Slowly the Glastonbury memories are starting to return and so we can begin to tell you a little about our weekend adventures. We all had completely different experiences so will try and bring you at least a couple of viewpoints but this is how it pretty much went down for me...
Having been in attendance at the festival since I was a knee high nipper it seems to be almost against the Glastonbury way to plan out your weekend and flap around stressing about getting to see all the acts you want... so I never do. In fact I generally spend most of the time not seeing fantastic acts, which this year included Hudson Mohawke, Q Tip, N.E.R.D., Don Diablo and erm Bruce Springsteen and it works out pretty well for me. The main issue is I really can’t deal with the big stages or the Dance arenas, when people complain that Glastonbury has lost its way and become too commercial, they have obviously spent too much time in the wrong parts.
My lady friend and I did make one bold mission to the Dance arena. We tried reaching over to see Raffertie in the Dance Lounge on Thursday night but the times were changed and so we managed to miss his set. Feeling just a tad disappointed and left in the middle of the masses, who were being visited upon by a biblical thunderstorm, we vowed not to set foot over that end of the festival for the rest of our time there and so stayed safely on the other side with the futuristic dystopian dreamlands of Shangri La, Arcadia and Trash City.
We did venture into the Pyramid area to catch some of The Specials set but it wasn’t until Ghost Town that the miserable magic of Terry Hall truly seemed to fit the proceedings, that was their last tune and pretty much the last thing I can seem to remember as a friend with a big bag of horse tranquilizer helpfully ensured an early return to my tent only to re-emerge around 4am to carry on. Bouncing from Bashment in Trash City to Balloons at the Stone Circle would generally seem like a culture shock if it wasn’t for the fact that Glastonbury is carefully tied together with an anything goes attitude that makes it all seem as equally strange as it is perfectly normal.
The Bassline Circus dome in Shangri La seemed like the perfect home for our set as it sat like the central hive raised above an area that was part Brave New World and part Star Wars. The place was spilling out the door and the crowd were well hyped for some dirty bass heavy beats thanks to some killer sets from live Dubstep troop Engine-Earz and Radio 1’s Bobby Friction, not to mention the Circus’s own off the wall antics which sit sharply on the edge of both the street and the stage. The set itself couldn’t have really gone better, and even though security weren’t too pleased at the stage invasion that got completely out of control, we figured it was a pretty good sign we were doing alright.
Sound seemed to be a major issue throughout the festival though, something they really need to sort out in future (as well as the 8 hour queue to get in on Wednesday), it didn’t help that Bruce Springsteen apparently ordered all the sound systems turned down during his set (a fact that our boys Sicknote were most upset about, check one of the band's blog). Hot 8 Brass Band put on a decent show but the sound was plain awful, and was even worse some of the other times we went past the Jazz World stage. That might have been part of the problem with Roots Manuva's show on that stage, but actually it was more likely the rather poor selection of tunes (didn’t he notice nobody actually bought his last album) and having the stage presence of an agoraphobic, albeit a mildly enthusiastic one. Dizzee Rascal was also rather lacking in the performance department although he has a strong enough repertoire of crowd pleasers to help the masses not notice, and masses there were indeed. He has firmly cemented his move from bad boy Grime artist to golden boy Pop star and the amount of grannies, trannies, teenagers and ravers singing / rapping along in the crowd certainly proved that. There was also the obligatory tribute to Michael Jackson, which consisted of Semtex playing a few instrumental bars of about four Mikey tracks whilst Dizzee acted like he was going to rap over them… but didn’t. Of course the death of Jacko was the main conversation of choice over the weekend and it was surprising how quickly the T Shirts announcing it started popping up everywhere.
The other main topic was whether to watch Blur or Prodigy (again the T Shirts joined in the conversation), we avoided this problem by spending this period in our tent, I can’t really tell you much about what we were doing but it involved some 2CB and a higher level of tantric than an Indian holy man could hope to reach. Even though Blur were supposed to have been amazing, I could almost guarantee that I was having a better time than anyone actually there watching them. We eventually made it back into the festival to catch the last bout of rain and miss a fantastic show from Chrome Hoof at Trash City due to an overt queue aversion.
I guess the main way to sum up the different approaches to Glastonbury is: the package tour way, where you see all of the sights and sounds you’re supposed to and vow to get your money’s worth. You marvel at some things, taking plenty of photos, but then you get disappointed a lot, complaining that it’s not like the brochure and being stuck with the rest of the package tour crowd on their stag and hen parties; then there’s the backpacker way where you wonder off the beaten track, discover the dodgy back lane bars with that great little band that nobody’s ever heard of, meet shed loads of people then lie to your family about how you got to see The Boss / Machu Picchu but lost your camera so don’t have the photos to show how great it was.
We had definitely overdosed on Michael Jackson by the time we left Glastonbury and things aren't going to ease off for some time yet, but seeing as it was the biggest news of the festival it's only right to add our tuppence worth. Here's a bunch of our favourite tributes that have rolled in so far. Tributes if not for the King Of Pop himself, then for all those poor buggers who paid ridiculous amounts of money to go and see him this month.
(YSI) Michael Jackson - Billie Jean (Tek-Step Remix) / alt link
(YSI) Sway - The King Full Stop / alt link
(YSI) Hype On Hype Vs Jackson 5 - I Want You Back (Dirty Dub Drop) / alt link
And here's a few more from our friends over at Subservient Experiment.
(YSI) Michael Jackson - Remember the Time (Don Diablo Remix) / alt link
(YSI) The Hood Internet - Billie Wildcat Jean (MJ vs. Ratatat) / alt link
(YSI) Michael Jackson - Beat It (LehtMoJoe Remix) / alt link
Chrome Kids - Knowledge Me
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