The Glastonbury Thread

Culture
81

My 2nd time at Glastonbury and it really is a great festival when the weather is good. 2 years ago it was a total mudbath and hard work most of the time.

The first thing that struck me this year was a standard of birds floating around. I suppose 2 years ago the rain/rain jackets/ponchos impacted on my perving as this time it was wall to wall hot pants and it was endless stream of hotties absolutely everywhere showing flesh. No question about it the UK has far far greater ratio of good looking woman that Ireland could ever dream of.

The headliners were so strong this year that the crowds at the Pyramid stage had to be endured. I saw Neil Young last year in Malahide and wasn’t all that impressed but talk had it that his Glasto set would be strictly a greatest hits and thankfully he was superb all the way through. The Specials before Neil were good craic also especially when they played ‘A Message for Rudy’ and ‘Ghost Town’. Arrived mid way through the Kasabian set to get a good spot for The Boss - bloody hell a 10 year old could write the lyrics they throw out. Good band to get the crowd going when its full of English pissheads but musically I thought they are very average. Springsteen and the E-Street were absolutely fooking class - 2 hours 40 minutes and they didn’t let up for one second. Different gig from when I saw him in the RDS last year - on Saturday night there wasn’t a huge amount of 70’s stuff (only played 2 songs from the Born to Run album) but still even for the lesser known songs he works the crowd brilliantly to get them involved. Brilliant start to the set too when he played Coma Girl by Joe Strummer and then broke into Badlands. I was only a few rows from the front and the place went mad. Thunder Road was incredible also. Blur on Sunday night were very good - played all the hits and played them well. Parklife with Phil Daniels and Song 2 seriously got the crowd going. Caught about 30 minutes of Bon Iver on the Other stage earlier in the evening - very good although that stage probably didn’t suit really.

I would really recommend going at least once as it is really something to behold. 170,000 people yet very few queues for the jacks and (top quality and wide ranging) food stalls would give some idea of the size of the place - Slane organisers should take note! I am not sure how many acres the places takes up but when you come over the hill from the campervan area the site goes on for as far as the eye can see. I suppose they’ve had 40 years to get it right. The BBC only seem to capture the Pyramid and Other stages but very often the best craic is in the smaller random places hidden all over the place.

40th anniversary next year so the headliners should be good again. Rumours already that Bowie could be there - that would be quality.

82

I’ve already committed to going to Glastonbury next year provided my mate’s wife doesn’t have another sprog.

83

Definitely going again next year once Ireland don’t qualify for the WC

84

These tickets sold out in 2 minutes this morning.

85

Oh ffs…didn’t even know they were on sale today! :wink:

86

I saw a few people queueing outside empire music this morning and it didn’t look like the usual teeny booper queue. Must have been for this.

87

Sickened over this. Didn’t think they’d be up that soon. Ah well, it’s not like 2004 whwn you didn’t know if they’d ever play together again. They’ll be back, and there’s bound to be a few tickets floating about later on.

88

Cunts have tickets on ebay.ie already. :smiley:

I wouldn’t worry too much. There’s practically no gig on these days where there aren’t face value tickets floating around in the days leading up to it. You shall go to the ball, SS.

89

Yeah you’d be hopeful alright, but the Olympia is so small. We’ll see.

90

I was lucky enough to pick up 2 tickets for the friday night this morning but 1 of the lads beside me tried about 5 seconds later and failed.

91

Thanks for letting us know. :wink:

I remember that happened with REM a few years back as well. They released some through the ticket office in the Olympia on the night of the gig. Larryduff picked up some at that stage I think.

Another reunion tour then? So anyone know if there is any chance of them reforming for an album?

92

[quote=“farmerinthecity”]

Another reunion tour then? So anyone know if there is any chance of them reforming for an album?[/QUOTE]

I hope not to be honest.

93

http://www.irishtimes.com/theticket/articles/2009/0703/1224249920942.html

It’s time bands played for free at world’s greatest music fest

Whether you watched it on TV or spent your weekend scuttling between the Pyramid Stage and The Other Stage, you will have experienced one of the best music festivals ever.

Whether it was the headliners giving it loads (Neil Young, Springsteen, Blur), that excellent Sunday afternoon Madness show (see them again at Electric Picnic next month), an exhilarating set by Dizzee Rascal, or Status Quo registering one of their best performances (and even finding a fourth chord somewhere along the line), it was, by common consensus, the best ever Glastonbury Festival.

Even the fact that Michael Eavis faces a 3,000 fine due to Bruce Springsteen overrunning by an outrageous nine minutes on the Saturday night (yes, the noise control/curfew Nazis were also there) couldn’t dampen the farmer’s enthusiasm. Such was his excitement that he sort of leaked who the two big headliners will be next year.

Next year is Glastonbury’s 40th anniversary, and already the plan is to have one representative act from each of those 40 years play. But such was the success of this year’s event that Eavis inadvertently revealed that he had received phone calls from two of the biggest bands around – bands that have never played Glastonbury – asking if they could do it next year.

You don’t need to be a contestant on Mastermind with the specialist subject, “Huge bands who have never played the Glastonbury Festival” to know that the bands are quite possibly U2 and The Rolling Stones.

The festival itself is its own PR. But what many don’t know about Glastonbury is that it is the only major music festival in the world that is run as a nonprofit-making venture. All the money made goes directly to WaterAid, Greenpeace and Oxfam.

The operational costs are huge, and Eavis needs to sell every last ticket to make money for these organisations. In 2008 the donation to charity was way down, but this year will show a healthy return. “We’ll catch up on last year this year, so they’ll get a lot more money from this year,” said Eavis.

This is why acts booked to play Glastonbury perform for about 10 per cent of their normal live fee. It’s no secret that certain bands avoid it for this reason.

The other unremarked aspect of the festival is the instant bonanza it affords the performers. We know from Friday’s line-up that Neil Young, The Specials, The Ting Tings and Fleet Foxes all had a massive overnight surge in iTunes and Amazon singles and albums sales.

With a huge TV audience, a good Glastonbury performance can put your album back into the top 10. On Amazon, The Ting Tings recorded a 282 per cent increase in sales, while The Specials were up by 217 per cent. Expect Madness, Dizzee Rascal and Bruce Springsteen (the three shining stars of this year’s festival) to have registered even bigger increases by the end of this week.

And on the subject of Madness, their current album, The Liberty of Norton Folgate , has gotten five-out- of-five reviews all over the shop. It really is their London Calling .

Given that bands will turn a healthy profit (through reboosted album sales) from Glastonbury, is it not time for them to play for free and thus substantially boost the money going to WaterAid, Greenpeace and Oxfam?

Festival Republic has helped run Glastonbury since 2002, but it still largely relies on the goodwill of volunteers. With the exception of technical and security staff, the whole weekend is run by these volunteers (largely drawn from Oxfam’s ranks of charitable workers), who put in 18 hour days in return for free entry and food.

Time for Mr and Mrs Rock Star to fall into line. Here’s your free pass, here’s your lunch ticket, now go and play gratis. The exposure gained and the small fortune made in new records sales should be enough to ease your discomfort.

Given how fantastically well this year’s festival went, however, farmer Eavis could probably bring in a “pay to play my festival” policy.

94

[quote=“farmerinthecity”]Thanks for letting us know. :smiley:
[/QUOTE]

I did :smiley:

[quote=“Fran”]http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=3014473&blogId=497499311

Fuck me. Thanks for the heads up on the that Thrawneen. Pixies would tear The Olympia assunder[/QUOTE]

95

Who wrote that piece in the Times?

96

I don’t know for sure but I would take an educated guess that it’s that rabble-rouser of an upstart Brian Boyd.

97

Dylan Hegarty?

98

I see The Pixies have added another date. Tickets on sale tomorrow at 9.

99

Had someone trying to get these this morning for me. Couldn’t get in to the website from 9am.

Sold out in minutes again I’d say. No doubt there are some cunts there buying tickets for two nights.

100

[quote=“farmerinthecity”]Had someone trying to get these this morning for me. Couldn’t get in to the website from 9am.

Sold out in minutes again I’d say. No doubt there are some cunts there buying tickets for two nights.[/QUOTE]

I’m expecting to be disappointed when I try and buy a ticket for The Specials tomorrow morning. Hmmm.