Glastonbury 2010

[Pete]

40 years in pictures from the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8745793.stm

[Pete]

My ideas of what to see this year on the musical front .. any 'must sees' I am missing??
Day Time Band Stage

Thr 22.30 Curved Air - Croissant Neuf

Fri 11.00 Detroit Social Club - John Peel
Fri 12.00 De Staat - John Peel
Fri 13.05 Miike Snow - John Peel
Fri 13.50 The Stranglers - Other
Fri 15.40 Goldheart Assembly - Avalon
Fri 17.00 Lou Rhodes - Avalon
Fri 19.15 Nouvelle Vague - West Holts
Fri 22.30 The Flaming Lips - Other


Sat 11.50 Here we Go Magic - Park
Sat 14.00 The Leisure Society - Acoustic
Sat 15.45 The Avett Bros - Avalon Stage
Sat 17.20 The National - Other
Sat 18.40 The Cribbs - Other
Sat 18.40 Special Guests - Park
Sat 19.30 Frank Turner - Letfield
Sat 20.20 Editors - Other
Sat 21.45 Parliament/Funkadelic - West Holts


Sun 11.00 The Joy Formidable - Other
Sun 12.00 Frigntened Rabbit - Other
Sun 13.40 AVI Buffalo - Park
Sun 14.45 Fionn Reagen - Park
Sun 16.00 Grizzly Bear - Other
Sun 17.45 Gang of Four - John Peel
Sun 19.15 Broken Social Scene - John Peel
Sun 20.30 LCD SoundSystem - Other
Sun 21.15 Dirty Projectors - Park
Sun 21.45 Stevie Wonder - Pyramid

[Russell]

Any ideas who the special guests are gonna be?

You're missing Broken Bells, Four Tet, The Dead Weather, The Hold Steady, Mumford & Sons, Wild Beats, The Black Keys, These New Puritans, Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Jamie T, Steve Mason, Cherry Ghost, Holy F***, The King Blues, I Am Kloot, Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip and Pet Shop Boys!

Re-do your list at once!!

[Pete]

Day 1-3

For the sixth time in eight years I find myself at the Glastonbury festival. Two difference this year in that I have arrived on the Wednesday instead of the usual Thursday and it’s sunny with the weekend forecast looking to be completely dry which, would be the first time that has happen in my previous five visits.

Lot’s of advantages for going on the Wednesday. Car was parked closer to the site than ever before, easier to find a camping space, less people on the site and so a gentler less rushed approach to the festival.

There was a limited amount of music to enjoy on Thursday evening after, a day spent exploring the site to find out where everything either remained or, had been moved to. (BBC introducing stage, now on the edge of the dance field etc).

Chapel Club kicked things off on the Queens Head stage. A competent band if a little ordinary. Far was ordinary was Micachu & The Shapes who have a great sparse and fragmented sound, very original and entertaining.

The night is completed after some fine ale with a trip to the Croissant Neuf tent for a show by the legendary 70’s Outfit Curved Air. Musically still there, it was better to listed rather than watch then (if you are from the 70’s) you could remember the band in their prime.

Friday

First day proper and Detroit Social Club are first on the John Peel Stage. Not sure they are actually the next musical coming as the promotion goes, sounding like a Oasis/Kasabian outfit combined. Mumford and Sons played a couple of songs in a crammed BBC introducing tent with Jo Willey there linking into the Radio 1 morning show. back to the John Peel stage for De Straat are Dutch and a very able rock band but again not that original.

Miike Snow from Sweden on the other hand are interesting both musically and with their stage presence. Appearing in black outfits and white masks, the band are keyboard based a mixture of Orbital and Sigur Ros I guess.

Corrine Bailey Rae on the Pyramid stage is sublime and looking very happy. Danny Champions of the World put in a solid Americana performance in the Acoustic tent which is followed by a stormin’ and far more mature set (than latitude last summer) for The Goldheart Assembly in the Avalon tent. Being so hot it remains as difficult to stage hop as in does in muddy condition so I remain at Avalon for Lou Rhodes who, along with her fellow Band member from Lamb and a cellist, play some beautiful songs from her solo catalogue.

A break for tea then it’s off to the Park stage for the “special guests’. Introduced by Michael Eavis: "Welcome to the biggest surprise of the weekend, there's two superstars... I'll not name them but they're right here." After which on walks Thomas (Thom) Yorke. Playing the Eraser at the piano which is followed by Harrowdown Hill and Blackswan all solo. Then Jonny Greenwood joins his band mate to play keys on 'Cymbal Rush'. Both guys are then on guitar, for ‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi'.

Pyramid Song saw Johnny doing his Jimmy Page bit by taking a violin bow to his guitar,. The set wound up with Idioteque' , 'Karma Police' and 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)' with the crowd signing along. The chorus to Karma police rang out around the crowd long after both Thom & Johnny had left the stage. A great anniversary present for Glastonbury!

How to follow that? it can only be one band and that is the mighty Flaming Lips who tonight are headlining the Other Stage. The usual orange equipment covers the stage with a half moon frame directly behind the band.

The show starts with the Band being conceived and then born (I think that was the idea) through a door in the half moon and onto the stage. The rest as they say is history. There is no band on this planet that puts on a show like the Flaming lips. Crowd surfing in a bubble, streamers, massive balloons, confetti, dry ice, lasers (a mighty bank of them emanate from the half moon frame), dancing people, gorillas and frogs.


The set contains old and new all delivered with massive enthusiasm, the crowd and band as one. I have found over the years that you really have to been within range of what is projected from the stage to get the most impact from a Lips show

There is always serious content to some of the songs but delivered in such a fun style you also leave a Flaming Lips show energised. A brilliant and sunny first day!

Flaming Lips played:

'The Fear'
'Worm Mountain'
'Silver Trembling Hands'
'She Don't Use Jelly'
'The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song'
'I Can Be A Frog'
'Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (Pt 1)'
'See The Leaves'
'Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung'
'Taps'
'The WAND'
'Do You Realize??'



Pete

[Pete]

My Top Five Glasto bands 2010

Flaming Lips

The National

Avett Bros

Thom Yorke / Johnny Greenwood

Gang of Four


Pete

[Pete]

Kevin's Top 5 Glasto bands:

The National

Avett Brothers

Avi Buffalo

Thom Yorke / Johnny Greenwood

Corrine Bailey Rae

[Simon]

My Top Five:

1. Midlake
2. Beach House
3. Goldheart Assembly
4. Lissie
5. Julian Casablancas


Si

[Pete]

Saturday .... was the hottest day at Glasto ever! The sun was relentless and by mid afternoon the Glastonbury Tor bottled water had run out. We reckon they must have sold at the very least, half a million bottles. Today was Glasto as Coachella!

On the way to the Park Stage, Two Door Cinema Club were playing on the Other Stage. Did not see enough to comment but, did not feel inclined to hang around for them after a couple of songs.

The Park has it’s own little festival site within Glasto and could indeed be your own mini festival location for the weekend. It has everything you need and is often less crowded. The bands are also normally top notch. Today it’s Here We Go Magic, a superb Californian band in the mould of Sonic Youth. With two albums under their belt the 30-40 min set could have easily been extended for me.

Up to the Acoustic Tent, the best unknown band of the day award quickly went to Ellen & The Escapades. A fine young band and songstress. The Leisure Society put in a solid set of (good on them) mainly new tunes.

A trek out into the heat and it’s off to the Avalon Tent (via the Lovingtons Ice Cream stall) for the Avett Brothers. This band were fantastic and got the known band, but never seen, award of the day. Like most bands new to the festival, they all seemed blown away to be there whatever stage they were on and grasped the opportunity with both hands.

In the sweltering tent the band literally shed pounds in sweat as they charged though a hour long set, barely pausing. The songs were superb and the band had a vast catalogue, over numerous albums to choose from. Constantly gigging in the States they are starting to make some waves over here. If ever a band deserved success the certainly do. A great effort!

On a roll, it’s back to the Other Stage for what turns out to be another festival defining set. The National are on TV (BBC4) and are on fire in the blazing sun. This was the National in full flight, Matt undaunted by the gap between the stage and the crowd, plunges twice into the audience on Squalor Victoria and the set’s penultimate number, Mr. November.

Matt was also quite talkative, apologising for wearing shades which, he said, Michael Stipe had told him showed disrespect for the audience, but Matt after trying it without glasses decided to save his eyes! He also made comment around the success of the album and that this is what they dreamed it would be like ten years ago and.. it was!

Lots of songs came from the fabulous new album but, there are classics in there as well. It was a blow the cheeks out moment after a powerful set that although shorter, easily surpassed the Royal Albert Hall show earlier in the year. Roll on Latitude!

The evening brought a very solid set from Foals and a revisit to Editors who played the Other stage at the same time in 2007 in what was a great show just before the release of their second album. Three years on they put on another thrilling show so, they are maintaining momentum I guess you would say. It will be interesting to see if their fourth album heads back to the guitar routes, which are still definitely the crowd pleasers

My intial Saturday headliner was going to be George Clinton with Funkadelic and Parliament
but after they had got the crowd chanting ‘we want the funk’ the stage was held for the next 10 mins by a guy doing a rock guitar solo so, I gave up and went to Muse for a full on ROCK show instead.

Effects were actually scaled back by Muse with, less lasers than the Flaming Lips and no high risers for the stage but, it was hardly a club show! Away from the new ‘proggy’ album the crowd rocked to all the classics with the defining moment being The Edge appearing to ring out the riff of ‘The Streets Have No Name’. Bellamy, handling the song very well. This was a ‘shiver down the back’ moment and a ‘what if’ thought that had U2 played and played the classic songs, how great it could have been. 2011 for that then!

Pete

[Sally]

My Top Five:

1. Local Natives - Queen's Head, Thurs
2. Midlake - Park Stage, Saturday
3. Mariachi El Bronx - West Holts Stage, Friday
4. Villagers - Park Stage, Sunday
5. Danny & the Champions of the World, Magic Numbers, Goldheart Assembly - Crows Nest, Sunday (early hours)


Sally

[Simon]

This was my first Glastonbury. Had a fantastic time. I'm not going to come out with cliches about love and peace etc, and neither will I claim to have had a life-changing moment in the Healing Fields/Stone Circle - HOWEVER the unremitting friendliness of everyone we met was something to behold. God bless the good ship 'Rock n Roll' and all the wonderful people who sail in her.

With that in mind, and on a different 'list' theme....... the most interesting people I met at the fest:

- the girl at the front for Julian Casablancas who had promised her parents she would leave for home (Cambridge) immediately after JC's set .......... as she had a Politics A level at 9.15 the next morning !

- Jeffrey, from Bristol. has anyone else come acrross this guy ? We first got chatting with him last summer at Bestival. He's at least 6' 3'' tall with a mop of curly blond hair, and his right forearm adorned with at least 20 festival wrist-bands; he stands bobbing his head to and fro, invariably at the front. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of bands and talks intelligently about musical genres. Apparently he is the barometer for the Bristol gig-going public...... if he's not there it ain't worth going to !

- but most impressively, a chap named Dave who we met at the GreenPeace Stage on Saturday - he actually loves Ed Harcourt even more than I do. Never thought that was possible !

Si