UKH

You’ve got to admit, Foo Fighter's are bloody brilliant !  Don’t really play them much these days, but hats  off to them. Ace. I have a very real emotional attachment to some of their songs, that get me welling up. Love it. 

I was there in 1985, it’s a bit different now. I’d spent a week in N Wales climbing tonnes of routes, dossing under boulders, then a few days at Llangollen, dossed on a barge on the canal and in some cave/mine. Then ended up at Glasto. Happy Days !!  

Hate to say, didn't enjoy the FF set, not really my bag. However, still wish I was there. It's so much better in person than on media when sat at home. 

It sounded a bit rough and raw.  But that’s fine for me. 

I have an increased respect for Cate Blanchett. Utterly SuBloodyPerb dancing. 

Loved Sparks and agree, Cate Blanchetts dancing was most excellent.

Last time I saw dancing nearly as good as that was when I watched those dancers who’d perform with Hawkwind.

This band from T’other side are pretty good. Th’Arctic Monkeys I think they’re called.  

Tony Christies got a right voice on 'im.

They're great, but not as raw & real as when they were new.

Looks like Richard Hammond doing an impersonation of Vic Reeves club singer.

Long day in theatre yesterday so we had Glasto on. General consensus (most theatre staff are younger or a lot younger) was being a bit underwhelmed. No one fussed by the headliners but Flo delivered a great set.

Quite enjoyed the manics, I'm surprised they weren't a bit higher up the bill,so many classic singalong songs!

Nice interview on radio 6 with them (their playlist basically)

In reply

GnR are ‘kicking ass’ (isn’t that what they say?)

…well, apart from Axl’s falsetto

They are looking and sounding surprisingly good. Came in 1/2 way through but assume started on time?

Too many obscure tracks for the occasional listener like myself though.

I think theye doing well for older guys. Axel was untouchable for a few years. The TV representation is working well. I'm watching it 

I'm currently being educated in the ways of Lana Del rey. New to me, worth a watch/listen. 

I love Glastonbury for this, finding new acts, discovering new music. 

Slash has a doubled necked guitar. I am aware of such things but can a musician explain the purpose of them to me 🫤

GnR astoundingly awful but never been keen anyway. Currently on Lana del Rey who has been a favourite since the full version of Ride popped up on my YouTube feed a few years ago. 
 

NB Amazingly just started playing as I type

Always strikes me as a bit of a retro festival. I know there is more to it than the Pyramid Stage, but even so. Apparently last nights headliners didn’t go down too well, because they played some new stuff. Del rey has been around for getting on for 20 years, of course tonight’s headliner hit it big 36 years ago and tomorrow’s more than 50 years ago.

Ive never been. I nearly went in 92, tickets were £50 (£132 inflation adjusted). £340 this year apparently.

As I’m aware, it’s where a song requires two (usually lead) guitars tuned differently maybe and solves the impracticality of swapping instruments mid-song?

Pretentiousness? 

I disagree to an extent, I think it's got a decent mix of stuff for the youth and the oldies, agree the headliners this year have all been a bit 1 foot in the grave, but with lizzo pulling the biggest crowd yesterday, and some pretty edgy uk drill drawing a huge crowd on the other stage (central cee), I think it's been pretty good all round.

I was really surprised drill was so popular, was pretty niche when I was first exploring it. I guess it's become a bit of the '2 fingers to your parents' music, that each generation seems to have.

Normally set up with one of the necks as a 12 string and the other as a six string a la Jimmy Page from Led Zep.

12 string used for jangly, jangly rhythm parts and the six for lead breaks.

But, also, as above pretentiousness 😊

You aren't suggesting that with their pricing and headline selection they are targeting comfortably off 50 somethings? 

Whilst it's grown massively, just because the ticket now gives you many times more bands, you can only be in one place at a time. 

No you're wrong there, they were on earlier.  Really good, Chrissy Hinds 71??!!

'attempting to impress by affecting greater merit than is actually possessed'.

Hardly pretentious. I'm not much of a fan of Guns & Roses but he is absolutely amazing on guitar, and is recognised as one of the greatest guitarists in history. I didn't care much for yhe rest of the performance but I couldn't stop watching him. If he thinks its OK to have a two necked guitar I'll take his word for it 🙂

I think it was Rik Emmett of the Canadian band Triumph who said he played a double neck guitar mainly because it looked cool. When I watched Rush as a teenager both Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson played double necks at one point. Which was doubly cool (and fairly unnecessary).

g n r were brilliant, give axl some credit. he is 61 and did a 3 hour bleep test whist singing. slash was the legend he is.

Christie Hynde with Johnny Marr was outstanding.

I think also had some technical issues with the Mic feed. When I first put them on (played through the hifi) he sounded flat as a fart whenever singing in a normal voice, but sounded much better on more traditional shouty gnr songs. It got better later on but sometimes sounded quiet / flat for short bursts for no reason, while the sound for the rest of the band was pretty spot on. And as you say, he didn't exactly stand still very much! They were better than I expected,

Best for me so far on the telly coverage was the pretenders, and I'm intrigued to see Lana del Ray and the "unorthodox" end to her set.

Read a review on the beeb: TV viewers commented as you did about his vocals, but apparently this wasn’t the case live. Not a fan myself, but enjoyed what I saw of them, especially Slither.

Slash and Marr: two of the most iconic guitarists of all time, at the same gig. Cool. 

Yesterday I heard Tinarwen for the first time, I’m now a fan. Mainly from Mali (?): 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vACZA9dGvV4&pp=ygUJdGluYXJpd2Vu

Double is a bit passé. This is what you want.

https://guitar.com/news/gear-news/the-beast-gardiner-houlgate-auction/

Yes, the live sound at Glasto has generally always been good. They know what they need every year, and the operation has been slick and very professional for many years (20 ish years ago i worked for the company that provided the power generators). The only thing i can think of is that the direct feed to TV / radio from the vocal pre amp just wasn't working properly, whilst the feed to the PA amps worked just fine.

Just watching Black Country New Road. Prog rock for today I guess but don’t let that put you off. They are really good. 
Sudan Archives yesterday was fantastic - contemporary pop/ R&B with great singing, style, charisma and violin playing. Also rather rude in case anyone watches with the kids…

So passé 

youtube.com/watch?v=46qjDJ0lLdE&

Talking of G&R, here is a great cover of Sweet Child of Mine that someone else first posted on here:

youtube.com/watch?v=wbsEZzgCwmI&

Cat Stevens utterly outstanding for those of us of a certain age. 

He sounded OK, blondie though, I've heard better covers bands. 

just caught Rick Astley doing a Smiths set with Blossoms.

It was remarkably good considering my initial scepticism.

Yes she's lost it, listen to Parallel Lines as a reminder of a once great vocalist.

Indeed he is.

Blondie - they are not what they were at the Glasgow Apollo. Time to call it a day. The Pretenders on the other hand, well, Chrissie Hynde, and that guitarist, whoever he is, remain/are fantastic. How does she do that? I remember being stuffed in the boot of a crowded Leyland Princess, tootling between Glen Brittle and the Sligachan in 1984, the Pretenders album being the only tape we had. I've always liked Mystery Achievement.

Agree, heard the Pretenders a short while ago on OJs show, it could have been from decades ago. 

The band were great, her voice isn’t what it was. Reminder though, she is 78 on Saturday!

Elton; great songs, great lyrics, great production, but to me his voice has gone, I'm finding it hard work.

Sadly I have to agree

I mean, compared to Axl's performance..! Assuming this really is it, I can't begrudge him this swan song.

I'm finding it all a bit boring really.

Not taking anything away from her age and still performing, but there comes a point when perhaps she isn't really an act worth adding to the list for an venue that charges over £300 a ticket. 

Anyone see QOTSA last night? Was asleep but will give it a go on catch-up tonight. I'm having a difficult time getting into Times New Roman (apart from Paper Machet which is most excellent).

Some people will want to see them regardless. As noted above Elton John’s voice has gone, last years big Sunday night headliner’s voice went 20 years ago. It appears to be what Glastonbury has become for many and whilst £340 is more than double the price in real terms what it was back in the day when I would have been interested in going, they sell out a lot quicker these days.

Dear All, check QOTSA on iplayer. Utterly bloody brilliant.  

Just arrived home from this. Having read the comments, all pretty spot on. Headliners were apparently all a little underwhelming, I only watched the second half of GnR and managed to walk in to right under stage on the right hand side, they didn’t draw that big a crowd at all. I think the mic setup was fine, Axl Rose just has no power left in his voice when he gets into the upper range. 

The rest was bloody brilliant, saw lots of amazing live music and the DJs and electronic stuff at night was mind blowing. They’ve done away with a lot of the smaller tents that they used to have in the dance areas and put in larger open air stages. Sad to see some of the smaller more intimate spaces go, but no queues and crushes trying to get in them, or worse still having to sack off seeing someone as it’s just a roadblock, which has happened a lot in previous years…

QOTSA, Kelis, FF all excellent. Blondie much improved over the last time they played when they were dreadful - age is no excuse through, Candi Staton was brilliant and she’s 83!

Nice one. I’ve watched QOTSA twice now on iplayer - even better second time round. They are my favourite band though. 

I’m a casual fan of theirs, other half is into them more, both of us way more into them than Elton John. Very impressive set, really tight band and Homme’s voice superb.

Started catching up on iPlayer this evening. QOTSA were very good.

Highlight for me so far has been Loyle Carner. UKC probably isn't his target audience but he was outstanding. He didn't even play any of my 3 favourite tracks but the set as a whole was more powerful and personal for it.

Great to see him playing in front of thousands of fans at a headline slot on the Holt stage, rather than the playing in the middle of the day to a handful of people as he was a few years ago.

Yeah was going to check out Loyle Carner but think he clashed with something or other so I missed out, which was kind of gutting. Always happens!

I was appalled to read that Billy Nomates was somehow singled out for such trolling over performing with a backing track, that she requested that her material be taken down from iPlayer. I've seen her live, again with all her backing running off a laptop and not even the occasional guitar like she had at Glastonbury, and it was a lot better and engaging than countless "real music" bands with dull people strumming basic chords and hitting some drums.

Same people will be raving about Sleaford Mods 

There's some wonderful joy to seeing Glastonbury performers. You see they are music fans/geeks too and might even have the opportunity to see or perform with their friends & idols. 

I think that's the problem, it's really a performance, entertainment, a show that you go to see... many people speak as though it's a song contest, hyper critical if every element isn't live etc...

One of the best gigs I ever saw was Kraftwerk and yet it was one of the least  "live" performances ever, it was more of a video art performance. They didn't even introduce themselves in English. After about an hour one of them started tapping his foot and at one point it was robots on stage. A friend said he knew somebody working backstage and they'd said it was mostly done from laptops.

A great gig yet the complete opposite of whatever "stage presence" is. 

Jean-Michel Jarre springs to mind, or even Pet Shop Boys and Chemical Brothers.

As above , other than Elton the big names were dull. Fortunately GnR broadcast was delayed by about 49 mins this meant I could watch other stuff and by looking at setlist which was being updated by people I dipped in when they played the hits at the end , if they s had  just done  thier greatest hits it could have  been a highlight , as it was the bits I watched of the first hour and a half were dull . Whats great about the coverage ( and going ) is discovering new bands or old ish bands that have somehow passed one by . My highlights so far are loyle carner ( not my usual fayre ) but he was excellent  and Warpaint , who despite ticking all my musical boxes and who have been  going since 2004 , I had never heard of them .

It's always a problem for bands/musicians that make electronic music - stuff that's been painstakingly created over a long period on the studio and never performed live.  Next thing you know you've been booked to "play" a gig so what do you do?

Basically, it's either move the studio rig down to the stage, hit play and do a bit of knob twiddling that essentially makes no audible difference whatsoever - Orbital, for example - or do the same but have a couple of you "play" away on some instruments  - Leftfield had one of them playing the drums, another on some congas and other instruments which were completely inaudible 99% of the time as the sound was mainly all coming from the third member of the groups laptop.

Still you have to do something up there - when Orbital went on top of the pops to do Chime all they had to do at that time was press one button once on their studio setup which they duly did, and then didn't get invited back on for years as they were accused of refusing to mime to the music!

Warpaint and The War on Drugs were excellent in my opinion. The big names didn't really do it for me, except to wonder at how they are still doing this stuff at 60+.

Yowzers.  I bet that goes to 11, as well.

They sounded dire (in my opinion of course), just wondering if they brought dave grohl on to generally improve things! My only reference point for seeing them live was at Donnington in 1998, when they were amazing,  maybe time has taken its toll on the voice

A good mate of mine, that worked in the music and arts industry for a good number of years (first name terms with John Peel) and has seen more bands than you can shake a stick at, says Kraftwerk was the best concert he’s ever seen. 

Always fondly remember Leftfield/Halliday doing "Original" on Top of the Pops, with Toni Halliday of course doing her vocal but also wearing a gorgeous green guitar for the sake of playing a single chord in the middle of the track (unless this is a Mandela effect memory)

Just watching Rick Astley on iPlayer - something my past said would never believe.  A couple of mates were there and said he was surprising good and so far he is..

Weyes Blood, Leftfield, Chvrches and Kelis have all been good so far.

Who'd have thought back in 1987 he'd be at Glastonbury doing Smiths covers. One of the best sets I thought.

It was excellent. Astley is a revelation as a live performer. 

I think he was over looked in the 80s because he came from the hit factory and there were more what you might call genuine bands around. A bit snobbish in some respects. 

I think that's the challenge these days, lots of solo artists, via the tv talent contest model and less bands that grow organically. 

I'd heard he was contractually stitched up by Pete Waterman et al....heard that from a mate's wife who went to school with him in Newton le Willows.....however accurate that is but it wouldn't surprise me...!

Anyone see the Manics - were they as good as I would expect them to be? I am saving that one for when I actually have some time to sit down properly...

I can imagine, at best a 4 way split with SAW and 25% for Rick, minus studio costs etc... 

I watched a few of their tracks, they were great.