Glastonbury 25

[mowf]

29 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

 

 To complete the set, just wait for Eurovision to come around again so people can tell you how many years it has been since they watched. It seems to be very important information for everybody to be aware of 😁

Can't wait for Jools to do a Eurovision medley in the Legends slot at Glasto.

[NancyJohnson]

It's odd, these festivals.  I'd never go to Glastonbury; to me it's a four day hellish version of Later... 

 

Likewise Download.  Aah, I remember the old days, drive up, backstage parking, watching Motley Crue and Aerosmith from the side of the stage, proper bogs home and asleep in my own bed about 2.00am the next day.  Now?  Four days of bands with vocalists just clearing their throats.  Nope.

 

When all this was fields, the events that got my attention were just 12 hours.  It's difficult to fully quantify but take the old Monsters of Rock things at Donington.  70,000 people, one stage and (usually) seven or eight great bands.  Now it's all multiple stages, dozens of bands no one has heard of etc.

 

The day long Donington has evolved, but the 1980s type event would now be supplanted as part of a tour itinerary (if this makes sense).  It would be like Green Day just playing Wembley Stadium with a decent undercard, then this moving to the Manchester City stadium.

 

 

[BigRedX]

Spent most of the morning listening and occasionally watching (I'm working at the same time) to the BBC's "Must Watch Track" selection. It seemed the best way of checking out lots of bands with what I would hope was one of their better songs and performances.

 

For the most part I was struck by how weedy most of the bands sounded. Notable exceptions so far were The Prodigy and St. Vincent, but everything else so far was pretty much just a wash. It was a bit like listening to the radio in 1975/6 after glam rock had fizzled out and before punk. All technically accomplished for sure, but just aural wallpaper, and nothing good with a William Morris pattern, but bland, just wood chip painted magnolia.

 

There was also a worrying amount of C&W influences both musically and sartorially for which there is no need if you are outside of Nashville. 

 

And some of it was just awful. Most notably The Libertines, not just weedy but out of tune vocals, too many bum notes from guitars and seemingly under-rehearsed with regards to the intro and ending.

 

Maybe there's some songs and performances I'll like that I haven't got to yet...

[super al]

2 hours ago, Mrbigstuff said:

Anyone else finding the sets available on I player a bit restricted? There’s quite a few sets I missed and wanted to catch up on but can’t find them in the menus! Seems to mostly just be the well known acts.

Exactly my point re Roy Harper...the man is synonymous with the Stonehenge and Glastonbury outsider/hippy thing, a cornerstone of that 60s folk troubadour scene and yet overlooked by the BBC. 

I guess there's so much going on at Glasto that they can only shed a cursory light on the darkest corners of the vast site with stages everywhere.

If you want to see an act not covered by the beeb, try that act's Facebook page or a fan page. Like myself you might find that audience members have posted their video footage of the gig.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

14 hours ago, super al said:

shaky camera during Neil Young's set.

 

I'll think you'll find that was the ShakeyCam 😁

[Linus27]

22 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

 

Due to the sheer scale of the event and numbers who attend, are you guaranteed an audience or do some bands end up playing to virtually no-one on a stage tucked away in an unpopular corner of the site? Has anyone who has attended as a punter witnessed this?

 

I have to admit I'm not a massive fan of festivals in general, but the more I hear about the festival the less impressed I am from a band's PoV. Like so much in the current musical climate the artists who appear to be able to make it work are those who already have some success and a following.

 

All of our gigs were in the Greenfields area apart from one which was on the main drag down to the West Holt stage I think. We played at 12pm, 2pm and 5pm and for all four gigs, we played to probably anything from 100 people to a couple of hundred people. Our guitarist quickly counted on one of our gigs and there were about 60 inside the tent and a further 100 sitting outside on the benches or the grass listening.

 

I witnessed on most of the larger stages and tents, there was a very large crowd watching that could range from a a few thousand to 10's of thousands, depending on the artist and the time of day. For some artists, the crowds were so large, for example Kneecap and Tom Odell, they had to close access as there were simply too many people wanting to watch. Some of the smaller fringe tents did suffer from only a handful of people watching but this could depend on the time they were playing, the music they were playing, the quality of their playing and if anyone big was playing elsewhere. For example, one of stages we played at, we played at 12pm and had a couple of hundred watching, however, if we played at 5pm, it would of been anything like 500 plus.

[Stub Mandrel]

Just wish I could remember what happened...

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Blimey Google Lens actually correctly identified my pic as from the early 80s.

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Just wish I could remember what happened...

 

 

Well, if it was 81, 82 or 83 I could tell you. Maybe not 83

 

[Stub Mandrel]

83 or 84.

 

Only because t'internet tells me 83 was Richard Thompson and 84 Hank Wangford.

 

 

[Beedster]

4 hours ago, BigRedX said:

The Libertines, not just weedy but out of tune vocals, too many bum notes from guitars and seemingly under-rehearsed with regards to the intro and ending

 

Well at least they can't be accused of having changed 👍

[Dan Dare]

[Bluewine]

On 01/07/2025 at 05:41, NancyJohnson said:

Oooh, 19 pages in.

 

I watched for about 15 minutes on the BBC, and that was it.  Alanis Morissette.  Honestly, I can't stand her.  Never could.  A voice like nails on a blackboard.  There are phrasing and inflections in her voice that just make me want to listen even less.  Next day I just read comment after comment about how wonderful her performance was and I'm thinking are these people insane?  Is there something wrong with their hearing?  Do they not actually like music?

 

Thank you and goodnight.

 

 

It's amazing to me how a 90s act like Alanis can still get the big gigs.

 

Daryl

[NancyJohnson]

5 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

It's amazing to me how a 90s act like Alanis can still get the big gigs.

 

Daryl

 

Fundamentally you need to look at the festival itself.  They love a 'legend'. 

 

I'd wager that there were thousands of people gushing over AM that probably knew one song (if that) or hadn't even given her a second thought in the last 20 years.

 

She still has a voice like nails on a blackboard.  Some things don't improve with age.

 

 

 

 

[JJTee]

This is quite interesting:

https://youtu.be/iE-6N_sy0CY?si=oEfvg4fBIgWuetCY

[Andermtc]

On 02/07/2025 at 10:52, Mrbigstuff said:

Anyone else finding the sets available on I player a bit restricted? There’s quite a few sets I missed and wanted to catch up on but can’t find them in the menus! Seems to mostly just be the well known acts.

It's been a few years since the BBC had a great set-up on iPlayer from Glastonbury, I can remember when they seemed to have basically every act from the main 5 or 6 stages available to watch, can remember seeking out lesser known bands and finding their full set.

[Supernaut]

On 02/07/2025 at 11:57, NancyJohnson said:

It's odd, these festivals.  I'd never go to Glastonbury; to me it's a four day hellish version of Later... 

 

Likewise Download.  Aah, I remember the old days, drive up, backstage parking, watching Motley Crue and Aerosmith from the side of the stage, proper bogs home and asleep in my own bed about 2.00am the next day.  Now?  Four days of bands with vocalists just clearing their throats.  Nope.

 

When all this was fields, the events that got my attention were just 12 hours.  It's difficult to fully quantify but take the old Monsters of Rock things at Donington.  70,000 people, one stage and (usually) seven or eight great bands.  Now it's all multiple stages, dozens of bands no one has heard of etc.

 

The day long Donington has evolved, but the 1980s type event would now be supplanted as part of a tour itinerary (if this makes sense).  It would be like Green Day just playing Wembley Stadium with a decent undercard, then this moving to the Manchester City stadium.

 

 

AKA it was better back in the olden days 🙄 

[SteveXFR]

The BBC have said in a statement that they won't broadcast "high risk" bands in the future. So that'll be no interesting bands then. Maybe it's time for the BBC to let another broadcaster take it on, one who won't choose which lyrics might be too upsetting for us.

[Fozza]

Channel 4 were the first terrestrial channel to cover Glasto. They did the 1994 and 1995 festivals.

 

They did it much better too.

[SteveXFR]

Maybe it's time for Channel 4 to take it on again. I think there's too much political influence in the BBC for it to work with them. 

[Misdee]

1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

The BBC have said in a statement that they won't broadcast "high risk" bands in the future. So that'll be no interesting bands then. Maybe it's time for the BBC to let another broadcaster take it on, one who won't choose which lyrics might be too upsetting for us.

Might as well give the broadcast rights to GB News. We could have three full days of self-righteous indignation and moral outrage.

 

Jeremy Kyle could go round telling festival goers to get a job and sort their life out, stop spending money on drugs, tattoos, smashed avocados and Palestinian flags and pay proper child support ect. 

[Misdee]

1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

The BBC have said in a statement that they won't broadcast "high risk" bands in the future. So that'll be no interesting bands then. Maybe it's time for the BBC to let another broadcaster take it on, one who won't choose which lyrics might be too upsetting for us.

Who decides what constitutes "high risk"? To me, Coldplay are a high risk band. There's a high risk they will bore me to death.

[taunton-hobbit]

2 hours ago, Supernaut said:

AKA it was better back in the olden days 🙄 

& I remember when all this were fields ...............

 

😎

[Beedster]

On 04/07/2025 at 07:32, NancyJohnson said:

 

Fundamentally you need to look at the festival itself.  They love a 'legend'. 

 

I'd wager that there were thousands of people gushing over AM that probably knew one song (if that) or hadn't even given her a second thought in the last 20 years.

 

She still has a voice like nails on a blackboard.  Some things don't improve with age.

 

 

 

 

 

My other half saw her a couple of years back and still talks about it being the best gig she's seen in 30-odd years, and she wasn't a huge fan beforehand. JLP was a big moment in 90's music culture, and to my mind on the basis of that one album she deserves the Legend status irrespective of anything she's done since. Also enjoyed her set last weekend and remain a little confused at some of the criticism, for example that she couldn't stand still........ 👍

[ezbass]

2 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

My other half saw her a couple of years back and still talks about it being the best gig she's seen in 30-odd years, and she wasn't a huge fan beforehand. JLP was a big moment in 90's music culture, and to my mind on the basis of that one album she deserves the Legend status irrespective of anything she's done since. Also enjoyed her set last weekend and remain a little confused at some of the criticism, for example that she couldn't stand still........ 👍

There was a TV program about her a while ago (probably marking the anniversary of JLP) and she came over really well, very grounded, but still a glint of rebellion. I can see how some won’t like her voice, but I don’t mind it (Rush fan here, so used to challenging vocal tone) and I have a copy of JLP. The lyrics to Ironic are still annoying, but it’s just a song. I saw someone had a banner or T shirt in the crowd that read, “It rained on my wedding day,” and couldn’t help thinking, so what? Rained on mine too, wasn’t ironic, it was September .