大象传媒

It’s 20 years since Radiohead headlined Glastonbury for the first time, playing a set that’s often claimed to be one of the festival’s best ever.

As part of , you can hear their 1997 performance in , before they head back to Worthy Farm for, where you'll be able to .

With a wealth of musical talent alongside Radiohead on the bill, was 1997 Glastonbury's greatest year ever? And if not, which other years deserve the crown? We delve back into the archives to assess the contenders.

It wasn't the first time Glastonbury was muddy, and it certainly wouldn't be the last, but 1997 was famously one of the squelchiest years Worthy Farm had seen in living memory. However with a line-up that included the likes of The Prodigy, Ash, Massive Attack and The Smashing Pumpkins, it was going to take a lot more than a spot of torrential rain to quell festival goers' good spirits in what would become known as "The Year of The Mud."

Above all else, 1997 marked the first time Radiohead would headline the Pyramid Stage, just a few weeks after the release of their direction shifting third album OK Computer. At a time when the fizz in the once dominant Britpop scene was starting to fade, the uneasy but beautiful soundscapes of tracks like Karma Police, Paranoid Android and No Surprises felt as era defining as they were.

The skies tipped it down, and the sound system faulted, so the band couldn't actually hear what they were doing. But those who were there that night (and many of those who weren't) still talk about it with reverence. In 2006, Q readers voted Radiohead at Glastonbury as . Michael Eavis has also revealed it to be his favourite Glastonbury performance of all time (so far) and called it "very, very moving" in .

With headline slots from legendary veteran rockers Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young, 2009 was a year with a classic line up for Worthy Farm. And as the news of Michael Jackson's death spread across the site, Lily Allen and The Streets were among those to play tribute to him on stage.

But the most important set of the sunny weekend was surely delivered on Sunday night by Blur, reunited after a hiatus following fall outs and a 2003 tour without guitarist Graham Coxon.

With the hatchet well and truly buried between him, Damon Albarn, Alex James and Dave Rowntree, songs like Parklife (featuring a real life cameo from none other than Phil Daniels) and Country House tempted the crowd into a raucous sing-a-long.

Yet it's the sweeter and sadder moments that those who were there seem to really remember. Damon became famously teary during an encore of The Universal, overlooking the massive and emotionally-charged crowd as fire lanterns drifted into the sky.

2009 also marked the first year 6 Music took over the airwaves with round the clock Glastonbury coverage, featuring a wealth of live music from Worth Farm, Adam and Joe's search for the "Glastonbury moment", a Stuart Maconie special on Blur and archive programmes featuring Glasto Gold and the late John Peel.

If anyone invents a time machine we'll be donning our baggiest tie-dye clothing to zoom straight back to Glastonbury 1995, which saw the festival celebrating its 25th year. It was a busy one, with an estimated 20,000 party goers jumping the perimeter fence in addition to 80,000 ticket holders - all attracted, no doubt, by a stellar line up which included PJ Harvey, Oasis, Orbital, Jeff Buckley, The Cure and Simple Minds. And, of course, 6 Music's own Matt Everitt was there, drumming for Menswear.

It was also the first year that Michael Eavis introduced a Dance Tent, featuring classic acts like Massive Attack and . Nowadays, Glastonbury ravers can get pleasurably lost wandering around an entire Dance Village.

Portishead released their debut album Dummy in August 1994, to critical acclaim and bringing trip-hop to the masses. By Glastonbury the following year it was a record which thousands held close to their hearts. The band were reputedly offered their choice of headline slots, but chose to play in the more intimate (and apparently, unbelievably sweaty) surroundings of the Accoustic Tent. While Beth Gibbons was a characteristically shy and understated frontwoman, the set crackled with emotion and energy, and the performance has gone down in Glastonbury lore as one of the festival's most special.

Nevertheless, 1995's most legendary performance nearly didn't happen at all. When The Stone Roses pulled out of a Saturday night Pyramid Stage slot after guitarist John Squire broke his collar bone, Pulp stepped up at short notice.

Debonaire frontman, legendary lyricist and future 6 Music presenter Jarvis Cocker told the at the time: "With it being the 25th one, it’s a chance to participate in a culturally significant event, something that people will remember for a long time. It is all a bit last-minute, but we’re used to that sort of thing."

Pulp's breakthrough record His'n'Hers had made them famous, but October 1995's A Different Class was about to send them into the big time. During a charming but raucous set which has gone down as one of Glastonbury's greatest, the band debuted their classic track Sorted For E's and Whizz live, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

For the last track, wearing a suit and tie, Jarvis led the crowd in a mass chant-a-long of Common People - and he didn't have to sing very much.

As if a weekend of sunny, balmy West Country weather wasn't wonderful enough, Glastonbury 2003 also treated festival goers with a line-up which included R.E.M., Mogwai, The Flaming Lips, Primal Scream, Goldfrapp and Sigur Rós. In true Glastonbury bonanza style, The Flaming Lips laid on a mad and memorable show with surreal costumes, a crowded stage and wild lighting. While R.E.M went down a storm with a hits heavy setlist, their appearance very nearly didn't happen. According to a story reported in , an over-zealous security guard wouldn't let Michael Stipe in without a ticket.

But the true highlight, for many, was Radiohead's last (to date) Saturday headline performance on the Pyramid Stage, immediately after The Flaming Lips. (Lucky revellers in 2011 might, however, have caught their secret set on the Park stage.)

With a back catalogue that by now featured the post OK Computer albums Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief, an upbeat Thom Yorke fronted a set which swooped from angsty alt rock 1990s classics (Just) to darkly beautiful electronic experiments (Idioteque) to the crowd's equal pleasure. The weather was fine and everything came off without a hitch - in fact, Radiohead's 2003 performance has become known for the band's obvious good humour on stage.

After a fallow year for Worthy Farm in 2012, Glastonbury was always going to need to come back with "A Bigger Bang" (see what we did there?) the following year. But the Eavis crew surpassed every expectation by bagging dream headliners with The Rolling Stones, incredibly, making their Glastonbury debut.

Strutting around the stage with a giant phoenix designed by artist Joe Rush spouting fire into the night sky, The Stones treated the Saturday crowd to hit after rock'n'roll hit - with tracks like Jumpin' Jack Flash and Miss You sending the audience wild over a two hour set. It's a tough gig to be billed at the same time as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the gang, but by all accounts Public Enemy played a blinder on the Other Stage throughout.

And the rest of the 2013 line up was pretty appealing, too. Arctic Monkeys, riding high after the release of their fifth album AM, headlined the festival for the second time on Friday - while Mumford and Sons, who had played to a crowd of around 50 people at the festival just four years before, took charge of the Pyramid Stage's Sunday headline slot. Prince Harry was even spotted backstage that year, clearly knowing 2013 was not one to miss out.

Michael Eavis later told the 大象传媒: "I'm not going to say we can do it better because we can't. That was the ultimate festival this year." But we have a feeling he says something similar every year...

Radiohead return to the Pyramid Stage on Friday night, marking 20 years since OK Computer and their much loved 1997 performance at Glastonbury. But could 2017 mark their best appearance at the festival ever? Could it, perhaps, even be the best Glastonbury ever?

It's got tough competition from other amazing years, but it's looking like it might just be a vintage year all round, with Foo Fighters, The National, The XX, Father John Misty and so many more also on the bill.

You can hear coverage of Glastonbury on 6 Music all this weekend, including .

More Glastonbury:

• Who was the greatest Glastonbury headliner of all time?