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View Full Version : Glastonbury 2009 - Was it good for you?



Barry
29-06-2009, 01:18
Glastonbury 2009


No doubt those AoS members, who have been lucky enough to attend this year’s Glastonbury Festival, will be reporting their experiences soon. I certainly hope so. This however is my take on Glastonbury from the point of view of someone having to make do with the coverage on BBC2, 3, 4 and Radio 6. The sound was fed through a Quad 33/303 amplifier into Eltax 1621 speakers. The latter are bookshelf sized ported 3-way designs.


Friday

Things started off in a first class fashion with Lily Allen, singing songs off both the first and her new album. This girl really does have a good voice and can write very clever and witty lyrics dealing with somewhat risqué subject such as unsatisfactory sex and boyfriend troubles. Excellent stuff; enlivened by the risk that Allen might suffer a ‘wardrobe malfunction’ at any time!

There were of course many groups that were new to me and Friendly Fires was one of them. I enjoyed them but didn’t find them memorable. The same could hardly be said of Lady GaGa: a provocative performance act suggesting that she could be the new Madonna, however I thought it was a triumph of style over substance to the point that I can’t remember what she was singing about, so distracting was the act. If Lilly Allen was at risk of having a wardrobe malfunction then Lady GaGa may have actually had one during rehearsal, as bits of black adhesive tape were valiantly trying to keep everything in place. She went through three costume changes, at one point sporting what can only be described as a spintherogenic bra! Absolutely ludicrous.

V V Brown was much, much better, reminding me of Joan Armatrading. I want to listen to more of her stuff; I don’t know if she has recorded anything yet. Fleet Foxes were also new to me; apparently a big hit with the mums listening to them during the school run. OK, but not really for me. It was good to see and hear The Specials again. This ska-influenced band has reformed, though sadly without Jeremy Dammers (to whom I am not too distantly related). They performed two of my favourite numbers: ‘Much Too Young’ and ‘Ghost Town’ - excellent.

The Ting Tings and Little Boots ably demonstrated the clever use of sampling. It was remarkable how with the help of sampling the Ting Tings could produce such a big sound from only two performers, and in this case the impressive show they made did not distract from the performance – I can still remember what the singer was singing about. Little Boots produce a polished piece of electro-pop, but this time made less of an impression on me than when she appeared solo on Jools Holland’s ‘Later’.

Both Bloc Party and Doves were new to me: the former were a sort of post-punk punk band, enjoyable but left no lasting impression, whereas I really liked Doves to the point of wanting to hear more. Doves make you want to get up and bop around (not a pretty sight in my case), very enjoyable. The group Dead Weather, a ‘grunge-goth’ band, reminded me of the Dammed, not bad – the Glastonbury Goths certainly liked them.

The highlight of the first day was of course Neil Young. Still a Grumpy (now Old) Man, Young wooed the audience with their favourites. He can still cut it and everyone, including me, was being given a good time. Young finished off doing a cover of the Beatles’ ‘Day in the Life’. An intriguing version, culminating in a bit of guitar destruction that I thought everybody had out-grown. However unlike the nihilistic displays of the late ‘60s, this piece of guitar wrecking actually sounded quite good and in keeping with his take on the song. Overall very enjoyable but I was expecting it to be better and was just a little bit disappointed.


Saturday

Saturday’s viewing and listening for me started with The Script, a group new to me and reminding me of David Gray, although there are three of them. Jason Mraz, accompanied by a guitarist and simple percussion again was new to me but delightful.

The amplifier just had to be ‘turned up to 11’ for the next act: Spinal Tap! Nick Tufnell and co are still at it, puncturing the pomposity of stadium rock and the whole rock 'n’ roll lifestyle with clever lyrics and in a delightfully self-deprecating way (“ We’re just three urinal blocks in the trough of life” – something, no doubt, the Glastonbury audience would understand). Jarvis Cocker made a surprise cameo appearance with them. And of course Spinal Tap was complete with a (this time, inflatable) miniature trilithon. Oh and the good news - the drummer (number 13) survived the set! Great fun.

’59 Sound demonstrated driving, powerful good old rock and roll, and treated us to a taste of things to come – a surprise appearance of Bruce Springsteen. Maximo Park again produced a strong driving sound. Their guitarist also smashed up his guitar at the end – are we seeing a return of this nonsense?

The drum ‘n bass act Pendulum made the most powerful noisy knees up of them all. An almost constant rhythm of 90 –100 BPM and with a dynamic range of only 2dB at best, this onslaught was great for nightclubbin’. The audience were loving it: pogo-ing, body slams. With powerful strobe lighting, it was loud, noisy and bloody exhausting – I rather liked it.

As a rule I don’t really like rap but Dizzee Rascal was better than most and didn’t have me running out the door. I can never make my mind up about Kasabian, but I’m a bit of sucker when it comes to the sound of a Rickenbacker guitar, so I watched and enjoyed them. Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, an octet of trumpet, trombones, sax, tuba and sousaphone were interesting and I quite liked it but I don’t think I could ‘eat a whole one’.

Florence and the Machine, completely new to me but obviously have a strong following. I was fascinated, I don’t think I have seen such an inventive performance since Kate Bush or Björk. Difficult to describe but the singer (Florence?) had a voice that reminded me of Chrissie Hind (although Florence’s seemed weaker and higher pitched), she was accompanied by guitar, plucked harp and drums and I suppose the performance could be described as electro-pop. Weird, but different. Not sure if I really liked it but sufficient to encourage me to investigate further.

Now for something completely different and for my generation, the fifty-somethings: Crosby Stills and Nash. Well here they were, playing their entire back catalogue to the great delight of the audience. They were capable, pleasant and anodyne – so downright comfortable they were boring. Lord, if I hadn’t switched channels I think I would have ended up wearing a poncho! I did however like their version of ‘Ruby Tuesday’.

Watched a bit of Franz Ferdinand before the eleven o’clock treat. I really can’t understand what everyone sees in Franz Ferdinand. More than competent and a whole lot better than a lot of other acts, but obviously I am missing something here.

And finally to the whole raison d’être of the evenings viewing: Bruce Springsteen. The Boss, the master of stadium rock and someone who just has to be seen to be appreciated (none of his recording capture the experience). Well from the word go he was giving it his all. After two numbers he had probably expended more energy than CSN had done in their entire set. The E Street Band were more than capable but I think there was something odd going on with the miking, either through the choice of microphones or with the mixing: sometimes one or two of the musicians would be faint and distant and then they would suddenly ‘pop up’ in level. Only the drums were consistent. Nonetheless The Boss was doing everything: coming down off stage, to greet the audience and let them ‘play’ his guitar. At one point I thought he was going to ‘body surf’ with them! Goodness the man is nearly sixty, I wish I had a fraction of the stamina Bruce seemed to have. Unfortunately I don’t live in the middle of a forty-acre field as I would have liked to have turned the volume up, especially during ‘Born to Run’, but it was late and I have neighbours with small children to consider. After some eighty minutes the set had to finish (I think the organisers were already into penalty time) but Bruce looked like he could have gone on for another hour at least. The Man delivered. 100%.


Sunday

Today started with Tom Jones. Singing a mixture of his classic hits and new material he was very, very good. Noisette, a three piece: guitar, percussion and bass-playing singer, they were an example of perfect pop. I had been looking forward to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and they didn’t disappoint. The singer has a voice reminiscent of Chrissie Hind (again) and the sound was a bit U2-ish. They really were very good, although the guitarist seemed to feel it was necessary to smash up his guitar – another piece of pointless nihilistic stupidity. (Had Neil Young started something?).

Madness are always guaranteed to put a smile on your face and get you up and dancing. They were absolutely excellent, playing all their hits as well as new stuff of their new recording; and complete with flying saxophonist - a truly wonderful performance.

Metronomy were another interesting act: a sort of cross between Gary Neuman and Kraftwerk and playing ‘80s inspired pop. LaRoux, Imelda May and Amelia Dianne were all delightful surprises, as was Noisette.

Towards the end of the evening acts competed with one another. I only gave Black Eyed Peas a cursory view, as hip-hop is ‘not my thing’. Nor was I attracted to The Prodigy. Felt obliged to watch some of Blur, but it didn’t last long. In my opinion they are past their sell by date, though the twenty-somethings obviously loved them.

Fortunately Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds were able to distract me with an excellent performance including: ‘Red Right Hand’, ‘Tupelo’, ‘Henry Lee’ and ‘The Weeping Song’. Also excellent was the beautifully haunting sound of Bat for Lashes, performing their strange ‘shamanistic’ influenced material. Guaranteed to interest lycanthropes everywhere.

Two acts, which passed me by, were Glasvagas, another U2 clone and Bon Iver. Sadly neither did anything for me – probably my loss.

A big disappointment was the non-appearance of Amadou and Miriam, a blind duo from Mali that I was particularly keen on seeing again. I love West African music and although I have seen them in London, it would have been nice to see them again.

Well that’s about it. Glastonbury this year has been particularly good in my opinion; so thank you Michael Levis (and all the other farmers) and thank you BBC.

So that was ‘my’ Glastonbury – how was yours?

Spectral Morn
29-06-2009, 09:11
Hi Barry

Nice write up.

For me I was annoyed at the bands who didn't get shown....Steve Hillage and Gong. Maybe Gong are not that relevant to the current music cognoscente but Steve Hillage is IMHO as his System 7 project has been involved in Prog,space,house,dance music since the Orb's ultraworld album.

I thought CSN were tired, flat , and well past their sell by date. This was sad as I love some of their songs. I love Wooden Ships, and frankly IMHO it was a mess.

Neil Young...."Excellent"as Bill and Ted would say.

Florence and the Machine...I like the overall sound but I think that Florence's vocal style is a potentially love it or hate it voice. For me my jury is still out on that aspect.

Bat for Lashes....Natasha Khan and her band are amazing. I want to see them live in the flesh so I live in hope, that they come to my neck of the woods soon.

Bruce Sprin(yawn)stein ....great performer for sure, but as every song sounds the same. I found him boring.

Passion Pit....very good electro-pop. I will be checking out their album.

And that is about it, thats all I watched.


Regards D S D L

Mike
29-06-2009, 16:50
Guaranteed to interest lycanthropes everywhere.




Aren't they 'werewolves'? :scratch:

Spectral Morn
29-06-2009, 17:17
Aren't they 'werewolves'? :scratch:

Indeed......http://theunexplainedmysteries.com/templar/werewolves.jpg


Regards D S D L

Mike
29-06-2009, 17:36
Looks more like a 'werecat'!

alb
29-06-2009, 19:30
I wouldn't like to meet it in a dark alley, whatever it is.

Jason P
29-06-2009, 21:24
Funnily enough, most people who saw Springsteen were underwhelmed, and very disappointed given the hype of the man. I missed him but the overwhelming vibe was not positive... neither was it for Blur, who were technically good but unable to connect.

I think Glasto is just too big now, and the successful gigs for me are always the smaller ones...

Jason

Barry
29-06-2009, 23:04
Funnily enough, most people who saw Springsteen were underwhelmed, and very disappointed given the hype of the man. I missed him but the overwhelming vibe was not positive... neither was it for Blur, who were technically good but unable to connect.

I think Glasto is just too big now, and the successful gigs for me are always the smaller ones...

Jason

Not by the look of the audience there. I will concede that there could well have been problems with the PA, there were certainly some 'oddities' with the sound as relayed by the BBC; however it was the sheer dynamism that impressed me and I didn't want him to stop.

Glad someone agrees with me about Blur. Thought it was me being a Grumpy Old Man.

The Grand Wazoo
29-06-2009, 23:25
I gave up with Springsteen after I heard 'Born in the USA' but later (long after it was released) I discovered 'Nebraska'.

I saw him a few times before & after 'Born in the USA' and in the early 80's the gig I saw at the Brighton Centre was one of my best ever by anyone - it was astounding!

After that ..... well I just hate big venues.

Jason P
30-06-2009, 11:21
Not by the look of the audience there. I will concede that there could well have been problems with the PA, there were certainly some 'oddities' with the sound as relayed by the BBC; however it was the sheer dynamism that impressed me and I didn't want him to stop.

It's funny, and I suppose symptomatic of somewhere like Glastonbury (or Pilton as we locals call it) that you can't please all the people. I was running a bar there (for charidee, mate) and we had loads of people in berating what they thought was a poor set by the man - I'd say a significant majority were negative. It kinda made me feel less gutted at having to miss him, but I did find it strange that such a 'stadium legend' could go down badly at Glasters.

That's the wonderful thing about Glastonbury - big and unwieldy as it is, 100,000 people can (and often do) have 100,000 different festivals, there's just so much to see and do...

Jason

Beechwoods
30-06-2009, 16:17
100,000 people can (and often do) have 100,000 different festivals, there's just so much to see and do...

Would you believe I went there and saw no music at all? We still had a fantastic time; up in the Green Fields and Avalon areas. I do wish I'd seen a couple of bands in particular, but we were on the go 100% of the time... The joys of two young 'uns. Next year we're getting them ear protectors so they can't complain about the noise :doh:

Barry
30-06-2009, 23:09
It's funny, and I suppose symptomatic of somewhere like Glastonbury (or Pilton as we locals call it) that you can't please all the people. I was running a bar there (for charidee, mate) and we had loads of people in berating what they thought was a poor set by the man - I'd say a significant majority were negative. It kinda made me feel less gutted at having to miss him, but I did find it strange that such a 'stadium legend' could go down badly at Glasters.

That's the wonderful thing about Glastonbury - big and unwieldy as it is, 100,000 people can (and often do) have 100,000 different festivals, there's just so much to see and do...

Jason

You were there, whereas I was not; so I can only relate to what I saw on TV and heard. Certainly the audience nearest the crash barrier in front of the stage seemed to be more than enthusiastic; but then I suppose they wouldn't have been there if they weren't. Whilst during the applause I did heard some booing, I put this down to what I thought was a poor PA. As I mentioned, the sound during Springsteen's turn was definitely a bit 'odd': unbalanced and disconnected. However I was really taken with his appearence.

So - just me then.

Regards

Jason P
03-07-2009, 16:10
Not just you Barry - the other thing is that the TV presentation can often get over the 'not connecting with the audience' bit.

I saw the Fleet Foxes set. I'm a huge fan of their music, I think the album is brilliant, but their set was hard work. They sounded brilliant, played wonderfully, but the Pyramid Stage just wasn't the place for them to be appreciated at their best and a lot of people were nonplussed.

Best bit of the festival for me was happening across a performance of beatboxing by a guy called MC Xander. He was performing on a small, outdoor stage at a crossroads of two paths, but captivated maybe 300 passers by with sheer musical brilliance, even though hip-hop & drum and bass aren't my thing...

MC Xander (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcGM21ZNPEk)

Jason

Beechwoods
03-07-2009, 18:34
Wow :stalks: :stalks: he is goood!

I've been a fan of Killa Kela since hearing him support the Super Furry Animals... this guy has two brains and two mouths, I swear...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3Qt27pUisc

Barry
03-07-2009, 18:43
Hello Jason,

I heard about MC Xander on the Radio 4 arts programme: 'Front Row', yesterday evening and was impressed. Have just viewed the YouTube clip of your link, and it occurred to me that this guy is someone you have to see; just listening to his work I do not think would do him justice.

Do you agree?

Regards

Jason P
05-07-2009, 12:14
it occurred to me that this guy is someone you have to see; just listening to his work I do not think would do him justice.


Absolutely. It's a kind of disbelief at first, followed by an almost involuntary laughter/cheering/applause - a bit like someone doing truly unbelievable acrobatics or juggling. It was one of those moments when you marvel at the talent and ingenuity of some people... what the festival is all about for me. He really did have the crowd, and to do that when it was a bunch of passers by takes some doing. I got his CD, mainly to support him (it was only a fiver) and because I genuinely liked his compositions, but it won't have the wow factor of actually seeing the man live.

Jason