Glasto

MAW at Genosys Sunday evening was great, played a NYS set, KD said on twitter they have it recorded, so should get to hear it again at some point.

Goldie played a great 92-94 rave set on Sat night at Arcadia. few dodgy mixes aside, he dropped so many classics, egyptian empire, valley of the shadows, bukems music, inner city life. few thousand men and women of a certain age proper cutting shapes. Big smiles all round. Hardcore really will never die.

Sunday night Fabio n Grooverider n GQ at Arcadia was good too, big crowd, could barely stand by this point though, literally out on my feet, nodding more than dancing.

Caught abt half of Sasha n Digweed, really good, sound in the glade is amazing, I wish they held parties there every wkend.

Other things I saw/heard of note, besides the dance music ;
Radiohead, no finer band on the planet surely ?
Lorde is fantastic, watched with my 9yr old daughter, we both loved it. A pop star with substance.
Thundercat can play the 6 string bass like he's ringing a bell. So much groove.
Stormzy.... if I was 20 years younger I'd be bang into that. An actual UK hip hop scene, love it.
The Kidz field and the Green Kids field are amazing, the best day out a child can ever have. f*** disneyland.
Caught Sister Bliss playing Insomnia, never gets old, ppl running into the tent, big smiles.
The BeeGees are one of the finest British songwriters ever.
Chic are amazing. Everybody f***ing dance. So many tunes. Nile Rodgers is up there with Prince and Bowie for me.
I spent 6 nights at Glastonbury and it wasn't enough. I had my phone stolen and it didn't spoil it. I watched Katy Perry with my daughter on my shoulders and we both cried because there is no better feeling in the world than dancing to loud music in a field with thousands of other people. I ended up on stage in the theatre field wearing a daffy duck mask and it was no way the weirdest thing that happened to me all week.

And it didn't rain (much).
 
Still watching sets over and over on youtube;) really wish id tried to get a ticket this year...it's the best i've probably ever watched
 
Another year of the absolute best ever lunacy you can get down on the farm. The place just delivers every single time man. Too much to go through but just watching back The xx set (with tears in my eyes) and my god. When Jamie xx knocked in Orbital Belfast and then it went into On Hold. I actually came in my shorts. Pure musical heaven in a place i'd like heaven to be exactly like.
 
Another year of the absolute best ever lunacy you can get down on the farm. The place just delivers every single time man. Too much to go through but just watching back The xx set (with tears in my eyes) and my god. When Jamie xx knocked in Orbital Belfast and then it went into On Hold. I actually came in my shorts. Pure musical heaven in a place i'd like heaven to be exactly like.

Wow and i thought i couldnt be more jel ffs:(
 
did anyone hang out at bloc 9? downlow? I miss Robder's reviews!

aside from radiohead, goldfrapp and chic, I probably would've spent the entire time there
 
did anyone hang out at bloc 9? downlow? I miss Robder's reviews!

Spent Wednesday night in the Downlow and meat rack. Meat rack in particular amazing where i can vaguely mind an impromptu sit down happening. Spent Saturday and Sunday between Bloc 9
and the Temple in The Common, which had tripled in size this year. What a venue man. Trying to get into the downlow was ridiculous from pretty much 2am Fr/Sat/Sun with road block queues constantly so only got in there once again all weekend. Rumour had it if you walked up to the desk and showed yer todger you got to skip the queue :lol: Genosis Saturday i can recall seeing Heidi, Cab Drivers and some of Steffi n Virginia. Jackmaster was just bopping around in the crowd as well that night. I just get too excited about it when i try to type it all and can't really put it all into words haha so much goes on. You come away from Glastonbury, look back on it all and it just seems a beautiful jumbled mess and you can't quite believe what actually happened over the 5 days. It was my 9th time and i never come away bored of it. Really is gonna be hard next year it being off.
 
Spent Wednesday night in the Downlow and meat rack. Meat rack in particular amazing where i can vaguely mind an impromptu sit down happening. Spent Saturday and Sunday between Bloc 9
and the Temple in The Common, which had tripled in size this year. What a venue man. Trying to get into the downlow was ridiculous from pretty much 2am Fr/Sat/Sun with road block queues constantly so only got in there once again all weekend. Rumour had it if you walked up to the desk and showed yer todger you got to skip the queue :lol: Genosis Saturday i can recall seeing Heidi, Cab Drivers and some of Steffi n Virginia. Jackmaster was just bopping around in the crowd as well that night. I just get too excited about it when i try to type it all and can't really put it all into words haha so much goes on. You come away from Glastonbury, look back on it all and it just seems a beautiful jumbled mess and you can't quite believe what actually happened over the 5 days. It was my 9th time and i never come away bored of it. Really is gonna be hard next year it being off.
big shout out to the 9 times crew
 
BIG let down at Glastonbury this year though, the lovebullets tent. Seemed so out of place just plonked at the side of the Glade almost. The Elrow days were road blocks, could hardly get near the tent. They woulda been better having the actual Elrow thing in the Glade stage. Sunday during Seth Troxler as well the tent was surrounded by police and security and totally killed the vibe. The word was there was meant to be a BIG fight going on or something but nothing happened. Once the police left me and my mates went back inside the tent to find little bags of nonsense everywhere. People had dropped their stashes thinking they were obviously gonna get raided. It was all so bizarre but made for a very eventful Sunday into Monday :lol:
 
BIG let down at Glastonbury this year though, the lovebullets tent. Seemed so out of place just plonked at the side of the Glade almost.
I always think anything specific that you want to see at Glastonbury gets diluted. Watching your fav band/dj there is never as good as it is at their own gig, because it's not solely their crowd. Doesn't mean it's not great, but it is different. It's why I usually come away every time with my 'best bit' being something random, that I wouldn't expect to have enjoyed, or paid to go see in real life. The stuff you make a beeline for, that you're a fan of, usually (but not always tbf) ends up being a less rewarding experience.

I think what I'm trying to say is, I really enjoyed Barry Gibb :)
 
BIG let down at Glastonbury this year though, the lovebullets tent. Seemed so out of place just plonked at the side of the Glade almost. The Elrow days were road blocks, could hardly get near the tent. They woulda been better having the actual Elrow thing in the Glade stage. Sunday during Seth Troxler as well the tent was surrounded by police and security and totally killed the vibe. The word was there was meant to be a BIG fight going on or something but nothing happened. Once the police left me and my mates went back inside the tent to find little bags of nonsense everywhere. People had dropped their stashes thinking they were obviously gonna get raided. It was all so bizarre but made for a very eventful Sunday into Monday :lol:

thought it was a waste of time having it running all day too, it was absolutely dead during the day over the weekend, only picked up later on when it just go out of control.
 
Thought I’d jot down a few thoughts here partly as it will help me remember what I got up to but also will hopefully be of some interest / usefulness. It was my first time at Glastonbury and the vastness of the festival means this is a very narrow experience of what happened over the 5 days. Apologies for the long post, I’ve tried to break it up a bit by using Spotlight’s tell us how it was format:

Dates you were there:
Wednesday 21st June – Monday 26th June

Where you stayed:
Worthy View, which I thought was well worth the extra expense. For those that might not know Worthy View is an official, offsite pre-erected camping field, up the hill from Strummerville. My excuse for staying there should anyone look down their nose at me for not free camping is I was with my wife who is over 7 months pregnant so we were happy to spring for something that made our lives easier. And it really did – the hot showers were fantastic, parking was very close to the Pod that we stayed in so lugging all our kit in and out was quick and easy, lock on the door and lots of staff so felt secure, clean flushing toilets, quiet at night / early morning so slept really well and felt refreshed for the next day’s revelry, lots of space in the Pod for our kit. The walk up and down the hill each time isn’t much of a slog at all even when I was very much worse for wear.

Didn’t do much of a recce of the normal campgrounds but Pennard Hill looked a nightmare, absolutely rammed from Wednesday early afternoon. Some poor devils that pitched their tents right next to the main thoroughfares (Arcadia and Other Stage) also got a serious trampling at busy times which would have massively pissed me off, so very glad I didn’t go for that.

Highlights
(in loose order)

Napalm Death ruled! Drew the biggest crowd I saw at the Truth Stage in Shangri-La, the bulk of whom were clearly just curious and didn’t get it so were either disgusted or bemused. There was a solid contingent of nutters down the front though having a whale of a time, loved it, powerful and divisive, just as they should be

NYC Downlow – went a few times, great fun and felt significant even though you could view it as something of a theme park attraction for nice, middle-class people to safely dip into another culture and be able to feel good about being adventurous and tolerant. I saw it as a bloody good party but it’s definitely been discovered. There were queues round the block to get in even when the London Underground and Genosys outdoor section were practically empty

The whole South-East corner is incredibly imaginative and the music right up my alley whilst still being diverse. Some of the most fun I had was exploring here and coming across someone performing on an unexpected, little, tucked-away stage. At one point in the Unfairground there was an old punk rapping nonsense to a nosebleed Techno backing track while his partner shook and vibrated along to an audience of about 10 of us. It was the kind of visceral, challenging thing I’d never get to see outside of Glastonbury but here I was exposed to it. They were a highlight and so was the marching band dressed up in full regalia yet all playing the kazoo. I found it amazing that all those people would go to all that effort for what is a one-note joke to me and stick through with it, much appreciated

Hacienda Classical, preceded by a moving minute’s silence, very nostalgic although some of the old guard are showing their age! Hooky still looks good though and him breaking out the bass for “Blue Monday” was magical

Radiohead were hypnotic, their musicianship and tightness as a band was remarkable although we headed off before they busted out their big hits in the second hour, needed to get away early for…

Arcadia – fantastic production. The structure itself was smaller than I expected though which I teased the wife about as she’d been banging on about how it was the best thing ever before we got there. Dusky were good. The Metamorphosis show was the pinnacle, I felt sorry for Jackmaster having to follow it on the Friday; he seemed to think a left-turn was needed straight after so came in with some upbeat vocal house which may have partly caused the mass-exodus. Returned here a few times, TQD and Noisia played some bass bangers on the Saturday which fit the vibe well

Sasha & Digweed – came to the Glade a couple of hours ahead as saw that many of the tents and stages were overflowing (Lovebullets!) and was desperate not to miss out. This meant being in a packed out crowd for Gorgon City, who are very popular it seems, can’t for the life of me work out why, and Way Out West who were in warm-up mode. Spine-tingling stuff when Alex and John were introduced as I never thought I’d see the day, anticipation was ramped up when I noticed that Tony Andrews was personally in charge of the Funktion 1 for the set (beast of a soundsystem setup for an outdoor stage). And it was… good, maybe even great but certainly not mindblowing. Sasha had all the big moments, some of his patented extended builds and mixes were vintage stuff, even drawing applause from Diggers at one point but John seemed to settle into playing the rhythmic recovery tracks after Sasha took the roof off. I really wanted this to floor me, it was a cracking set but looking back I came away a touch disappointed. It’s been said previously that maybe Glastonbury isn’t the place to see the acts you’d pay to see on their own terms elsewhere, I’d agree with that

Barry Gibb followed by Chic was just a wonderful way to spend a sunny afternoon, highlight of this was being able to sing-along to “How Deep Is Your Love” word-perfectly, to my great surprise, despite not having heard it in years and years

The wife loves Moderat, I see them as a latter-day Depeche Mode (a good thing), which I didn’t expect having only really heard Marcell Dettmann’s beast of a mix of “Bad Kingdom” previously

Why have I not heard more about the Temple in the Common area?! Fantastic venue, if I ever get to go back I’ll be focusing a lot more time here

We spent a lot of time in places I never expected to. The Healing Fields are full of interesting people with different perspectives; I loved the Speakers’ Forum and the passionate, well-informed debates I observed in there; there’s a huge area devoted to circus (The Black Eagles were particularly impressive), there’s comedy (never thought I’d get to see “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” alumni doing genuinely funny improv, there’s actors bowling around engaging you in surreal conversations, workshops in all kinds of activities and thousands of other things to see and do, loved it!
 
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