Thursday 18 June 2009

Glastonbury Reviews - 2003

Glastonbury 2003


This was the first review I ever wrote festival wise, and it doesn’t really get across what a glorious sunshine filled four days it actually was. 2003 was a wake-up call for me, especially since I’d missed all this sort of thing as a teenager.

The best bit about reading it back now are all those bands that I was convinced would be around for a while - Electric Six, Junior Senior and, um, the Polyphonic Spree.

OK, here's a band by band account of what and who I saw at Glastonbury with
additional bits thrown in.

FRIDAY
THE JEEVAS
Crispin Mills new project, had to resort to doing a Kula Shaker song in
order to get some sort of crowd response. Passable.
HAR MAR SUPERSTAR
This is more like it! A Ron Jeremy look-a-like who's favourite word is
'f*cking', Har Mar appeared on stage with the fabulous Manumission Dancers
who writhed and jiggled their way around him. Best described as 'disco
ballads' the songs were about s*x and little else. Hilarious. He'll be on
your telly soon, no doubt.
THE FABRICS
BRISTOL REPRESENT! Basically the latest project from my mate Joe who I've
known for years. A mixture of Jazz, Scat, and Drum & Bass. Weird, but kind
of fun.
DE LA SOUL
Genuinely great heroes of Hip Hop. They rocked and I loved the way they
hated doing 'Me, Myself and I'.
MINT ROYALE
More hero worship for two geeky looking chaps from Brighton accompanied by
some guitarists. "RIGHT ABOUT NOW... I AM THE S*XIEST MAN IN JAMAICA..." My
first visit to the Dance Tent.
THE COOPER TEMPLE CLAUSE
Great rock, heavy, unrelenting from a band recommended to me by Mr Nick.
Sequenced beats made sure you could pogo and keep your dance credentials
sound. Started to realise how great everything was.
ELECTRIC SIX
Yes, Dick Valentine is my new hero. Standing in front of the band, hands in
pockets, leaning back, grin on face - he's a great entertainer. Thoroughly
enjoyable. It got better when HAR MAR SUPERSTAR came on stage and announced
to Dick. "I'm on a lot of Ecstasy, dude. And I'm surprised you haven't
invited me to the f*cking GAY BAR!" The crowd went nuts, the guitarists did
their stuff and laughed our asres off. Great fun, would LOVE to see these
guys again. FIRE IN THE DISCO!
JUNIOR SENIOR
Novelty act number 2! I didn't go all the way into the New Tent to see
Denmark's Best Dance Act (Remember who broke them in this country folks - it
was me). I listened from outside the tent, I am reliably informed that they
were good, although the number of people who left after they did 'Move Your
Feet' left us shouting "You only came for one song!"
FATBOY SLIM
After some recovery time I ventured back to the Dance Tent to see another
hero of mine. Uncle Norman's beats were big, but due to poor acoustics where
we were dancing wasn't the greatest in the world. However I did 'put my
hands up in the air' when commanded. OK.
PRIMAL SCREAM
Yeah! We stayed for a couple of songs one of which was 'Rocks' - pretty
special by all accounts.
FRIDAY'S CELEBRITY HIGHLIGHT:
Seeing Jo Whiley trying to contact people on her mobile while also looking
at Junior Senior.
SATURDAY
DNA DOLL
Some harsh rock. Good looking bassist though. Very cute in her boots and
all.
THE BURN
Bluesy rock. Very good actually, enjoyable!
JIMMY CLIFF
In a word: magnificent. He did all his classic tunes and grooving in the sun
to his voice and reggae beats seemed like the most natural thing in the
world. I felt honoured to be there.
THE POLYPHONIC SPREE
Weird, religious cult types with upbeat California-loving style music. By
now heat exhaustion was setting in and everything seemed a bit strange.
And then after a rest...
SOULWAX
Hey Girl!
Hey Boy!
2 MANY DJS
Here we go!
And so began my favourite performance of the whole festival. Yes there were
loads more technically adept performers, better singers, bigger bands, but
for me Soulwax, three skinny indie kids, mixing Electroclash, hard house and
throwing in Rock tracks was amazing. The Chemical Brothers, Nirvana, The
White Stripes, The House of Pain, The Cult, Beyonce Knowles, Justin
Timberlake, NERD, Salt N Pepa - you name it, they played it. We were at the
front, jumping like idiots, getting water thrown over us, I was screaming
'GET YOUR F*CKING BOOTLEG ON!'. Utterly inspiring for me and 100 times
better than Fatboy Slim. I grinned like a loon for hours afterwards.
BILL BAILEY
"Hello Hippy Scum!" Bill's great fun live. He did three encores and made me
laugh. A lot. Will definitely see this man again.
And... I'm not entirely sure what happened after that. A lot of Pear Cider
was quaffed, Brandy Coffees... I ended talking to the Samaritans at 8 in the
morning... fell asleep by the Pyramid Stage...
SATURDAY'S CELEBRITY HIGHLIGHT
A quite obviously munted Sara Cox and Norman Cook introducing Emily Eavis on
the Main Stage to talk about not 'P*ssing in the streams'. Norman then
informed us 'Don't touch the Brown Acid."
SUNDAY
ARRGHH, Ouch what happened?
ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION
Harsh Bhangra beats. Oww... my head!
THE SUGABABES
The hangover vanished for half an hour while those gorgeous sirens came on
to the Main Stage. While they didn't really rock Glastonbury, it was a lot
of fun and, of course, 'Freek Like Me' was amazing.
THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS
The rain came down, the angst came out and it was great. I found I
remembered more about these guys than I'd thought and sang along with the
rest of the indie kids. Brought me close to tears at points. Incredible.
TRICKY
Spliff in hand and near incomprehensible lyrics close by, Tricky ranged from
unmoving statue to epileptic nutcase. Rock met drum and bass and the
offspring was actually quite groovy.
THE DOVES
To be honest... who cares?
SUNDAY'S CELEBRITY HIGHLIGHT:
Bumping into BEZ!
And that's it. It's fairly easy to see where I peaked! Great fun, will
definitely go again.

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