Michael Eavis: 'Metallica will do the best set of their lives at Glastonbury'

Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis has waded into the furore over the decision to choose Metallica as the Saturday night headliners for the festival, saying the band are the act who have been the most "keen" to play the festival in its 44 year history.

Many have criticised the decision to let the heavy metal band headline the festival alongside Kasabian and Arcade Fire, with bands such as Mogwai calling them "unbelievably bad" and Glastonbury fans even launching a petition to see Metallica removed from the bill.

However, Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis has defended his decision, citing Metallica's enthusiasm to play the festival and the band not being a "typical" headliner as the reason they were chosen to top the bill on Saturday June 28.

"We have been going for so long that people don't expect us to put on a heavy metal band," Eavis told Sky News. "We had Rage Against The Machine and we have had lots of fairly heavy metal bands in the past but this is not a typical headline.

"We usually have bands like Radiohead, Coldplay and U2, the Rolling Stones, but I am really looking forward to them," he added. "There's no other band in the whole history of the festival that has been so keen to play, they will do the best set of their lives here."

Metallica's Lars Ulrich recently hit out at the negative comments, calling them "ridiculous". Now that Eavis has spoken, we're sure they'll be getting no more grief.