The Giants of Roskilde Festival: Morrissey, Buckley & Cobain

With Roskilde Festival 2015 put to rest, we take a quick look at some of the artistic highlights of the past.

1992: Denmark had just won the EM finale – one of our country’s few major football triumphs – and the Roskilde crowd was beyond end with excitement.

Nirvana, had been given the very difficult task of playing their outsider music to a football crazed field of people in front of the main Orange Stage where the game had just been shown on major screens. Anti-sportsman Kurt Cobain didn’t seem to mind though, and greeted the crowd with a tongue-in-cheek, “Congratulations on your sports competition.” – in his usual dry way.

Grunge vs. Football, score 1/0 – unfortunately Kurt & Co never played Denmark again.

“Hi, I’m Jeff, and you’re awesome.” he tells the audience, jokingly, in a funny voice.

Jeff Buckley was still a relatively unknown upstart, when he visited Roskilde Festival in 1995.

Playing one of the smallest stages, with his Danish bassist Mick Grondahl and band in tow, Jeff treated the few people lucky enough to know, to a thrilling set of songs from their relatively new Grace album, b-sides such as ‘Kangaroo’ and ‘What Will You Say’, and live standard – their raw and raunchy cover version of the MC5 classic, ‘Kick Out The Jams’.

After a mind-blowing performance – as witnessed via the link below – Jeff Buckley’s second performance on Danish grounds, became his last. Two years later, the evil waves of the Mississippi River would take him away from us forever.

Festival rain. Festival rain. Always the same.

Never mind the rain.

Coming from one of the rainiest capitals in the United Kingdom, Morrissey must have felt at home, for according to the man himself, this was his own personal favourite show on the 2004 You are the Quarry tour.

With a new album out – his first in seven years – and the whole world finally realising how much they had missed him during his wilderness years, this epic show at the Arena Stage, showed an artist back on top of his game, lyrically as well as musically, and finally at ease with his past.

“Oscar Wilde once said, that the past is what one is. Which isn’t true… but here is the past”, he said, before launching into The Smiths, ‘The Head Master’s Ritual’ from the Meat Is Murder, album.

This show also saw the Mozfather in his usual witty mood. “This next song is for all dykes in Denmark. We love you!” he grinned, before playing ‘All The Lazy Dykes’.

Morrissey returned to Roskilde in 2006, playing the main Orange Stage.

Check out our coverage from Roskilde Festival 2015 – Day 01, Day 02, Final Round-up w/ Paul McCartney

Words: Anders Knudsen
Photo: Thomas Willmann