Glasters

[Garth Cartwright]

What did you watch? I watched the entire Who set last night. Roger Daltery is an odd looking chap - appears some 30 years younger with his blonde perm and smooth skin and tight jeans and buff body. Still very macho but somewhat camp. Very 70s with those purple glasses. Voice rather ruff. Townsend gets a good guitar sound. Backing musicians don't embarrass themselves. As I only like the Who as a singles band 65-68 my ears only perked up with those songs. All time fave I Can See For Miles was not handled with great aplomb. Still, sounded and performed better than Stones, Neil Young and some other classic rockers I've seen in recent years.

Florence: Jesus, what do people find in this harridan's music? I guess it is so bland it appeals to the audience who have always gone for Phil Collins or Robbie Williams. In her defence: she has lots of energy...

Kanye: not particularly keen on his music but quite liked his show cos it was so un-Glasters: no embracing the audience or running around like a loco mosquito or aiming for crowd singalongs. Nice light ceiling too. His sheer perversity in doing such at this huge festival and not trying to be liked makes him the most distinctive act of the weekend.

Giant Sand: they played to a small crowd and their laidback Arizona country rock sounded appropriate if rarely memorable.

Motorhead: brutally effective tho their sound suits enclosed venues. I cut from Florence on Friday night to Lemmy The Movie on BBC4 and enjoyed the old bastard's gruffness.

[Adam Blake]

I've been watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-KbGbGIopM

Does anybody know who this band are? I think they're very good. I particularly like the rhythm that the African bloke is playing.

[NormanD]

Sounds like they've been listening to Vampire Weekend!

[will vine]

A question occurs to me as I watch Adam's clip of Traffic.

Much of what we liked way back when were things/grooves that built, that had some dynamic ebb and flow. Maybe some of it was technically bad or limited improvisation, and sure, it became self indulgent, but once Cream, Ten Years After, The Dead, Sly, Rory,Hendrix, War et al. got about their business we could be captivated. My question is...Do modern bands rouse festival audiences in this way? Whatever I've seen generally seems either pretty leaden or they resort to adopting singalongs to engage the audience.

[john poole]

I watched Burt Bacharach on Saturday, glad to see the great man still on good form, although his three vocalists were no match for those on the original recordings. Saw some of the Who on Sunday after the Nicolas Roeg documentary on BBC4 had finished, pleased to hear I Can See for Miles and Pictures of Lily; but You Better You Bet, not so much. Found it impossible to watch after a while. Having just one camera pointed at the stage would be preferable to the constant cutting to the crowd singing along, waving their arms in the air; stage obscured by flags; close up of drummer; young woman sitting on her friend's shoulders ...

Still intending to watch - Patti Smith; Mavis Staples (i.e. no-one under 65)

[AndyM]

Florence: Jesus, what do people find in this harridan's music? I guess it is so bland it appeals to the audience who have always gone for Phil Collins or Robbie Williams.

I think it's a bit different to the appeal of those two blandmeisters. Flozzence is interesting in a Glastonbury context because she personally represents such an idealised version of how so many of those rich, privileged girls who go to Glastie every year see themselves. Watching her set last week, which against my better judgement I did, was a bit like seeing young working-class lads in the 70s worshipping superstar footballers who has become rich and successful yet still sprang from the same backgrounds as them.

For all the Abigails and Emilies and Jessicas and Imogens getting dirty and muddy just for that one weekend a year, Flozzence is themselves writ large: a cossetted, untroubled-by-poverty, slightly boho, rich-but-liberal parented, trust fund, strategically vegetarian white girl turning that identity into stardom. Sonically, she is utterly abysmal, but for her core clientele, that doesn't matter in the slightest.

Of course, I am biased. Flozzence's mother used to be one of my bosses (a right cow she was too), and just when I decided to enact a small act of petty revenge by making F a case study in one of my lectures about class and culture, it turned out that her bloody SISTER was taking the course and sent me a pleading email about how upsetting it was to see her family so misrepresented. Pah !!

[Adam Blake]

Of course, I am biased. Flozzence's mother used to be one of my bosses (a right cow she was too), and just when I decided to enact a small act of petty revenge by making F a case study in one of my lectures about class and culture, it turned out that her bloody SISTER was taking the course and sent me a pleading email about how upsetting it was to see her family so misrepresented. Pah !!

George Orwell once rather ruefully remarked that it was a terrible mistake to meet one's political enemies in person as they then become human beings instead of metaphors or cartoons and it becomes almost impossible to hate them with the necessary vigour. (He was talking specifically about John Middleton-Murray.)

Whilst I don't (wouldn't dare) question your analysis, Andy, having met many of these stereotypes as human beings (ie, friends of my daughter's), I do feel some compunction about consigning them to the cultural guillotine. (Florence, on the other hand, can fuck right off. Her crimes against music are utterly inexcusable.)

I am on safer ground with Will's observation. I think the problem is with the way music is produced in these digital times. There is no room for the ear to breathe as it did when 'natural' dynamic were allowed to prevail and consequently, the listening experience becomes clotted and claustrophobic. Virtually every band is performing to a click track anyway, regardless of genre or sub-genre, and everything is blended into a homogenous and toothless soup. The Traffic clip I chose is, in my humble opinion, actually about as good as British festival music gets, on many levels, and I guarantee that there will not have been anything to approach it this year. (Burt Bacharach is utterly sublime, of course, but hardly what you think of as British festival music!)

[Alan]

Enjoyed another memorable 5 days at Glastonbury, exhausting but exhilarating, Highlights included spiky Wilko Johnson, smooth reggae from Chronixx, pouting and chats from Pussy Riot, nice grooves from Kasai Allstars (despite them wasting 15 mins of their set casually soundchecking), catchy stuff from Jungle, ace/2/3/4 of spades etc from Motorhead, handshake and hello with William Bragg, ecstatic funk celebration from Mark Ronson, festival celebrations from Rudimental, great stuff from Blues Kitchen DJs, Son of Dave storming set, DJ Badly, Giant Sand easing into Sat, stunning but slightly soulless guitar from Tommy Emmanuel, fantastic groovy sounds from Yiddish Twist orchestra complete with free bagels, wonderful wonderful Mavis Staples, cool wake up from Songhoy Blues, fire and passion from Patti Smith, mellow tunes from Alt-J, bits of Weller, too much of the Who and farewells via Grandmaster Flash. On top of this largely great weather, great company, great camping and parking spot, met loads of lovely people, chilled, had fun and still staggered by the scale of the place. The dance tents, the food, the good vibes. Too easy to slag off Glasto, still comes v highly recommended by me. Womad will feel like a stroll after this.

[Garth Cartwright]

Glad you enjoyed it, Alan. I have never been and doubt I ever will. I did do big festivals in NZ as a teen and disliked them then got sent to Reading 3 years in a row by the Guardian - a cruel and unjust punishment! I've done Womad several times and while pleasant i simply don't find i need to be in a field for 3 days wandering between stages. A bit like eating lots of food all day, get to feeling too full. And I rarely witness great performances at festivals - the open air thing, no sound check, smorgasbord etc seems to diminish the artists ability to stretch. That said, Black Sabbath were great at Ozzfest in Milton Keynes (one day fest'). And this weekend i will attend tiny Maverick festival in Suffolk (but no camping - just dropping in on Fri and Sat eve). Oh, what did u make of the litter?
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/j ... ?CMP=fb_gu

[NormanD]

I guess a lot of this abandoned camping/outdoor gear will be recycled and used by people forced to live outdoors in other parts of the world. Not much to add other than a reflection of disposability, relative wealth, and social class.

[Adam Blake]

I played Glastonbury last in 1999, with Natacha Atlas. As a performer I was afforded privileges that were off-limits to the punters, like a decent lavatory, a restaurant area with a menu serving halfway decent food. Of course I wandered around the site, taking it in, comparing it in my mind with the hippie/anarchist free festivals I used to go to in my youth (1980-83). I thought then how corporate it was, that the organisers had these kids by the short'n'curlies, that the food was grotesquely overpriced, packets of cigarettes virtually double what they would be in a shop, bottles of water likewise etc. It was one huge moneymaking operation for Michael Eavis (who, I was once amusingly informed, had once been caught by the HMRC with £250,000 in cash stashed in one of his barns) and his family.

As far as I can tell. it has gone considerably further down this route since then.

Fair play to anyone who enjoys themselves at it, but unless I was playing there (and getting paid well), I wouldn't go within ten miles of it.

[Jamie Renton]

Highlights included ... smooth reggae from Chronixx

David Rodigan's 1xtra programme last Sunday included Chronixx Glasto set. Just listening now and am most impressed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060z20g