Jay-Z answers critics in Glastonbury performance

LONDON (AFP) - American rapper Jay-Z answered his critics, notably Oasis's Noel Gallagher, with a performance at Britain's famous Glastonbury music festival that was received to rapturous cheers Saturday.

Striding on stage with a guitar slung over his shoulder, he led the crowd in a rendition of Oasis's "Wonderwall", smiling throughout, and with wife Beyonce Knowles in attendance, his set included songs such as "99 Problems".

In a radical departure from the indie rock and guitar bands commonly associated with Glastonbury, the festival recruited the New Yorker in a bid to reach out to a younger audience.

Michael Eavis, who runs the festival on his dairy farm, admitted they had "stuck their necks out on this one."

Organisers staunchly defended the choice of Jay-Z, despite the slow ticket sales and sniping from Glastonbury veterans like Oasis guitarist Noel Gallager.

In April, Gallagher slammed the booking of Jay-Z to headline to festival as "wrong", declaring: "I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong."

The festival, held on Worthy Farm near Glastonbury in Somerset, south-west England, is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world.

The event, which turns more than 800 acres (320 hectares) of rolling countryside into a tent city, started with 1,500 people in 1970 and has its roots in hippiedom.