The Maccabees joined NME backstage at Glastonbury 2025 to debate their current reunion and returning to Worthy Farm for the primary time in a decade. Try the complete interview under and a part of the video above.
The band broke up in 2017 however introduced their return final October. They performed their first gig again on June 20 at London’s The Dome for a charity gig in support of MS Society.
At Glastonbury 2025, the band headlined The Park stage on Sunday (June 29) to shut out this yr’s competition – the place they had been joined by their outdated buddy Florence Welch. Chatting with NME beforehand, frontman Orlando Weeks and guitarist Felix White shared how they had been feeling.
“We’re about two or three hours away from taking part in, so we’re in that second of, ‘Oh, it’s actual’, however it feels good,” White mentioned. “’Land’s been saying to me since we bought right here – he’s been giving me numbers of how nervous he’s and it’s altering fairly wildly. It’ll be a for after which abruptly a seven, so possibly I’ll simply ask Land, what’s the quantity now?”
“Oh, I feel I’m on a fairly even 5, truly,” Weeks replied. “I’m fairly sizzling. Fairly sizzling, dusty, however I don’t know that that’s impacting on my nervousness.”
Try the complete interview with Weeks and White under.
NME: Hey The Maccabees. Welcome again to Glastonbury. It’s been 10 years because you had been final right here. What do you keep in mind of that set?
Felix White: “Nicely, that’s fairly massive in The Maccabees’ story, as a result of clearly Jamie T got here and performed with us and that’s one of many issues from our historical past that appears to get clipped up and used quite a bit. In order that was a giant deal on the time. I feel this is likely to be the fifth time we performed Glastonbury and it all the time went up from being the primary on or the second on the brand new bands tent to we had been second prime of what’s now the Woodsies tent, coated in mud, me carrying one sock, taking part in to not that many individuals. After which we did some fairly massive exhibits on the Different Stage.
“The good factor, actually, about that is that we by no means felt like The Maccabees had been going to do it once more. And for me, personally, I used to buzz and dwell for these moments a lot, so I simply had that point the place I assumed, ‘Oh, we’re not going to try this, that’s probably not a part of my life – different issues are, however that isn’t’. So it’s simply thrilling to really feel like we’re going to have that have once more. It’s nice.”
What does it imply to have the ability to be again at Glastonbury headlining The Park stage?
Orlando Weeks: “I don’t find out about on the bigger scale, however it’s the primary time my son’s going to see me sing, on a stage anyway. In order that’s thrilling for me. We’ve been on tour within the final week, just a few exhibits in northern Europe and it’s been so good, I feel. Additionally Glastonbury is such one other world that it feels such as you don’t have to attach it an excessive amount of to the rest. It may well simply be this standalone, weird second.”
White: “That’s actually true. I feel we simply really feel like we wish to actually respect what it’s – not that we didn’t earlier than, however it simply feels prefer it’s not a given. So we’re simply going to attempt to actually grasp it and dwell inside it.”
You talked about the tour there – you began off with a charity gig in London final week. How was that being again on stage collectively for the very first time in eight years?
White: “Yeah, that was a extremely mad night for a quantity [of reasons]. We had been doing it for MS Society, which is a factor that’s vital to us and once we did the final Maccabees exhibits, we did a gig for MS Society once more. In order that simply felt proper to bookend it and it gave the entire thing a very nice feeling. However you had been there – there was plenty of feeling in that room. It stunned me, truly, as a result of I used to be discovering that on stage, in a cut up second, I used to be euphoric after which I used to be truly crying at Tufnell Park Dome after which feeling different issues.
“You felt all this sense inside your physique that the motion of taking part in the music brings out in us, and it was all occurring in there and simply felt wonderful. I haven’t felt like that for a really very long time, as we did in that room. And to be trustworthy, all throughout Europe, it’s been fairly much like that present.”
Weeks: “Completely, yeah. We’ve been turning up in these cities that we haven’t been to for [years], that aren’t our hometown and so they’re bought out rooms and folks having an excellent time from the second we begin taking part in. On the first present, I had norovirus or one thing so I used to be simply on survival mode, so I missed all of the crying. I used to be simply determined to not be sick. Since then, I’ve felt the entire good emotions and I feel tonight is likely to be a little bit of that.”
White: “Are you gonna cry?”
Weeks: “I’d cry. Yeah, I’d cry. I’m not ruling it out.”
White: “Let me know whenever you cry so we don’t cry on the identical time.”
Weeks: “Yeah, we don’t wish to waste crying. Good level.”
What does the response that you just’ve had at these exhibits imply to you? You will have been away for a very long time, so it’s not a given that you’d have that response nonetheless.
Weeks: “In all honesty, what I’ve been concentrating on is simply the way it’s felt for us and that’s by no means demeaning the way it might need felt. It’s simply as a part of getting via this and kind of easing again into all being collectively. Completely my precedence has simply been how am I feeling? How is Fe’ feeling? How are the boys feeling?
“All of that has been nice and I feel that’s what has come throughout. I feel that sense of our pleasure at doing it’s what folks have mentioned to us after the exhibits. Folks have mentioned to me, ‘I feel you’re having a very good time’. So yeah, I feel it’s a weirdly sophisticated emotional expertise, so the extra you may simplify it, the simpler it’s felt and the higher it’s felt.”
In a five-star evaluation of the band’s Glastonbury 2025 efficiency, NME wrote: “This might go down as considered one of The Maccabees’ most euphoric exhibits. There are few issues extra joyful than witnessing White grinning ear to ear as he hypes up the gang between songs. Frontman Orlando Weeks, in the meantime, seems to be happier than ever, becoming a member of his bandmate in some uncommon situations of geeing up the gang and looking out really appreciative of the second.”
Elsewhere, the competition was headlined by The 1975, who appeared to tease a brand new period on the finish of their set, Neil Younger, and Olivia Rodrigo. The latter was joined on stage throughout her efficiency by The Treatment’s Robert Smith to cowl two of the band’s songs.
Secret units throughout the weekend got here from Lorde, who carried out her new album ‘Virgin’ in full, Lewis Capaldi, who accomplished his Glastonbury 2023 set on the Pyramid Stage, and Haim, who celebrated their new file ‘I Give up’. Pulp had been additionally revealed because the thriller band behind the pseudonym Patchwork.
Examine again at NME right here for the most recent information, opinions, interviews, images and extra from Glastonbury 2025.
