Glastonbury Festival 2009

What a weekend! We arrived on Wednesday, as did loads of people compared to previous years, and the partying began. We tried to see East 17 on the Thurs night, but they kept getting pushed back so we went and threw some shapes at the silent disco, which was amazing! Good work Aimee! Friday the music kicked off and I started with Golden Silvers on the Park stage. Brilliant and a great way to start Glasto 2009! Then I went to the Other stage and saw The Maccabees who I thought were excellent, followed by The View, who were a bit of a disappointment. Then I caught most of White Lies who I really enjoyed and they did a great cover of the Boss. Friendly Fires were fantastic and got us all dancing! Then headed off to John Peel and caught the end of Little Boots and Jack Penate - absolutely brilliant!!! Saturday, had a late start and watched Crosby, Stills and Nash - icons of music. Kasabian were prob my highlight of the festival - bloody brilliant! The Boss was up as headline and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band rocked it for over 2 & half hours. Amazing - I am not a fan, but they have it down to a t and put on a brilliant show! Sunday I spent most of the day touring the vast Glastonbury site and chilling at our camp, which had great views of the Pyramid. Listened to Tom Jones - still a belter. Madness were great fun. Then went off for a bit of Bon Iver, very good. The Magic Numbers were fantastic at the Queens Head, but they always are! Then to close Glastonbury - Blur. Simply fantastic, much better than I expected on every level. Music, vocals, performance - everything was brilliant.

Roll on 2010. Will it match up to 2009?

What an amazing experience!

When we arrived our tent had already been setup! (Thanks again Marc n Oz - you guys rock!)

Toured the site on the Wednesday which took a while as the site is immense! There is so much to see and do and so much going on at the same time that it's impossible to see and do everything!

Had a pretty heavy drinking session on Thursday and then started with the Music on Friday on The Pyramid Stage!

Lily Allen was good fun - Inbetween songs there would be a crazy Drum n Bass beat playing which I thought was a good touch to get the crowd going.

Fleet Foxes were good but too mellow. I like Mellow but I was in a party mood! Their Harmonising was really tight. Very talented bunch.

Then we moved over to the Other Stage:

Lady GaGa - filth on toast! This girl really knows that Sex sells and she really uses that to her advantage! She was flashing her rear end, her breasts and even her...clunge at one point! She had 5 outfit changes all of which were amazing. But looks, filth and toast aside this girl is very talented. She broke out a bit of Jazzy Piano playing for a great rendition of Poker Face which got everyone singing along - and then she broke into the original version which made the place go nuts! Singing, Dancing, flashing, Piano Playing - she has the right stuff!

The Ting Tings were brilliant. I love the front birds voice and the energy they produce is amazing. Very impressed with them.

Bloc Party were also amazing but I hadn't heard enough of their stuff to really get into them.

Saturday we saw Dizzy Rascal who blew me away! I never expected to like him but he really knows how to get people dancing. Nice MJ tribute thrown into the set also which I liked.

Caught a bit of Comedy in the Comedy Tent which was good fun then caught the last song of Kasabian who seemed really good and then it was time for...The Boss and the E Street Band! These were incredible! 2.5hours of non stop music! Really impressed by these.

Sunday we saw some Bon Iver who were great, The Magic Numbers who were so fun and bouncy that you can't help but like them and then Blur who where fantastic! They really rocked out in certain parts! If you can still get tickets I urge you to go see them in Hyde Park this week - you will not be disappointed!

Overall a great first Glastonbury for me. I intend to go every time from now on as its just so much fun especially when you're with a great bunch of people.

Ed

My personal favourites of the festival were Animal Collective, who played a whole bunch of excellent jumping-around-in-a-field music. The light show was also surprisingly good, for a band that consists of three guys standing at keyboards. Although I do have one criticism: the left-hand and right-hand speakers were playing completely different parts. If you were in the middle of the crowd this made for a great immersive stereo sound; but if you were to one side of the crowd (which we were for the first few songs), it meant you could only hear about half the instruments and the songs sounded rubbish. This strikes me as a bad idea when playing to a large crowd. That aside, they were amazing, one of the best shows I've seen at glastonbury or outside it.

My other favourites were Fleet Foxes and Dodgy. Fleet Foxes don't really seem like the best band to see on the main stage in front of a huge crowd in the middle of the day, but they pulled it off. They didn't have an extravagant show or anything, they just played their songs, but they played them really well. Managed to sound as good live as they do on record, beautiful vocal harmonies and all. Goodness knows what they must be like to see in a small venue.

Dodgy - nostalgia for the 90's probably helped push them from "Good" to "Amazing" in my mind, but even when you put nostalgia to one side, they do a really good show. They don't have any one thing that's particularly special or unique, but everything comes together to produce songs that are very easy to dance and sing along to. The tent was packed and I think everyone there was a fan. Judging by how exhausted I was afterwards, they were the band I danced to most.

Other bands in one sentence or less:

Friendly Fires are great for dancing to! Slow club are also great for dancing to, but more in a hand-clapping than a booty-shaking kind of way. Bon Iver did a great job of making small, quiet songs fill huge spaces. Kate Walsh makes beautiful songs but it's probably better to buy the CD. The Mummers are impressive, simply by virtue of having a minature orchestra in their line-up. Regina Spektor's music is funny, varied and interesting, and I should probably buy one of her albums. Blur played all the songs you could wish for and were probably amazing, but I was pretty tired by then. Other non-band things worthy of mention were the Silent Disco, seeing Coraline in 3D at the cinema tent, and the fact that it hardly rained at all.

Another amazing glasto with a wide range of artists. On different days I liked to try out different tents and stages. Spent a bit more time at Jazz World and Acoustic and Chai Walla which were awesome. Chilling out on a Sunday morning with the paper in the sun listening to some cool Mali music was great.

Florence and the Machine was a particular highlight for me as I didn't know her music at all.

Sat was a weaker day for me, as there weren't too many bands that I definately wanted to see. Fri and Sun were the opposite, with many acts on at the same time! Always the dilemma. Still, I also managed to squeeze in a bit of circus action too!

I could write a lot just on the food experiences! I spent quite a bit of time sussing out the good places to recharge!

Blur you were an amazing end to a crazy weekend. Bruce Sprinsteen - what an extraordinary amount of stamina you have! That was quite a set.

I'm still gutted I didn't make any of the salsa sessions.... salsa in wellies could have been interesting.

Just a bit of dampner that we spent 4.5 hrs in the car park v early on a monday morning trying to get out! :-o

Amazing, Amazing Amazing!

As ever I left Glastonbury a broken man, after 5 full on days walking the beaten tracks all day long,seeing just an amazing selection of bands.

No matter how many times I return to Worthy Farm I am just blown away by the scale of the site and the abundance of bands that they manage to pull together. Just when you think they have missed one off the line up, that band normally turns up somewhere as a special guest or appearing with another band.

Everyone always moans about the Glastonbury weather but this year it was absolutely roasting, I came back more tanned than if I had laid on a beach in Spain for the week.

Anyway onto the bands, my highlights were:

Friday: Neil Young, The Specials, Fleet Foxes, Golden Silvers. Saturday: Bruce Springsteen, Kasabian, Crosby Stills & Nash, Dizzee Rascal, Bombay Bicycle Club Sunday: Blur, Magic Numbers, Bon Iver, Linda Lewis

Anyway these were just the highlights of a truly amazing Glasto 2009 and I will definately be going next year to celebrate the 40th year and boy they have a tough hill to climb to compare to this years festivities!

Well Done to the Glastonbury Team!

What a weekend! We arrived on Wednesday, as did loads of people compared to previous years, and the partying began. We tried to see East 17 on the Thurs night, but they kept getting pushed back so we went and threw some shapes at the silent disco, which was amazing! Good work Aimee! Friday the music kicked off and I started with Golden Silvers on the Park stage. Brilliant and a great way to start Glasto 2009! Then I went to the Other stage and saw The Maccabees who I thought were excellent, followed by The View, who were a bit of a disappointment. Then I caught most of White Lies who I really enjoyed and they did a great cover of the Boss. Friendly Fires were fantastic and got us all dancing! Then headed off to John Peel and caught the end of Little Boots and Jack Penate - absolutely brilliant!!! Saturday, had a late start and watched Crosby, Stills and Nash - icons of music. Kasabian were prob my highlight of the festival - bloody brilliant! The Boss was up as headline and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band rocked it for over 2 & half hours. Amazing - I am not a fan, but they have it down to a t and put on a brilliant show! Sunday I spent most of the day touring the vast Glastonbury site and chilling at our camp, which had great views of the Pyramid. Listened to Tom Jones - still a belter. Madness were great fun. Then went off for a bit of Bon Iver, very good. The Magic Numbers were fantastic at the Queens Head, but they always are! Then to close Glastonbury - Blur. Simply fantastic, much better than I expected on every level. Music, vocals, performance - everything was brilliant.

Roll on 2010.

We arrived on the Thursday morning, and got to the camp site, before heading to the site to collect our backstage hospitality wristbands. The rain didn't seem a good start to the festival, but luckily it had stopped (for a bit) by about 3 in the afternoon. By this time, we were heading towards the Queen's Head to attempt to see Maxïmo Park in this small venue (capacity 1500). Unfortunately, so had about 30,000 other people! So, we gave up, and headed backstage for a bit of food. But this didn't mean no bands for the day - we headed back to the Queen's Head later that day to see Alessi's Ark, who were pretty good, and Golden Silvers, who I really enjoyed (especially because we escaped the thunder, lightning and heavy rain in the tent...).

So Friday came along, and the rain had stopped. After getting down to the site, we first decided to watch Bombay Bicycle Club in the Guardian Lounge, which was a nice mellow beginning to an epic day. Next up were The Maccabees on the Other Stage (a slight step up in crowd size from the tiny Southampton University just a month before!). They knew how to work the crowd, and they went down a storm. After this, we headed over to The Park to go and see who these 'world class' special guests were. There was speculation of U2, Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay and The Libertines, but no, it was none other than...Gaz from Supergrass' new band. Not exactly world class...Other bands I saw on the Friday were Fleet Foxes who were really good and perfectly suited for the sunny afternoon slot, Lily Allen who had a massive crowd, so only saw a couple of songs as we couldn't get anywhere close, The Maccabees (again!) in the Guardian Lounge which was brilliant, with Gavin & Stacey actor Mat Horne standing watching as well, Lady Gaga, who's choice of clothing was a little, let's say, wild, The Horrors up at The Park who were great - managed to blag myself into the press pit for that, and then ended the day with Bloc Party at the Other Stage who I really enjoyed.

The next morning, we were up bright and early, and headed down to the site for the second full day, with the sun shining over the now practically dry mud. After having a nice breakfast in the backstage bar, we headed to go and watch 2009's answer to Jack Johnson,Jason Mraz. He went down really well with the crowd, and when he reached his massive hit single 'I'm Yours' in the set, the whole crowd sang the words back to him which was a nice experience. Next up was Mr Peter Doherty, who played a sterling set in front of the massive Other Stage crowd. Playing songs from his new solo album, and of course selected songs from the Babyshambles and The Libertines catalogues, he went down brilliantly with the crowd. He played a cover of 'Psycho Killer' by Talking Heads, and stated to the crowd 'I'm f**ked if I forget the words to the second verse.' For the remainder of the day, we popped backstage, before heading to the Pyramid to watch Kasabian, who set up the crowd for the mighty Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen played an epic set, with all of his greatest hits, and I couldn't think of a better headliner for the situation. Being right at the front for an act as well known as The Boss really was special.

Sunday; the last day of bands for Glasto 2009. Once again, we headed down to the site, knowing full well that one of Britain's best bands of the 90's were to be headlining the evening, and closing the festival. The first band of the day we saw were White Lies, in the tiny Guardian Lounge. The set consisted of requests from the audience, and every song went down a storm, including a cover of Springsteen's 'Dancing In The Dark'. The next band up were the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, on the Other Stage. Lead singer Karen O took to the stage wearing a multi-coloured head-dress, and the set consisted of some brilliant songs. We then went backstage, before popping back to the Other Stage for Bon Iver, who was simply incredible. At the end of the set, when everyone was walking away, a man was walking towards us, wearing Ray-Ban Aviators. This man was none other, that Carl Bârat. We spoke, and he informed us that he had been punched in the mouth, and was heading backstage to get something to put on it. We had heard rumours that the Arctic Monkeys were playing the Jazz World Stage at 9pm, so we headed there for this alleged gig, but it was sadly a classic Glastonbury rumour, so we ended up trawling back to Glasvegas' set on the Other Stage, which saw thousands of fans shouting the lyrics back to the band. Finally, at 10pm, Blur took to the stage, and the 100,000 strong crowd erupted. Some great sing-alongs were included in the set, including 'Beetlebum', 'Girls And Boys', 'There's No Other Way', 'Parklife', and 'This Is A Low'. Damon was brought to tears during the spectacular 'Tender', where the crowd sang back for several minutes the refrain - 'Oh my baby, oh my baby, oh why, oh my'. After the encore, 'Song 2' caused the crowd to erupt into a massive free-for-all, and it brought back to the crowd exactly why Blur were headlining. The set was ended with 'The Universal', and I couldn't think of a better end to a festival if I tried...

The bands was impeccable, the atmosphere was amazing, Glastonbury 2009 was officially incredible. Bring on 2010. The gates open once again in 349 days. And counting.

What an amazing experience!

When we arrived our tent had already been setup! (Thanks again Marc n Oz - you guys rock!)

Toured the site on the Wednesday which took a while as the site is immense! There is so much to see and do and so much going on at the same time that it's impossible to see and do everything!

Had a pretty heavy drinking session on Thursday and then started with the Music on Friday on The Pyramid Stage!

Lily Allen was good fun - Inbetween songs there would be a crazy Drum n Bass beat playing which I thought was a good touch to get the crowd going.

Fleet Foxes were good but too mellow. I like Mellow but I was in a party mood! Their Harmonising was really tight. Very talented bunch.

Then we moved over to the Other Stage:

Lady GaGa - filth on toast! This girl really knows that Sex sells and she really uses that to her advantage! She was flashing her rear end, her breasts and even her...clunge at one point! She had 5 outfit changes all of which were amazing. But looks, filth and toast aside this girl is very talented. She broke out a bit of Jazzy Piano playing for a great rendition of Poker Face which got everyone singing along - and then she broke into the original version which made the place go nuts! Singing, Dancing, flashing, Piano Playing - she has the right stuff!

The Ting Tings were brilliant. I love the front birds voice and the energy they produce is amazing. Very impressed with them.

Bloc Party were also amazing but I hadn't heard enough of their stuff to really get into them.

Saturday we saw Dizzy Rascal who blew me away! I never expected to like him but he really knows how to get people dancing. Nice MJ tribute thrown into the set also which I liked.

Caught a bit of Comedy in the Comedy Tent which was good fun then caught the last song of Kasabian who seemed really good and then it was time for...The Boss and the E Street Band! These were incredible! 2.5hours of non stop music! Really impressed by these.

Sunday we saw some Bon Iver who were great, The Magic Numbers who were so fun and bouncy that you can't help but like them and then Blur who where fantastic! They really rocked out in certain parts! If you can still get tickets I urge you to go see them in Hyde Park this week - you will not be disappointed!

Overall a great first Glastonbury for me. I intend to go every time from now on as its just so much fun especially when you're with a great bunch of people.

Ed