Glastonbury Round-Up

I’m back from Glastonbury (I know my previous blog says otherwise but erase that, I got in somehow) and all of a sudden I’m finding Noel Edmonds really, very funny. On Deal Or No Deal he just handed out a load of mints to the crowd and goes ‘sorry if my hands look sticky, I’ve just been rubbing lard into the cats boil’. Now, either that is just really funny or I’m still riding off the all-time happy love ride that was Glastonbury 2009.

It was a complex weekend, in the sense that I was flitting around people and bands for three days trying to do everything and see everything possible but also fitting in time to sit around and be hippified in a wicker arch for a bit too. I arrived with the singer Lisa Mitchell (stay tuned for a brilliant courtyard from this Aussie starlet) which was good because a) she’s really good and b) I got to go around in a buggy for a day, and it was the only day that it properly rained. I felt like a star. As I bobbed around wearing my poncho on the mini car people looked in at us as though I might have been someone worth looking at. After Lisa Mitchell’s performance at the Dirty Boots stage, which featured an excellent cover of Dire Straits’ (hate DS but Lisa made it sound credible) ‘Romeo & Juliet’, I managed to catch N*E*R*D’s late notice secret set, which was full of bombastic Michael Jackson shout outs and up-tempo, bolshie hip-hop which managed to assist the sun along perfectly. Next up was tent pitching up time, which is something I’m very unskilled in, but thankfully I met up with my friends and in about 30 seconds John, who is a policeman, managed to erect my tent better than I could in an hour. That sentence sounds rude. After hearing so much positive feedback about The Specials’ recent shows, I made it an absolute necessity to watch them at the Pyramid stage, and they were truly brilliant, although I probably know about 4 of their songs I will never forget hearing ‘Ghost Town’ live ever again. There was a slight overlap with Friday night’s headliners, but Neil Young was essential viewing, just so I could say that I’d seen Neil Young. I was desperate to see Doves at the John Peel stage so after watching about 40 minutes of Neil Young fans going mad, air guitaring and chanting back every line, I started to feel like a bit of a fraud and popped off to see Doves play the best set that, in my opinion, they’d ever done. Seeing them at a festival was so uplifting, it was a triumphant gig, they played the bloody ‘Cedar Room’ and finished off the set with a throbbing Sub Sub song, leaving everyone on a total high.

Saturday was an eclectic mix of bands. I kicked the day off with The Big Pink, who started off well but didn’t keep me wanting more. There was just something a bit too mechanical, cold, and downbeat for me to get into, especially when I was surrounded by so much potential for happy-times. I also became totally enthralled, in a bad way, with the very bored looking girl who did the ‘oooh’ bits on the songs. She couldn’t see past her fringe and I thought it was awfully contrived to look so bored on stage when the rest of the band are going for it and you’re at bloody Glastonbury. I wanted to flick her forehead with my finger and tell her to wise up or get off. But obviously I couldn’t, so I just left the tent and went up to the top of the hill and looked over the site and thought about just how amaaaaaaaaaaazing everything was. Man. The Temper Trap were up next, performing in the Orange tent which was filled with mobile phone hungry people charging their batteries and not really paying attention to the spine tingling set that we witnessed. It was a tough crowd but they sounded absolutely perfect, frontman Dougy Mandagi’s voice resounded across the tent, a beautiful fusion between soul and atmospheric rock, and ‘Sweet Disposition’ reconfirmed itself as one of my favourite tracks of 2009 so far. Leaving everyone with credibility behind, I trotted off to watch some of Paolo Nutini’s set. He brought in an enormous crowd and made me realised that maybe it’s not that bad to worship this man as clearly a lot of other people do, and people who aren’t just all about his sexy nose and heart melting voice. Dreamy. For some silly reason I decided to bypass Florence And The Machine’s apparently incredible set to see Klaxons perform at their secret show. They came on dressed as all sorts of ghoulish characters, Edward Scissorhands, a headless gent and I think Simon was Beetlejuice but I couldn’t tell. Their set was mostly the big hits but they also played a couple of new songs that sounded pretty standard Klaxons. It sounded to me like they’d been doing a lot of practising as they were miles more tight than when I last saw them. However, Klaxons playing rave music in the afternoon in the sun didn’t work hugely for me, it was good fun but more like a little scratch in the funny bones rather than a whack across the face with an Amazing Truncheon. I’m not the hugest Bruce Springsteen fan, but I saw it my duty to use this perfect setting to maybe finally persuade my ears that I could have some space in my life for The Boss. However, about 4 songs in I realised there was definitely no way this could ever happen so I went to get some wedges and trotted off to The Park stage to see Bon Iver who warmed my cockles greatly. Then I did a lot of running around in the dark until it was light again.

Tired, hot and needing an ice lolly, on Sunday I stumbled out of my tent to go and watch Status Quo who I have absolutely no emotions about. Walking through the crowds to find my friends I began hating everyone I passed, so smug with their Status Quo middle aged dancing - I lay on the floor and ate a lolly whilst hating my life (talking of things I don’t like, I managed to catch a bit of Enter Shikari’s set which almost made me gag, the singer was preaching about the world and music and things. He really didn’t need to, as I think we all realised music was pretty quality and much better than war). I managed to get to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who decided to play a bit earlier on The Other stage, but like Klaxons, I think it might have worked better if they’d played at night with flashy lights and that. Karen O was on top form. HOWEVER, my festival pet peeve was distracting me. A massive balloon in the shape of an eyeball was being chucked around, and the wind kept making it blow towards me. So I was left one eye on the balloon eye and one eye on the stage. I hate it, it’s like when you eat your dinner outside and a fucking wasp buzzes around you and you try and keep calm but all you can think about is le wasp. I sort of switched my brain off for Madness and had a nice sit down and ate some nuts and watched my friend’s skanking. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds were a total highlight, there’s just a brilliant dark authority about Cave, and I’d never normally see them because I don’t really know any of their songs that well. Finally Blur. Blur, Blur, Blur, Blur Blur Blur. I was totally in awe for the entirety of their set, and I thought I had nothing at all left to give but it appears I still had about 7 tears worth for ‘This Is A Low’, which was quite honestly the most perfect thing I’d ever seen. It was a shame though that we had a group of people stood near us who kept singing ‘BORN IN THE USA’, taking lots of pictures of each other to prove to everyone on Facebook just how good friends they all are and how much fun they were having at Glastonbury, in between hoiking the girls up on their shoulders every time a hit came on, which was every song in their set. Bastards. It didn’t really matter though, that was one of the most moving, glorious and uplifting gigs I’d ever been to. A perfect end to what was honestly one of the best weekends I’ve ever had.

In conclusion, I just re-read that Noel Edmonds comment and it is still funny. So, not sure, make of that what you will. The End.