Summer Festivals

[JonGoodwyn 1]

But fucking hell, how times have changed. I got up early this morning whilst the bairn and her mam were sleeping to watch a bit of Glastonbury on the red button.

 

Rock and roll.

 

 

All seems far too safe and adult friendly to me these days. I find the musical scene of today pretty dispiriting, everything seems so middle class. I quite enjoyed the Gorrilaz for example, but it sits a bit uneasy for me when the younguns are listening to middle aged mens music.

 

The last two great youth musical uprisings terrified the grown ups, and thats the way it should be.

 

Punk was powered by speed, Rave by ecstacy - maybe the kids of today need a new drug to kick something into life.

 

To be honest I havent exactly got my finger on the pulse so I could be talking utter shite, however when that recent greatest band ever thing still had everybody bleating on about Led Zeppelin I found it so depressing. We fought the punk rock wars in the 70's to get rid of the same old shite and still it goes on. Kids shouldnt listen to their (grand)parents music -its wrong

 

Why? I think its good that people are still listening to older stuff, as bands can clearly still draw inspiriation from it, but at the same time the musics evolved from it - I mean, there aren't a great deal of really Zeppelin-esque modern bands out there. I never really got the whole 'Listen to music to piss off your parents' mentallity either, so I suppose thats another reason why I'm okay with it. If I, or anyone can still get a great amount of pleasure from listening to an album that was released 35-40 years ago then I don't see a problem with anyone listening to it.

 

Also, the 'mainstream' music scene is pretty watered down these days, but there are still quite a lot of good bands. the indie flavour of the month stuff is generally pretty pish, but theres so much music out there now if you look for it, that there are bound to be a few things you think are great.

I guess the fact that now there are so many bands out there, and their music is so readily available thanks to the internet and illegal downloading that people can get there hands on a ridiculous amount of music, with a huge amount of sub-genres that its hard to stand out from everyone else as different people can easily find their niche and stick with that. Every now and then a band comes along and grabs peoples attention, like Arctic Monkeys, or Lady Gaga as you said, but in 20 or 30 years time, people most probably won't care about them.

In some ways its good, and some its bad. Its fantastic that there's such a wide range of music out there, with hundreds of sub-genres for just about anyone, and an abundance of great local bands, but on the other hand it does deminish the chance of there being another huge, iconic band along the lines of The Beatles, AC/DC, Zeppelin, the Stones and the like, but at the end of the day, in all honesty i'd rather take the great, not so big bands that are out there if you look for them over the smaller number of heavy hitters out there - I mean, the music scene, in England especially, is thriving. Music is more readily available and as big as ever but as a result of that the music scenes moved on from the iconic figures of the past.

[spongebob toonpants 4134]

Why? I think its good that people are still listening to older stuff, as bands can clearly still draw inspiriation from it, but at the same time the musics evolved from it - I mean, there aren't a great deal of really Zeppelin-esque modern bands out there. I never really got the whole 'Listen to music to piss off your parents' mentallity either, so I suppose thats another reason why I'm okay with it. If I, or anyone can still get a great amount of pleasure from listening to an album that was released 35-40 years ago then I don't see a problem with anyone listening to it.

 

I think the problem is though that whilst Zep are still too many peoples favourite band, which I think leads to a bit of sterility. I also don't really mean you should listen to music to piss your parents off - I just think that music is at its most vibrant when it does rile people up and "scare the grown ups"

 

 

 

Also, the 'mainstream' music scene is pretty watered down these days, but there are still quite a lot of good bands. the indie flavour of the month stuff is generally pretty pish, but theres so much music out there now if you look for it, that there are bound to be a few things you think are great.

I guess the fact that now there are so many bands out there, and their music is so readily available thanks to the internet and illegal downloading that people can get there hands on a ridiculous amount of music, with a huge amount of sub-genres that its hard to stand out from everyone else as different people can easily find their niche and stick with that. Every now and then a band comes along and grabs peoples attention, like Arctic Monkeys, or Lady Gaga as you said, but in 20 or 30 years time, people most probably won't care about them.

 

I pretty much agree with this- I love the way the internet has opened up the way music is heard, and I'm aware how little of it I know.

 

In some ways its good, and some its bad. Its fantastic that there's such a wide range of music out there, with hundreds of sub-genres for just about anyone, and an abundance of great local bands, but on the other hand it does deminish the chance of there being another huge, iconic band along the lines of The Beatles, AC/DC, Zeppelin, the Stones and the like, but at the end of the day, in all honesty i'd rather take the great, not so big bands that are out there if you look for them over the smaller number of heavy hitters out there - I mean, the music scene, in England especially, is thriving. Music is more readily available and as big as ever but as a result of that the music scenes moved on from the iconic figures of the past.

 

Again this I completely agree with, and to be honest I was trying to provoke a reaction. Your points are valid but I still think a musical revolution is long overdue. I was serious about the drug thing too. From Heroin -Psychadelics -Speed -ecstacy, when a new drug takes off music can really explode. Doesnt always work for he best mind Coke produced apalling boring self indulgent crap. (Mid seventies American rock -christ)

[JonGoodwyn 1]

I think there are a fair amount of genres and bands out there who write music with that in mind - probably most notable in metal. Black metal bands tend to like writing about the most fucking stupid things out there, like burning churchs, drinking virgins bloods and how the weathers a bit cold in scandinavia. The vast majority of those bands accept that the lyrical content and lifestyle around the genre is pretty much entirely a show to make their music sell more, with the clear intention of appealing to teenages who want to look hard and stick their middle finger up at their parents. That said, if you take it with a pinch of salt the music is pretty good. The same can be said with things like Gangsta Rap, although the hip hop culture surrounding it is far more important than the pretty fabricated one of Black metal. Again, the music is great if you take the lyrics with a pinch of salt and it definatley wouldn't go down to well with parents, although I guess the scene originated in the 80's, so isn't really to modern.

 

I guess if you analyse some of the lyrics of music from a lot of genres these days parents would probably look at it with some distane, in the past swearing was used pretty infrequently in songs now its relatively commonplace and although in the 70's bands seem to love singing about wanted to chace girls and plow them it, by and large, wasn't as explicitly written about as it is today.

 

As for a musical revolution, I guess you could argue modern day indies had really thrived in the last 5-10 years especially, with a huge percentage of teenages listening to it, although again the genre came about a fair amount of time before that. I suppose its hard to see where a musical revolution could come from, or what it would entail, but I guess it was like that in the past; people thought a dead-end had been reached, then something completely new and exciting came along and changed everything; I guess thats why its called a revolution

[Guest alex]

Glastonbury looks fucking shite iyam.

[NJS 4411]

Glastonbury looks fucking shite iyam.

 

It's always sold itself as the most eclectic one musically (as well as on atmosphere) so you know what you're getting but a lot of the stuff I saw (and noticed on the bill) would always have me asking why would a festival crowd want to see that?

 

I know Stevie Wonder is an important musical icon but surely not to a lot of people's taste (I know as I've said before I'm quite narrow in my tastes).

[Guest alex]

Glastonbury looks fucking shite iyam.

 

It's always sold itself as the most eclectic one musically (as well as on atmosphere) so you know what you're getting but a lot of the stuff I saw (and noticed on the bill) would always have me asking why would a festival crowd want to see that?

 

I know Stevie Wonder is an important musical icon but surely not to a lot of people's taste (I know as I've said before I'm quite narrow in my tastes).

Just looks like it's full of cunts to me.

[NJS 4411]

Just looks like it's full of cunts to me.

 

It certainly has become a CV box ticker for too many.

[Ayatollah Hermione 14053]

Glastonbury looks fucking shite iyam.

 

It's always sold itself as the most eclectic one musically (as well as on atmosphere) so you know what you're getting but a lot of the stuff I saw (and noticed on the bill) would always have me asking why would a festival crowd want to see that?

 

I know Stevie Wonder is an important musical icon but surely not to a lot of people's taste (I know as I've said before I'm quite narrow in my tastes).

Just looks like it's full of cunts to me.

 

It is a festival tbf. If it's not the students, it's the mid-life crisis-ers.

[ChezGiven 0]

Watched loads of good bands on the red button over the weekend, would still rather have been there.

 

If you look at the reaction to Gorrliaz on friday and compare to the Scissor Sisters on saturday it shows what the main stage crowd is like, they want anthems and singalongs. Fair enough.

 

Can think of worse ways to spend my weekend listening to bands like The National, LCD Soundsystem, Avi Buffalo, The XX, Wild Beasts etc. Great dance music scene there too.

[Holden McGroin 6784]

Glastonbury looks fucking shite iyam.

 

It's always sold itself as the most eclectic one musically (as well as on atmosphere) so you know what you're getting but a lot of the stuff I saw (and noticed on the bill) would always have me asking why would a festival crowd want to see that?

 

I know Stevie Wonder is an important musical icon but surely not to a lot of people's taste (I know as I've said before I'm quite narrow in my tastes).

Just looks like it's full of cunts to me.

 

It is a festival tbf. If it's not the students, it's the mid-life crisis-ers.

 

I've got a lot of mates there. Age range is about 25-32. All have jobs.

[Ayatollah Hermione 14053]

Glastonbury looks fucking shite iyam.

 

It's always sold itself as the most eclectic one musically (as well as on atmosphere) so you know what you're getting but a lot of the stuff I saw (and noticed on the bill) would always have me asking why would a festival crowd want to see that?

 

I know Stevie Wonder is an important musical icon but surely not to a lot of people's taste (I know as I've said before I'm quite narrow in my tastes).

Just looks like it's full of cunts to me.

 

It is a festival tbf. If it's not the students, it's the mid-life crisis-ers.

 

I've got a lot of mates there. Age range is about 25-32. All have jobs.

 

I, crazily enough, wasn't being 100% serious.

[The Fish 10966]

Watched loads of good bands on the red button over the weekend, would still rather have been there.

If you look at the reaction to Gorrliaz on friday and compare to the Scissor Sisters on saturday it shows what the main stage crowd is like, they want anthems and singalongs. Fair enough.

 

Can think of worse ways to spend my weekend listening to bands like The National, LCD Soundsystem, Avi Buffalo, The XX, Wild Beasts etc. Great dance music scene there too.

 

The reaction was pretty flat, Muse got a far better atmosphere going by the looks of things. I understand why they want massive stars on the main stages to open or close the event, but Gorillaz latest album doesn't have the singalongadancealonga classics. I guess U2 would have been a little more barnstorming, but Stevie Wonder isn't really what I would expect to close a festival like Glastonbury.

[PaddockLad 17657]

Watched loads of good bands on the red button over the weekend, would still rather have been there.

If you look at the reaction to Gorrliaz on friday and compare to the Scissor Sisters on saturday it shows what the main stage crowd is like, they want anthems and singalongs. Fair enough.

 

Can think of worse ways to spend my weekend listening to bands like The National, LCD Soundsystem, Avi Buffalo, The XX, Wild Beasts etc. Great dance music scene there too.

 

The reaction was pretty flat, Muse got a far better atmosphere going by the looks of things. I understand why they want massive stars on the main stages to open or close the event, but Gorillaz latest album doesn't have the singalongadancealonga classics. I guess U2 would have been a little more barnstorming, but Stevie Wonder isn't really what I would expect to close a festival like Glastonbury.

 

Have you been before?....I realise there are some tongue in cheek remarks on here but they do indicate some sort of perceived vision of what a Glasto crowd is like and what they want to watch...I got back this morning and I can say that the crowd is vastly different from what it was when I used to regularly go "over the fence back" back in the nineties. Eavis has changed it so the charities benefit more by keeping the fence climbers out. Fair play to him, its his gig and he can do what he wants with it. The nagging threat of violence has almost completly disappeaered because those who caused it aren't welcome or have been priced out (more than likely both) So for the 2010 crowd (mostly studes,professional types, weekend caners and the odd group who would probably fit all those descriptions) Stevie Wonder was perfect, if a bit on the sickly side for me like.

 

This lot however were mind blowing on Friday night and showed Albarn and his collection of weird guests how its done:

 

 

I do miss all the Bristol rastas and their sound systems though...

[Holden McGroin 6784]

Glastonbury looks fucking shite iyam.

 

It's always sold itself as the most eclectic one musically (as well as on atmosphere) so you know what you're getting but a lot of the stuff I saw (and noticed on the bill) would always have me asking why would a festival crowd want to see that?

 

I know Stevie Wonder is an important musical icon but surely not to a lot of people's taste (I know as I've said before I'm quite narrow in my tastes).

Just looks like it's full of cunts to me.

 

It is a festival tbf. If it's not the students, it's the mid-life crisis-ers.

 

I've got a lot of mates there. Age range is about 25-32. All have jobs.

 

I, crazily enough, wasn't being 100% serious.

 

You crazy cat.

[The Fish 10966]

Stevie Wonder was perfect, if a bit on the sickly side for me like.

 

I know he's quality, I just don't think of him as a "Festival" artist. I just think of him as easy listening, rather than anything that would end the event on a high.

[ChezGiven 0]

Didnt get the Happy Birthday thing at the end either, surely its their birthday every year?

[khay 10]

40th year.

[ChezGiven 0]

So it wasnt their birthday last year then?

[khay 10]

So you do understand just being pedantic.

[PaddockLad 17657]

Stevie Wonder was perfect, if a bit on the sickly side for me like.

 

I know he's quality, I just don't think of him as a "Festival" artist. I just think of him as easy listening, rather than anything that would end the event on a high.

 

He was perfect for the majority of those who attend the festival nowadays....Orbital were on The Other Stage at the same time and they had Doctor Who to close their set...would you have preferred that?

 

Some other recent Sunday headliners:

 

2009 Neil Young

2008 The Verve

2007 The Who

2005 Basement Jaxx (replaced Kylie)

2004 Muse

2003 Radiohead

2002 Rod Stewart

2000 David Bowie

 

no real rhyme or reason to it...the Pyramid Stage had Willie Nelson on Friday and Ray Davies earlier on Sunday....Saturday they had fuckin Sahkira!..its generally a far more unusual mix than the far more eclectic/cooler Other Stage.

[The Fish 10966]

Sorry, maybe I'm not making myself clear, I get that he's quality, but he's not.. energetic enough or singalong enough in my opinion. The line ups you've mentioned all strike me as more likely to get the crowd going more than Stevie Wonder.

[PaddockLad 17657]

Sorry, maybe I'm not making myself clear, I get that he's quality, but he's not.. energetic enough or singalong enough in my opinion. The line ups you've mentioned all strike me as more likely to get the crowd going more than Stevie Wonder.

 

No I understand, he's not your cup of camomile tea as a festival closing act....he went down very well though. I actually mainly agree with you, but Eavis has to cater for the majority as I've tried to describe them above, and by Sunday night most people would appear to want,as you say, an "easy listen"

 

Dont know how old you are but he was a major league artist in the 70s and 80s before he was sort of put in his place by Michael Jackson...if you're under 30 I can usderstand completely that you wouldnt feel he'd be quite right.

[The Fish 10966]

Sorry, maybe I'm not making myself clear, I get that he's quality, but he's not.. energetic enough or singalong enough in my opinion. The line ups you've mentioned all strike me as more likely to get the crowd going more than Stevie Wonder.

 

No I understand, he's not your cup of camomile tea as a festival closing act....he went down very well though. I actually mainly agree with you, but Eavis has to cater for the majority as I've tried to describe them above, and by Sunday night most people would appear to want,as you say, an "easy listen"

 

Dont know how old you are but he was a major league artist in the 70s and 80s before he was sort of put in his place by Michael Jackson...if you're under 30 I can usderstand completely that you wouldnt feel he'd be quite right.

 

 

I know what you're saying I mean everybody likes him and could sing a long to some of his tunes, but mostly it's like closing a festival with a (living) Barry White.. Superstar, but just ain't gonna get my hackles raised

 

Should have closed with the Hayseed Dixies iyam

[Billy Castell 0]

A cheesy covers band? I'd have loved Iron Maiden to close one year. Or The Prodigy.

[Kevin 1]

I'll be seeing the prodigy next sunday