Glastonbury 2011 - Part 3. Sunday.

After a mixed set of weather conditions (including a hell of a lot of rain!) we were given a day of bright, blazing sunshine on Sunday.

The day started at the Pyramid stage, where we caught the second half of an act I'd never heard of. Fishermen's Friends are 10 middle-aged Cornishmen, who seem to predominantly sing traditional songs and sea shanties. It was clear that they attracted fans mainly from that area, as there were many Cornwall flags around us. They were very good, they included a version of Sloop John B after a very touching song about a Cornishman moving away to Australia to find work. The main reason we'd gone down to the stage so early was to catch The Low Anthem. I've been a fan of theirs since their second album, Oh, My God, Charlie Darwin. They didn't play several of my favourite songs and the heat made it difficult to enjoy them as thoroughly as I'd wished. Nevertheless, they were still impressive - especially in the fact that all 4 members of the band are talented multi-instrumentalists.

From there, we decided to seek refuge from the heat for a while before we trekked to the Other Stage for Noisettes. They bravely opened with best-known single Don't Upset The Rhythm. I can't think of many who are a better frontperson than the sublime Shingai Shoniwa. She put on an excellent show, engaging superbly with the crowd, most of whom seemed to be quite in love with her. I can't blame them. The highlight of the set for me was Don't Give Up.

We managed to find shade for our next act - as Dan le sac Vs. Scroobius Pip were playing in the Oxylers in West tent. I was unsure how they would come across live but my hopes were high. Their first album, Angles, is one of my favourite records of recent years and their follow-up, The Logic of Chance has its merits too. They were just superb, a real highlight of the festival. If you've never seen them live then I urge you to do so.

We then finally made our first trek up to the top of the hill in The Park. In the warm weather, it was actually quite tricky and I'd have possibly preferred to have attempted it in the several inches of mud we'd been dealing with for more of the festival. It was well worth it, we sat admiring the spectacular view while the music of The Bees gently floated across from the Park Stage.



View from The Park

Next up was the excellent John Grant. His début solo album, Queen of Denmark was one of the highlights of last year. An intensely personal record, it managed to be brutally honest, hilariously funny and extremely angry in parts. I saw him a few months earlier in very different surroundings at the intimate setting of the Royal Northern College of Music. He was probably not quite as good this time, and failed to really engage the smallish crowd.

We managed to catch punk poet John Cooper Clarke for what was a typically entertaining performance. I think I may have preferred more actually poetry and less jokes and set-up but I can't really complain - he was good.

I don't really know what to say about the last act we saw - Beyoncé. Her music is not really my kind of music, but there are few who do it better than she does. She genuinely enthralled the crowd and I loved how overwhelmed she seemed to be by the whole experience. If Glastonbury can have that effect on someone as huge as Beyoncé, I think it proves that it is truly magical. I'm not sure about her version of Sex On Fire though, a bad cover of a terrible song.

I could go on for ages and ages about how fantastic Glastonbury is but I'm not going to. I'll just say this - see you in there in 2013.

Glastonbury 2011 - Part 2. Saturday.

Despite intending to get there for the start of play on Saturday, after messing about for ages, we ended up only getting down to the Pyramid Stage in time to catch the last two songs of first band Stornoway's set. That said, they really did seem quite excellent and during a triumphant run-through of their best-known single, Zorbing, they released two giant white balloons into the crowd.

Next up on the same stage were Western Australians Tame Impala. Having heard and liked two of their singles, I was looking forward to them, but was ultimately disappointed. They just somehow seemed to be the wrong choice for this stage, the band seemed to lack charisma and the crowd were never interested. After two or three songs, we found that we were talking amongst ourselves. Perhaps this was more the fault of the crowd than the band and I sincerely hope that they had better luck with their set at a smaller stage later in the day. Before the end of their set, we wandered over towards the BBC area, for a very special purpose...

Everyone's favourite 6music DJs, Adam and Joe had promised to meet fans at the gates at the end of their live broadcast. We waited among a large crowd and eventually, our heroes emerged. Adam strode ahead with a large box, leading the crowd for a few hundred yards, past bemused onlookers into the middle of the Pyramid field. Joe followed shortly afterwards. They threw t-shirts out but we didn't manage to snare a single one between us, sadly. Eventually we managed to get a couple of pictures (below). Needless to say, they were both very charming.

While this was going on, The Gaslight Anthem had started up on the Pyramid Stage. I managed to catch the second half of their set and they were perfectly entertaining. I was especially pleased with how genuinely delighted the singer appeared to be just to be at Glastonbury.

From there, I finally moved away from the Pyramid Stage and grasped the chance to sit down and take my wellies off in the circus tent. We were entertained by a children's circus group, complete with unicycles, clowns and a trapeze artist who looked about 8 years old. I've clearly not done them full justice with my description because they were sensational.

I made room for the always superb Alison Mosshart, surely amongst the best front-people in rock, in her first band The Kills. They were always going to be good. They were good.

The worst-kept secret of the weekend was due at 8. We made our way over to the smaller Park Stage with almost an hour to spare. By this point, it was already completely rammed. By the time we took our position (from where we knew we wouldn't be able to see anyone on the stage), there were people as far as the eye could see. We were missing Elbow for this, who my girlfriend had never seen perform and who I knew would be simply sensational. For that reason, we would have been pretty angry if the rumours were incorrect. Also, the expected secret act were one of the few bands who I have loved for over 15 years and who I had never seen perform and never really believed that I would. Thankfully, it was Pulp that came on to the stage. They started with the excellent Do You Remember the First Time?, before moving through a sensational setlist, including personal favourites such as Razzmatazz, Something Changed, Sorted For E's and Whizz, Disco 2000, Babies, This Is Hardcore, and Mis-Shapes. I am happy to report that Something Changed and This Is Hardcore proved to be huge (and perhaps slighty surprising) favourites among the crowd. Of course, they finished with a superb rendition of Common People. Amazing performances from both Pulp and Morrissey in the same weekend! Wow. The only drawbacks were that we had to miss Elbow - a gig I'd been looking forward to for months - and that they only played one song from the criminally-underrated album of This Is Hardcore. Still, these are at most small complaints. Pulp were just brilliant.

Another act I had counted on seeing the whole of was Janelle Monae at West Holts. Pulp's set meant that we only got over there for the last 6 songs or so, but I was so glad that we did. We managed to catch Tightrope, most importantly. That was not all though, her and her band (all coordinated in black and white) put on a superb show, including some synchronisation in their dancing. Again, this was a lot better than I have managed to make it sound. She managed to sound impressively like a young Michael Jackson during her cover of I Want You Back. We also saw her perform the excellent Cold War and Come Alive (War of the Roses). I've long believed that Monae is one of the most interested people in popular music, and have never understood why she did not more success with her debut album, The ArchAndroid. We simply came away from her set even more baffled as to why she is not a global mega-star. A simply brilliant performance.

We did intend to watch Big Boi next, but decided against it. We thought we'd steal a march and get over to Avalon and Arcadia before they became completely rammed with late-night revellers. Unfortunately, once we got there, tiredness defeated us and we only lasted for about half an hour before heading to bed.

I seem to have wittered on for far too long again, so I will do Sunday at another point. I'll simply leave you with the pictures of my encounter with Adam and Joe (I'm the fat one in the football shirt...).

Glastonbury 2011

GLASTONBURY 2011. Wednesday - Friday.

I was, until a week ago, a Glastonbury virgin. As a 26 year old, who calls himself a music lover, I really cannot believe that it's taken me so long to go. The only festival I had been to previously was V2004, which was quite good fun and we saw some excellent performances, most memorably from The Strokes and Hope of the States. However, I always knew there would be better out there. It's just taken me 7 years to bother to find it.

You may have noticed that there was a lot of rain and a lot of mud at Glastonbury. Some people saws their spirits dampened somewhat by this. We barely noticed. We got through the half hour queue and long trek to camp site in torrential downpour by positive thinking - we knew we had a great time ahead of us. Only we didn't yet know just how good.

I spent most of the Wednesday and Thursday (before the festival proper started) just wandering round the site in open-mouthed wonder. In truth, I never completely stopped doing that. It had been said that you could enjoy an entire Glastonbury without ever seeing any music and barely even notice. It's completely true - with all the circus, theatre, comedy, cabaret, drinking establishments, night-life, farmers markets, works of art, village fêtes, healing fields and general weirdness along with countless other things I've forgotten. If you want to explore a fair amount of this, you won't get time to squeeze any live music in. Of course, none of this is news to anyone who's been before but I was completely amazed by the whole experience. I was, in particular, a big fan of the Greenfields field, where the Greenpeace area and Farmer's Markets were located. While in Greenfields, I ended up having my face painted as a tiger on the Friday after indulging in a big slice of Watermelon.





The above photograph are both from the Greenpeace area in the Greenfields. Both photographs belong to Laura Kemp.

On the Thursday night, we went to Ultimate Power, a club night focusing on the genre of power ballads. Far from my sort of music. In fact, most songs we heard in there would annoy me, usually. However, it was hard to be my usual cynical self when everybody in the tent was so happy. The smiles on every face around me made me very happy. And the fact that there were no queues for the bar in a full tent probably helped.

Come Friday, we were straining at the leash to finally see some live music. We started with a band I'd never heard of in Hobo Jones and the Junk Yard Dogs. They described their music as 'skunk' - skiffle punk. It was every bit as odd as it sounds but so much better. They pretty much played covers of well-known songs and it was a perfect way to start the weekend, they had the crowd in the Avalon tent jumping and singing along from the start. It was mostly fairly upbeat versions of songs such as The Clash's Should I Stay or Should I Go? and a Led Zeppelin tribute. However, they proved they were more than a one trick pony with a tender version of The Pogues classic Sally MacLennane in memory of a friend. All three members of the band impressed with their clearly well-rehearsed but still entertaining repartee. They apparently started life busking outside Woolworth's in Maidstone and are now festival regulars after impressing Michael Eavis himself.

From there, we had a slight change of pace with the Wu-Tang Clan. It was impossible to know what to expect - we didn't even know which members would turn up. I'd been looking forward to seeing them, although with some trepidation. In the end, our fears were needless, they were excellent and got the crowd interested and involved. They were a hit, and possibly a surprise one. I was with people who only knew Gravel Pit, as I suspect many of the crowd did, but they enjoyed the entire show.

My girlfriend and I then made our only trip to Billy Bragg's Leftfield to see comedian Andy Zaltzman. He is cricket and pun-obsessed, which to me is about all I ask from comedians, but disappointingly few manage to deliver. I urge you to check out The Bugle podcast and his excellent columns on Cricinfo. It didn't matter that I'd heard much of his set before - he was very funny, even when interrupted by the loud beeping of what appeared to be a truck reversing for about 5 minutes. A sample joke - "I'm a pessimist - like a German vegetarian, I fear the Wurst.".

It was then time for the act I'd really been waiting for since the line-up was announced. The Smiths are one of my absolute favourite bands of all-time. However, I was only born in 1985 so am obviously far too young to have seen them perform. For some reason, I had never before been to see Morrissey perform a solo gig either. He has a reputation for being hit and miss when performing live in recent years, so he was another act I went to with some apprehension. Again, I was not disappointed. Right from the start and his opening line of 'Well... Fancy seeing me here', he was right at his pouting best and made me very, very happy. He opened with a favourite Smiths song of mine; I Want The One I Can't Have, followed by First of The Gang To Die. He continued with more of my favourite Smiths and solo work, such as Shoplifters of the World, Everyday Is Like Sunday, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out and Irish Blood, English Heart. He then finished with what is many people's favourite Smiths song, and possibly their best known - This Charming Man. Apparently, he actually cut his set short by 15 minutes, which didn't matter to me. The Mozfather was excellent and it was a lifetime ambition fulfilled for me.

Obviously, I was not about to hang around for U2 so we moved over to Cubehenge from there, for an open air DJ set from Craig Charles. Any listener to 6music will know the joys of his Funk and Soul Show and the live version was tremendous. I cannot imagine that many DJs would inspire me to dance in torrential rain and mud whilst wearing just a t-shirt but he managed it, so he can't have been bad.



Me, with my face painted. Like a tiger.

We had time to squeeze one more act in from there, and that was the Lancashire Hotpots. By this point, my legs were starting to tire a little, but I was still entertained. Their brand of Lancashire-based novelty records is perhaps not for everyone and perhaps half of their songs are not actually that good, but I don't think anyone failed to enjoy Lancashire DJ, He's Turned Emo and Chippy Tea.

That will do for now, there's more to come later...