Forget the Geezers; This Was All About the Sirens

Glastonbury 2009 may have acquired a reputation for being the year of old geezer rock (thank you Neil, Bruce, Blur), but in truth this was a festival dominated by young female artists — from Little Boots to La Roux, via Florence and the Machine, VV Brown, Emmy the Great and Marina and the Diamonds, this year's bill illustrated just how many extraordinary female musicians are currently leading popular music (although perhaps Lady Gaga's announcement that she was performing knickerless to the audience of the Pyramid Stage did little to further the feminist cause).

Yesterday the Other stage played host to two of the finest women in rock: Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, swiftly followed by Natasha Khan of Bat for Lashes. For all their art school schtick, New York's the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an impeccable pop band, and their more anthemic numbers, Gold Lion or this year's Heads Will Roll, for example, could almost have been designed with the summer festival season in mind.

Yet there is a fragility to their music too. On tracks such as Maps, which Karen O heralded as "the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' summer love long" or Skeletons, from their recent album It's Blitz, there was a real delicacy to both the lyrics and the performance, which somehow succeeded in soothing the brows of a crowd nursing sunburn, cans of lager and almighty hangovers.

Brighton's Bat for Lashes released her second album, Two Suns, earlier this year, a dancier, more experimental record than her Mercury-nominated debut that sought to explore "the philosophy of the self and duality, examining the need for both chaos and balance, for both love and pain, in addition to touching on metaphysical ideas concerning the connections between all existence".

Live, and backed by a predominantly female band (on keyboards, Ben Christophers was the token male among Khan, drummer Sarah Jones and guitarist Charlotte Hatherley), there was a real fire and beauty to her performance, particularly on numbers such as What's a Girl to Do and Siren Song, a tale of the singer's seductive, blond alter-ego, during which Khan prowled around the stage in shiny purple leggings, sparkly leotard and extravagant turquoise eye make-up, looking for all the world like Superman's sultry cousin.

But it wasn't just about the outfits. Though Karen O may have been mesmerizing in multi-colored leggings, Marina and the Diamonds may have glued glittering jewels to her tights and Little Boots may have worn a cape inspired by Jedi warriors, these young women were all here to prove to this Glastonbury audience that for all the Status Quo, the Prodigy and the Specials, this festival wasn't just the preserve of the old men of rock.