Glastonbury 2013: the Rolling Stones, Mumford & Sons and Artic Monkeys

Just found out the headliners for this years Glasto. How do those headliners appeal to you?

*drones launched* Sorry, what?

Glastonbury attenders kinda get what they deserve by definition

This is the first time I haven't been able to get a ticket in the first round and I'm hoping the mass 'who gives a shit?' will make the resale easier in April.

I'm not exactly sure what they did to fail to get Kraftwerk given they're seemingly playing every other festival in Europe but srsly Eavises...

Kraftwerk are playing Latitude but they're basically the only music on the line-up that i give a shit about

I actually bought a day ticket for Latitude purely on the basis of Kraftwerk but I would happily watch most of the rest of that day's line-up anyway. Conveniently the organisers have put all the good music on the same day, which was nice of them.

Would totally see Portishead at Glastonbury but their presence is basically a guarantee of it shitting with rain all weekend.

Lol I saw Portishead at Glastonbury 95. Obviously when they booked them not that many people had geard of them because they were playing in the acoustc tent. We got there early to get near the front and had to endure a mediocre country band. By the end of their set the tent was packed and people were even out in the field behind all because of Portishead.

Just found out the headliners for this years Glasto.

Mud in the field, shit on the stage, lovely...

So we'd endured the country band and the anticipation was palpable, next on the bill Portishead. After tge band had finished the curtains were drawn for some time. Suddenly an announcement came over the PA. "Due to his none appearance yesterday, we present to you.. Mr Evan Dando."

Didn't he basically turn up on every stage he could find that year whether they wanted him or not? I kind of think of him as the Florence Welch of the mid-90s.

xp Curtains open, tent is suddenly empty.

Crowd weren't happy. As curtains opened crowd began shouting stuff like "Dando shit!" During about the fifth song he got really angry and started playing his guiitar stupidly, before shouting "i didn't want to come to this fucking hippie fuckfest anyway!" and walking off.

xps Evan attempted to compensate afterwards by playing what in another era would be called 'guerrilla gigs' in the middle of fields, obv off his tits. I sat right next to him at one of these and aged 15 it was the first time I'd been in proximity to anyone remotely famous

I'd like to think that this was the difference between me going on to be 'a celebrity-obsessed habitual TMZ refresher' and 'someone who posts lazy zings to ILX'

i've been to about seven glastonburys and only seen three headliners in total, so never too fussed about it
some real great stuff elsewhere, very much stoked for chic with nile rogers, tom tom club, phoenix and goat.

Arctic Monkeys were really good at Orion.

Lol Mumfords though. Are they playing every festival in existence this summer (except Orion)?

There is probably no band who sum up the most annoying aspects of modern Glastonbury more than Mumford & Sons, in fairness.

rolling stones

Trying hard to figure out which of those three acts will have the most tired old shit in their set.

A Stones greatest hits set in a festival atmosphere would still be great, I'd be willing to bet. Not new or surprising obviously but probably a lot of fun.

True, that would work. The Stones being the only one of the three who have enough old shit that isn't tired. But if their set is made up of Voodoo Lounge and onwards, then... that's still be better than Scumford & Co.

Are the Rolling Stones opening for the Arctic Monkeys? (judging from the poster)

it's written as headliners by day, ie the Stones are on Saturday

Headliners are always a red herring at Glastonbury and there's only a limited pool to draw from. OK, Kraftwerk would have been good but who else? Prince? Too expensive/ornery. Daft Punk? Not touring. Kanye? See Prince, and I'm not sure his current me-and-my-madness live show would work at Glastonbury anyway. Stone Roses? I'm sure they asked. I could see Depeche Mode, the Cure or Madonna working but I don't think the list of potential headliners is ever very long.

Mumfords are as inevitable a booking as there has ever been - you could see it coming two years ago. Stones will be fun, otherwise several alternative stages await.

The pool of potential headliners is much shallower than it was in the 90s as well, you have to be bigger to headline now, and fewer bands get to that level (or even late 90s level frankly).

Looking back, any old chancer could headline in the 90s. But when you've had Beyonce! Jay-Z! U2! you can't be dicking around with the equivalents of the Levellers or Skunk Anansie. Obviously on one level Mumfords ARE the Levellers, but they have Grammys.

lol was just about to mention Skunk Anansie

Skunk Anansie piss all over the likes of the Arctic Monkeys

Both terrible bands but I think DL's point was more about how big you needed to be to headline. Skunk Anansie didn't actually sell that many records as far as I know, they wouldn't get near the top of the bill now.

Would they even get in the acoustic tent?

didn't Skunk Anansie fill in for someone else at the last minute? p sure I was there whatever year that was. could look this up I guess

It's not so much Skunk Anansie's relative merits as compared to Arctic Monkeys (not keen on either band) but the fact that they actually headlined Glastonbury which I find unbelievable- and did at the time too, given that the other two headliners were The Prodigy and Radiohead. I seem to remember you're right DJ Mencap, but can't seem to find anything online...

I might be conflating it with Ash in 1997 (subbing for Steve Winwood of all ppl), this comes courtesy of an aged ILM post from DL hisself

Was it the final night? There's a history of headliners on the final night being a case of "it's only xxx, if you want to leave early to avoid the crush, no biggie"

Also, what's a headliner? When they boldly stated "Beyonce, the first female headliner", I thought "um, Susanne Vega? and, yes, Skunk Anansie?"

Listening to 6Music over breakfast this morning, there was a record by the Wonder Stuff. I forgot they had a fiddle player. I blame them for Mumford & Sons really.

Did they ever? "Hey, compare us to Slade, everybody! Look, look, we're doing "Cz I luv u"..."

xxp Skunk Anansie were on the Sunday night, yes. Given the atrocious conditions that weekend I recall a fair few people had given up already.

Skunk Anansie headlined in 99, same year as REM and the Manics, it was boiling and completely dry that year.

hah correct what am I on about, it was Ash headlining that year, sorry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Festival_line-ups#Pyramid_stage_10

Kula Shaker (replaced Neil Young)

So which year was it when the stage started sinking into the ground while Echo and the Bunnymen were performing?

1486

'85 IIRC.

No it was during their post Electrofixion comeback

Ah, I'd stopped going by then.

I could totally see Mumford & Sons doing Size of a Cow for Comic Relief.

Glastonbury 2013: Old Men, Old Man Hat, and Old Hat

xxp saw it on the news

Stage sink year was the first if the 2 insane mud fest 90s years; 1997. Second stage as good as sank.

*of

Anyone else going this year? I got tickets in the final wave of release and after initially being less than bothered I'm now at the requisite level of giddy excitement.

Still holding out for Mumford & Sons pulling out at the last moment though.

We're going to get back out on that stage at Glastonbury as four brothers and do what we do

Great for the guy himself but a bummer for many a Glastogoer

Chic will be mental amazing on the Friday night i'd wager in that (relatively) small field.

They show early 00s glastonbury on palladium hd all the time, outdoor fests seem so horrible, even good acts can't seem to real do anything compelling, the only ppl I've ever saw that even cut through the muck were bjork & ray davies who did waterloo sunset with a choir

Then there are all these already forgotten shitty brit indie bands throwing stadium moves & looking pathetic

Was there ever a time when outdoor fests were good musically? They seem so gross

Basically Evan dando otm

I don't really think that ANY live gig really translates particularly well to being filmed, but I don't know how anyone would expect to get the fun of an event from watching 15 year old footage of long-forgotten bands on TV.

Particularly the case with Glastonbury actually where a lot of the best and most memorable stuff happens well away from the TV cameras.

In my experience outdoor fests regularly produce good performances if you actually go to them instead of watching old footage on TV.

i've been to outdoor festivals btw

i'm not going to spend several thousand dollars going to glastonbury to see mumford & sons tho

i've also watched shitloads of great performances on TV or DVD wtf

Did you enjoy the outdoor festivals?

I don't know why you think it looks crappy on TV. All I know is that I've seen plenty of great performances at Glastonbury and when it comes to big outdoor shows I'd rather see someone there than in a stadium. Plus there's all the other off-camera stuff that Matt DC mentioned.

hit & miss i guess

it's not the best way to see music IMO

i could see it being preferable to a stadium i guess if the weather was nice

assuming you're not stood behind some pillock sat on their partner's shoulders flailing their arms about

lol or that

what's with ppl waving all these flags up by the stage? why is that a tradition?

people like to celebrate the good vibes and inclusivity of music by telling you what country they're from

primitive form of co-geolocation, and what NV Said

people like to celebrate the good vibes and inclusivity of music by telling you what country they're from

i met some irish people at about 4/5 in the morning at glastonbury 03 or 04 and they invited me to go see christy moore the next day and they kept talking about having loads of flags.

it was very strange.

Fucking hate people waving flags during the bands but they are kind of useful for finding people in big crowds.

I like the medieval battle vibe you get from lots of flags if you're stood further back and seeing them en masse, especially at night when you can see the steam rising from the crowd, but obviously you don't want one in your face.

Part of Glastonbury for me is suspending misanthropy and being tolerant of pillocks for a weekend.

I'm going. This is my vague, and clashing list of picks. Most excited about Solange, but she's playing the Park stage, which from memory is not great, sound-wise. I think I have reached the stage in my life where West Holts is my favourite stage.

CHIC FEATURING NILE RODGERS, BOYS NOIZE, DIZZEE RASCAL, PORTISHEAD, ALICE RUSSELL, TORO Y MOI, GOLD PANDA, DISCLOSURE, SOLANGE, DJANGO DJANGO , FRANCOIS AND THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS, THE ROLLING STONES, ELVIS COSTELLO, RODRIGUEZ, MAVERICK SABRE, MAJOR LAZER, FATOUMATA DIAWARA, AZEALIA BANKS, THE ORB FEAT. KAKATSITSI, ALABAMA SHAKES, ROZI PLAIN, DAUGHTER, MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER, BOBBY WOMACK, ULRICH SCHNAUSS, CAT POWER , LIANNE LA HAVAS, PHOENIX, VILLAGERS, FIRST AID KIT, THE DANCERS, TRWBADOR

Lest we forget…

http://theonlycharts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/21-largely-forgotten-bands-who-played.html

Anyone watching it on from the comfort of their sofa?

It's nice to have the live streams on the BBC website to avoid all the endless repeats that will undoubtedly fill up the BBC broadcast channels.

Toro Y Moi were utter shite

they looked fairly weedy alright

It's nice to have the live streams on the BBC website to avoid all the endless repeats that will undoubtedly fill up the BBC broadcast channels.

Speaking of which, endless repeats before the Stones deign to grace us with their presence.

And in case anyone's just switched on BBC2, that's not an ill Mick Jagger, that's Bobby Gillespie in a pink suit.

They look like they don't want to be there.

Keith particularly. Ronnie is picking up some considerable slack there.

plus whoever this guy in the brown jacket is

Charlie doesn't know where he is.

To be fair, I doubt I will be alive days before I turn 73, nevermind headlining Glastonbury.

fuckin. gadz.

Who is he?

I think they've gone for the "get every one we know on stage to fill out the sound and make it look like a party" approach.

started with Jumpin Jack Flash supposedly. tv coverage kicked in half an hour after the 1st song.

they be doing the longest songs they know for the tv coverage

Is it Mick Taylor?

It is Mick Taylor. He was in The Rolling Stones when they were the biggest band in the world.

xp

Oh a good song.

2000 light years from the tune

Sympathy is the best one so far

It's a shame only the bass player can play it well.

Never liked Start me up, faux

I've never really liked 'Start Me Up' (even before it was co-opted by Microsoft), but is anyone actually playing in time here?

setlist thus far http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-rolling-stones/2013/worthy-farm-pilton-england-43d913eb.html

Only the backing track.

Actually, Mick's comment was pretty nicely put..

Joking aside, they've had a pretty good life and can still put on a decent show. They're all in their 70's (?) and look at them, had more fun than most mortals.

"put the lights on patrick"

thought they did a cracking set ... really enjoyed that.

also, loved haim, and primal scream sets ..

Easily pleased.

yeah yeah .. i am ...

Haim (xpost) are something I only found out about in the last couple of days, they're pretty amazing.

best thing for me was the strypes.

damn .. good to see a bunch of 16 year olds pretend to be dr feelgood and doing it well ...

oh, and chase and status = apollo 440 for the dubstep generation.

Half of it was OK, half was nackrd old blokes..

oh, and the orb ..
wow ..
need to see rest of their set on the iplayer as it clashed with the stones ..
what i saw looked proper ace though ..

Stripes., WWWS?

(will)

wilko damn spelling corrector!

i only caught brown sugar, then turned it over to watch public enemy on bbc4 instead of you cant always get what you want. still not 100% sure about PE's band, but they rocked and grooved harder than the stones. and the dj's routine around nirvana started off potentially corny as a way to win over glasto but then ended up being pretty great and reminded me why i used to love dj battles so much.

hang on ..

PE ... no flav ..

behave .. just not right, not right at all.

The Chic set looked amazing, but when they got people onstage for the end? Okay, I'm pretty relaxed about filming shows, but YOU ARE DANCING ONSTAGE WITH CHIC. PUT YOUR IPAD DOWN OR I WILL HIT YOU WITH IT.

Emily otm. That was a weird scene.

I like the Stones music and all, up to 1980, but it makes me irrationally angry how the Stones are somehow every Tom, Dick and Harry's darling in 2013. Fucking hipsters pretending it's the best thing ever. Half of the people going 'Jagger is what, 70, and he can stil pull this off!' Get tae fuck.

As I said: I.A.

I know that people who go to festivals and take their big fucking flags to the front of the crowd shouldn't be encouraged but the person or persons watching PiL with the Purple Aki flag deserves some kind of respect

is purple aki what (who) I think it is?

Blimey, that name takes me back to schooldays...

the Purple Aki flag seems to have been there all weekend

my old man gets excited about the Wolves flag that seems to be there every year

I liked the bit where there was a brief shot of someone holding up what looked like a large bottle full of piss during the Stones set.

they're old men, you can't expect them to hold it for two hours

<3 u Jessie but wtf that top... Still the best on there tonight.

Not getting these Mumford chaps, am I listening wrong?

Sounds like you are listening entirely right.

they're an acquired taste. like a fine wine.

I like fine wine, these are cider to me, not palatable.

You know those last few staggering steps an elephant takes just after they've been shot with a tranquiliser dart? That's how this dongbat bass player from the xx dances the whole time.

Turned over to see The XX, I feel they're trying too hard, a little too hard, a tad pretentious.

Anyone else think that matey boy from the xx sounds like a southern Chris Rea?

oh man, they should seriously cover Josephine, that would actually fucking work

they certainly have an affected style but it doesn't bother me because it works and sounds lovely tonight. It is necessary after all the rocknroll flab of the last few days.

Yes.

The kids were enjoying Munford and sons, so of course I chased them to bed and now it's all xx for tonight.

mumfords vs xx.

not exactly a feel good closer choice is it.

i love the xx albums, but would i actually want to experience that music live ?

i think not.

tis headphone in the dark music post bottle of red wine ..

as for mumfords .. well, f*ck, they really are bad.

really really bad.

Mumford covering the Beatles on BBC2, I'm having visions of NV getting all Hunter S Thompson on his TV set.

haha ..

proper lol ..

Hahaha

Noodle just watched Bobby Womack and he was fucking glorious, bollocks to the little people

Covering the beatles? Joe Cocker, obv.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/jun/30/glastonbury-2013-australian-invasion

Nick Cave has very strange hair.

Is it blue? Does it move? Is it real?

Covering the beatles? Joe Cocker, obv.

when will people stop trying to write sgt peppers out of history? you guys should hear it sometime

I thought Portishead would be the most intense band of the festival but then Nick Cave did Stagger Lee and had an interaction with a girl in white that was like the Dancing in the Dark video, only terrifying. She held herself remarkably well. From 45 mins on the BBC's footage:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ej58q9/acts/ar6wrz#p01c4fml

She looked like she really enjoyed that, feel sorry for the guy who's shoulders she was on though.

"What's going on up there?"

I gave up on him about 10 years ago, but that performance was fantastic and made me wish I'd taken the opportunity to see him live over the last few years. His band have aged in picturesque way too, looked like the sort of characters you'd find in some 19th cent French portrait of the local rag & bone men or something.

What makes that performance even more amazing is that the day before it Nick Cave was in hospital after falling off the stage at ATP Iceland: http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/Nick_Cave_Goes_to_ER_after_Falling_off_Stage_in_Iceland_0_401177.news.aspx (the fall is around 8:40 in the video on that page).

I am back and clean. Feel like I saw slightly fewer bands and did more wandering around and looking at weird shit than usual, and that was probably down to the weather. Every year there seems to be more and more BBC coverage and yet it never really seems to adequate capture what the festival is actually like.

Band of the festival = Portishead without a doubt. We had great sightlines of the stage and it was one of the most intense live sets I can remember seeing, certainly on that scale. They did a beatless version of Wandering Star that was spine tingling. Never seen them live before and couldn't keep my eyes off the stage.

Thought the first and last half hours or so of the Stones were fantastic but they paced the set really badly with this big sagging section in the middle epitomised by this interminable version of Midnight Rambler. Ridiculous crowd though and people were actually leaving midway through, and those people would have missed Sympathy For The Devil and the ridiculous firebreathing phoenix, so lol at them.

I was kind of ambivalent about watching Nick Cave but I'm glad I did because he was great. The Dancer In The Dark moment was just one of the weirdest moments of the festival. That said, most of the set leaned heavily on Melodramatic Fire & Brimstone Cave, rather than Sensitive Piano Man of Letters Cave, which is the right balance.

Gave up on all headliners on Sunday in favour of going and dancing in the Rabbit Hole, which was definitely the right course of action. Never been to a club you have to get to by crawling through tunnels on your knees before.

Other highlights... Haim seemed to be the most talked about band of the first half of the festival. Distinct feeling they don't yet have enough songs but there this weird human drama going up onstage with the bassist having this big emotional rollercoaster, declaring it the best moment of her life and then nearly passing out onstage a few minutes later.

Azealia Banks is obviously beyond annoying on Twitter but I hope she doesn't crash her career completely because her set was off the fucking hook, so much energy coming from the stage. Dizzee wasn't as good as his last couple of appearances but still enjoyable in a stupid way, and he's perfected milking a massive festival crowd by this point. Sounds like his new album will be more of a Roman Reloaded, equal parts hardcore and terrible dross, but there was a great I Luv U -> Fix Up Look Sharp -> Jus A Rascal run in the middle.

I managed to see White Noise performed twice over the course of the festival without seeing Disclosure once. Not sure anyone got the best out of that set because the tent was overflowing, and if the sound was anything like it was for Rudimental's performance the next day then it would have been virtually indaudible even for people inside the tent.

Late nights suitably surreal, the fields in the SE corner of the site are still full of deranged mentalists, especially after midnight. Loads of good dancing to be had as well - when Joe Goddard dropped Gabriel on Thursday night I saw kid dancing on his dad's shoulders going mental. Toddla T and Stylo G in the Stonebridge Bar were suitably riotous on Saturday night. And I don't know how I managed it, but I only managed to hear Get Lucky twice all weekend - same number of plays as, erm, Red Red Wine by UB40.

Least enjoyable band of the festival = Daughter. Just fucking boring.

That Wolves flag has been there every year that I can remember though. I met the dudes who own it during Jay-Z's set a few years back, seemed like nice people. They were trumped by the 'GOD HATES FLAGS' one this year though.

Hmm, maybe I should try going back one of these days. I keep telling myself it just won’t be the same, and I only like small nice festivals these days, but as soon as I heard a friend of mine was DJing at one of the tents without missing a beat I asked if he had any extra tickets, so perhaps I should do it.

There are a shitload more places to go raving than there used to be, even if getting to most of them is an enormous mission.

seems there's no proper Dance Tent anymore is that right? i went every Glastonbury that was on, from 93 through to 2007 but haven't been since. dance tents didn't exist proper until 95 iirc, then got bigger but kinda dwindled to many different smaller tents by the mid 00s. what's the state of play these days?

I think a lot of my best Glastonbury experiences have been random DJs at night in random stalls, the Dance Tents never really did it for me.

Matt generally otm. Portishead's set is basically unchanged since 2008 but still spine-tingling. Dizzee is shameless. Cave was berserk. Impatient crowd during Stones got on my nerves - why leave during a slow patch when you know that they're about to slam into one of the greatest closing sprints you'll ever see? More fool them.

I also enjoyed Savages, Vampire Weekend, Elvis Costello (especially Tramp the Dirt Down), the end of Primal Scream when they brought Haim on (making it the third time I saw them over the weekend), Kenny Rogers (a man who knows how to charm a reticent crowd), Tom Tom Club, what I could see of Disclosure from the edge of the huge crowd, and the Saturday night Motown tent which played some of the best records ever made louder than I've ever heard them and was unalloyed joy.

As usual, work meant that I saw a lot of bands but didn't spend enough time on the raving/weird shit aspect.

My friend was playing Maceo's and Igloo. I have no idea what these are!

with the bassist having this big emotional rollercoaster, declaring it the best moment of her life and then nearly passing out onstage a few minutes later.

suddenly all the gurning makes a lot more sense

I don't think gurning is diabetes-related

The main dance tent is now pretty big, but it's a weird sort of v-shape and they didn't pay much attention to the direction of the sound in it, so in several places the music was inaudible.

Kenny Rogers was hammy as fuck but really enjoyable in that Sunday afternoon kind of way. Vampire Weekend were great as well, and although I don't have much interest in Tame Impala's records they really worked in that kind of setting.

William Hill's Glastonbury headliners 2014 odds are as follows:

Kasabian (6/1)
Foo Fighters (6/1)
Noel Gallagher and High Flying Birds (8/1)
The Stone Roses (10/1)
Kings of Leon (12/1)
Bob Dylan (16/1)
Prince (16/1)
Daft Punk (20/1)
Bloc Party (20/1)
Oasis (25/1)
Led Zeppelin (25/1)
Pink Floyd (25/1)
David Bowie (25/1)
Black Sabbath (25/1)
Kanye West (25/1)
Jay-Z (25/1)
Fleetwood Mac (33/1)
Happy Mondays (33/1)
Justin Timberlake (33/1)
Lionel Richie (33/1)
Red Hot Chili Peppers (33/1)
New Order (33/1)
Jake Bugg (40/1)
Florence + The Machine (50/1)
Bruce Springsteen (50/1)
Elvis Costello (66/1)
Justin Bieber (100/1)

Lionel Richie??

I could easily see Fleetwood Mac, Daft Punk, Bob Dylan or Stone Roses headlining but some of those options are nuts.

Sabbath is unlikely, no? Didn't eavis say he would never let a heavy metal band play as it would bring the wrong kind of people to the festival with all their negativity and kill the vibe?

If Prince, Bowie and Tom Waits played I might be persuaded to hold in my poo for 3 days...on second thoughts...

since about 2000 the loos are pretty kosher; mirrors in them and all sorts.

bog roll?

I'm literally gagging just thinking about it...

Just watched the Nick Cave Stagger Lee bit, damn I don't remember there being 5 miles of space between the crowd and the stage back in my day. Maybe there was.

From 2002
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2064999.stm

Organisers of this year's Glastonbury Festival have avoided booking heavy rock bands for fear that they could put crowd safety at risk.

The festival will be a "calmer" event after the deaths of nine fans at Roskilde, in Denmark in 2000, made organiser Michael Eavis look more closely at security.

He has avoided more raucous rock groups like Green Day, The Offspring and Slipknot, whose fans jump around violently in so-called "mosh-pits" and go "crowd-surfing" over the heads of the audience.

But he did approach Oasis and Radiohead, both of whom turned him down and the festival will now be headlined by Coldplay and Rod Stewart.

"We've avoided that heavy American rock like Offspring because you get crowd-surfing, and all those things that seem to cause problems," Mr Eavis told BBC News Online.

No heavy bands have played since then either so I'm guessing they would be unlikely to add Black Sabbath.

If that list for 2014 was the line up, I'd actually make sure I was there some way or another.
4 Glastonbury's was enough, I lucked out on the weather and thoroughly enjoyed every single one of them. I doubt very much I'll ever go again.

Kasabian??!?!?!? Are they really that popular?

yes

but... why

mate of mine is considering going with a (yet-to-be-born) baby. I immediately thought this was the worst idea ever (the facilities! the noise! the muggings-at-knifepoint-in-your-tent! the twats!) but then realised I haven't been since 1999. What's different? Is it safer just because it's properly middle-class now? Taking kids to Glastonbury seems like a recipe for having all the worst bits hit hard and missing all the good bits, but what do i know?

I never understood kids when I was one so I sure as hell cannot understand them now. However they are remarkably popular with the over 30s too but I still cannot explain it.

didn't people always take kids? those late 90s are supposedly very different to what it was before and after since the fence. Matt will know

the muggings-at-knifepoint-in-your-tent

as someone who went to only an early-00s one of these ever this seems ... weirdly hysterical and unlikely. but i don't know, i could have just been oblivious.

?

am I seriously having an actual mugging mansplained away as hysterical

We've avoided that heavy American rock like Offspring

lmao

I don't think thomp realised you were talking about an actual mugging, kinder. Those stories go around all the time, it's one of those 'Scallies will steal your shoes' things that always happens to friends-of-friends or is written about moral panic style in right-wing papers ('hysterical' also being non-gendered when aimed at that form of story, regardless of its etymology).

The BBC iplayer seems to have loads of these live sets in full.

e.g.Portishead's set seems to run to 70 mins on there.

re muggings etc, late 90s/ early 00s pre-superfence era could be scary, 2000 was notoriously horrendous (quote from Eavis; "At one stage after the 2000 festival I thought I would never get a license again.. ") a proper amount of erberts knocking about, record crime etc. our kid had her phone nicked out of her hand that year, mate had his tent ransacked as he slept, people stamping through camping bits on the rob left right and centre, the dance tent bit in particular was just horrible. after the fence was built in the 2001 year off it was safe as houses, course you heard folk say it was 'sanitised' and had lost it's 'edge' but i knew which i preferred.

I was there most years from 1998 onwards for a while, and there was definitely a big change the first year the fence went up, mostly because it felt a lot emptier. I never found it scary before then, though, and I knew people who had babies with them and it never seemed to be a problem.

Portishead were amazing in 1998, first time I ever saw them and they blew me away.

We've avoided that heavy American rock like Offspring

lmao

― "If you like the Byrds, try Depeche Mode" (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, July 1, 2013 10:43 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

first pit I was ever in age 15 was Offspring at Glastonbury when 'Smash' was blowing up and it was pretty brutal tbrr

Kasabian??!?!?!? Are they really that popular?

― Chewshabadoo, Monday, July 1, 2013 9:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes

― Algerian Goalkeeper, Monday, July 1, 2013 9:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

when that bookie is talking about headliners does that not imply Saturday night headliners...? like I get that Kasabian are hueg in an ignorable/insidious kind of way but they're an arena sized band and it seems like the stakes have been raised so that Gloastonbury's flagship act for the year has to be a stadium kinda deal

the extra O in "Gloastonbury" is quite satisfying to say out loud fyi

Do people really mosh these days, outside punk or metal gigs? I know people would mosh to pretty much anything in the 90s but you barely see it at Glastonbury now. We walked past the Smashing Pumpkins playing Bullet With Butterfly Wings and there was barely anything going on. Plus there's an enclosure near the stage to protect people at the front in the event of a big crush.

I highly doubt Black Sabbath is the kind of thing Eavis was talking about when he made that statement at the height of the nu-metal era. He's prepared to book Zeppelin after all, but I'm not sure they'd have much interest in Sabbath either.

Any crush danger is more likely to come from putting massive draws in tents that can't cope with them (ie Disclosure) but I think security are pretty good at dealing with that now.

FWIW I think kids are an integral part of Glastonbury, they've been there as long asd I can remember, and there are two kids fields, one of which they don't let people into without a child. The Green kids field had a big pirate ship and kids on spacehoppers. It looked pretty idyllic to be honest. Plus the area around the circus and theatre fields are really kid-friendly.

You definitely see more babies these days, usually wearing big ear protectors. Can't say I'd consider taking one, but friends of ours brought a one-year old, although we didn't see them past Wednesday.

It was definitely crazier pre-fence, because pretty much anyone could get in, but I feel like the craziness has ramped up in the last few years, since the Shangri-La field became a big thing. But there's been a family camping field for years, which looks pretty sedate.

Is there a "field where people get a good nights sleep" yet?

(it's not for me...)

when that bookie is talking about headliners does that not imply Saturday night headliners...?

I assume it means on any of the three days. So Kasabian or Kings of Leon are quite likely to do Friday

as a non festival attender i guess the point is that they can have despicable shitbags like Kasabian headlining to draw in the drones and you're quite free to go and watch something musical instead

The BBC iplayer seems to have loads of these live sets in full.

they will vanish after 7 days though. http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury has approx. 1 hour highlights for each act that last for 30 days (UK only obv)

Will have to grab 'em while I can..

Didn't bother to watch any of this, but did have a look at the line-up over the three days and quickly found that there would have been only about 3 or 4 bands I would have wanted to have seen, anyway. Pretty taken aback at how much the line-up doesn't reflect what I'm actually listening to in 2013 for the most part, even on the smaller stages.

Yeah, but even when it did, I'd spend more time on the 'comedy' stages and the other places than the main / 2nd main stage..

Actually, I was dismissive about Glastonbury this year as I am every year but the line-up looks pretty great to me. I don't know what the West Holts stage is but looks like I could've just hung out there every day and had a reasonable amount of fun.

It's a good field to hang out in, in general, not usually too packed and also surrounded with good food and drink places.

just watched the portishead set on my big tv.
f*ck.
not that much of a fan, but that was brilliant.
intense.
love love love the way beth turns her back while the band get into it, and just soaks up the noise.
thought i would get bored.
but no ... mesmerising to the extreme.
lucky you matt.
(mate at work also said they were his fave of the weekend ... hence the double nudge)

they were amazing when i saw them at the barras in 97 or 98

Will have to save a bunch of these to DVD before they go..

taking orders? :)

Hmmmm. ()

I saw Portishead at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool in '94. Place was full of idiots who wouldn't shut up. Final 20 minutes were glorious though.

Their headline set at the ATP they curated was probably the best gig I've seen. It SOUNDED incredible.

Not managed to find the full portishead set on BBC catchup or iplayer yet. So far my highlight is Bobby Womack. I love him anyway, but he was on fire.

^^^ amazing show

Their headline set at the ATP they curated was probably the best gig I've seen. It SOUNDED incredible.

― kraudive, Tuesday, July 2, 2013 9:15 PM (Yesterday)

Same here. Their first night at that was especially spine-tingling, I thought.

I went to Glastonbury in the early '90s when the crusties/ravers were climbing over the fence in their droves, but I don't remember it feeling particularly dangerous.

Dr X, it's here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ej58q9/acts/aqnv4f#p01c2ftd

pretty intense Savages show in a third-full John Peel tent

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01c3hyb/Glastonbury_2013_Savages_Glastonbury_2013/

I saw their Friday afternoon in the smaller William's Green tent and it was magnificent. Surprised they didn't get a better showing on Saturday.

Just watched Portishead now, brilliant. Beth seemed so nice at the end as well, really humble

yeah .. that was a real eye opener for me.
after the cold distance of the performance, the 'hope that was all right' outburst was totally unexpected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ej58q9/performances/lg49mb

Really nice page with all the links!

You have until 30th July to fill your boots before it's all gone.

(Well, the performances, I mean. I daresay the pics will be there forever)

sorry, that date is the 29th July at 01:51, certainly as far as the Portishead foorage is concerned.

rokia traoré! oh wait it's not actually on there :-(

Thanks Tracerhand, I found Portishead footage, which was amazing, and am about halfway through Savages now