David Farnor | On 12, Jun 2017

Glastonbury is one of the highlights of BBC iPlayer every year, as the Beeb provides dizzyingly comprehensive streams from every stage, both live and on-demand.

In the run-up to this year’s festival, though, tribute acts are taking centre stage in a new series of iPlayer shorts. Glastonbury: My Hero follows the stories of tribute acts for each of the three Glasto headliners, Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran and Radiohead.

Tribute bands used to mean podgy men in Beatles suits and hen parties. Not anymore, it’s a big business, and for some, the imitation borders on obsession.

In My Hero: UK Foo Fighters we discover the extraordinary double life of Harrogate car salesman and weekend Dave Grohl, aka Jay Apperley, his unglamorous life on the road and how his uber-fandom enabled him to fulfil the ultimate tribute band fantasy: performing live on stage with his heroes.

My Hero: The Ed Sheeran Experience is the story of one man’s life living just like Ed.

When Ed Sheeran headlines this year’s Glastonbury, one young man will be watching his every move. For Reading’s Jack Shepherd, imitating Ed is more than just flattery: it’s his way of life.As the Ed Sheeran Experience, Jack lives life as a doppelganger so closely that his own children can’t tell the difference. Every moment of his waking day he does as his hero does, right down to getting the same tattoos.

The third episode follows Yokohama’s The Japanese Radiohead, a tribute act who not only recreate every guitar lick and drum roll with obsessive precision, but even copy the band’s facial expressions. But even that’s not enough for Yokohama’s version of Radiohead, because they’ve decided to make rare, vintage keyboards for Johnny Greenwood to play on stage at Glastonbury as the ultimate act of adulation.

Episode 1 and 2 of Glastonbury: My Hero are now available on BBC iPlayer, with Episode 3 released on Friday 16th June at 8am.

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