So happy birthday to the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts which is 45 this year and here we are.
Actually trying to review Glastonbury
would be futile. Glastonbury offers
so much than any other festival that I’ve been to. We aren’t just talking a
hand full of stages here because Glastonbury
is like a small town. You could come for the music or you could spend five days
immersed in other things and not see a band at all. Yes, five days. I didn’t
realise that the festival opens its gates on Wednesday morning and builds
rapidly until Thursday evening by which time most of its 170,000 attendees are
here.
First up, it’s always a tough decision on what t-shirts to
take to events like this. My choice of a 1990 vintage Ride t-shirt goes down
well. Everyone asks me if I know if the recently reformed band will be playing
a secret set and if so where will it be. Well there are three lots of ‘special
guests’ on the line-up on Friday and the rumours seem to have intensified since
we arrived on Wednesday. Though I can’t help feeling I inadvertently started
them.
Still, if Ride are going to be playing a sneaky set here
obviously we’re going to have to find it.
So day one of live bands at Glastonbury
sees us heading down into the festival to catch the ‘special guests’ who are
opening the Other Stage at 11am. This
is unlikely to be the much talked about secret set by Ride unless Tim Burgess
has simply been winding everyone up by Tweeting pictures of his wellies implying
that it could be the Charlatans opening up the festival.
Well, it is the Charlatans, surprise surprise. The classic
festival band but sadly not a terribly exciting one. Never mind, we in an open
mind mood and anyway we want to see the Cribs who are up next. From the opening
‘Mirror Kisses’ to the closing ‘Pink Snow’ The Cribs are excellent but then I’m
biased.
After which we head off to the next lot of ‘special guests’
in the far too small tent on William's Green. It becomes my life’s ambition to
actually get inside this tent at some point and this is obviously where Ride
are going to play their secret set or not. There’s no chance of seeing inside
the place now though, as another much leaked guest appearance is playing. This time
it’s Bastille. So no, not Ride.
Having heard weird things about the Michael Clark Company
who opened things up today on the main Pyramid stage with a dance route to
numerous Bowie tunes, we head off
to catch them in the Astrolade Theatre. Dancing in Usain Bolt skinsuits to well
know fare like ‘Heroes’ and ‘Jean Genie’ but also to lesser known ‘Aladdin
Sane’, ‘Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family’ and ‘After All’ it’s a set
for the Bowie fanatic, the dance fanatic and the Lycra skinsuit fanatic.
Having discovered the excellent Cockmill Bar with its range
of local ales we’re been hanging around there a fair bit. It’s a handy place to
be when we get the first rain of the festival as well, as we pile into the
nearby Acoustic tent. Entertainment is supplied by Stornoway, who are no doubt
pleased to pull such a big crowd by accident.
Once the rain has stopped we do another site tour and find
the Rabbit Hole stage, where we take a look at Jake Isaac before we visit Wolf
Alice on the Park Stage.
Now it’s dilemma time. Does one see Motorhead up on the
Pyramid, Lulu in Avalon or the Vaccines up on Other. Despite the fact it is now
raining again the Vaccines win and a good choice that is too as they put in one
of the performances of the festival including a perfect ‘Wetsuit’ performance.
There’s still time to catch a bit of Lulu who is really
giving it some in Avalon, we settle into the wooden shack next door, the Avalon
Inn, for a few beers and a listen. The Avalon tent itself is rammed.
Then it’s off for our first visit to the Pyramid stage for
more ‘special guests’. Ride? I doubt they’d be up on Pyramid and recent rumours
seem to be about to be confirmed that the Libertines have been flown in by
helicopter.
Tonight the Libertines simply prove they are not a main
stage festival band. They are a small venue band where their shambling songs
come over as charming and endearing. Up on Pyramid they just look and sound
sloppy. I've seen enough of Doherty live to know it’s a well engrained trait. Carl
Barat though knows better but probably needs the money. To be fair to the band,
the crowd are pretty sloppy too and everyone near us talks through their set.
Don't you just hate that?
For some time now, several years in fact, I’ve had this
image in my head of Pete Doherty at 50 playing a gig of his finest moments of
which, let’s be clear, there have been many. Only he plays them all in tune and
error free using the experience that comes with age. It would be awesome. Let's
hope he's around to do it and I'm around to see it.
Still, I’m glad I've seen them at long last and the middle
section of ‘Music When The Lights Go Out’ and ‘What Katie Did’ was more
charming than shambling.
By now we’re missed the Courteeners (who I like but have
seen loads of times), TOY and the
Proclaimers (which may have been quite jolly). Shall we also skip Florence,
yes I think so.
So it’s Enter Shikari or Lamb then? Or back into the pub. I
think the latter wins, tomorrows another day.
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