So another one survived. What a brilliant 6 days on-site, obviously the weather helped but all in all a decent festival. I do think that the site changes like moving Arcadia and the improvements to the old Dance Village did solve the issues of night time traffic somewhat, and Arcadia was just immense. Seeing Andy C in that type of environment was amazing.
After 16 Glastonbury's I have to say the music was shocking this year imo. The wind direction on the Other Stage didn't help, but a distinct lack of balls out rock, decent rap/Hip Hop and reggae also detracted from the lineup. I am sure some of that is my age but the current crop of new bands are so"nice". Bands like Alt-J are great in small venues but they struggle to "fill" big stages. With bands like 1975, Django Django, Peace, Haim etc its all a bit twee. I did have some nasty clashes and a couple of acts not turn up or moved on the bill which didn't help but even so it just seemed to lack any real depth. When you consider the quality of the sets that Nick Cave, Smashing Pumpkins and Kenny Rogers managed to pull off I do fear where the future legacy artists are going to come from, at this rate they will be wheeling out Duran Duran for the Sunday afternoon slot soon.
I know it fly's against the comments in the thread but - The Rolling Stones, what is all that about? The set selection was OK but the delivery was poor. Jagger is at least enthusiastic, the others look like they are just waiting for the hospital porters to come and collect them. Keef played more bum notes then I have ever seen a professional musician perform (and I saw Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong live) and any time a song called for some technical guitar sounds they wheeled out Mick Taylor to cover the gaps. After about 3 songs they lost huge bit's of the crowd including in the front pit, I just got the feeling people were there because they thought thats what they should do, rather then because they wanted to see the Stones. I have to say the crowd was immense in its size and the dedication some showed setting up camp about 11am and staying in the same spot for over 12 hours was impressive. For me after watching back the TV coverage (it is possible my live view was clouded by Captain Morgan and Somerset Cider) they didn't pull it off.
Highlight of the week for me was definitely The Strypes. Stage presence, great songs, amazing guitar player and a front man with a personality. They will be HUGE. All this and much more delivered at the age of 15/16. For them the future is massive I am sure. Beg, borrow or steal a ticket to see this band.
I think that's 3 Glasto's on the trot Dizzee has played, and he was again brilliant he manages to be a bit different every time I see him, really gets a crowd going, really gets into it and seems to enjoy himself - can you ask for anything else?. Kenny Rodgers, Vaccines, Artic Monkeys, Jake Bugg, The Hives, Craig Charles, Chase and Status (
Set), Fatboy and many more all made it worthwhile - but the music is so secondary, to be honest I would pay £200 just to go and camp in the fields for 6 days without any of the main stages. This year was also memorable for one of our group - he is a cynical young chap and he was sure he had seen and done it all in the music world and that Glasto would offer no surprises - seeing him crawl back to his tent at 5am Monday morning after being ruined in Shangrila and blub his eyes out at because he didn't want to go home was brilliant.
If you pontificate each year about going, register NOW. Do it, just once, it truly is a magical place.
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