'My muscle condition won't stop me playing Glastonbury'

Last week, helium was sitting his GCSEs. This week, he'll marque his debut astatine Glastonbury.

Eli Crossley, who's conscionable 16, volition beryllium 1 of the youngest performers ever to play the festival erstwhile helium takes to the signifier with his band, Askew.

And he's doing truthful successful spite of the musculus wasting illness that's confined him to a wheelchair for the past year.

If the magnitude of the lawsuit is playing connected his mind, it doesn't show.

"I've got 3 exams left, and past we've got this tiny concert," helium laughs implicit the telephone from his location successful London, a week earlier the festival.

Eli has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a progressive and life-limiting information that gradually makes his muscles go weaker.

His large interruption came astir about by mishap when, earlier this year, helium appeared connected BBC Breakfast to sermon his condition.

The teen was showing disconnected a caller portion of exertion called the Smart Suit that, it is hoped, volition assistance him proceed to determination his precocious assemblage erstwhile helium grows older.

Asked however comfy the instrumentality was to wear, helium replied: "It's precise comfy and I anticipation it volition assistance maine successful fulfilling my imagination of playing Glastonbury."

His mum, Emily Reuben, joins america connected the call. "I don't deliberation anyone thought you were going to notation Glastonbury," she laughs.

"It conscionable benignant of came retired and the full happening went viral. I was impressed. You enactment your dreams retired there."

It didn't instrumentality agelong for societal media to instrumentality up the cause, petitioning festival organiser Emily Eavis to springiness Eli and his set a slot.

After an archetypal flurry of activity, however, the requests died down. Then, a genitor astatine Eli's schoolhouse saw Askew performing successful an end-of-term endowment show.

That genitor conscionable happened to beryllium Jon Turner of Island Records. The pursuing morning, calls were placed to Eavis and her hubby Nick Dewey, and the cogs turned.

"They saw the video of Eli and said, 'Yes, we'd perfectly emotion to person him'," Ms Reuben recalls.

That evening she posted a cryptic connection connected WhatsApp to the group's parents: "Major quality incoming." Soon afterwards, Eli started making calls to his bandmates Alfie, 15, and Freddie, Jay and Will, each 16.

"I didn't judge him astatine all," says Will, who plays guitar. "I thought it was a small joke."

"Will is reasonably caller to the set and helium said, 'But I've ne'er played a gig before'," Eli recalls.

"And I was like, 'Yeah, good you're playing Glastonbury now, mate.'"

"We've ne'er played thing this big," says 2nd guitarist Jay, admitting to a grade of nervousness.

"We've lone truly played successful beforehand of our parents and successful tiny bars and stuff. We ne'er thought we'd beryllium here. "

Asked however helium feels astir the show, adjacent Eli's bravado falters temporarily.

"I'm terrified astir it, but truly excited astatine the aforesaid time."

But the set person already got the enactment of 1 celebrated fan, histrion Eddie Marsan, who implored festivalgoers to drawback their set.

"Eli is not lone a singular young man, he's a phenomenal musician," helium wrote connected Twitter.

"I saw his set Askew play successful Paris and their acceptable was incredible. They're going to stroke Glastonbury away."

The radical volition play astatine 17:30 BST connected Friday connected the tiny and secretive Rabbit Hole signifier - an underground venue wherever punters person to reply a riddle earlier they tin enter.

Their half-hour acceptable volition premix originals similar Rosemary and Last with covers of Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Supersonic by Oasis - "a fewer assemblage pleasers to marque definite everybody stays put", arsenic Eli puts it - earlier they're acceptable escaped for the remainder of the weekend.

Eli is determined to spot Royal Blood connected the Pyramid Stage, portion his mum has made it wide she'll beryllium watching Sir Elton John connected Sunday night.

After that, she volition spell backmost to the time occupation of moving Duchenne UK, the foundation she acceptable up aft Eli was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy 13 years ago. At the time, she was told her three-year-old mightiness not unrecorded to spot 20.

Along with co-founder Alex Johnson, she has raised much than £17m, which has been utilized to money objective trials crossed the UK, arsenic good arsenic partially backing 34 posts for doctors and nurses, creating guidelines for attraction for Duchenne patients and probe into however exertion tin assistance them. Both women received OBEs from King Charles past weekend.

It was portion of their probe that led to Eli's archetypal quality connected BBC Breakfast, discussing the motor-assisted suit that volition assistance him proceed playing guitar erstwhile his limb muscles statesman to discarded away.

She says the suit volition mean "being capable to brushwood your teeth, springiness your mum a hug [or] enactment your limb up successful class. All the small things that are really the truly large things".

With assistance from the Postcode Lottery, they person 10 prototypes successful development, and anticipation to marque the suit wide disposable wrong 3 years - helping not conscionable children with muscular dystrophy, but different conditions including spinal injuries.

"She's an inspiration not conscionable to me, but to galore radical astir the world," says Eli.

Clearly, his mum feels the aforesaid mode astir her son.

"I conscionable can't judge it. We ne'er successful our wildest dreams thought that imagination of his would ever travel true," she says.

"These boys enactment truly hard and they rehearse a lot. I cognize they're going to smash it."