Friday @ Glastonbury: Review

For some campers, especially those who travelled to Worthy Farm on Tuesday evening, Friday could not come quick enough. Friday means music, and at the end of the day, that’s what Glastonbury is really about. In fact, the desperation for music - after two days of average to crappy weather - was evident from the huge crowd that gathered to watch Chipmunk open up the Other Stage.

The ‘Oopsy Daisy’ singer was a suitable warm-up act, getting the crowd going with his mainstream-orientated hip-hop. Next up on the Other Stage were Brother, a band that are better known for the amount of vitriol they receive, than the music they make. This is entirely justified, though. The four-piece from Slough bring much of the hate on themselves through their cocky, self-assured boasts, and their ‘lad’ personas. They put on an accomplished performance, but their attempt to regurgitate Britpop for a new generation, comes off as tiresome.

And if Brother weren’t derisive enough, it has now come to light that the band have changed their name to Viva Brother as the result of a legal dispute with Australian Celtic rock act with the same name. This explained the band waving a big flag with Viva Brother emblazoned on it.


Whilst Viva Brother are hardly going to win any awards for originality with their ‘Gritpop’, the band that followed them - New Zealand outfit, The Naked and the Famous- were a pleasant surprise. The Naked and the Famous may be reminiscent of MGMT, yet their intricate sounds and big, synthy landscapes went down well with the impressive crowd. If their start was unsure, the band became more assured and confident as the set went on, with their signature song, the summery ‘Young Blood’, rejuvenating a crowd that appeared bored and lifeless whilst the Oasis-wannabes were on stage.



After beginning Friday predominantly on the Other Stage, it was time to take a muddy trip to the John Peel tent to catch Miles Kane. The Scouser has been putting on impressive performances during his recent UK tour, and his early afternoon slot suited his 60s retro-rock perfectly, stoking up a great atmosphere. After Miles Kane it was lunch time, which coincided with the second half of The Vaccines set. The London four-piece are slowly growing on me, with their no compromise 3 minute pop rock songs, which are easy to sing-a-long to, and have infectious riffs. The decision was then taken to head to the Park Stage in preparation for the special guests, who were rumored - correctly - to be Radiohead.

Before the ‘secret’ special guests arrived on the Park Stage, there was Warpaint and Big Audio Dynamite to look forward to, with both acts putting on throughly entertaining - although entirely different - performances. Warpaint, a female four-piece from Los Angeles, put on a hauntingly beautiful set, with their wonderful melodies and stunning voices demonstrating exactly why they were nominated for BBC’s Sound of 2011. I hadn’t heard any of Big Audio Dynamite’s music before watching them at Glasto, and knew little about them, except that their frontman was Mick Jones from The Clash. Their set couldn’t have been more different from Warpaint, with a cocktail of genres stirred together - including elements of punk rock, dance, jazz, hip-hop, reggae and funk. However, it was a highly impressive set, one which was received warmly by the huge crowd that had now gathered in anticipation for the special guests. By the time B.A.D had left the stage the Park area was completely rammed, to the extent that there were rumors it had been closed off. To say that it was a surreal experience to be situated at the front of thousands of people, yards away from the biggest band on the planet, would be an understatement.

Radiohead sauntered on stage to a huge ovation just as the rain began to pick up, and set about showcasing the new album, King Of Limbs, live for the very first time. Thom Yorke and Co. seemed slightly shy as Thom introduced the band: “Hello, we're called Radiohead. We're going to try and do some Kings Of Limbs and shit. We're still trying to figure out how to get people to sing along. Help us out.” As the band kicked off with ‘Lotus Flower’, it was clear that the members of Radiohead - who were also joined by second drummer Clive Deamer - were nervous. The rest of the set was an impressive mix of the Oxford outfit’s most recent albums, with In Rainbows also featuring heavily. It was great to see which songs worked live from TKOL, ‘Morning Mr Magpie’, ‘Separator’ and ‘Giving Up The Ghost’ all sounded incredible in their live form. If the occasion couldn’t get any more special, Radiohead brought out two newbies - ‘The Daily Mail’ and ‘Staircase’. It wasn’t the set that many of the thousands wanted, those hankering after Ok Computer material were left sadly disappointed, barring ‘I Might Be Wrong’ and the stunning encore version of ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’. However, the oldies have been played before countless times - and they will be played again - but this was the perfect occasion to debut the new material.



With Friday coming to a close, there was still the small matter of U2’s first performance at Glastonbury. Yet even before we could contemplate the Irish rock band, we had to get from the Park Stage to the Pyramid Stage alongside a traffic flow of thousands, in pouring rain, with mud resembling quicksand. Once at the Pyramid Stage, I was surprised to find such a big crowd for U2, considering everyone seems to hate Bono nowadays. It was clear from the first few songs that Bono and Co. were intent on putting a show worthy of making up for their long absence from the Glasto line-up, playing all the hits. Kicking off with ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’, they proceeded to run through all the classic U2 tracks - in an attempt to win over those who were skeptical of them headlining in the first place.



U2 really front-loaded the set, with ‘One’, ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’, ‘I Will Follow’ and ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ played one after the other. It was far from perfect, though. The sound was dodgy throughout - although that’s hardly U2’s fault - and Bono’s voice sounded flat as the set progressed. The song-interval banter was also pretty cringe-worthy, but that is to be expected from Bono. ‘Get On Your Boots’ inexplicably managed to find it’s way into the set, and Bono’s rendition of ‘Yellow’ was ropey, to say the least. But, overall, it was a solid -if unspectacular - performance from an act that probably should have headlined years ago. The encore, consisting of the classic Ross and Rachel song, ‘With Or Without You’, the best song from U2’s last album, ‘Moment Of Surrender’, and the first single from their debut album Boy, ‘Out Of Control’, was an impressive way to close out Friday.