Why size doesn’t matter to The National
In 2011, his band, the National, headlined the second stage at the Oxegen festival. They went on at the very moment the world’s biggest pop star was bringing the curtain down on the main stage. Stepping from the wings, all they could see was tumbleweed.
“If I was given the choice I’d have rather gone to watch Beyoncé,” says the guitarist, good-naturedly. “I guess we were booked because they thought, ‘Oh, The National can pull it off — they can ‘close’ a stage at the same time as Beyoncé’. We knew it was going to be tough — like closing against Prince or Michael Jackson, these classic entertainers who are also huge celebrities.”
