Glastonbury 2009 - Was it good for you?
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?
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Mike Homar
