The National.
Oh dear. Tedious loser rock for boys and girls who aren’t getting enough. How sad, how dreary, how uninspiring. But ver kids all know the (dull) lyrics. What the? Don’t they want to have FUN?
Songhoy Blues.
Inspiring. Exhilarating. Exciting. Engaging. Hypnotically, rhythmically riveting. Utterly brilliant.
Your notes to date?
Songhoy Blues were terrific. Liam Gallagher pile of shite.
Any festivals on the telly tonight? —>
Kids??
About five years ago there was a thread on here called something like “Do you own any music by anybody under 30?”
After about thirty posts down one rather forlorn AWer said “I have something made by The National when at least one member of the band was under 40”
In other words, the same age as Jagger was when Under Cover of the Night came out.
The Kids like this?
Gerontophilia!
As I’ve pointed out on Twitter, Pat Smear from the Foo Fighters is 57. It’s never been easier to be older in rock.
Katy Perry was great.
I’m watching but had never heard of Mr Smear, so had to look him up. Apparently it’s a stage name, but given the chance to pick any name you wanted why would you choose to be called ‘Pat Smear’?
Punk innit. He was in The Germs.
A pun on Pap smear, I think. His real name is the far more punk, err George Ruthenberg.
Pretty poor by & large.
I’m watching the Jacksons at the mo’ working hard with dreadful sound & voices past their best
I enjoyed Katy Perry a lot – super sparkly pop & not afraid to crowd surf
Saw one track by Songhoy Blues & for my money they were head & shoulders above anything else on offer – fabulous & funky as f*ck.
Liam Gallagher – oh dearie me. Utter shite.
If I was a Foo Fighters fan, I’d be delighted – they give it plenty – it leaves me utterly cold unfortunately.
So to sum up, mostly rubbish – as music always was.
It only took half an hour – but someone’s sorted Jermaine’s mic.
Worth bearing in mind that the British equivalent of this is Andrew Ridgeley being given the job of holding 100,000 people enraptured for an hour..
Spot on!
I had to bale out when they ‘slowed it down’ for Tito to flog his wares. Yikes!
Ooh, forgot to mentiom Craig David.
Now if EVER there’s example of something I just don’t get, it’s him.
What the actual feck?
Looks like someone’ s pervy uncle who works at the ‘ we’ll replace your cracked iPhone screen’ stall in the shopping centre & sounds like the worst BGT audition ever, yet somehow manages to convince a big crowd he’ s cooler than Gregory Isaacs at his peak.
Wonders never cease.
I’ve happily ignored the whole wretched thing.
Went there twice. The second time persuaded me to never go again. Particularly as I’d missed the only band I wanted to see due to them going on several hours early due to a running order shift.
I caught 2 minutes of an awful woman in white trousers miming over a disco beat whilst half naked “sexy” women in chaps writhed in slightly apathetic stylee. Beyond awful. No idea who it was. I’ll catch up on iplayer with the blessing of fast forward.
Just watched about 60 seconds of the utterly ghastly Foo Fighters. But half a million people thought they were great and had a fantab night in person and on tv, so, it may be the booze talking, but I say vive la différence!
I’m not a fan of Foo Fighters, but for some reason I saw them live a couple of years ago. Really enjoyed it. Dave Grohl will charm your pants off given half a chance.
Pat Thomas & The Kwashibu Area Band were good. Funky as fuck.
Thundercat was OK but failed to fully hold my attention.
Pat Thomas ? Would have liked to see that.
Is there another festival taking place? I was at a one dayer yesterday with The Baroness. Don’t know what the festival was called but it was overlooking the Mersey Estuary. The cider was very nice. Who was playing? Can’t remember, too much cider.
God, you cheery bastards, you.
This is clearly the moaning thread. You need to be on the good Dr’s Glasto thread to enthuse.
It’s not meant to be the moaning thread – I saw The National and they were insipid, uninspired, self-indulgent drivel, but then I caught Songhoy Blues and my television exploded with joy and CHOOOOOOONS, the sun came out again and everyone was smiling.
So I’m asking for highs and lows, not just lows.
It’s just started to rain here, about 30 miles north of Worthy Farm; hope it doesn’t put a damper on day 3, and hope my semi-random Red Button wanderings reveal more happy stuff today.
Looking forward to Orchestra Baobab……..
but if, as you say, everyone was singing along with the National they can’t have been self indulgent can they? I think what you mean is you didn’t like them. That’s ok.
Well thanks, but no. What it means is that the audience consisted largely of those who at some point in their lives had been insipid, uninspired and self-indulgent, and unaccountably found the recollection of that time something worth dwelling upon. Which is also ok I suppose, if self-indulgent. And I didn’t like them.
As someone undoubtedly at some time all of those things, yet unfamiliar with their back catalogue, or most of it, I found it interesting and inspiring, enjoyable and uplifting. Minded me of a REM for the noughties. (Rather than, to be fair, the teeensies or whatever this decade is called.)
REM after a tunectomy.
I’m not in charge of the remote in our house but we’ve rarely stayed on one red button channel for more than 5 minutes. The Foo Fighters set seemed like it was one for the fans which is fine, there seemed to be a lot of them. Liam Gallagher was awful the only redeeming factor was that he’s not quite arrogant enough not to “sing” Oasis songs. I caught a bit of Radiohead on Friday and they were (as expected) dreadful – I’m not a fan. What is it about Elbow? ‘We’ kept coming back to them but it just seemed like the same whiny dirge for about half an hour, I’m sure it couldn’t have been though. The best thing I’ve seen all weekend was The Cosmics on the BBC Introducing stage. Nothing original at all but they were having a good time, they all looked about 17 and my guess is that their dad’s records collections resemble mine quite closely! I will be steering well clear of Ed Sheeran tonight.
Caught Elbow just over a week ago at Westonbirt Arboretum; an outdoor gig on a pleasant evening, and a rehearsal for Glasto in many ways. Guy on top form, band on top form, and pretty glorious sound. And Steve Mason playing support. Magnificent. One gig like this a year would be a start.
Looking forward to rerunning the set on iPlayer, though big fest running order discipline means there’s no three song encore after THAT SONG, like what we got the week before last. Love ’em.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Elbow at dusk, in a field are peerless but I don’t want to listen to them in my living room, car etc… THAT SONG as you call it is just perfect late afternoon fare before the real party starts.
When I press the red button on mu telly there’s no Glastonbury content. I can get it all through iPlayer so it’s not a major drawback, but even so, I’m a bit confused.
Foo Fighters. Now that’s how you do a Saturday gig. Utterly great.
Spot on, it’s been interesting to see the reaction to Foo Fighters. There’s been a few “turned off after a couple of songs”, “don’t get them” and “one for the fans” but mostly hugely positive. I’m not a huge fan of their records but I’ve seen them live 3 times and I don’t think I know of any band that puts the audience first like they do. Dave Grohl must have played “Monkey Wrench” thousands of times but every time I’ve seen them he does it with the enthusiasm of someone who knows how grateful he is to be Dave Grohl and in Foo Fighters. That transmits to the audience to create events like last night. Anyone who opened their eyes and ears to the “show” that is Foo Fighters and allowed themselves into the whole experience was treated to a proper for the generations event. If you allowed your cool to get in the way then I’m afraid you missed out.
Uppity up
But…
Back when there was hardly any music on tv, I sat through almost all of Live Aid, good, bad and otherwise. Afterwards people were saying how great Queen were.
True enough, it was a masterful set, tailored to squeeze every drop of the crowd’s perhaps unacknowledged affection for the band’s work, brilliantly executed.
There were only two things wrong with Queen’s set at Live Aid: it was the band Queen playing Queen songs.
By all accounts, Mr Grohl is a top dude and, having seen some truly half-arsed hardliners, I take my hat off to them if they delivered the goods, but I’m happy to live with the fact that I “missed out”.
I made on be for the fans comment probably because I wish I was a fan. It looked like great fun but, well, the subtlety of some of their records didn’t seem to translate to the wall of sound they seemed to be aiming for last night. I’m not sure that I really want to listen to a whole album all the way through anyway. I don’t think this has anything to do with being too cool.
I’m afraid to say that Glasto has left me cold this year – I usually really love wallowing in all the TV coverage over the weekend, but nothing has grabbed me at all. Perhaps it’s because most of the acts are not faves of mine and it needs need a bit of attention on my part, and I have tried, believe me, but it gets to the point where I really wonder why I’m wasting my time TRYING to enjoy something.
A few thoughts…
Elbow – same song over and over and over
Radiohead – tune free twaddle
Foo Fighters – seems to be mostly noise (I am now my Dad)
Liam – now officially a heritage act
As an aside, I did a special on the radio last week about Monterey 1967 and was astounded by the music – maybe coming to Glasto right after that was a mistake!?
Did you ever like Radiohead? They are certainly not free of tunes. I haven’t seen all of it. but I thought it was pretty monumental.
I have their early stuff which I quite like – I was referring to the part of the set I caught.
Bit meh about the Foos – don’t mind their stuff if it comes on t’wireless, but wouldn’t rush to buy it. However, I thought their set was really good, one of the better Glastonbury performances I can remember. Did almost exclusively old, some genuine taken-aback-ness at the crowd size/reaction…..could have done without the deliberately OTT swearing and the introduce-the-band sequence. They seemed genuinely thrilled to be headlining.
Father John Misty’s set, though, is my personal highlight. Quite brilliant.
Been camping all weekend (in Kettering of all places) so didn’t see any coverage. Heard some on the radio and I’m looking forward to hearing a bit of Loyale Carner on catch up.
Got home in time to see Chic. The whole family were dancing in the living room within 15 minutes of it being on. Great stuff.
The Pretenders were excellent, I thought. Chrissie Hynde was bang on the money all the way through. Brass right in the pocket, indeed.
I enjoyed the coverage this year. I’ve avoided the acts I can’t abide (The Killers) and have been happily surprised by most of the new lot I hadn’t heard of. The Amazons, for one. All in none more black gear and black guitars. Quite a thrilling little live act. Though I Spoty’d a few of their tracks and found them a bit spiritless. Bum.
The Foofs started and ended well as was to be expected. The middle sagged what with the intros and the Queen covers, but it’s a festival headline show and not a tight televised special just for me. They were forgiven.
I thought Barry Gibb was going to blow it when he first walked on. His voice and the band sounded very thin on ‘Jive Talkin’. Then he played ‘You Should Be Dancing’ which is in legal terms the finest piece of dance music ever recorded and all was well.
I watched a bit of Elbow. Marvelling at the guitarists hairstyle and leather adidas gear all circa 15 years ago and Guy Garvey’s habit of trying to throw his mic away but deciding to snatch it back just in time. He needed a bigger shirt aswell.
I have no interest in Ed so let him do his little guitar thing without me. It’s not much to hide behind. He must have excellent control of his bottom. I hope he doesn’t rue all this clenching in his later years.
Barry looked terribly nervous and I think it came across in his somewhat lacklustre singing.
Rue Clenching – TMFTL
Have you ever had a rued clenching experience?
Ruud Klenjiing – left-back for Feyenoord Under 12s, 1984-5 season. Stretchered off with gastric trouble during a pre-season friendly against Fray Bentos Wanderers.
Rue De Clenchy . 7th Arrondissement. No. 14. Home of Le Petomaine. Or, Pierre Pumpytrousers.
Oh and take the bloody flags down! I cannot imagine the annoyance of being there and having dozens of them in my line of sight, along with the ubiquitous camera phones glowing away, people taking videos of far worse quality than BBC coverage which they will watch once at most.
When Chic brought a bunch of people on stage, half of them were on their bloody phones. You’re on the stage at Glastonbury with Nile bleedin’ Rodgers and you’re watching it happen on a four-inch screen.
Flags and phones the scourge of the young
The flags are bloody infuriating- ban them I say
I think they did ban them, but it didn’t make much difference*. I don’t know whether the ban has been lifted, but there seemed to be more this year than recent times.
*goodness knows how you’d smuggle a flagpole on site.
It’s amazing what you can smuggle down your trouser leg.
I’m just now catching up on Chic. Lawdy. What total joy. For my money, that’s what you do with a guitar, right there. I worship Nile Rodgers.
I was thinking the same. I’ll be happy to have my left hand locked in a chord shape if I could just have his right. The bass player was mesmerising too.
Wasn’t he just? That mental little funk workout they did in one of the early songs, then straight back into the pocketiest of disco spartanness. Amazing.
Yes! The bass player was phenomenal. Effortless. Economy of movement in his fingers and yet he was all over it.
Can I, as a root note plodder, just say he was a bit showy?
Root note plodder
Dat root note plodder
He mus’know sumpin’
But don’t say nuthin’
He jes’ keeps ploddin’
He keeps on ploddin’ along.
Cripes, yes. Chic were monstrously great, cheesy as hell, and huge FUN.
Fired up iPlayer again last night to watch Ed’s set. Blow me down, what a cracking performance. Loved every minute, grinned from ear to ear, caught a lot of lyrical references I never realised he’d got away with before, and thoroughly impressed. Don’t have a single disc or download, and won’t buy any either, but what an excellent finisher for a Glastonbury weekend!
Apparently Eavis has said that he’ll contemplate holding the festival in 2018 “if a certain band reform”.
But who? The Smiths? REM? Pulp? The Stone Roses?
OTTAWAN!!
Fuzzbox!
Shed Seven!
It wouldn’t be Fuzzbox without Jo.
Shed Seven are still together! And I’m pretty sure that Fuzzbox were a going concern when Jo died.
Shed Seven never split. And, in a very real sense, will never die.
And, lest we forget, at The Link, it’s easy.
Northside.
911
I think he means The Beatles and Oasis to form a supergroup with Noel and Liam replacing John and George. There must be some gags to be had here?
Knob, Thumbs, Cock and Bongo.
Henry Cow, obv.
Genesis with Peter Gabriel
Really enjoyed Thundercats and Chic, both totally nailed it. Will catch up on I Player with Radiohead and Sleaford Mods. Better than watching Jools Holland anyway.
You mean Thundercat singular. Unless you were watching some rerun on the other side. Not judging.
Thundercats, ho.
Over 70 comments and nowt about Lorde – shakes head, mutters darkly and wanders off over the hill….
There was a fair bit about her over on the enthusiasm thread, IIRC.
Which thread be that, me hearty?
I think she came up on the “Lorde” thread too..
Was away when that thread started (watching Aida of all things, I fell asleep) – quick scan reveals not a lot about Lorde apart from Mini’s catsuit envy…
Was away when that thread started (watching a live opera of all things, I fell asleep) – quick scan reveals not a lot about Lorde apart from Mini’s catsuit envy…
It’s bad enough that you’re off watching “live opera” – probably in that London – holding up your gold opera glasses with your little finger cocked in the air (YouTube clips and Moose’s somewhat unusual table manners not good enough for you, now?), but you assume that your scruffy roughy trade chums are so devoid of the refinements of high culture that we wouldn’t know that Aida is one of those operas. Like what they have in that London…
Oh, and Mini’s Catsuit Envy TMFTL
Actually, I expect that old dodgy magnet breeches was worried lest we thought he’d been watching that well known Finnish throat-singing Death Metal band “Aida”.
Somewhat unusual?
I always wear an iron bib.
Opera in Orange’s magnificent Theatre Antique (a mere 2100 years old). It took some effort to fall asleep whilst sitting on cold marble steps I can tell you…..
Ah, memories of The Cure In Orange….
Jeremy Corbyn went down a storm. Should have had the Manics backing him in a Rollins spoken word style arrangement
I must admit, seeing Run the Jewels setting up got my hopes up that this was going to be a display of pimp-ass mad-stylez from da JC, boyeeeeeee!