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Glastonbury 2025

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Digging into the Word archives, there was always at this time of year a Glastonbury thread. A bit like the Eurovision thread, only spread over three whole days. Despite quite a lot of naysaying from AWers, will there be anyone either under canvas or before cathode ray for the event? I hope so – with so many acts, I’m hoping for good recommendations from others for what to watch.

HInt – that’s your cue to post content below…

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https://glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/line-up/line-up-2025/

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  2. I’ll never go in person due to a problem with large crowds, plus other issues, but I usually watch bits and pieces on TV.

    Most of this year’s bill is not my cup of tea, as per usual, but I’m looking forward to Gary Numan (on BBC4 tomorrow), and I’ll give The 1975 and Olivia Rodrigo a try so that I can attempt to keep up to date with the toppermost of the poppermost.

    I’d like to see Neil’s set, but I read that it might not be on TV. I don’t know if the old curmudgeon and the Beeb are having a beef, and I’m not intetested enough to find out, but hopefully all will be ironed out.

    My brother will be there for the umpteenth time, so as usual I will be scanning the crowd to spot him, then moaning about the cameras missing him *again*. I mean, once you’ve filmed one foxy boho chick sitting on her boyfriend’s shoulders, or one mud-covered peacenik wandering in a confused state, surely you’ve filmed them all.

      • I simply don’t understand who thinks the flags are a good idea. Surely they block the view for many, many people who might have been waiting hours in the sun to see their favourite band and cannot move to one side or another to get a better view because of the thousands of others in the same boat.

        I imagine if a few people near the front rows of an arena gig unfurled huge flags, they would not be flying them for long.

        If I go to a gig, I want to *see* the act, not peer through a mass of flagpoles, hoping for an occasional glimpse of them.

        Flag-waving buffoons are another reason why Glasto is probably best enjoyed on TV.

  4. Not sure how much of it I’ll get to see as got a house full of people over the weekend and a bit of a party situation, but will be keeping an eye out for the following, probably on catch up:

    Alanis
    Busta Rhymes
    En Vogue
    Four Tet
    Doechii
    Deftones
    Wolf Alice
    Overmono
    Rod Stewart
    Pulp
    Olivia Rodrigo
    Louis Dunford
    Goat

    Hope anyone who is going has a great time, looks like you’ve got the weather.

  7. Definitely wouldn’t pay the best part of £400. I first went in 1987 paying £20 which, at age 21, in my minimum wage job, was a days pay. Seems more like a weeks wages in 2025.
    I remember an old WIYE podcast discussion that a gig by a big band (not the Glen Miller variety) in the 70s and 80s was never more than the price of an album. £20 for 3 days seems to fit in with that.
    May have a look on the telly later though.

  8. My Beeb pal is there, having plugged in some leads. I am envious of his FB feed.

    I’m considering going back in a couple of years, for the first time since 2000, once I have my own camper van.

    I’ll be watching as much as I can this weekend from the comfort of my garage.

    • My mate is working there too, doing camera work for a couple of the headliners. This means I’ll be playing ‘spot the roadie’ with the TV coverage, much to my family’s annoyance. He’ll be the bloke that looks a bit like Gandalf if he was holding a TV camera if you want to play along at home!

  10. I don’t know if the Beeb will cover any of the artists I’d like to see, but they are Neil Young, Father John Misty, Tift Merritt and Nick Lowe. Not that fussed about the rest of it.

  11. Obviously there’s a fair bit of stuff spread around the wider bill that I’d probably enjoy but I do find myself having an involuntary but increasing dislike about any act that feel the need to have choreographed dancing. It just leaves me cold and often happens to be linked to the kind of artists I’m just not bothered about anyway, but they do seem to get given a lot of TV time, so you can’t always just ignore it.
    I do however also have an increasing bafflement at the sort of people who say “oh, it’s not about the main stages, I hardly go to those anyway.” Really? You spend almost £400 to wander around nonsense like “Glastonbury On Sea,” or other such weekender wackiness? Well if so, you’ve got more disposable money than me.

    • It does look like a holiday camp for middle class 30 somethings with plenty of dosh. The scale of the thing is both impressive and totally bonkers – how do you even work out where to go and what to see..?

      I will, as always, give it a go over a few beers and hope to find something that appeals, but I do feel that it isn’t really supposed to be for the likes of me any more. I would add hastily that a festival that WAS for the likes of me would probably not be a ratings juggernaut.

      • “how do you even work out where to go and what to see..?”

        Answer: you don’t really, if you have any sense. You may pick out two or three to be sure of seeing, but otherwise it’s probably best to just do a relax into the vibe thing and wander about almost aimlessly. You bump into all sorts of stuff you’d never have chosen from the programme.

        It’s just not the place for a checklist approach, if there ever is an ideal place for such OCD behaviour. I found that out the very first time I went along – in 1982 I think. Gave up the birdwatcher/twitcher approach by about lunchtime on the Friday. Had a whale of a time from then on.

    • I generally based myself around the “Acoustic” stage, which is a massive marquee and hosts the type of AW-friendly performers who can really play, man.

      Wondering around the green fields is fun. I generally find myself thinking “what do you weirdos do for the rest of the year?”

      I last went in 2000 and I’m not sure I saw anybody on the main stage. Why bother when there’s someone more to my taste on the Jazz World, or wherever?

    • Agnostic is fine, as far as I’m concerned. I last went in person in the early 90s, and it was full and crowded then, and the Telegraph was doing photo shoots of Kate Moss in floral Hunters and cut off jeans. It wasn’t the authentic fence- jumping, travellers-adjoining wildness I experienced in ’89 on my first visit, though I definitely had a great space-cake near-death experience even at my last one.

      No, but for dipping in and watching a few performances, it’s fine for the over 50s SAGA generation. Plus, Alabama 3 are playing later in the weekend.

      • I’m actually feeling oddly emotional about the festival.

        The sun is out, I went to a pretty good gig last night, I’m sat having lunching watching them put the Wimbledon hoardings up, there will be good live music on TV for the next three days, both the kids have school fetes tomorrow, there’s a party at our house in the evening and then on Sunday we’re off to Pride with a big gang. And my father has just been told he’s in remission.

        Seen from this angle, it all looks a bit wonderful. Fuck knows what the future has in store for this country, for the world or for any of us as individuals. May as well enjoy a weekend like this, and all it has to offer, including and particularly tens of thousands of people in a field listening to Neil Young, regardless of how fancy their yurts are.

        • Good news Bingo, glad to hear that.

          “tens of thousands of people in a field listening to Neil Young” – isn’t that a Pulp lyric?

          We went to a fantastic gig last night too – Lady Maisery and Jimmy & Sid performing their summer show at St Georges in Bristol – it’s called ‘Wakefire’.

          Only two further performances this tour – London (tonight I think) and then Hastings. Absolutely fantastic set if anyone want to find a spectacular folk gig to see.

          • Cheers mate – it’s the kind of good news that puts everything else in perspective and makes you glad of the day.

            Happy to hear that you had a good one last night. Can’t really beat live music on a warm evening. Will try to give a listen, sounds good 👌

        • Good news!

          What was the gig? I was at a gig in London last night, Lucy Dacus. Good show, but for my daughter it was basically the Second Coming (not the Stone Roses one). She’s had a difficult year for…reasons, but it was good to watch her being so wholeheartedly and unselfconsciously Into It.

          • It was Lucy Dacus (see “Thumbs” thread from late last night)!

            No way – I’d have loved to buy you a drink had I known. It was my eldest’s first show from the stalls, which was pretty cool – definitely got a sense the penny dropped.

            • oh so close and yet so far….next time. I did think of reactivating the Deafheaven thread to say I saw them again last week, and they were sensational, probably the best I’ve ever seen them!

              just caught up on the Thumbs thread, that was indeed a highlight, as was Night Shift of course. Warm though, wasn’t it?

              • It’ll happen at some point – Cerebus fan convention, probably.

                The new Deafheaven is a proper return to form, and glad to hear they’re improving live. Enjoyed them very much first time, will have to find an excuse to go see them again.

                Nightshift was marvellous. It was a weird gig, between the artist’s obvious cough and the sweltering heat. Felt like it could all just fall apart at any moment. I think that’s what lent Thumbs that little bit extra; in the middle of all that chaos she just sort of froze everything and delivered this insane intimacy. You could feel the crowd willing on her through it. Wonderful.

  13. I wouldn’t usually put on a Myles Smith record but his energetic, upful hoedown pop is perfect for this kind of venue at this time of the day. And he is both handsome and a very charming presence and he HAS this crowd..

  15. CMAT just said ‘my name is CMAT, I have middle child syndrome, an amazing arse, and the best Irish rock-and-roll country band in the world’. The resolutely non-choreographed performance, crap costumes, and pedal steel are the icing on a very strange cake.

    • I must admit, Groundswell would probably capture my imagination more thoroughly than Glastonbury, were I able to attend, having spent my career inspired by permaculture principles. A long list of speakers, which makes me feel heartened about the state of the regenerarive agriculture movement,as unless we look after our soils, we are fucked.

      What is your interest, @Vincent? I am intrigued.

      • The FPO is keen on permaculture and related ideas, and grow a lot of our grub.. I like eating good food. I occasionally help her on the allotment. I prefer people who do constructive things to make the world better than complain and glue themselves to roads or throw tinned soup at paintings.

  18. I see Led By Donkeys have jumped the shark by including J K Rowling in their worst people alive to be shot into space Glastonbury installation. Seriously, take a good long hard look at yourselves. Though, as some have pointed out, she looks very cool so maybe they have a GC activist amongst them.

  22. Burning Spear: he ambles onstage and you think, fair enough, he’s in his eighties. Fifteen minutes later he’s running on the spot in a manner I’m not sure I can manage myself..
    Lola Young: one I was looking forward to and I was not disappointed..

  24. We used to be regular festival goers but that all ended in 2000 along with much else and in the wake of Donna dying in 2015 I’ve have fallen out of the habit of watching the yearly shindig but I’m feeling a vague itch to watch this year’s goings on. I haven’t bothered as yet and it may well continue in that fashion but if I do bother what turns are on and which ones should I bother to tune in for?

      • I thought it was excellent. Not been my thing before really but I’m open to a great performance with all the emotion and joy visible in the crowd. That response is a large part of the enjoyment for me, going back to Monterey and Woodstock.

          • I bought Jagged Little Pill and Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie on CD a while back. Both are among the most ubiquitous CDs on the 2nd hand market and can be picked up easily. Jagged Little Pill is a really good album, you can see why it sold loads. There’s a reasonable chance that it’s gathering dust on your shelves, next to Vauxhall & I or Astral Weeks. You should get it down and give it a listen; you’ll have forgotten how good it is.

            SMIJ is a stranger beast. I thought it was the most whiny record I had ever heard at first, and it’s far too long. However, I’ve found that, like Prince’s Love Symbol or R.E.M.’s Up, the secret is to listen to it 4 songs at a time, and it’s starting to win me over.

            I’m guessing her presence there may be part of the Olivia Rodrigo deal -she’s a big fan and you can hear the influence in her music.

            • Jagged Little Pill Acoustic is the only one I have. It’s a completely new arrangement rather than an uninspired stripped down performance. It’s also great sounding.

            • I listen to all new LP’s (and a lot of familiar ones too TBH) 4 tracks at a time nowadays. I don’t seem to have the patience to do a whole one in one go these days.

              I think it’s how it ought to be anyway; the LP sold as a thing to be experienced fully and totally in one sitting was a blip in the history of popular music, between say 1967 and, ooh, about 2005, when the Boomers stopped smoking dope.

  28. Jimi died on Friday, 18th September 1970, the day before the first Glastonbury. The Beatles last 45 came out in March, their last L.P in May.
    Hippie festival? It kinda went thatta way… “It’s behind you!!!”

    That said, I think I’d dig being right in the very corner of the site next to the Punch & Judy (the more violent the better), the folk tent (the more anarchic the better) and the real ale barrels (the more alcoholic the better)… which is what I’m going to be doing tomorrow… at no charge!

    And also, at least it ain’t tiny little manc oasis, so for that we should be eternally thankful.

  30. Badbadnotgood currently being excellent on West Holts, well worth a catch up.

    Best thing I’ve seen this evening is of course Osees. Wish iPlayer had a feed where you could just watch the two drummers for the entire set.

  34. I’m playing catch-up , having had time out with the family earlier. Self Esteem is a name I had never heard of before, though of course she’s been around for about a decade. A completely theatrical choreographed choral performance which I’m not sure is my sort of thing, but makes for a remarkably impressive empowered multimedia show. The Lady Gaga or Christine & The Queens Glastonbury event of 2025.

  38. I’m aware of the distain here: but I really enjoyed Franz Ferdinand’s set. Nice balance of hits and “new”; the “mystery Capaldi” guest was a hoot; and, to quote another review on-line, “an early nomination for Audrey Tait as the best drummer of the weekend”.

  41. No idea if it’s the same live, but there’s been a couple of times – Supergrass, Lucy Dacus – when the vocals have been almost inaudible. Grr

    Yours,
    Abe Simpson

  42. I’m enjoying Weezer a lot, there are some vocal pitch problems- but it’s the same as the records! Haha. Rivers is a great guitar player. The bassist has Moog bass pedals!

    • Yup. She was very entertaining. And her band is killer. I really enjoyed the evening, which isn’t always a given at Hyde Park.

      The audience was (unsurprisingly) the youngest I have ever seen at one of these enormo-open-air affairs: plenty of under-tens getting their first experience of standing in a field uncomfortably craning to see big screens and listening to the sound from the locally-mandated underpowered PAs drift in the wind, along with 80,000 other people. But the vibe in the place was very positive, very friendly, very accessible.

      Although…the screaming…

      Regardless of how she goes down with the cooler and less committed crowd at Glastonbury on Sunday, I will look forward to seeing her set again on the telly. She’s got some banging tunes, a decently sarcastic attitude, and her love of guitars elevates her above Sabrina in my view.

      (One of the current pop mysteries which always leaves me scratching my head cropped up again, though: Ed Sheeran. He made a surprise appearance, and the posse of very arch and street-wise fifteen year olds gathered in my proximity absolutely lost their minds. Cue masses of wild wailing, holding their heads in their hands, weeping, and generally missing everything he did because they were overwhelmed with excitement. Why are the hip kidz so enthralled by his middle-aged anaemic acoustic shtick?)

      • I suspect his enormous, gargantuan, stratospheric level of global fame is what actually impresses them. For the under 20s, he is the most famous person in music in their lifetime, everyone knows him and everyone wants to collaborate with him. No-one, bar none, is bigger (especially in the UK). Hence the excitement of being in his presence.

        His music is unmitigated pap though, no question.

  48. Great to see Pulp. My wife is a fan.

    Amused to see him rip up the statement he made in 1995 with some words about history being nothing and the now is the most important, to launch into ‘the song that started it all those years ago’

  50. After the Belinda/Brandi faux pas, Mrs. T commented later ‘Is this Canned Heat?’….’Do you mean Creedence Clearwater Revival..?’….’Oh yes, I knew it began with C’….’No, not the band, just John’….’’Blimey, John Otway doesn’t sound so good now’…..I give up.

  52. I began to get curious about how big Glasto is compared to other European festivals.

    With an attendance of 210,000, it’s one of the major cultural events in the UK.

    That’s a lot bigger than my favourite, Roskilde which has a mere 130,000. dyurng festival week it’s the fourth largest city in Denmark.

    Barcelona’s Primavera Sound as 220,000.

    This list provides an overview.

    https://www.gigstarter.ie/blog/ranking-festivals-europe-ie

    There are some ginormous festivals in France, Germany, Poland and Hungary that I’ve never heard of.

    TIME OUT’S list of The 22 best music festivals in Europe is a very entertaining read.

    https://www.timeout.com/europe/music/best-music-festivals-europe

    TREMOR AZORES sounds great…

    As if being out on São Miguel island in the Azores – i.e. out in the middle of the Atlantic, about 1,400 kilometres off the coast of mainland Portugal – wasn’t adventurous enough, Tremor turns the entire music festival experience into a sort of quest. Performances are at secret locations dotted throughout the island, some reached by raft and/or jungle trek. The music leans towards all things experimental, from folk and punk to electronics, while the limited number of tickets ensures it all remains shrouded in tantalising mystery.

  53. It’s always so cute when our American friends do it, but Rachel Keen is the first U.K. artist I’ve heard consistently call it Glaston-BERRY..
    P.S. watching a bit of Skepta I have to ask the question: am I the last person on Earth to realise that Deftones is a pun on tone deaf?

  55. Well, I’ve just turned on and Shakey is asking how everyone out there is.And how everybody watching in their bedrooms are. Another change of mind. And not a bad Cinnamon Girl. Can’t hear Spencer, mind.

      • I know and unfortunately schedules prohibit. Hyde Park is also IMHO not ideal but I would do it if i could. I joined whatever his on line club is called earlier in the year in the hope of some northern show’s, fingers crossed there will be another pass through these shores.

  57. Neil is on form, isn’t he? Lots of classics with, I assume, a few new tracks as I don’t know them. I notice that the usual BBC captions giving the song titles are missing – presumably because Mr. Grumpy didn’t share the set list..?

  58. Re Neil’s dress sense and coiffure, to quote an earlier comment made by Mrs Path, apropos Daryl Hannah: “Christ, he must be good in bed for her to let him go out, looking like that.”
    That’s me blown it, then…
    I set my hat on his style when After The Goldrush came out. None of my wives have shared my admiration for his ragged glory.
    And it is a gloriously ragged set we are witnessing. Nice to see some grizzled hipsters getting camera angles over the usual youngsters, too.

  60. Have to be honest, I got bored with NY half a dozen songs in and switched over to Charli XCX, who is fantastic! No pretence of a band playing, just her and some brilliant songs.

    • Well, sort of, with the “Hurricane” organ coming down, much as it did, in about 2001, at the NEC.
      Spooner, not Spencer, of course, I the earlier post.
      The crowd looks pretty enormous, and equivalently off putting, knowing how impenetrable it gets. Better on telly.

      • Name of Love is Neil’s Glasto moment

        Apart from pm Sun Green, his setlist for this tour is
        Pretty damn good

        The two CSNY songs – Looking Forwards and Name of Love
        – classic Neil and given away to CSN on barely remembered
        Reunion projects

  62. Talk about a perfect illustration of generational change in pop music. Neil Young and band looking like they’ve been dragged out of bed backwards and don’t give a fuck playing loud squally guitar music rooted in the 60s and 70s with zero attention to the visuals. Charli xcx on stage entirely on her own singing over an electronic track with no evidence of any musicians but lots of dance moves, lighting changes and projections. Not saying one is better than the other but they are worlds apart; almost different artforms. And in so far as you can judge from a tv broadcast the audience at the latter appear to be having more fun.

    • Charlie XCX is part of a dance music tradition going back a long time and not surprisingly dance music elicits a more apparently fun response. Neil’s thing is also a tradition of folk rock and hard rock going back a long way. A different experience. Not sure it’s such a dramatic generational change as much as a different style.

      • As every year, the comments on this thread just reinforce that different people seek out markedly different things in music.

        If you go to Charli XCX looking for emotion, authenticity and a “proper” performance, you’re probably not going to enjoy yourself very much.

        If you go to Neil Young looking for excitement, energy and a proper performance, you’re probably not going to enjoy yourself either.

        From the perspective of the above, I highly doubt that anyone who enjoys Charli XCX would be bothered by the lack of live instruments onstage, any more than most of the Neil Young audience are troubled that he doesn’t dance. Although, that said, I would have quite liked to see him dance.

    • I know Neil Young is a legend, but I don’t think he has a massive mainstream appeal to today’s audience. No doubt he’s sold millions, and those who love him truly love him, but I doubt people outside this forum could name more than a few of his songs.

      As for Charli XCX…times may well have changed, but it still looked exactly like a young lady in a bikini doing karaoke to her own material. Not a bad idea, if you can get away with it: think of all the money saved on not having to pay musicians, roadies, etc.. If her audience are happy with that – and they clearly are – good luck to her.

      One question: if you’re in the middle of that massive field, how do you get a beer/go to the loo? Looks vaguely hellish, but good luck to all who went.

      • I had similar thoughts. I like Neil (particularly in CSNY), but if my parents or friends asked me about his big hits, or why he deserves to be a headliner, I doubt they – and many, many others – would know Heart of Gold, Like a Hurricane, etc. True, he’s had a long and succesful career, but has he ever really broken through to the mainstream in the UK?

        Re Charli – I don’t see what makes her so different and why she has done so spectacularly well. I got the Brat album to see what the fuss was all about (“Brat summer” and all that nonsense), and, well… to me she just sounds like so many acts that are around today.

        The Guardian’s rave review of her Glasto set makes it sound like the second coming, but all I saw was a standard 21st-century pop star singing (with more gusto than emotion) to what appeared to be a backing track. Clearly I’m too old and out of touch to be her audience, but can somebody explain what she does that is so different to most of her peers?

    • I think you have hit the nail on the head there, @Blueboy, about generational change

      I’ve seen Neil Young live several times and he has always been truly magnificent.

      However last year I popped along to the ginormous Arena Tent at Roskilde to see a few songs by Charli. It was absolutely heaving.

      @Hamlet describes it very well. … a young lady in a bikini doing karaoke to her own material.
      But she was sassy, self-confident and very entertaining and the audience loved her.

      As they did in Glasto yesterday.

      https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/29/charli-xcx-at-glastonbury-review

      Charli co-wrote I LOVE IT, with Swedish duo, Icona Pop. What an anthem for a generation that is.

      When Icona Pop played that song in the Arena Tent in 2017, the audience went bananas.

      No disrespect to Neil, but I don’t think his fans explode with joy in quite the same way.

      Was I in the midst of that ten-thousand-headed, moshy monster?

      Was I hell. I was standing by a tree outside the tent having a beer surrounded by a large gaggle of Danish yummy mummies who were keeping an anxious eye out for their young teenage daughters who were in the crowd. All of them miraculously emerged unscathed, completely blissed out.

      Which makes me think about the largest crowd I ever saw at Roskilde, Not Metallica, Stevie Wonder, Black Sabbath, Eminem, Stevie Wonder or the Rolling Stones.

      No it was RI-Ri. The Umbrella Hitmaker seemed to have attracted every teenager in Scandinavia. When you are 14, pop music is a matter of life and death,

      When you’re 84, there is slightly less moshing and joshing.

    • The video’s disappeared, but as a major Numan fan I can confirm that yes, it’s a great song. The first time I heard it, I was really surprised by how well her teenage-girl vocals fit inside her dad’s big, heavy, industrial sound.

      Another of his daughters, Raven (celeb kids’ names, eh?), is carving out her own career and following in the family’s musical style. So far, she’s only released a few songs (no album yet), but I’ve liked every one. Here’s the moody In Your Head:

  70. I have to say I find the Nile Rodgers & Chic show increasingly annoying. Obviously a peerless catalogue, but I think I heard him briefly mention how many hits he’s written – he doesn’t normally allude to that, of course – and the horrible, horrible ‘soulful’ caterwauling and intensely irritating horn sound made me bail PDQ.

  71. While I don’t think yelling “Death to the IDF!” as a singalong chant is particularly clever, helpful or positive, it’s heartening to see that – despite even more misery in Gaza overnight as aid supply chains break down yet again and more starving people are gunned down by the IDF for no reason, as they try and get some flour – the Government and HM Opposition are falling over themselves to keep us safe from angry young people.

    Then, the Israel Embassy’s statement about Glasto on X earlier

    “Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of democracy. But when speech crosses into incitement, hatred, and advocacy of ethnic cleansing, it must be called out – especially when amplified by public figures on prominent platforms”

    “Advocacy of ethnic cleansing”?? Surely only the Israelis are allowed to do that?

    • Ther shiny happy Glasto airheads who sing along to everything seem to be easily drawn into singing “Throw the Jew down the well” (see the Borat movie). Yes, a self-styled punk known for being jolly cross is going to give it loads, and liven the event up. But the audience going for it like a pop star is shaking their expensive bottom, Ed Sheeran has just come on, or a prog band has switched on the dry ice machine and picked up double-neck guitars is a bit depressing, if you ask me.

      • Yes, I can see the crassness and offensiveness of Vylan’s crowd chants and like I said, it’s totally stupid and counterproductive. I just find it astonishing that the Govt seems to have woken up and got themselves into a lather about him and Kneecap when we can all see whats happening in Gaza daily which personally I think is way more offensive to all of us. Anyway, I’ll shut up now.

        • Not taking away from Israel’s inhumanity in Gaza, but there didn’t seem to be too many Ukrainian flags or acts denouncing Vladimir Putin around this year.

          While a welcome dead cat for Starmer in the short-term, the Bab Vylan comments will surely come back to bite him on the bum when people start spouting on about the speed and severity of the sentences the government had the courts dole out to the likes of Lucy Connolly

            • A return of the unnecessary, unpleasant trolling of late last year that led to my reporting you to the mods and their issuing a boardwide request for polite posting, that’s “what now.”

              Here’s a thought, rather than force me to dob you into the mods a second time, why not extend me the same courtesy that I extend you and either avoid reading or responding to my posts?

              • You made a point with which I disagreed.

                My post was neither nasty, nor trolling. Asking you to be accountable to what you post – especially when it’s wrong – is acceptable behavior.

                • “Disagree” with what? You don’t bother to say.

                  FWIW, I didn’t express an opinion on Connolly’s treatment. I simply made an observation citing a widely held point-of-view that was germane to the issue being talked about.

                  Rather than explaining what was “wrong” with my doing so, you selectively edited what I wrote and added a sneery, two-word dismissal.

                  When other AWers question something I have written, I generally take the time to politely clarify what I meant – as I did here with two other posters. If necessary, I apologize.

                  I have no intention of modifying my posts because you find me or what I choose to post disagreeable.

                  Nor am I going to engage with you again beyond this point.

                  Continue to troll me and I will, however, report you to the mods for as many times as it takes until you stop doing so.

            • There are indeed, but – rightly or wrongly and I’m steering well clear of taking sides – many people believed that those deemed responsible for rioting or inciting those who rioted were brought before the courts quicker and hit with more severe punishments than would normally be the case.

              Hence the nickname Two Tier Keir

              The point I was making in my earlier post, is that these people will be the ones shouting from the rooftops if they perceive Bob Vylan as having received a lighter punishment than the likes of Lucy Connolly.

              • The circumstances are different in one vital area. One set of comments were made online at a time when open insurrection and lawlessness was taking place and the other was made to an audience at a pop concert where there was no violence or riotous behaviour taking place. The first set of comments were made in circumstances where they may have contributed to the actual physical harm that was caused and to the widespread damage to property that was incurred. The second may have hurt a few people’s feelings and was decidedly unwise but other than that the two sets of circumstances are radically different.

                • I wasn’t expressing any opinions re the circumstances of the various incidents or those involved in/affected by them.

                  I was simply positing what is likely to happen if those who feel Connolly et al were hard done by perceive BV as getting off “more lightly”.

                  • I know you weren’t. I’m not having a go at you or anyone else. I was simply adding to the discourse. For what it’s worth I agree that there will as sure as night follows day be those who will seek to draw a comparison between the two incidents. I was mearly pointing out the one very obvious difference between the two surrounding sets of circumstances. I’d be very surprised if that difference didn’t lie at the heart of the laws somewhat different reaction to the injudicious use of language that emanated from a Glastonbury stage to the inciteful language that was used online in the other far more immediately febrile state of affairs that was taking shape on some English streets.

            • Pencilsqueezer is spot on.

              For all that columnists have rushed to compare Bob Vylan’s comments to those of Lucy Connolly, vanishingly few have seemingly bothered to go and check the law, which focuses on the immediacy of the violence/criminality being incited.

              One of these cases is fairly clearly incitement, the other is your bog standard lunge for publicity and clout by a festival stage edgelord. No sensible person would suggest that the Bob Vylan guy should be doing bird.

              What’s under-discussed, however, is what sort of person listens to a field full of people chanting “death to the IDF”, and then hours later tweets the following; “the Jewish Defence Force is gunning down Palestinians as they queue for food”.

              Just another slip of the keyboard from the Mother of the House, to add to her growing collection. Another dog whistle people will pretend to be inaudible.

              Freedom of speech can be painful, but it at least has the virtue of allowing people to show you who and what they are.

  73. Noah Kahn was good according to my daughter.

    A lot less ‘rocky’ when I saw him with her at the O2 last summer.

    It was all bland and boring to me.

    I am sure if I played her ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ by Blue Oyster Cult as the epitome of a 40 minute live set she would disagree with me.

    Her loss.

  75. Our granddaughter has been inspired by the coverage and wants ‘to sing on that stage’…! What would you sing Aoife..? ‘Wind the Bobbin Up’….she is two and half, bless her.

    • I had never heard her before, as well.
      I was trying to understand what her big attraction was to her audience. OK tunes, but nothing that struck me as possessing and beauty. I was looking for hooks and rousing choruses.
      I thought there was too much unnecessary effing and jeffing and was very irritated by the disingenuous “do you mind if I introduce the band?”.
      I know I’m miles away from being the target audience, but I was nonetheless hoping for something that would be entrancing and exciting.
      I thought her band were pretty good.

      • Alternative take: I thought this was the best, most accomplished headline set on the Pyramid stage for many, many years. Obviously, young Olivia doesn’t have the catalogue of an Elton to call on only two albums in, but that has been the problem with getting suitable headliners – you either have to get legendary figures on their last twirl around who, alas, are way past their best (e.g. The Who) or try to talk up young stars who just cannot command the slot (e.g. SZA) – and the small number of acts who are big enough and not yet ready for embalming simply aren’t around for Glasto weekend. The festival needs someone this good, this slick and this fresh to own it and this year they got lucky.
        Didn’t care for the “glass coffee table” cam, mind..

  81. On Foxy’s Burning Spear request thread that it was remarked that it wasn’t all that special to which he replied that it was great just to see him up there. That made me think about how I feel every year when I see the lineup and there is/are (a) very senior reggae act(s) on the poster. On the one hand I’m delighted to see the name, but then I immediately start to worry that they will be long past their best or there will be no-one left in the lineup (or the more basic gripes like Steel Pulse not playing Handsworth Revolution or “Black Uhuru” deciding that their showstopper is that song written by Tony Soprano’s consigliere). The last reggae act I can remember really enjoying was The Congos and that’s a while ago and none have been top ranking since Jimmy Cliff. I suppose the problem is that there are a lot of talented people working in around reggae now who the organisers feel aren’t big enough to be put on the main stages (although you can see the circular logic here, that until you get a push – and those in many other genres do – you’re not going to win your Glastonbury audience. All of which is to say, how about having Prince Fatty or the Breadwinners or whoever on the bigger stages. (You will know better than me who it should be..)

    • Prince Fatty would easily own the stage, especially if brought together a Reggae super group, including oldies like Little Roy and Winston Francis, plus musicians from Roots Radics, Nostalgia 77 and The Ruff Cut Band, topped off with Hollie Cook and some of her connections.

      How about Vin Gordon and The Real Rock Band? He’s a sprightly 75!

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