I like to ponder for hours before buying something. I’m thinking of buying an iPod at the moment, but may wait a while – prices are bound to come down and why do I need 20Gigs anyway.
On a similar theme, metacritic is one of those sites I want to keep all to myself and not let anyone know about it. For music, film and computer games it brings reviews for a variety of press so you get a good cross-section of reporting.
Finally Sundays reviews. This is all a bit faded now but then again it was at the time! Sunday was a drunken day….
Who’d have thought that Rolf Harris’ graveyard slot would have got one of the biggest crowds of the weekend. He went through his usual routine (Two Little Boys, Waltzing Matilda) – the wobble board was in action. The crowd provided both funny banners (Rolf, I think I’m pregnant!) and a couple of crazy guys dressed in bouncing Kangaroo outfits. Wild! Rolf may be getting on a little but he can work a crowd and a few people had tears in their eyes after Two Little Boys.
Caught a little Manu Chao between stages. Although following on after Rolf, and although there was an exodus of bodies, those who remained had a treat. Blue States performing over on the dance tent had a small band of followers. Although only a couple of hundred sat and chilled to the relaxed beats of Blue States – they performed well and made me very sleepy. A drastic contrast to the wild antics of the previous day in the Dance Tent, but definitely required for a dozy Sunday afternoon.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC) woke me up a bit. Even standing half way back, their brand of punchy rock music Jesus and Mary Chain style was enjoyable if a little samey. They played a good majority of their album tracks and a couple of B-sides (including the cheery track entitled ‘Kill the US Government’…)
Mr. Scruff was foot tappingly good but by this time I was quite drunk, went back to the tent for a short lie down and woke up at about midnight missing all the evening bands…. Still – went out and enjoyed the tribal drum delights of the stone circle for the last time and got to bed about 4am – probably the earliest night I went to sleep.
So that was glastonbury 2002 – excellent weather considering it’s rained every day since getting back and the world does still seem a little bit different. Roll on 2003!
Words, words, words. Documentary about the history of accents on the TV. From the days of Received Pronunciation on BBC Radio pre-war, there was a dramatic shift in the 60’s with the pirate radio ships. Then the Beatles were the first mainstream celebrities who spoke with a ‘strange’ accent. Then American influences (cool/hippy/fab) meant that everyone wanted to get rid of their posh accents which had only been created due to the rise of public schools in the first place. Or course these days with the Internet/Radio/TV we get influences from everywhere – a global slang or is it more tribal? Groovy baby
Don’t let your email get into the world of spam, this is where it goes! The Spamdemic Map
Now for Saturday’s reviews. Having had a pretty early night on saturday 😉 , the early morning hot shower, shave, jog and full english breakfast were most enjoyable. and if you believe that…… well, just don’t. The coral started early afternoon after having enjoying a digestive, glass of water and a warm Grolsch..
The Coral – A band from my home peninsula so they must be good. Well they actually are. They play great guitar tunes from a mix of influences: a mix of psychedelic rock, Doors style, with a bit of the La’s (of course) and Madness . Although each song has the same theme. Start slowly, have a mad middle section, then slow down again with long drawn out synths and guitar wah-wahs. Still, they music is pacey and easily accessible even for new-comers. Noel Gallagher is a fan – he was in the crowd for one of their recent London gigs – i was there too!
Now enter the Dance tent for 4 hours of crazy dark drum’n’bass. Could have been in Bar Rumba or Fabric, as those west end samba beats and harsh east london vibes moved to Glasto for one weekend only. DJ Marky and Patife play off each other well, Marky providing the harsher sounds and famous tracks while Patife provided a more latino rhythmic experience. After that what better than Full Cycle to keep the party banging. Roni, Dynamite, Krust et al. providing the near capacity dance tent with more than enough reasons to avoid leaving the darkness of the tent for the sunshine outside. Despite the disappointment of the main speakers breaking down half way through, meaning the bass was reduced to near silence, they carried on through and when the system was fixed we were in for a treat as the djs spun some of the finest dnb around!
After four hours dancing, it was back to the Pyramid stage for the surreal Brother/Wife/Husband/Sister quirkiness of the White Stripes – dressed in trademark red and doing a better job of filling the enormous pyramid stage than a full orchestra could, they engaged in their high-velocity rock set. Enjoyable but I think they could do with a bass or 2nd guitarist just to pad the set out a bit. But could another player cope in their tangled love/lust affair?
To finish the night where Orbital played an awesome set on the Other Stage. Again, two people filled the stage with their electo-gadgetry and pulsating torch beam eye wear. The Hartnoll brothers played a brilliant set to the crowd, the most intense was of course Satan. A combination of fantastic lighting, sound system and beats made this one of the greatest sets of Glastonbury this year. Everyone left the arena knowing that the Stereophonic with their loose guitar sound could never bring a crowd up like they had achieved.