Liam Gallagher opens Glastonbury Festival

Liam Gallagher has launched the 2013 Glastonbury Festival with a surprise appearance on The Other Stage.

The singer, who headlined with his former band Oasis in 2004, squared up to the audience at 11:00 BST and launched into Flick Of The Finger, a recent single with his band Beady Eye.


Other acts on the bill for Friday include Chic, Sinead O'Connor, Dizzee Rascal and headliners Arctic Monkeys.

About 180,000 music fans are attending the festival in Somerset.

Gallagher headlined Glastonbury in 2004 with former band Oasis

"It's never too early for a bit of Rock'n'Roll aggro, is it?" asked Gallagher as his band launched into Oasis hit Morning Glory for the gathering of fans keen for an early start to the weekend of live music.

Gallagher, who has not been particularly effusive about the festival since his former band headlined nearly ten years ago, told the BBC: "Glastonbury's back in the good books. I just had a bad experience but now it's cool again.

"It's always been cool, it's just me. I'm full of it."

He added that playing such an early starting time on the Friday morning had been something of a surprise.

Someone just asked us - do you fancy going on at 11 o'clock, and we thought, why not? We've headlined it, we've done all that. It's time to do something different.

"I absolutely loved it, I mean it. I thought 11 o'clock could be really ropey but I thought we done well, man."

As tradition dictates, the site was drenched with rain on Thursday but forecasters expect the weather to be dry for the rest of the weekend.

It has been largely peaceful so far, with 107 reported crimes and 61 arrests.

Somerset police say there have also been 32 drug related offences reported, 12 of which were for possession of restricted substances.

Other headliners include Mumford and Sons and The Rolling Stones.

Speaking to Radio 1's Newsbeat, Stones guitarist Keith Richards said the band had a few reservations about their set.

"I think the only pressure we feel is that it is the first time we've done an outdoor show for yonks and English weather," he said.

"Throwing in those two equations, yeah there is maybe a little apprehension."

On the main Pyramid stage, Friday's music started with the charismatic Congolese act Jupiter Bokondji and Okwess International.

They will be followed by BBC Sound Of 2013 winners Haim, pop star Rita Ora, Hackney rapper Professor Green and rock group The Vaccines.

Rumours of "secret appearances" are always rife at Glastonbury, and this year's crop range from the likely (Fatboy Slim and Radiohead's Thom Yorke) to the fanciful (David Bowie).

Definitely on the bill are veteran entertainers Sir Bruce Forsyth and Kenny Rogers, while Solange Knowles - younger sister to 2011 headliner Beyonce - plays the smaller Park Stage on Friday afternoon.

Heavy rain on Thursday drenched the site

Although the main music programme only kicked off on Friday, revellers have been gathering on site since Tuesday.

They've been entertained by smaller performances and installations around the 900-acre green field site, including the vaudevillian cabaret area Shangri-La.

Tucked away in the darker confines of the South-East corner, Shangri-La harbours some of the alternative spirit of the original Glastonbury Festival in 1970.

This year's theme is Heaven and Hell - the idea being that Glastonbury's year off in 2012 coincided with the apocalypse, and revellers must now enter the afterlife.

Split into two areas, guests can choose to party in the seven circles of hell - where bars are strewn with bullets and rifle shells, and transgender nurses perform "an enema of the soul" on unwitting volunteers.

If you prefer to spend an evening in heaven, where the sofas are trimmed with fur, and the bars have working fountains, you must first convince an "admin angel" that you are worthy of the honour.

The lucky few will be given a gold wristband… and be forced to remove their wellies, in case they mess up the Glastonbury God's pristine white carpets.

Dressed like a film set, it is one of many distractions from the music.

Others include a giant (and currently mud-strewn) Twister board; and the Block9 nightclub - which has been designed to look like a 50ft tower block with a life-size, flaming tube train bursting out of the fifth floor.

The festival continues until Sunday.