Glastonbury 2009 – Sunday

Sunday was chilled out even more. There weren’t really any bands I was that bothered about, with the exception of Blur. And that wasn’t really a must go see but a nice to be able to say I’ve done in a few years time kind of want.

So… a very lazy start saw Status Quo on the pyramid stage. More morning cheese 🙂

From there I went up to the Acoustic Tent where amongst other bands, I saw a singer/songwriter called Kate Walsh who was excellent and Penguin Cafe Orchestra who made me angry. PCO have soundtracked a few adverts it would seem and that was pretty much all they played. They took around 30 minutes to soundcheck as well due to the sheer number of instruments. Rubbish!

Kate Walsh (Acoustic Tent)

To wake myself up again from the calm of the acoustic tent I headed off to the queens head. It was pretty empty – which was a shame – next up was The Capitol Years from Philidelphia, US. Quite good…

The Capitol Years (Queens Head)

Next up – Madness. Who put on a really good show. But the best bit I thought was at the end the put loads of randoms on stage. Let some lad have the mic at the end – who gladly said “thank you and good night Glastonbury”. At which point the engineer cut the sound, leaving Suggs holding a dead mic. He didn’t look best pleased…

I heard Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds from the solidarity bar where I had bumped into a colleague.

Then finally Blur. Nice gig to come down from all the excitement of the past few days.

Damian Albarn (Pyramid Stage)

I didn’t watch the whole set due to nature calling mid-way through the set (4 pints in the solidarity bar… didn’t bode well for a 2 hour set). But this presented a great opportunity for chips!

So I finished off Blur with chips and curry from a burger  van. Marvellous!

A slightly blurry Blur on the Pyramid Stage

And so that’s it Glasto 2009.

Bring on 2010!

Glastonbury 2009 – Saturday

Saturday was a little bit less mental than Friday; I guess I was kinda worn out!

Starting in the speakers forum where I picked up some enviromental poetry whilst waiting for Mark Thomas. Very enjoyable – recommend checking out Danny Chivers.

Mark Thomas (Speakers Forum)

After Mark I walked down to see Eagles of Death Metal via Rolf Harris. Except 60,000 people had had the same idea so getting so see any of Rolf wasn’t going to happen. Great time to use the cash point though! Eagles were good but not awesome. Perhaps it was the fact they’d played at 0215 the previous morning…

I then went up to the acoustic tent to chill out a little. You can sit down in there and it never seems to be too muddy no matter the weather outside.

After a food break and stocking up with some tinnies from the tent I headed over for a night of other stage headliners. Plan was to hang round the back for Maximo Park (having seen them in Glasto 07 anyway) then move forward through the crowd through Pendulum for Franz. By the time Pendulum came on I was already pretty close to the front…

Pendulum

The crowd was mental. Being quite fat and unfit I actually had to duck out after a few songs. Just too energetic for me… how rubbish is that eh? Oh well. Maybe next time I might be in better shape! So I headed off for the bar to avoid the unidentified flying liquids etc. Not too long after I could see people lighting fireworks and flares for the crowd.

Finally, Saturday headliner for me was Franz Ferdinand. I wasn’t expecting great things having heard previous live material. But it was pretty damn good, especially the extended version of Lucid Dreams (Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, 2009), featuring a lengthy electronic noise solo and the ending of Outsiders where all the band were playing a single drum kit!

Franz Ferdinand

To be continued…

Glastonbury 2009 – Friday

There isn’t going to be any particular order in these glasto notes – too much to write about and way not enough time or inclination to really bother!

Friday was a bit of a mission for me really. Not sure why but it just seemed like a good day to see a lot of bands. Maybe it was the lousy weather and the fact the queens head was pretty empty so I could see small bands and be dry. Needless to say, 15 bands in one day is a little silly. My ears didn’t forgive me until we reached Penzance to start our next holiday!

Of course, seeing so much stuff in a day does lead to a smidge of mind fuck. Especially when the first half is in a tiny tent next to an amp stack… but, a sample of the better photos are below with a little commentary… I shall save the rest of the pub.

City Stereo (Queens Head Tent)

Lily Allen (Pyramid Stage)

Doves (John Peel Tent)

I finished Friday with Doves in the John Peel Tent, on the barrier. Some fat bloke had been trying to push past a few people to get to the front – I’d stood my ground so someone on the front make some room for me! 🙂

Doves were pretty awesome, especially playing ‘There Goes The Fear’ – the track which made me buy their album (my 2nd ever LP purchase) back in college! I will definately be investing in their new LP after my next trip away!

Lily Allen warmed up after a shaky start.

Fleet Foxes were lovely but not especially interesting. Pretty much like their album, I thought it went on a bit long.

The Slips were pretty cool. Music from laptops with dials does impress me slightly even if it is a little souless.

Perhaps not the kind of thing you’d expect me to see is Sub-Universe – check it out at http://www.myspace.com/subuniverse it certainly woke me up!

And finally… back to the start of Friday, with Bjorn Again. Ah, Abba. Nothing like a bit of cheese.

To be continued.

Glastonbury 2009 Overview

So was it worth all the mud? Hell yeah. Glastonbury was, as ever, an awesome experience. It did take me a while to drop out of real life and tune in… but that can only be expected now I’m a real person instead of student layabout.

Owing to the whole holiday thing, it’s going to take me ages to go through the photos and review stuff properly so here is just a list of what I saw.

Thursday

1. Liz Green (not Regina Specktor as I thought)
2. Alessi’s Ark
3. Golden Silvers

Friday

1. Bjorn Again
2. Sub-Universe
3. The Slips
4. Maura Kincaid
5. The Mojo Fins
6. City Stereo
7. ? in orange chill n charge tent – had a single stealing all of the rifts from Echo beach due out August
8. Fleet Foxes
9. Lily Allen
10. Little Boots
11. Jack Peñate
12. Layo and Bushwacker (Dance)
13. Freeland (Live, Dance)
14. Jamie T (begrudgingly, basically waiting for Doves…)
15. Doves

Saturday

1. Live poetry at Speakers Forum (Danny Chivers, Claire Fawcett and Merrick)
2. Mark Thomas
3. I tried to get to Rolf Harris but 60,000 people showed up at a small stage. Fail.
4. Eagles of Death Metal
5. Hope and Social
6. Bap Kennedy
7. Lúnasa
8. Maxïmo Park
9. Pendulum
10. Franz Ferdinand

Sunday

1. Status Quo
2. Martin Healy Band (from the red flag bar – the queue took the entire set!)
3. Kate Walsh
4. Music of Penguin Cafe Orchestra
5. The Capitol Years
6. Madness
7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (from Solidarity Bar)
8. Blur

And a quick few pix- was well worth taking a camera with a glass lens over a mobile!

Thanks!

Liz Green

Mud at the Queens Head

Franz Ferdinand, Other Stage

Glastonbury Revisited

On Tuesday, I’m off to Glastonbury festival. This is my second time – the first being in the gap between studenthood and paid employment.

So… I thought it might be nice to put up a quick reminder of last time to help get me in the mood 🙂

Glastonbury 2007…

Friday

Modest Mouse Amy Winehouse Chas ‘N’ Dave Charlotte Hatherley The Coral Jack Peñate Arcade Fire Arctic Monkeys Björk (last track only… amazing light show!)

Saturday

Liz Green Three Daft Monkeys John Otway Nina Conti & Stan Stanley Simon Munnery Maxïmo Park Editors The Horrors Iggy Pop & The Stooges Dragonette

Sunday

Cold War Kids The Horrors (unintentional repetition!) Rumble Stripes The Young Knives Manic Street Preachers Kaiser Chiefs KT Tunstall Bellowhead

Wonder what I’ll see this time…