Loyle Carner’s on Saturday night.
In the headline spot on West Holts Stage, the UK rapper took the audience on a journey, through his experiences growing up, to reconciling with his birth father, and the lessons he’s learnt as a parent himself.
It was truly a moving show filled with expressions of love, hate and it delved into deeper issues within politics and knife crime in youth.
Carner brough his friend Youth MP Athian Akec to the stage and the pair performed a spoken word piece about the song ‘Blood on My Nikes’ from Carner’s album Hugo.
There was plenty of spoken word segments of the show, each with their own important message and the delivery was impeccable as the whole crowd went silent listening to Loyle Carner’s words.
He said he chose to be a revolutionary and focus his attention on how he can improve, both as a father, son and friend.
Carner had his mum in the crowd watching on and his biological father was frequently given a shout out (he was watching at home).
His final track, HGU, starts with Carner sat on top of a prop car on the stage, to which he said is the car his biological father taught him to drive in during lockdown.
He said that he had to make the choice to forgive his father to free himself and along with many of the tracks on the album following that highly introspective view.
An unforgettable moment given to the Glastonbury festivalgoers at West Holts by a very talented, very aware rapper who seems like a good person too. I was honoured to be there, one of the highlights of my weekend.
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