Russell Crowe on playing Glastonbury: ‘Forget the other job – this is a band of monster musicians’
Russell Crowe has the war wounds of an actor who has completed his own stunts, including several “that didn’t go fully correctly”, over the years. “A whole screed of injuries,” is how he describes it.
So, the thought of a potential Glastonbury mud-fest after weeks of rain? The man who played Maximus Decimus Meridius will be able to handle it.
Well… “Probably,” he laughs. “We’re in the acoustic tent, which is a large tent with a covered stage, so we’ll be okay.”
Crowe makes his Glastonbury debut this year, not as an A-list VIP guest (although he is that, too), but as a performer with his band, Indoor Garden Party.
For those who know him for his “other job”, as he describes his Oscar-winning career of films including Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, LA Confidential, Les Miserables and more, this may come as a surprise – but the star has been playing guitar for far longer than he’s been playing characters.
“I had years and years and years of touring and playing in pubs and clubs and releasing records before I got a feature film,” he says, speaking on Zoom from a studio in Sydney, Australia, just a few days before travelling to Europe. “In fact, when I first started [acting], the idea I would be in a feature film one day was ludicrous.”
Indoor Garden Party are playing Glastonbury, Dublin and Warrington gigs. Pic: Joe Machart/Nick Hodgskin
‘We’re going to blow that place up’
There is a “reset and rebalance aspect” to making music, he says. “Film sets tend to be very controlled. You’ve got to respect the gods of film and be completely ready and have done your research. Just recently, for example, I had a 17-page scene to do with an actor, and that takes an enormous amount of preparation and quiet contemplation to get yourself in the groove.”
But walking out on to a stage to sing is different. “It doesn’t matter what you’ve necessarily prepared, the way the audience responds and everything will adjust and move that show. It’s that kind of anarchy, where you just don’t really know for sure what’s going to happen, that is really attractive.”
Crowe performing in the Czech Republic last year. Pic: CTK/AP
Crowe says he was “chuffed” to get the call for Glastonbury, where Indoor Garden Party will play on the Saturday evening. People who “feel like hooting and hollering” should forget about Russell Crowe, the famous actor, he says, and turn up for the music.
“We’re going to blow that place up,” he says. “It’s like, chuck, all the celebrity bullsh*t aside, or the fame for doing some other job aside. You’ll see a serious band and it’s full of monster musicians who know what they’re doing.”
‘As luck would have it, I saw him again…’
About the music, then. Indoor Garden Party is a collective, led by Crowe and featuring The Gentlemen Barbers band – made up of artists including members of his previous groups, Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts and The Ordinary Fear Of God – as well as singer-songwriter Lorraine O’Reilly. The music veers between blues, rock, gospel and country, and they have a new album, Prose And Cons, released independently, out now.
The artwork is a simple but beautiful photograph of a swimmer, captured from behind as he looks out over a vast stretch of ethereally lit water.
“Tell you what, I took that photograph with my iPhone, at a place called Woolloomooloo, where I have an apartment, in Sydney,” says Crowe. “I was just walking around the bay and there was a man standing; it was a winter’s morning and it’s quite cold, Sydney Harbour water, in winter, and I think that’s probably what he was contemplating, the temperature he was about to experience.
“If you see the photograph up close, it’s so painterly, what the light was doing with the water – and we haven’t affected it at all, there’s no filters or anything.”
Pic: Indoor Garden Party/ Russell Crowe
Does the mystery swimmer know he’s a cover star for a Russell Crowe album?
“As luck would have it, I was sitting on the balcony one day and I saw him again. So I took off down the wharf and ran around the other side of the bay and had a conversation with him, and he was delighted to be on a record cover. So that’s cool.”
‘I’m a very sentimental person’
Fans will get to hear the new songs live at gigs in Warrington and Dublin, as well as Glastonbury, in the UK and Ireland. But before that, Indoor Garden Party have dates in Italy – including a special gig next to Rome’s Colosseum.
Crowe, who in 2022 was appointed by the mayor of Rome to be the city’s “ambassador to the world”, says he has had a special relationship with Italy ever since Gladiator, the film for which he won his Oscar for best actor in 2001.
Pictured with Julia Roberts after their Oscar wins in 2001. Pic: AP
“This relationship that I’ve had to Italy and Italian people since the release of Gladiator has been incredible,” he says. “I’m the ambassador for Rome in the world… it’s only a little bit of fun, but it’s cool, you know?”
With director Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel due for release next year, he says he has considered if things may be different after that.
“Next year they’ll have a new Gladiator, so my relationship to the people of Italy might change quite dramatically. So in a funny way for me – and I know this sounds very sentimental, but I’m a very sentimental person; I was born in New Zealand, I grew up in Australia, we tend to be that way – I’m going to get to go around the country [touring]… and say g’day and goodbye at the same time.”
Crowe says the Gladiator sequel makes him feel ‘old’ – and a ‘tinge of jealousy’. Pic: Reuters
‘There’s a tinge of jealousy’
The Gladiator sequel stars Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal, and will be released 25 years after filmmaker Scott’s first film. Crowe, now 60, has had no involvement, due to (spoiler alert) the events of the original.
How does he feel about it? “I feel old. That’s how I feel about it,” he says. “That period of my life, you know, was a huge change. Everything just went kind of crazy for a while.
“I do have extremely fond memories of it. And, to be completely honest, there’s a tinge of jealousy because I certainly wish I was back at being, you know, 35, 36, in a certain way, so I could have that kind of experience again.”
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The star says he still feels “humbled” by the attention he received for his performance. “Because really, my contribution to the film is quite small. It’s very definitely a director’s movie.
“The world created in that film is the work of Ridley Scott, you know? We did end up making five movies together, Ridley and I, and he’s probably still my favourite director to be on a on a set with.”
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While he has his own films out as well this year, for the next few months, it’s all about the music. There are tour dates in the US after Europe, and after that – who knows. If he likes Glastonbury, maybe there’ll be a sequel to that performance, too.
“If we make the main stage [next time],” Crowe laughs. “We’ll have more time then.”
Russell Crowe’s Indoor Garden Party play Glastonbury on Saturday 29 June, followed by shows at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre and Warrington Parr Hall. Their album, Prose And Cons, is out now
Eight men have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police in two unconnected but “significant” terrorism investigations.
In one operation on Saturday, counter-terror officers arrested five men – four of whom are Iranian nationals – as they swooped in on various locations around the country. All are in police custody.
The Met said the arrests related to a “suspected plot to target a specific premises”.
In an update shortly after midnight, the force said: “Officers have been in contact with the affected site to make them aware and provide relevant advice and support, but for operational reasons, we are not able to provide further information at this time.”
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Counter-terrorism policing, supported by police and colleagues from across the country, have conducted arrests in two really significant operations, both of which have been designed to keep the public safe from threats.
“There are several hundred officers and staff working on this investigation, and we will work very hard to ensure we understand the threats to the wider public.”
He refused to say if the plot was related to Israel, but described it as “certainly significant” and said “it is unusual for us to conduct this scale of activity”.
He also asked the public to “avoid speculation and some of the things that are being posted online”.
MI5 director general Ken McCallum said in October that the intelligence agency had responded to 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots since 2022. He warned of the risk of an “increase or broadening of Iranian state aggression in the UK”.
Read more: Terror arrests came in context of raised warnings about Iran
Children ‘petrified’ by armed police
Rochdale resident Kyle Warren, who witnessed one of the arrests at a neighbouring house, said his children had been playing in the garden when they came running into the house, saying a man in a mask had told them to go inside.
“Obviously, I was a bit worried,” Mr Warren told Sky News’ Lisa Dowd, and so he went into the garden to investigate.
“As we’ve come out, we just heard a massive bang, seen loads of police everywhere with guns, shouting at us to get inside the house.”
Kyle Warren said his children were ‘petrified’
From upstairs in his house, he then heard “loads of shouting in the house” and saw a man being pulled out of the back of the house, “dragged down the side entry and thrown into all the bushes and then handcuffed”.
There were about 20 to 30 officers with guns, he believes.
“It’s just shocking, really. You don’t expect it on your doorstep.”
His daughters were “petrified… I don’t think they’ve ever seen a gun, so to see 20 masked men with guns running round was quite scary for them”.
Mr Warren, who only moved into his house a year ago, said he had “never really seen anyone going in or out” of the house and actually thought it was empty.
One suspect was arrested in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. Pic: Sarah Cash
One suspect was arrested in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. Pic: Sarah Cash
Arrests and searches around the country
The Met added officers were carrying out searches at a number of addresses in the Greater Manchester, London and Swindon areas in connection with the investigation.
It said those detained were:
• A 29-year-old man arrested in the Swindon area
• A 46-year-old man arrested in west London
• A 29-year-old man arrested in the Stockport area
• A 40-year-old man arrested in the Rochdale area
• A man whose age was not confirmed arrested in the Manchester area.
A 29-year-old man was arrested in the Stockport area
Terror arrests in separate investigation
Police also arrested three further Iranian nationals in London on Saturday as part of another, unrelated counter-terror investigation.
The suspects were detained under section 27 of the National Security Act 2023, which allows police to arrest those suspected of being “involved in foreign power threat activity”.
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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “These were two major operations that reflect some of the biggest counter state threat and counter terrorism operations that we have seen in recent years.
“This reflects the complexity of the kinds of challenges to our national security that we continue to face.”
Earlier, she thanked police and security services in a statement, and called the incidents “serious events that demonstrate the ongoing requirement to adapt our response to national security threats”.
Last year, the government placed the whole of the Iranian state – including its intelligence services – on the enhanced tier of the new foreign influence registration scheme.
It means anyone asked by Iran to carry out actions for the state must declare it, or face prison time.
UK
Terror arrests came in context of raised warnings about Iran, with ongoing chaos in its own backyard
These are two separate and unrelated investigations by counter-terror officers.
But the common thread is nationality – seven out of the eight people arrested are Iranian.
And that comes in the context of increased warnings from government and the security services about Iranian activity on British soil.
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Counter terror officers raid property
Last year, the director general of MI5, Ken McCallum, said his organisation and police had responded to 20 Iran-backed plots presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents since January 2022.
He linked that increase to the ongoing situation in Iran’s own backyard.
“As events unfold in the Middle East, we will give our fullest attention to the risk of an increase in – or a broadening of – Iranian state aggression in the UK,” he said.
The implication is that even as Iran grapples with a rapidly changing situation in its own region, having seen its proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, decimated and itself coming under Israeli attack, it may seek avenues further abroad.
The government reiterated this warning only a few weeks ago, with security minister Dan Jarvis addressing parliament.
“The threat from Iran sits in a wider context of the growing, diversifying and evolving threat that the UK faces from malign activity by a number of states,” Jarvis said.
“The threat from states has become increasingly interconnected in nature, blurring the lines between: domestic and international; online and offline; and states and their proxies.
“Turning specifically to Iran, the regime has become increasingly emboldened, asserting itself more aggressively to advance their objectives and undermine ours.”
Read more:
Anybody working for Iran in UK must register or face jail, government announces
As part of that address, Jarvis highlighted the National Security Act 2023, which “criminalises assisting a foreign intelligence service”, among other things.
So it was notable that this was the act used in one of this weekend’s investigations.
The suspects were detained under section 27 of the same act, which allows police to arrest those suspected of being “involved in foreign power threat activity”.
Those powers are apparently being put to use.
UK
Pictured: Boy killed in Gateshead industrial estate fire – 14 children arrested on suspicion of manslaughter
Tributes have been paid to 14-year-old Layton Carr who died in a fire at an industrial estate.
Eleven boys and three girls, aged between 11 and 14 years, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after the incident in Gateshead on Friday. They remain in police custody.
Police were alerted to a fire at Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area
Firefighters raced to Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area shortly after 8pm, putting out the blaze a short time later.
Police then issued an appeal for a missing boy, Layton Carr, who was believed to be in the area at the time.
In a statement, the force said that “sadly, following searches, a body believed to be that of 14-year-old Layton Carr was located deceased inside the building”.
Layton’s next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers, police added.
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Teenager dies in industrial estate fire
A fundraising page on GoFundMe has been set up to help Layton’s mother pay for funeral costs.
Organiser Stephanie Simpson said: “The last thing Georgia needs to stress trying to pay for a funeral for her Boy Any donations will help thank you.”
One tribute in a Facebook post read: “Can’t believe I’m writing this my nephew RIP Layton 💔 forever 14 you’ll be a massive miss, thinking of my sister and 2 beautiful nieces right now.”
Another added: “My boy ❤️ my baby cousin, my Layton. Nothing will ever come close to the pain I feel right now. Forever 14. I’ll miss you sausage.”
A third said: “Rest in peace big lad such a beautiful soul taken far to soon my thoughts are with you Gee stay strong girl hear for u always.”
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Detective Chief Inspector Louise Jenkins, of Northumbria Police, also said: “This is an extremely tragic incident where a boy has sadly lost his life.”
She added that the force’s “thoughts are with Layton’s family as they begin to attempt to process the loss of their loved one”.
They are working to establish “the full circumstances surrounding the incident” and officers will be in the area to “offer reassurance to the public”, she added.
A cordon remains in place at the site while police carry out enquiries.
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