Are you Watching the Glastonbury Festival 2005?

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Ouch -- that sucks. I just tuned in for the alleged midnight showing. I say "alleged" because it seems to be a PG casualty ... unless by "Glastonbury Festival" they mean "SoundStage, featuring Kasey Chambers".
 
I really enjoyed last nights two hours, recording tonight, had to setup four hours, I'm not sure when it airs with the guide defunct.

Several good concerts in the first two sections. I think I read there is two more hours tonight and one hour on Monday, 5 total.
 
Caught an hour of it earlier today -- not bad. I'll even review it, because that's what I do:

Jools Holland.............Not bad, just toe-tappin' fun rock.

Ash...........................Rawk! Somewhat cheesy, but rock nonetheless.

Doves.......................Rock-ish, but not really to my taste. But, hey -- this is RAVE, so I'm just happy that they're young-ish. And there was a pretty cool drum thing at the end of the third song, that almost saved the set, IMO.

The La's....................Just when I started to think I was gonna be sitting through the world's safest cleanest fluffiest cuddliest rock festival ever, The La's came along with their drug anthem "There She Goes". Yes, as far as heroin songs go it's a fluffy-cuddly one ... but at least the festival finally got a little edge to it.

Razorlight ................Good stuff. First song, "Golden Touch", is gooood -- and so catchy. Other two songs were decent too, IMO.

Basement JAXX.........Energy! Showmanship! Theatrics! Fat chicks shakin' what their mamas gave 'em while belting out soul vocals to a thumpin house beat with bass you can feel!!!!! Okay, not for everyone ... but I dig it. Just wish they woulda done "Where's Your Head At?".


Some miscellaneous overall impressions:
Picked up quite a bit in the second half. First half was just too clean, too safe, too friggin' DULL. I mean, that's not rock. I have no doubt that every single member of the first three acts was wearing underwear. No edge, no danger, no real excitement. And I got SOOOO sick of the lightning-quick edits, which were especially distracting during Ash's set. I think they were just trying to spice up a snoozefest, but there's better ways to do it. For example -- you have lots of cute bouncy pretty young chicks out in the crowd. SHOW them. If I was actually AT this festival I wouldn't be staring up at the uber-dull Doves as they play their lullaby-rock. I'd be checking out the cuties prancing around a-wigglin' their pretty. So train a camera or ten on them and just give me a quick glance at the musicians from time to time -- at least the musicians who are just standing there not doing anything, anyway. If they're putting on a show, ala Basement JAXX, by all means stay with the artist. But just because U2 switched camera angles every two seconds during the Vertigo Tour doesn't mean every one's gonna do it, does it?
 
Watched another hour today ..... so of course, I review:

The Zutons..............Catchy little pop-rock tunes. Second song, called "Pressure Point" is really good IMO. but please keep the camera off the pasty-faced lead singer and put it where it belongs -- on the sexy little barefooted sax player. A hottie blowing a horn -- are you kidding me? That's made for HDTV!

Babyshambles.........Utter crap. Young, dirty, skinny lead singer sure looks the part -- hey look at me I'm wearing a wacky hat and my zipper's undone! Sure, dude -- anything else you can think of to take our minds off how bad that song is?

Elvis Costello............Legend. Starts off a little slow but blows the roof off the joint with "Pump It Up" and "Monkey to Man" Even did one of those old skool go around the stage and introduce the band member things. Cool.

Bloc Party.................Well, they try. And they do rock. Just not very well. The drummer and lead singer seem like they're comfortable and know what they're doing, while the other two seem like they're just really trying not to screw anything up. And I didn't like the songs much.

Royskopp..................Good music, unless you don't like catchy techno-dance type stuff. But watching two guys bobbing their heads over keyboards isn't my idea of a compelling show. Better suited to a club than a big open air festival.

The Killers..................Not one of my favorites, but I do dig the first song they did (Somebody Told Me). And they carry themselves like rock stars, put on a decent show. Dig it.


Overall impressions:
Good stuff. but I'm really starting to wish that the PG would give me a little more info than just "Music/Art 2006". Just list the artists for me so I know which block it is and if I wanna put it on my schedule. I'm glad RAVE shows this festival -- good to see some youth and rock injected into this channel once in a while. And I wasn't as bothered by the quick edits this hour -- maybe there weren't as many of them? They did seem to show a few more shots of the wiggly young'uns sliding around in the mud.
 
Yet another hour ...

Hot Hot Heat ........................Uh, who? Anyway, they're not awful but not really my taste. It's kinda like 80's pop music without being particularly catchy. And the lead singer's style kind put me off.

KT Tunstall .......................... KT is here, and she brought her guitar-strumming hand-clapping songs with her -- including the ultra-catchy hit Black Horse and The Cherry Tree. Follows it up with an almost equally catchy rendition of Miniature Disasters. If you can sit still through these songs, you must be dead inside. Get used to her. She's gonna be around for a while.

Keane..................................More stars. And more hits. Good clean inoffensive pop-rock hits. Rock and roll that you're not afraid to bring home to meet mom. Pretty good melodies, and the piano is a nice touch.

Echo and The Bunnymen........Ah, "alternative" music from back when "alternative" meant alternative. And they're every bit as good as they were back in their heyday. I didn't like them much then either. But they did their thing, so if you were a fan you'll probably dig it.

Interpol................................Huh. Kind of like a modern day Echo and The Bunnymen. Very ordinary. Didn't love it. Didn't hate it.

New Order............................ Uh, go up to my notes for Echo and The Bunnymen, but where you see "Echo and The Bunnymen" substitute "New Order". Where's Depeche Mode when you need 'em?


Overall impressions:
Well so far KT Tunstall is the artist that I enjoyed the most over the three hours I've watched. And Keane was pretty good. The rest of the hour? Just kinda blah.
 
RaaaaawwwwK!!!!!! WoooHooooooooooo!!!!!!!

Ahem. Another hour. BY FAR the best yet:

The Futureheads.............. Blech. We're off to a slow start. Just boring Blink-182 type pop rock crap. The crowd seemed to enjoy the second song. I didn't.

The Coral...........................Better. Less off-putting. They played good songs and didn't look or act stupid. And they used some cool instruments, like bongos and a keyboard talkbox type thing. Kinda enjoyed their mini-set.

Garbage............................Garbage! Yes! Shirley Manson came to Glastonbury and brought her rock-starness with her. Gorgeous, red-haired, pale-as-a-vampire Shirley also brought her legs -- and put 'em in fishnets under a very short dress. And be sure to thank the cameraman for his fantastically clever camera work. An oh yeah -- she brought the hits, too -- I Think I'm Paranoid, Push It, and Only Happy When It Rains. Only way this could've been better is if it was longer.

Athlete.............................Expecting a BIG post-Garbage letdown, only got a little one. These guys are good. Found it hard to sit still.

Kasabian...........................Who the hell are these guys? They rock. And thump. Couldn't decide whether to get up and bang my head or shake mah azzz. So I did both.

White Stripes.................... I said WHITE STRIPES!!!!! Rock gods. Dirty Deeetroit City rock gods with filthy Jack White guitar god riffs and simple-but-bumpin Meg White thumps wrapped around some of the best rock to come out in years. Blue Orchid, Hotel Yorba, Jolene, and Seven Nation Army -- each one performed even better than the last. Awesome looking stage in those familiar White Stripes colors - all the way down to the black and red microphone. Rock. Gods.

Overall impressions:
Thank you RAVE. Thank you Glastonbury. Even if every other second of this festival is filled with those cookie-cutter crap Britsh "rock" bands, this was a good festival in my book. This hour was awesome. I was literally out of breath by the time it ended. Could. Not. Sit. Still. And by the end I wasn't even trying to sit down -- pretty much from Garbage on, just get up and embrace your inner teenager. Shake what your mama gave ya. Bang that head. Stomp those feet. This is good stuff. Did I mention the WHITE STRIPES were on?!? In 5.1!!
 
My fifth hour of Glastonbury ... possibly the least entertaining one (but with a big finish).....

The Bravery.....................Pretty good. Nothing fancy, just hard-driving energetic rock.

Rufus Wainwright............Good for what it is, but I think his acoustic folk star act is probably better suited to coffehouses and such than to huge outdoor rock festivals. Maybe an episode of SoundStage would be more appropriate. And I just don't care for his songs much. Livened up a bit for the second song when he was joined by his sister, who can actually sing a little.

Kaiser Chiefs....................They look goofy, they act goofy -- but they kinda rock, in a weak imitation of The Ramones sort of way. The Brit kids seemed to love 'em.

Primal Scream...................Widely respected rock "supergroup" (I say supergroup, but they're made up of a bunch of guys I don't know from bands I don't really like). Not my cup of tea, but they do rock a little -- in the same way that the previous group did.

Ian Brown.........................Oh. My. God. That's Ian Brown?!? Really? That dude sang one of my favorite songs ever (Fool's Gold by his old group The Stone Roses)?!? Ew. It's like a really bad karaoke nightmare. It made my ears bleed.

Coldplay............................Okay, BIG stars. I don't consider myself a big fan -- but they played three hits that I like, and yet didn't play my personal top two songs of theirs (Yellow, The Scientist). So apparently I do dig 'em. And they probably did play those two songs I really like, but they weren't shown by RAVE. They did however, show the performances -- all good -- of Speed of Sound, In My Place and Fix You. And at the end we even got a little multi-colored light show, complete with side-stage explosions. Cool. Now, if someone could just tell me what hell Mr. Paltrow wrote on his knees and what the significance of it was, all will be well. Seriously, what was that all about?

Overall impressions:
Somehow I now like Fool's Gold a little less. This wasn't a very good hour in my opinion, but I suppose it all comes down to musical taste. There are probably some people out there who think it was the best. Not me though. I liked the first group and the last -- everything in between was okay at best. But , good god -- THAT'S Ian Brown? He's terrible!

So what's that make -- five hours? Are there more?
 
riffjim4069 said:
It sound like VOOM is giving us something to RAVE about.:hungry:
...You know, they really are. RAVE is quite a bit better than it was way back when. And a lot of it has to do with festivals like this and Farm Aid and the "jazz" festivals, when they get a chance to show us a bunch of current bands that they might not show otherwise. And that Jools Holland show also showcases some pretty cool acts -- quite a few of them that are also shown at Glastonbury.

And I might bitch a little about most of the acts shown on RAVE being old, but I might be stuck in the past a little bit. A quick glance at the PG frequently shows pretty modern/young acts such as Dave Matthews, The Wallflowers, Martina McBrice, Alanis Morisette, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Alison Krauss. Not bad. I just hope they keep up the good work and keep adding new shows. While I really like some of those artists, I can only watch it so many times y'know?
 
You think Rave could get shows like Smash Hits or Top of The Pops? I'd like to see some UK hit makers.....just to see artist like Simon Webbe, Westlife, Darius, Lee Ryan......or maybe get some Music Videos from the UK?