So I'm sure you've all heard about Amy Winehouse and her fan punching and Jay-Z and his Noel Gallagher punching (not literally) in fact you may have even seen more bands than I did on BBC but nothing compares to the experience of being there. I guarantee you that no matter what festivals you have been to in the world you have never seen anything to equal the size of the daddy of them all.
Click on the read more for Glasto Diary and Gig review
Wed 25th June
Arrive. Queue for 45 mins for tickets. Pitch tents & gazebo. Take comfort in the fact that there are no major bands on today and that we have to go nowhere and do nothing. Do anyway. Get drunk. Rest blur.
Thurs 26th June
Whole day of wandering around looking at shit and getting drunk. Watch a couple of godawful bands who's names were unavailable in the Leftfield stage. Rest blur.
Fri 27th June
First day of proper schedule music. Wander down in morning to get some food. Stop by the John Peel Stage to see somebody called Royworld. Stay for a song or two. Boring Coldplay like tunes provoke severe dose of wandering the fuck away from there. Check out vid below for yourself
Apres Royworld head back for post breakfast beer. Look at timetable. Nobody on for a while but Glasvegas are playing close enough to wander down. Go down. One song I know/like turns out to be the only song I know/like. Oh well.
Glasvegas- Geraldine
Click for mp3
Off to Jazzworld which coincidentally is right beside the Brothers Pear Cider stand. Nothing jazzy on, so Cider it is. 3 pints time its time for Ben Folds. Not my favourite artist but my ignorance of the chap has been mocked long enough so lets check him out. By all accounts a decent Folds peformance. Weather isn't magnificent while he's playing but he keeps the crowd in a good mood and finishes with a pretty amusing cover of Dr.Dre's "Bitches ain't shit".
Ben Folds- Bitches Aint Shit
Click for mp3
The hype machine has roled all over The Ting Ting's and so its time to see if they're worth the paper they're printed on. Head to John Peel Stage to find it more packed then apparently its ever been. Hardly surprising considering the afore-mentioned hype. Turns out they can actually play live. Considering its only two people on synthed up drums guitars and vocals then its quite surprising they fill the tent with sound in the way they do. In fact they do it so impressively that the only song that sounds quite lacklustre is the on that a lot of people turned up to see.
The Ting Tings- Great DJ
Click for mp3
Large blank gap for four hours between The Ting Ting's and final act of the day in which many bands I could have seen played. No idea if I did see them but next memory is turning up at Kings of Leon on the main stage. Perhaps everybody has a Kings of Leon phase. For some reason I have their first album and a copy of their second so I must have gone through one at one point but damned if I can figure out why. Prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt but after a hella long wait for them to come on stage and a boring as fuck first song that I don't know, followed by a boring as fuck second song that I do know I decide to bail to see if I can catch some of Sinead O'Connor or Seasick Steve. Fighting through the crowd at the Pyramid stage makes me miss both. Bummer. Rest of night = blur.
Seasick Steve- Dog House Boogie
Click for mp3
Sat 28th June
Drank late so rose late. Quelle Surprise. Quick joint to falafel stand drags me by John Peel again where a quirky little chick called Emmy the Great is waking folk up. Compares her album coming out to Chinese Democracy. "Thats not a Political joke its a Guns N'Roses joke". Remind myself to check out more of this little lady's stuff.
Unfortunately Emmy the great is not enough to wake me from a rotten hangover + rotten sunstroke. Decide to lie down for several hours so I don't miss the evenings festivities. Several hours later sleeping and an hour and a half in the cinema tent watching The Simpsons Movie (better on a second watch) and off to the Park area via the Pyramid stage checking out a bit of Manu Chao on the way who appears to be making the crowd dance like bastards.
Manu Chao- Merry Blues
Click for mp3
Arriving in the Park area just in time to see the second of half of Fight Like Apes who if you don't know are a fantastic shouty little Irish band and are here proving their ever growing awesomeness with a short but sweet set where they woo a small (and mostly Irish) but still significant crowd. Plus its recorded for the BBC and should be on the website but isn't at this time of writing for some reason. Not too good considering its supposed to be fucking promoting new bands.
Fight Like Apes finishes approximately ten minutes before MGMT are due to begin on the main Park stage. As we arrive however we hear The Last Shadow Puppets being introduced for their secret gig. This doesn't bode well especially seeing as I'm not buying into any of Alex Turner's bullshit or his side projects and naturally enough this little performance fails to impress me regardless of whether Jack White was in the audience or not.
The boding proved correct as well unfortunately as the sets thereafter ran 40 minutes later and despite the fact that it was Saturday night the curfew remained in effect. MGMT played a 5 song set ending with Electric Feel, Time to Pretend and then doing their karaoke rendition of Kids which consistently makes me like them less and less.
MGMT- Electric Feel
Click for mp3
Battles however I like more and more each time I see them and having them reduced to 4 songs makes me want to hit things especially when they were kicking as much ass as they were as they race through Tij, Tonto, Atlas and Leyendecker. Hopefully next time they play in my presence I'll see the whole set.
Battles- Leyendecker
Click for mp3
CSS, as somebody pointed out to me, you can see every other weekend at home but as I mentioned they were running 40 minutes late so by the time they started there was no running down to catch a bit of Jay-Z (unfortunately for me from what I hear). Still there's no denying that the Brazilians put on a good show and tonight is no exception. Its just a shame that they can't pull a full set out of the crowd for all the folks who really want them.
Saturday night ends. On to oblivion. Drink through the night until about 8 in the morning find ourselves in the grounds of the farm trying to see if we can see the Eavis's. Unsurprisingly we don't.
CSS- Let's Make Love (Calvin Harris Remix) Link Removed
Sunday 29th June
There are those who might call me little bitch but its become a tradition at this stage that the Sunday of any given festival will see me being as sick as a fucking dog and this particular festival is no exception. Such is this fucker of a rotten tummy that I only emerge out in time to see...Neil fucking Diamond.
Now I am one of those people who can say in all seriousness and without even a hint of irony that I have been to a Neil Diamond concert. Such is the state of my (and at least half our group) that we choose to punctuate the break in songs with exclamations like "Neil Diamond!!!" or "We're at a Neil Diamond concert". The crowd like him well enough however and if there was a prize for getting a crowd of people to sing along to "Sweet Caroline" then Mr Diamond would surely take it. As you can see from the picture below my body did not agree with the crowds sentiments.
Neil Diamond- Sweet Caroline
Click for mp3
While some went to The Verve and some went to Manu Chao doing his second gig of the weekend I and my wretched stomach went and watched the first screening of Wall-E. Good movie, still the sounds of the Verve kind of made me want to head down there and hear Bittersweet Symphony and what not. Next year I'll have to grow another set of balls.
Glastonbury Diary
Off I go to Glasto!!!
So after months and months of chatter about it, Glastonbury is finally here. All of you who looked at the line-up and said "Jay-z *scoff*" I feel sorry for you. While he'll be peddling his own tiresome brand of Hip-Hop on Saturday night I will be at a completely different stage far from him watching MGMT, Battles and CSS back to back while getting very drunk on pear cider.
Irish acts representing this year include Jape, Ham Sandwich and Warlords of Pez.
Recognise.
See in you in a week
Ham Sandwich's Niamh Farrell: Pregnant unawares
Congratulations go out to Niamh Farrell of Ham Sandwich who gave birth to a baby boy on June 8th. Congratulations are also in order for the fact that she didn't know she was pregnant until she went into labour. Some tough broad. Read the full story here.
Ham Sandwich play numerous gigs around the country this summer and also play Glastonbury next week.
Click on the read more for some Ham sounds
FULL Glastonbury Line-Up
I fucking knew I should have waited until the full line-up was announced because as per usual its the smaller stages that have all the goodness on it.
Full complete line-up after the jump and if I might draw your attention to the Park Stage on the Saturday night where I will be setting up residence with the back to backness of CSS, Battles and MGMT.
All those doubters can finally shut the fuck up. This is what an amazing and diverse line-up is supposed to look like
Friday June 27
Pyramid Stage:
Kings Of Leon, The Fratellis, Editors, The Gossip, The Feeling, KT Tunstall, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, The Subways, Kate Nash
Other Stage:
Panic At The Disco, The Enemy, We Are Scientists, Foals, The Hoosiers, Ben Folds, Vampire Weekend, Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong, Hilltop Hoods
John Peel Stage:
Jamie T, The Cribs, Reverend And The Makers, The Kills, MGMT, The Ting Tings, Young Knives, Lightspeed Champion, Make Model, Glasvegas, Patric Watson, Royworld
Jazz World Stage:
Jimmy Cliff, Estelle, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Candi Staton, Alabama 3, Phantom Limb, Mankala
Park Stage:
Pete Doherty, Dizzee Rascal, John Cale, Edwyn Collins, The Duke Spirit, Operator Please, Sons And Daughters, Santogold, Beggars, Magic Wands, Island Line, The Langley Sisters
Acoustic Tent
Seasick Steve, Sinead O'Connor, Newton Faulkner, Arno Carstens, Eddi Reader, Camille O'Sullivan, Eleanor McEvoy, Devon Sproule, Acoustic Stage Blues Club with Grainne Duffy
Avalon Stage:
Sharon Shannon and Big Band, Xavier Rudd, Hazel O'Connor, The Men They Couldn't Hang, Ron Sexsmith, Frank Turner, Kissmet, Hobo Jones And The Junkyard Dogs
Left Field:
John Byrne, David Ford, Frank Turner, Beans On Toast, Alabama 3, The Holloways, Kate Nash, Jenners Field, Charlotte Campbell, Dance For Life, Tawiah, Hebe Jones, Buddha Tears, Dockers MC, Brit School Presents – Dance For Life
Queen's Head:
DJ Tayo's Tracksuit Party, DJ Smash 'n' Grab, Kate Nash, The Script, Young Knives, Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong, The Holloways, Captain, Babel, Team Waterpolo
The Glade:
Steve Hillage's Mirror System, Dreadzone, Tayo, Freefall Collective, Nick Warren Sunset Set, Sian Evans and Simon Kingman, Dr. Meaker, Clive Craske, Simon Atkinson and the Ben Marcato Trio, The Charles Hazlewood All Stars
Dance Village East:
Fatboy Slim, Roisin Murphy, X-Press 2, Hercules And Love Affair, Cicada, 20/20 Soundsystem
Dance Village West:
Booka Shade, James Zabelia, The Count and Sinden, Freestylers, Infadels, Zion Train
Dance Lounge Ozomatli, N Dubz, Djs Queens Of Noize, DJ Pete Gooding, Kid British, DJ Beardyman
G Stage:
Stanton Warriors, Utah Saints, Soul Of Man, Drum Monkeys, Beber and Tamara
Pussy Parlure:
House Meat Disco, Yard Dogs Road Show, Soul Train, Martina Topley-Bird
Saturday June 28:
Pyramid Stage:
Jay-Z, Very Special Guest TBC, Manu Chao, The Raconteurs, James Blunt, Crowded House, Seasick Steve, The Hold Steady, Shakin' Stevens
Other Stage:
Massive Attack, Hot Chip, Elbow, Duffy, The Wombats, Neon Neon, Black Kids, The Golden Silvers, The Travelling Band
John Peel Stage:
Biffy Clyro, The Futureheads, Band Of Horses, Black Lips, The Courteneers/The Black Keys, Vampire Weekend, British Sea Power, Holy Fuck, The Teenagers, Hilltop Hoods, Emmy The Great, Dogtanion
Jazz World Stage:
Ethiopiques, Buddy Guy, Imagined Village, Joan Armatrading, Eric Bibb, Massukos, The Blessing, Bedouin Jerry Can Band
Park Stage:
CSS, Battles, MGMT, Music Through Unconventional Means, Kool Keith and Kutmaster Kurt, Alphabeat, St Vincent, Jape, Eugene McGuinness
Acoustic Tent
Gilbert O'Sullivan, The Swell Season featuring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, Glenn Tilbrook and the Fluffers, Seth Lakeman, Andy Fairweather-Low and the Low Riders, The Gilmore, Sid Griffin and the Coal Porters, Emily Maguire, Acoustic Stage Blues Club with Grainne Duffy, The Travelling Band
Avalon Stage:
The Proclaimers, Will Young, Alabama 3 unplugged, The Handsome Family, The Wurzels, Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, Bacalao, Malarchy, One String Loose
Left Field:
New York Fund, Lazy Habits, Reverend And The Makers, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, Neville Staple, The Krak, The Mentalists, Rock Against Racism, Cars On Fire, Flykiller
Queen's Head:
DJ Sean Rowley, DJ Annie Mac, The Pigeon Detectives, White Denim, Ron Sexsmith, Teddy Thompson, The Duke Spirit, Modern Skirts, Edenheight
The Glade:
Squarepusher, Mark Broom, Massonix, DJ Donna Summer, Six By Seven, Danny Howells, Cassette Boy and DJ Rubbish, Radioactive Man, Robert Logan, Rob Hall, Symmetrik, Vexkiddy
Dance Village East:
Unkle, DJ Eddie Temple Morris, Roni Size Reprazent, Simian Mobile Disco, Kid Sister, A-Trak
Dance Village West:
Dj Dave Seaman, Black Dog, Nicky Holloway and Trevor Fung, The Grid, Atomic Hooligan, A Skillz
Dance Lounge:
DJ Format, Audio Bullys, Cadence Weapon, Nightmovies, Natty, Trojan Sound System
G Stage:
Pendulum (DJ set), Roland Bastard, Beat Torrent, The Japanese Popstars, Sub Focus
Pussy Parlure:
We Don't Play, Yard Dogs Road Show, Healer Selecta inc. Sound System, Size 9, Healer Select
Sunday June 29:
Pyramid Stage:
The Verve, Leonard Cohen, Goldfrapp, Very Special Guest TBC, John Mayer, Gilbert O' Sullivan, TBC
Other Stage:
Groove Armada, The Zutons, The Pigeon Detectives, Mark Ronson, Scouting For Girls, Jack Penate, Newton Faulkner, Black Mountain, Hoodoo Gurus
John Peel Stage:
The National, Spiritualized, Crystal Castles, Brian Jonestown Massacre,
The Stars, The Courteneers/The Black Keys, Rocket Summer, Friendly Fires, The Whup, Yeasayer
Jazz World Stage:
King Solomon Burke, Eddy Grant, Dub Colossus, Asere and Billy Cobham, Balkan Beat Box, Almasala, Portico Quartet, Sense Of Sound
Park Stage:
My Morning Jacket, Tunng, Vetiver, Caribou, Laura Marling, Mystery Jets, Kathryn Williams and Neill MacColl, The Cave Singers, Alberta Cross, Mumford and Sons, Alan Tyler and The Lost Songs of Littlefield, Redbridge Brass Band
Acoustic Tent
Joan Baez, Suzanne Vega, The London Community Gospel Choir, Stackridge, Tom Baxter, Tift Merritt, Foy Vance, Acoustic Stage Blues Club with Grainne Duffy, Amsterdam, Lazenby
Avalon Stage:
Katie Melua, Blazin' Fiddles, Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara, John Tams and Barry Coope, The Baghdaddies Big Band, the Family Mahone, Rafven, Nuala and The Alchemy Quartet, Prison Love
Left Field:
Night Of Treason, Neck, Billy Bragg, Dirty Pretty Things, The Bluetones, Build A Band – Youth Music, Jail Guitar Doors (film), Phill Jupitus, Left Field Rally with Tony Benn, Carnival Collective
Queen's Head:
DJs The Voguettes, Soulsavers, Elbow, Noah And The Whale, Florence And The Machine, Congregation, Dengue Fever, Dawn Kinnard, the Cock'n'bullkid, Ladyhawke
The Glade:
Eatstatic, Tristan, Lucas, Flip Flop, Regan, ZubZub, Aliki, Pathaan
Dance Village East:
Kosheen, DJ Annie Mac, Sam Sparro, The Black Ghosts, Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Dance Village West:
Derek May, System 7, Kraak and Smaak, Lee Coombs, The Whip
Dance Lounge:
Annie, The Presets, Punks Jump Up, Ladyhawke
G Stage:
Magnetic Man, Caspa and Rusko, Appleblim, Basecleff, Moody Boyz, Digidub
Pussy Parlure:
Generals HiFi, Balkan Beat Box, Kokolo Ray, Ipek, Loungeclash
Glastonbury line-up announced (mostly)
Some crud in here but enough to keep me interested for the whole weekend and only three of the main stages are here.
Afer the jump for full line-up
June 27:
Pyramid Stage
Kings Of Leon
The Fratellis
Editors
The Gossip
The Feeling
KT Tunstall
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly
The Subways
Kate Nash
Other Stage
Panic At The Disco
The Enemy
We Are Scientists
Foals
The Hoosiers
Ben Folds
Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong
Vampire Weekend
Hilltop Hoods
John Peel Stage
Jamie T
The Cribs
Reverend And The Makers
MGMT
The Ting Tings
Young Knives
LIghtspeed Champion
Glasvegas
June 28
Pyramid Stage
Jay-Z
Very Special Guest TBC
Manu Chao
The Raconteurs
James Blunt
Crowded House
Seasick Steve
The Hold Steady
Shakin' Stevens
Other Stage
Massive Attack
Hot Chip
Elbow
Duffy
The Wombats
Neon Neon
Black Kids
The Golden Silvers
The Travelling Band
John Peel Stage
Biffy Clyro
The Futureheads
Band Of Horses
The Courteneers/The Black Keys
Vampire Weekend
The Teenagers
June 29
Pyramid Stage
The Verve
Leonard Cohen
Goldfrapp
Very Special Guest TBC
John Mayer
Gilbert O' Sullivan
TBC
Other Stage
Groove Armada
The Zutons
The Pigeon Detectives
Mark Ronson
Scouting For Girls
Jack Penate
Newton Faulkner
Black Mountain
Hoodoo Gurus
John Peel Stage
The National
Spiritualized
Crystal Castles
Brian Jonestown Massacre
The Stars
The Courteneers/The Black Keys
Rocket Summer
Glastonbury Rumor Mill
There's a lot of talk today of Jay-Z pulling out of his Glastonbury headline slot, which in fairness is probably a load of crap.
Tickets are going slow though- the festival usually sells out in a matter of hours, but having gone on sale yesterday morning pre-registered users can still buy tickets today. It's this low ticket traffic and high grumble factor concerning Jay-Z's headlining that has given rise to pull-out speculations.
And the fact that the rapper has just been confirmed as the headliner for the o2 Wireless festival- which is also in the UK, and falls within a week of the Glastonbury fest.
Hmmm...
It's Not About The Lineup, Yeh, Yeh..
I know I've already been shot down for griping about the Glastonbury lineup (it's not about the lineup- it's about Glastonbury, etc etc), and that's fine. Point taken.
But..
..announcements like this do nothing to help.
More Glastonbury Headliners
This years Glastonbury is shaping up to be one of the best in the festival's history.
Oh wait, sorry, I was thinking of something else there..
This years Glastonbury is shaping up to be pretty shit. With Jay-Z already confirmed as one headliner, two more of Michael Eavis' trump cards were announced today to barely audible grumbles of malcontent. The Verve & Kings Of Leon will headline the other stages, joining the already announced lineup of Neil Diamond, British Sea Power & Leonard Cohen.
What happened to all the promising rumors of Radiohead, or even Led Zeppelin? "When I think of Led Zeppelin, my mind immediately races to that delightful Ashcroft boy", Michael Eavis may have said if he was a figment of my imagination.
Sigh. At least the Kings Of Leon are pretty good..
Jay-Z Revealed As Glastonbury Headliner
I guess we'd all pretty much seen this coming, but Jay-Z has been confirmed by Michael Eavis as the headliner for this year's Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. Here's him benefiting hugely from Rick Rubin's production on 99 Problems:
Click for story
Glastonbury registration opens today
For those of you who make their decision about whether to go to a festival or not based solely on the line-up...well...Oxegen tickets go on sale in a while so you don't need to read any further.
Stop!
Now!
For those of you who look on festivals as an experience, a chance to meet deadly people, an opportunity to hear savage music that you've never heard before and have accepted the fact that no matter how much you plan, the chances are there's alwasy going to be some band or other that you wanted to see that you will miss due to some reason or another........well Glastonbury is the place for you.
The fact that I actually have to try and sell this to people is depressing but if you have an open mind then get yourself to this farm in Somerset come June. The only artist confirmed so far is Neil Diamond but if this, to you, is a deterrant I would remind you that there are over 1000 other acts playing so the oppurtunity is there to avoid Mr.Diamond in many different ways.
Registration is easy. You go here, put in your details and then come April you'll get to battle with the rest of us to try and get one of 200,000 tickets. Its not actually as difficult as it sounds and I can assure you that its more than bloody worth it. Glastonbury has been host to some absolutely legendary artists and performances. One of which was Pulp in 1995 who filled in for The Stone Roses after John Squire broke his collar bone. Evidence here:
First Big Glastonbury Name Revealed
And it's... Neil Diamond?
Hmm.. Interesting. There's one Glastonbury act I won't mind missing.
