UKC

Great to see Lewis Capaldi recovered to good form.

Looking forward to a weekend of new stuff.

Love it. Festival experience and I can, eat well, drink very well and sleep in my own bed. Chance to hear bands Radio 3 doesn’t play. English Teacher and Blossoms stand out so far.

Just takes itself too seriously for me these days

Also watching Alanis Morissette both me and Mrs Dude are a bit of the opinion that she's taking advantage of more than a little voice enhancement

Modern live music isn't perhaps as live as you might think.
Here's an analysis of Dua Lipa and Cyndi Lauper at Glastonbury last year:
youtube.com/watch?v=YHJ4pL7U0Po&

I'm from a different age; I remember seeing The Who at the Edmonton Sundown in 1973 on the Quadraphenia tour. Roger Daltry's microphone packed up in the middle of "See Me Feel Me" (unsurprisingly, as he'd been doing the trade mark swinging it around his head and bouncing it off the stage), he carried on singing until a replacement was sorted and even though we were seated right at the back, we could hear him perfectly.

I don't welcome New miserable tunes from Capaldi, but I'm happy if he's well enough to get back to performing.

The majority of Glasto tends to have nothing of interest to me (I care not a jot for any of the Pyramid Stage headliners this year) but the wide spectrum of genres on offer means there a bit of something for everyone. I'm looking forward to catching Burning Spear and Black Uhuru's sets via catch up, possibly John Fogerty too.

We've just spent the evening with it on in the background and I have to say, what a bland forgettable load of tripe it was too. The only highlights were Busta Rhymes (who I would never in a million years have gone to watch, so bonus there), and a too brief glimpse of Wet Leg. Everything else I've already forgotten. But Glastonbury was never about the main stage for me anyway. I'm sure the minor stages still have the interesting stuff that i used to go for. I'm not over Glastonbury BTW, I just can't manage to get a ticket theae days. 😢

Do you have to take something you were given by a random crusty in the back garden and spend three days wandering around the spare bedroom talking to a pot plant?

The same person (Fil - Wings of Pegasus) also does an interesting analysis of Taylor Swift's Eras tour:
youtube.com/watch?v=xMNYiDH-fDY&
Basically all kinds of shenanigans going on: backing tracks, miming, pitch correction/auto tune, etc.

I watched Fat Dog yesterday. Amazing energy and his interaction with the crowd was fantastic.

Worth a watch.

It would be good to see something of Goat, Talisk and Roy Harper.

We won't.

T.

Tried to watch The 1975 last night, first time I've encountered them. They should by rights rename themselves 1985. I found it slick and tight, yet dull and instantly forgettable. Ersatz tinny 80s synth pop with plinky guitar and no discernible melody. The on-stage pints and fags persona of the front man whatsisname got old after a couple of numbers. And the fact they had to broadcast their lyrical prowess by projecting up the actual lyrics was lame. Guess it's not my thing.

Switched over to Loyle Carner and was blown away. Now that's what proper wordsmithery and musicianship look like. 

Amyl and the sniffers, Nova twins and Beth Gibbons restore my hope

Thought the John Fogarty set was great; "Fortunate Son" could've been written about Donald Trump

Pulp were really good too almost worth a headline slot if only for "Common People"

Also caught a lovely track by a Malawian duo The Madalitso Band

PULP

Neil Young is f**kin amazing. Now i really wish I was there. So many of the old rockers they drag out are just going through the motions, but Neil is absolutely on it.

His surname is 'Fogerty.'

Watching it now. My other half asking where the bangers are and I'm saying these are his bangers.

Neil Young was just fantastic. 

I watched The 1975 last night and they totally put me off Glasto, as did most of the other bands. Luckily, Neil Young has totally restored my faith. Him and his band were brilliant. 

Typed at the same time. Brilliant…

Spot on. Mad the his last two tracks were very apt. Just wished other bands smacked you in the face like he can do. ‘Put your weapons down!’  

Neil Young is a person with the utmost integrity, an admirable human being who's stuck to his principles throughout his life. And he brought that to Glastonbury tonight. Rock'n'roll! 

My only complaint is that he didn't do Powderfinger.

We were listening to her live on the way back from a walk.  It wasn’t so much ironic as inharmonious.  The gaping chasm between her recordings and the live set…. You can see why she kept going quiet to let the audience fill the gaps.

The Beat Farmers did the best ever version of that song - and I know that Neil Young approves.

If you're not aware, check out this live cut:

https://youtu.be/vu8XlIc8-zo?si=SZuEBnvVtpjbpUeB

Didn't really agree at the start of the set but I did by the end.

Caught a bit of Charli xcx when I was flicking channels.
Blimey, it was so obviously 'Not live as we know it' that it was bordering on being a piss take.

Yes even as a huge NY fan it was a slow start...

Just found out that the BBC cover the West Holts stage, where Goat are playing at 5pm.

I'll definitely watch that.  

T.

So does any footage of NY at Glasto exist, excluding rubbish bootleg phone footage?

That must have been the bit that I saw. It was turgid. So I turned off.

Yes I was waiting for more of my favourites along side the favourites he did play. But then I realised he'd have to play for about 36 hours to cover then all.

i think if you were there it was an exercise in LOUD!

is that why there seems to be no catchup on iplayer ?

Loyle Carner. 

Wonderful

First Neil Young wasn't going to let his set be broadcast at all. Then he did a last minute u-turn to let it be broadcast live. So maybe blame Neil Young rather than the BBC!

https://www.nme.com/news/music/bbc-delighted-that-neil-youngs-headline-set-...

Nothing reinforces the "Brits loving being miserable" stereotype quite like a Glastonbury thread.

Also ticking a lot of rose tinted nostalgia boxes!

Nile Rogers and Chic going through his back catalogue of hits just now. Not just Chic Organisation but Madonna and more. Brilliant!

Following his appearance on Desert Island Discs I have an irrational dislike of the egotist. 
 

Watching Rod Stewart and realising two things. Firstly I only know three songs. Secondly I don’t get the Scottish connection given he was born and grew up in London.

There's a joke about lots of Scots arranging to be born in London, in order to save the train fare

Prodigy in 5 mins!

I saw them last Nov in Birmingham and it was utterly amazing, even without Flint, who was excellent the first time I saw them live, many moons ago.

Edit. Iplayer is f"cked again so I'm watching a black screen 

Are you being diplomatic and omitting the obvious third thing? 🙉

I may be being thick?

I'm assuming by the hear no evil emoji that it's referring to his accent.

Ah! Don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak.

Prodigy. Wall of sound. Still have my Music For The.. CD in the loft somewhere. Not sure about the newer stuff but the classics still resonating.

Well, it was more his singing voice really. I know he's 80 now, but he really can't sing. He should have stopped years ago while he still had a bit of a voice.

I've seen them a few times including when they played raves a long time ago. I'm 50 this year and am booking tickets as soon as I can. With a few mitsubishis. 

54 this year and wondering how I can crash YNot without disturbing the children (all working on parking for free tickets). Prodigy headlining the Friday.

Prodigy are fukin awesome. 
ETA: the tribute to Keith was totally mega and cool as fvck. 

Enjoyed the Olivia Rodrigo set, lots of energy.

THE PRODIGY 

(Smashed their beats up, Jacked their beats up! Vague memories of dancing to 'that' track at a mate's house party all mashed up and suddenly - 30 years later.)

Artists past their best seems to be a feature. Debbie Harry last year was simply dreadful, such a shame.

It's not been a vintage year for sure. Atmosphere looked pretty flat most of the weekend, uninspiring lineup. I don't know whether it's the BBC at fault but the audio mix has been pretty terrible for a lot of shows. Also a lot of acts who simply aren't very good live or are well past their prime.

The Maccabees closing set last night was a highlight though, one of the few artists to sound good, great all round live show, great energy.

Prodigy I've seen many times and are always ace.

I keep saying I want to go next time round, but when it comes to booking it, going to smaller festivals that are half the price where I can actually see all the artists I want to, are much more appealing. Been to Moovin festival the last couple years which is a great little festival, quality crowd. Also the appeal of Butlins festivals with a bed and a shower shows no signs of abating, used to go to the now-defunct ATP festivals, but Fatboy Slim's weekend in November is a good substitute.

I went in 1995, 97, 98, 2003 and 2004. I didn't get the impression that it wasn't taking itself terribly seriously back then. What is it doing now that is "taking itself too seriously"? 

Seems Bob Vylan has created a bit of a frenzy and frothing. I'd never heard of them before but seems the free speech brigade are out in force, trying to stifle free speech it seems.

Jeez, where to start. They were a bit stupid and will likely have their collar felt, and I hear that their agents have dropped them too. Freedom of speech does not give immunity from consequences, but they should be free to spout what they want, whether we like it or not. They'll get one chance, and they have blown it, probably forever.

And attacking the BBC, including some like the perma-tw*t, Chris Philp, saying it should be prosecuted. Bloody nora! what a load of crap. 

I have their set on now (BBC Sounds) very good it is as well.

The problem with that was on our TV his voice all but disappeared unless played at full volume. 

I agree about the froth but what he said during the set did break BBC broadcast standards. You know..... that stuff we don't get on social media platforms or are pretty flimsy on press regulations.

I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it, (Elizabeth Beatrice Hall)

Except, back then, when the women or ordinary folk wanted a vote? Such a pure libertarian view in the modern world is highly dangerous. All western democracies have legal limits on what can be said to get round the old maxim of the risks attached to shouting "fire" in a theatre.

I wonder if the outcry would be the same had he lead the crowd in a chant of "Death to the Russian Military"

Not a loaded question, just genuinely intrigued as to what people think.

Or Hamas?

It would be good if the mods moved the politics on this thread

It relates directly to “Glastonbury on TV”. A lot of the politicking is about the TV aspect. 

Ive been hoodwinked to go here this weekend at the home of Lord Byron. I suspect it will be a lot less exciting than the Prodigy - https://newsteadabbey.org.uk/wonderland-festival

Good grief! Take a few hip flasks of single malt 

Or: "Death to the genociders."

Which is just a factual description of the IDF.

Enjoyed the 1975 set on BBC sounds and away from Glastonbury, the Bruce Springsteen unreleased material - an interesting mix of the familiar styles and the unfamiliar, it even stretches to born again Christianity! An unexpected insight into his personality at some point in his life.

Any tips for your favourite Glastonbury artists?

That's what I like Glastonbury for - lots of stuff I know and vast amounts of stuff that's new to me.

I caught the last half hour of Ezra Collective when it was on the TV. Not the sort of music I usually listen to, and I probably won't add them to my playlist, but the performance was great and it was hard not to smile and enjoy it. It just looked like everyone was having a great time!

Glastonbury coverage is great for that.

Perfect!

So you had to go to the home of a romantic poet instead of watching Alanis Morrisette.

Isn't it Byronic.

T.

Or perhaps some laudanum?

Nile Rogers and Chic was the high point, in terms of musical ability, song writing and fun. Not my genre, but it was undeniably world class. A lot of dross otherwise. Guardian tipped that reheated Taylor-Swift-impersonating teenage girl as the highlight... which is utterly desperate! Even an old favourite like Pulp were clearly past it, struggling, and trading on pure nostalgia... it was a bit thin. This was pure establishment culture, and only Kneecap and Bob Vylan briefly, clumsily and ineffectually perforated how banal and conformist the whole spectacle was. The resulting moral panic, however, recuperates these transgressions immediately onto the comfortable terrain of a rabid right-wing press that is happier fighting phantom culture wars against black and Irish people than dealing with the brutal realities of the UK's role in perpetrating genocide.

In short, very little living culture to see here: just a wax museum charicaturing the past.

I was at the festival this year but have been catching up on sets I missed (many of them!) since getting home.

CMAT was brilliant and is well worth a watch. I knew and liked her music but didn't know what she was like as a person, turns out she's an absolute legend. And as she says, "very sexy".

I saw Self Esteem and they were one of my highlights, the set was a proper choreographed performance. Definitely worth a watch. 

Kae Tempest was also fantastic. 

Our current government has bought into the daftness of the past government. The right wing press conveniently ignore that and are just demonstrating shameless hypocrisy on free speech.  This is of course dwarfed by Trump's doublethink actions against US University funding. 

Even the technically minded Wonk HE were having fun using Vylan to illustrate the knots we have tied around ourselves. Knots which would largely go under the Strasboug declaration, ie. if we dumped these intrinsically inconconsistent laws on free speech.

https://wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/bob-vylan-and-the-ofs-free-speech-guidance/

The broadcast clearly breached BBC guidelines and that's where the certainty ends, given protections for artistic performance under current law. Yet given the IDF are a conscripted army, I struggle to understand how the chant shouldn't be hate speech.  The wider population certainly do not share the responsibility of any criminal acts of genocide..... Isreal has seen many big protests against the disgusting actions of its government.

As for Glastonbury you don't need to search far down the playtlists to find more conventional righteous anger and pure joy in performance (even ignoring Neil Young as the headline act). 

3000 performances between more than 100 stages & venues. Sounds very alive to me.

The guest appearances are good. You see that the performers are also some of the biggest fans and I like to see the joy of both the youngster and their musical hero when they perform together.

However much you love/hate him, you can't* argue with the fact that Ed Sheeran made his debut there at the grand old age of 20** when he represented the future rather than the past.

*but this is UKC....

**ish, I didn't actually check the date of his debut and his birthday.

What a load of uninformed armchair b*llocks.

You do also realise that only the 4 largest stages (out of 100+) were on TV, and that's without even considering all the stuff other than music that goes on at Glastonbury.

I didn't make it this year but would thoroughly recommend checking out Doechii.  Her album (mixtape?)  Alligator Bites Never Heal is one of the best Hip Hop records I've hear in a long while.  Caustic, funny and well produced it's really superb.  Her set was apparently brilliant, albeit short.  

Thanks, never heard of her. Which is a good reason to listen to her now (BBC Sounds).

I missed Doechii too, however I saw Kae Tempest who said that Doechii's set earlier that day was literally the best thing they'd ever seen. High praise indeed. 

Will give the album a listen, cheers. 

Those 2 sentences seem contradictory. There is now little doubt the IDF is committing genocide in Gaza, therefore to serve in the IDF is to participate in genocide, and to participate is to share responsibility. The only people who don't share responsibility are those who refuse to serve. They are few, but they are very brave.

Israel has seen big protests against judicial reform and to support bringing the hostages home. Protests for stopping the genocide of the Palestinian people are fewer and much smaller. But again, the bravery of these people should not be underestimated.

Just like some papers (notably the Excess) don't understand that the UK law isn't what they claim it is (especially for music performance),  that's not how genocide law works. I agree things are so bad it's pretty daft to wait for legal decisions before we can conclusively say genocide has occurred, but those prosecuted will be in the government, chain of command and individuals with evidence against them. An ordinary conscripted soldier somewhere else in the country will not have committed genocide.

I'd add, as Paul pointed out  a reasonable part of a UK legal defence might include Vylan saying he meant he wants the organisation to die.

I agree on the bravery paragraph. Just remember some of those will be ex IDF who had been conscripted (or volunteered) in the past.

You appear to be confusing the TV coverage with the festival itself. I suppose that's understandable if you've never been.

I thought the same.  Given the extensive TV coverage of the event, it's easy for people who haven't been to Glastonbury, but have been to other festivals, feel like they've seen a lot of it or really understand what it's all about.  But no matter how much coverage the BBC provides, it really only scratches the surface of just how much there is going on.

There are literally dozens of stages that have no coverage at all, whole areas that become huge, theatrical produced, pulsating raves all night every night, walkaround performers, healing fields, green futures, left field, queer spaces, circus performers, all manner of weird and wonderful counter culture spaces. 

All wrapped up under the guise of one festival.  But like I always say, Glastonbury isn't a festival, it's festival made up of a number of other festivals.

For those who have never been I can't recommend it highly enough.  It's the best.

The "teenage girl" is 22 I think and isn't 'reheated TS'. I mean she's not doing dub or  show tunes, but it doesn't sound much like TS' stuff to my ear. It's hardly like TS invented piano ballads or pop punk. I thought her set was pretty cool although the love-lorn ballads pass me by.