Tom Odell had to interrupt his family BBQ to be flown to Glastonbury Abbey’s Extravaganza on Saturday (04.08.18) to replace poorly Paloma Faith.
The ‘Another Love’ hitmaker was catching up with his pregnant sister in Guildford, around 100 miles from the event in Somerset, South West England, when he got a call from his agent telling him the event’s organisers Michael and Emily Eavis were asking if he was able to jump in a helicopter to save the day, after Paloma was diagnosed on-site with laryngitis.
The 27-year-old singer/songwriter was happy to oblige, leaving his sizzling sausages behind.
Appearing on ‘Lorraine’ on Monday (06.08.18), Tom told presenter Christine Lampard: "My sister is seven months pregnant and it was so nice because I hadn’t seen her for a while to go down, she lives in Guildford.
"I went down and we were having a BBQ and then my agent called me up … We literally just put the sausages on the BBQ and the agent calls up and says, ‘Emily and Michael Eavis are on the phone and Paloma Faith has just pulled out of her show tonight at Glastonbury Abbey, do you want to do it? But you’d have to be on in an hour-and-a-half?’
"Then they were like, ‘We are sending a helicopter now.’"
Tom hopped on the chopper with his brother-in-law and decided to practice Paloma’s song ‘Only Love Can Hurt Like This’ to perform for her fans, who were left disappointed when her set was axed hours before she was set to go on stage.
He said: "So I took my brother-in-law, who had never been on a helicopter before, and we went to the farm down the road where it landed.
"We literally got off the helicopter and went on stage."
Joking that he tried to get hold of a wig to look like the pop star, he added: "I love Paloma and I learnt one of her songs on the way there, ‘Only Love Can Hurt Like This’. I was trying to find a wig as well."
Paloma was "devastated" to have to cancel her planned performance at the religious ruin, but was advised singing could cause "long-term damage" to her vocal cords.
Instead, the 37-year-old singer remained in her tour bus using a steamer and writing music to use her rest time productively.
In a series of tweets, the singer said: "This is me writing instead of speaking and steaming my voice as I was trying to fix in time however it is with great regret I have been advised by doctors to cancel tonight’s show. I don’t do this kind of thing easily and haven’t done it often in my 11 years … I have been diagnosed with Laryngitis and advised that if I sing i may cause long term damage to my chords. I apologise to all of you who were coming to see me this evening and any inconvenience caused. I am devastated. [sic]"
Tom Odell ditched family BBQ to step in for Paloma Faith
