At this time of the year, most British 16-year-olds are focused on GCSE revision and how to spend their long summers. But for Eli Crossley, who alongside Alfie Lewis, Freddie Wormleighton, Jay Guru-Murphy and Will Ponds are members of the band Askew, playing at Glastonbury festival as one of the youngest bands to ever perform has also been on their to-do list.
“We haven’t really done any gigs or anything, but we’ve been able to practise at a studio. Now the fact we’re playing Glastonbury is quite crazy,” Crossley says.
The prospect came about when Crossley appeared on a BBC Breakfast interview in which he spoke about the genetic condition he lives with, Duchenne muscular atrophy, as well as mentioning his love of music and how his dream was to one day play at the festival.
“Lots of people saw it and were sending messages saying ‘Get Eli to Glastonbury’ and ‘This kid sounds pretty good you should let him play’, and were tagging Emily Eavis,” Crossley says.
Island Records’ Jon Turner was in the audience for a school musical performance in which Askew performed, due to his son being at the same school, and was also impressed with what he heard. He got in touch with someone who knew Eavis, who then decided to give Askew the chance to play at the festival.
“My mum didn’t tell me for a few days at first because I think that she wanted to surprise me,” Crossley says. “So one day she just whipped her camera out and I started panicking. She started recording and then she said ‘You’re playing at Glastonbury’. I went a bit crazy and didn’t know what to say or think.”
When Crossley relayed the news to the rest of the band, they could hardly believe it. “I told Alfie first and he just started laughing and said, ‘No, you’re joking!’ The rest of the band started yelling, saying ‘You’re insane, we’re not playing Glastonbury, are you mad?’ So it took them a bit to realise that we are actually doing it. We’ve only played in a pub in front of around 50 parents, so to play at Glastonbury is pretty cool and a big step up.”
Askew’s performance at Glastonbury, which will be at the Rabbit Hole on Friday, is even more remarkable given Crossley’s disease, which causes progressive muscle weakness. He has been using a wheelchair for the past year. “In everyday life for me there’s always going to be challenges being a wheelchair user, and sometimes that is really tough,” he says. But despite his condition, he doesn’t want any pity.
“I almost use [music] as a form of therapy, but then again I don’t really get too beat down about Duchenne. It’s who I am, I’ve got a great life and I’m able to make music which I hope is not bad. People have told me it’s good but I’m not sure!”
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Crossley and the rest of the band think they could possibly be the youngest band ever to perform at the festival. “I hope it goes well and I hope people enjoy it because when you’re nervous you feel like you might make a mistake,” he says. “But when you are a performer, no matter how successful you are, people in the crowd are rooting for you and want you to do well,” Crossley says.
Having achieved this huge dream at such a young age, Crossley has further big ambitions in the music industry. “I kind of hope that we will be able to record an album, because I think we’ve got enough songs to do that. That would be the dream,” he says. “I’m hoping that after we’ll be able to play at more gigs – and maybe at Glastonbury again.”