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Glastonbury coverage
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Moon Cat
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Re: Glastonbury coverage
Jun 29, 2011, 17:31
Kid Calamity wrote:
- but I was saddened to see that the kinda folk going to Glastonbury these days are the kinda people who like that mediocre shite. ?


Sorry KC (and others) but we get this kinda thing EVERY YEAR (ZZZZZzzzz) usually from people that don't go, have never been, don't go any more etc etc ad infi-gripum.

There's even a sign onsite where you can go stand that says "Queue here to complain that it's not as good as it used to be".

It's worth restating that the TV coverage of Glasto usually represents a very mainstream, telly friendly (er...possibly cos it's on TELLY?!) mere, teeny microcosm of the delights on offer. Judging a festival of the scale and scope of Glastonbury on what filters out onto the gogglebox via the mealy mouths of the BBC presentes is like buying a model Eifell Tower and a straw donkey and saying "Well, that's Europe done then!"

And this thing about mainstream acts? It's worth noting again - Glastonbury is big. It's fucking huge. It's not so much a festival as a mental city, a complete environment, that erupts out of the ground for a week. It's a place that people go to that happens to have music and bands playing a lot rather than a music festival. And, as such, it has to cater for the divergent tastes of its citizens, who come in all shapes, sizes, and importantly, ages. Perhaps it would be more 'real' to have 24 hour sets by Hawkwind or Jazzskronk, but why should a 17 kid who happens to like White Lies or something, have that when it's possible to cater for all?
And, when the snob-shades have dropped off, and folk loosen up a bit it's also worth noting that some of these big bands are....REALLY FUCKING GOOD at what they do. To play a field the size of the Pyramid Stage in the pissing rain and still be causing moments of rapture for thousands; it can be an amazing thing to witness and, yes, be a part of.

Caught a bit of U2 and they were great - even with all the Bono Bollocks - they know what they were doing and made a lotta folk happy. A
Elbow were...MAGNIFICENT. It was their moment and the vibe across the field was utterly magical. Totally left the stage a smoking crater for Mouldplay to salvage something out of. When bands of this kinda stature (and, I would argue, Elbow's music may dally with the 'mainstream' but is in no way subsumed by it. The last album is beautiful.) get it right, on that stage - it is utterly splendid to behold. Joyous even.

But then, there is so, so much more than that...

Put it this way, yer Zane Low's and Fearn Cotton's would last about 5 mins in the hedonistic meltdown zone of Shangri La hee hee heee x
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Re: Glastonbury coverage (Kid Calamity)
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