Glastonbury Review: Part One

SUGAR PILL HQ sent Miss Jenna Corderoy to review what is perhaps the best music and performing arts festival the Earth has to offer…of course its Glastonbury, celebrating its 40^th anniversary this summer.        

Life is not the same when you return home from Glastonbury.  As soon as you’re on board the coach on Monday, you’re rocketed back into the world of stress, routine and knowing that the television will structure the rest of your holiday until you go back to your university/college/9-5 job.  It’s simply not fair.  Why can’t life be more like Glastonbury? 

As a first time Glastonbury-goer, I couldn’t help but notice (and I know this is a gross generalisation) that people there are…happy?  Chilled?  Excited?  You know that feeling where there are hardly any constraints forced upon you when you pass through the gates: you can dance where you like, eat what you like, and wear what you like without judgement.  It’s a pretty concept when you think about it. 

But enough nostalgia for now, let’s commence this review, throwing in the odd anecdote here and there.  Actually a lot of anecdotes; apologies.          

Wednesday and Thursday:

Wednesday was spent travelling, ogling at Stonehenge through the coach window and feeling underwhelmed at the size of it, lugging too much stuff around the site and spending 2.5 hours looking for tent space.  I’m not complaining; we found a space by the 24 hour burger van so I was pretty much sorted for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner.  After dumping my stuff, it was time to survey the site, alongside sipping proper cider and generally feeling happy.  Even got myself a mini-pupillage after chatting to some guy in a poster shop.  The exploration lasted until 3am, taking in all the magic at Stone Circle. 

Thursday really brought home the weather we were going to endure for the next couple of days.  Freezing at night, blistering hot by 8am.  Waking up in a panic because it was too hot to breathe was not pleasant, and scrambling out the tent gasping for fresh air highly reminded me of the rhino scene from Ace Ventura II.  Other than that, seeing Boy George made up for it.  Although 40 minutes late starting, his short set was entertaining, throwing in Culture Club classics such as ‘Karma Chameleon’, and a nice little cover of ‘Always on My Mind’.  He also sang a few gospel songs like ‘Down by the Riverside’, giving his new wave set a complimenting twist.   

Spent the rest of the night at the electronic dystopian world of Shangri-La. 

Friday:

Kicking off Glastonbury was the loveable Rolf Harris playing all his didgeridoo classics, and then it was off to see the The Magic Numbers.  I’m not a massive fan of their music, but they delivered a tight set mixed in with all their indie hits: perfect for a Friday afternoon.  Next was Miike Snow, who, admittedly, I had never heard of, but I certainly enjoyed their music and judging from the size of the crowd, they had amassed a large gathering which will only increase for the remainder of the year and 2011.  Their sound is refreshing, indie but with dashes of prepared piano as seen in ‘Silvia’, chilled dance rhythms of ‘Black and Blue’, and dark fuzzy electronic sounds of ‘Billie Holiday’.  Stuck around for Canadian twins Tegan and Sara who will no doubt be making more of an appearance in UK charts for 2011.  Indie, nice harmonies and lyrics – yeah, they go down well.  Strayed over to Bonobo over at the West Holts stage for some chilling, percussion and base heavy tunes.

Needing shelter from the blistering sun (and regretfully missing out on Snoop Dogg – my excuse being that I was quite ill on that day), I took to the Acoustic stage to see Turin Brakes, who sounded quite bitter that they weren’t on the main stage this year.  Their set was not extraordinary, I’m sorry to say, you know, just the same twee stuff, although I thoroughly enjoyed their take on Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’.  Florence and the Machine was a popular choice for many festival goers.  A strong performance, she whirled and twirled in her floating pre-Raphaelite inspired dress, whooping with delight.  There was a mention of a second album, and offered the crowds new material in the form of ‘Heavy in Your Arms’ – darker, rockier and more dramatic when comparing it to songs of the first album.  Maybe she should have left ‘The Chain’ alone, but all in all, the set was enjoyable, placed against a beautiful backdrop of a sunny Friday evening. 

I was stupidly excited over seeing Hot Chip, and their act was definitely one of the many highlights of my festival experience.  Geeky, but oh so cool; they’re just simply amazing.  I questioned over there choice of kicking off with ‘Boy from School’ instead of something more dancier, but their set grew more and more energetic as the evening progressed with ‘One Life Stand’ and indie anthem ‘Over and Over’.  I wished I stayed for the end of their set, but I had to get myself to the front for Gorillaz.    

All I can say the Gorillaz set was a visual spectacular, complete with comic strip videos and military-themed outfits, sprinkled with incredible guest appearances on top: you just didn’t know where to look.  It was that great.  Seriously.  The only regret I had was that I hadn’t listened to ‘Plastic Beach’ before going, but not to worry.  The set was opened by a video of Snoop Dogg dressed in a captain’s suit which drew laughs from the crowds – but I felt slightly disappointed that he wasn’t there in person.  I should have placed more trust in Damon Albarn, the trickster, for Snoop came on stage at the end. 

Obviously pretty much of Plastic Beach was played, throwing in the mix was ‘Kids with Guns’, ‘Dare’ with Shaun Ryder, ‘Feel Good Inc’ with the wonderful De La Soul, and ‘Dirty Harry’.  ‘Melancholy Hill’ made me want to buy the album as soon as I was back in sunny Hainault, and the appearance of Lou Reed just made my evening that extra special.  Although he did get many looks of ‘who are you?’ ‘I thought he was dead’ or my personal favourite ‘he looks like my nan’.  There was a musical interlude where Damon introduced a little known band; nice introduction to eastern music for those who have no idea about world music.  I felt it was badly received by the audience from where I was standing, which was an unfair judgement, as the band were, in their own right, very good.  Sadly, their act caused comments such as ‘Damon’s an arrogant twat’.  Oh well.  A good fraction of the audience left at that point, but that only created plenty of space for me to dance with a handsome Radiohead-loving stranger.