Glastonbury Revelations:
Well, if you can’t change the format on your own site, where can you? Glasto only this week so that I can tidy up my views on the festival.
Editors – how can he sound like that but look like that? Doesn’t really look tortured enough to sing the kind of harrowing tunes that they specialise in. Bloody good, though. Tight play, decent vocals and a fired up crowd. New stuff sounded just as good as the debut album, which is no mean feat when playing prior to release.
Super Furry Animals – only caught fifteen minutes of this before going out on Friday, but it was a joy. Few bands can make me dance like a twat and nod like a muso at the same time. SFA are one of them. ‘Northern Lites‘ in a Big Star/Teenage Fanclub style was a gem and ‘Hello Sunshine‘ sounded like a Sixties classic that should have been a worldwide smash. They’re just so charming. New material was broadcast; most notably the new single, ‘Show Your Hand‘. A world-beater if you ask me. In at 27 if you ask the British public.
The Who – great value entertainment. Roger’s voice isn’t what it was, but Pete’s guitar playing was superlative in the extreme and to be fair to Mr Daltrey, his ability to catch the mic without looking is a fantastically precise science.
Arctic Monkeys – a no frills headline set from a band hitting their stride. Wasn’t sure with album one, but completely sold second time around.
Maximo Park – I’ve been quite fond of this lot for a little while now. I’d recently picked up the debut album and was content with another ‘indie band I quite like’. However, their set on Saturday night was near perfect. A charismatic frontman, tight musicianship, belting tunes being sung back by the crowd and every single member of the group looking like it was the happiest day of their various lives. The thirty minute highlights package was essential viewing – so much so that I watched it three times.
Well, if you can’t change the format on your own site, where can you? Glasto only this week so that I can tidy up my views on the festival.
Editors – how can he sound like that but look like that? Doesn’t really look tortured enough to sing the kind of harrowing tunes that they specialise in. Bloody good, though. Tight play, decent vocals and a fired up crowd. New stuff sounded just as good as the debut album, which is no mean feat when playing prior to release.
Super Furry Animals – only caught fifteen minutes of this before going out on Friday, but it was a joy. Few bands can make me dance like a twat and nod like a muso at the same time. SFA are one of them. ‘Northern Lites‘ in a Big Star/Teenage Fanclub style was a gem and ‘Hello Sunshine‘ sounded like a Sixties classic that should have been a worldwide smash. They’re just so charming. New material was broadcast; most notably the new single, ‘Show Your Hand‘. A world-beater if you ask me. In at 27 if you ask the British public.
The Who – great value entertainment. Roger’s voice isn’t what it was, but Pete’s guitar playing was superlative in the extreme and to be fair to Mr Daltrey, his ability to catch the mic without looking is a fantastically precise science.
Arctic Monkeys – a no frills headline set from a band hitting their stride. Wasn’t sure with album one, but completely sold second time around.
Maximo Park – I’ve been quite fond of this lot for a little while now. I’d recently picked up the debut album and was content with another ‘indie band I quite like’. However, their set on Saturday night was near perfect. A charismatic frontman, tight musicianship, belting tunes being sung back by the crowd and every single member of the group looking like it was the happiest day of their various lives. The thirty minute highlights package was essential viewing – so much so that I watched it three times.
The Stinkers
Paolo Nutini – I’m reminded of a Ross Noble routine about a drunk talking into his can of special brew. What a bizarre voice! Somewhere between comical and genuinely disturbing.
Kaiser Chiefs – Bloody sing! Stop shouting. People will stop loving you pretty bloody quickly if you think you can piss away that much good will in just over an hour. Smug, clowning and vacant. Like Robbie Williams pre-‘Angels‘.
The Killers – Terrible shouty cobblers and way too close to the posturing of The Darkness. It confirmed for me that ‘Sam’s Town‘ really was that shit.
You can watch plenty of these performances over at the BBC site until next weekend. http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury
Just Played 