Armchair critics and late shows

As ever, Glastonbury threw up many a talking point. Will Elton John's trousers stay up? Is there any performance that Dave Grohl won't gatecrash? Who knew that Rick Astley would play drums on a cover of 'Highway To Hell'? (Actually, anyone who's seen his - excellent - episode of Amoeba's What's In My Bag?.)

More seriously, though, there was the online abuse dished out to Tor Maries aka Billy Nomates during and after her set on the Park Stage on Friday, which led her to ask the BBC to take down the footage. Fellow performers subsequently flocked to her defence.

Many of the comments were snide, spiteful and malicious, with an undertone or even overtone of misogyny, so her upset was understandable. One of the worst things about the wall-to-wall televised coverage of Glastonbury is that it creates thousands of poundshop armchair critics who've not only never been to the festival themselves, so don't understand the collective experience, but also do absolutely fuck all to support live music of any kind.

That said, though, performers can't expect to be spared of all criticism, and there was more than a hint of hypocrisy about the identity of some of the artists who rallied around her and denounced such attacks as disgraceful - not least a certain duo from Nottingham who spend much of their time savaging others for sport.

Lana Del Rey also caused a stir on Saturday night, pitching up half an hour late for her Other Stage slot because she was getting her hair done (literally) and then having to be escorted away by security when the power was cut.

Punctuality may not be top of the list of attributes anyone looks for in an artist (unless you're Marty DiBergi, wowed by Spinal Tap's timekeeping), but being tardy is both unprofessional and disrespectful. Despite its enormous scale, Glastonbury is an incredibly well-oiled machine, and it shows disdain for other artists, the organisers and fans by failing to turn up on time.

Admittedly, as headliner, she didn't have anyone on after her - but for her to arrive late and then still expect/demand to be able to carry on beyond the curfew must have been infuriating for those responsible for ensuring that licensing laws are met. Whatever you think of her music, her petulance could have imperiled future events, and so they were right to pull the plug.

Ironically, Guns N' Roses - headlining the Pyramid Stage at the same time as Del Rey - have significant form for the same kind of antics. At Leeds 2002, they kept us waiting for over two hours, and were also late at Reading and Leeds in 2010, but insisted on playing on both times, breaking the curfew. On Saturday, by contrast, the bad boys of rock were on impeccable behaviour, and it was Del Rey who had the organisers fuming.