Review: Saturday @ Glastonbury

Day two of Glastonbury brought more great acts, including some of the brightest new bands around this year. Starting off with Stornoway - the indie folk band from Oxford who are viewed by many as the calmer, relaxed, love-child of Mumford & Sons - Saturday was another great day of music. After seeing Stornaway put on an accomplished performance in their debut at Glasto - on the Pyramid stage, no less - we headed to the John Peel tent to catch the London indie rock quartet, Yuck.

The four-piece released their impressive self-titled debut album earlier this year to widespread critical approval, and it was interesting to see them perform that material live for the first time. Whilst Yuck don’t have great stage presence - more like a “we’re know were good, so we’re going to do that cool rockstar ambivalence thing” attitude - their enthralling guitar driven songs proved a hit with the the packed-out tent.


Next up, was The Gaslight Anthem on the Pyramid Stage. The Bruce Springsteen-influenced band from New Jersey had over an hour to thrill with their punk rock, and they more than impressed with an accomplished set showcasing songs from all three albums. The throaty growl of Brian Fallon sounded great booming out from the Pyramid Stage speakers, with the band running through their classics such as ‘The 59 Sound’ and ‘Great Expectations’ from The 59 Sound and ‘We Came To Dance’ from their debut album, Sink Or Swim. Then it was time to head over to the Other Stage for The Kills - the noisy duo made up of Alison Mosshart (who was also in Jack White’s side project, The Dead Weather) and Jamie Hince. Kicking off with the dirty, little brawler, ‘Now Wow’, The Kills proceeded to (excuse the pun) kill it. Mosshart and Hince were all over the place, they prowled the stage and had the crowd in the palm of their hands. It was easily one of the highlights of the festival, and both Hince and Mosshart clearly appreciated the moment, soaking up the great reception after they closed with the epic ‘Sour Cherry’.



After watching The Kills tear it up, it was time to check out The Horrors on the John Peel stage. The five-piece from Southend on Sea were in no mood to mess around, launching into the brooding, melancholic ‘Sea Within A Sea’, the first single from their second album, Primary Colours. Lead singer Faris Badwan has a voice that exudes a haunting, dark tone, complementing the bands’ psychedelic, post punk rock. The Horrors have been known in the past for their notorious onstage antics - Faris, in particular, has scaled the stage and antagonized audience members - however, the band were in contemplative mood, rarely moving and keeping a safe distance from the audience, showing exactly why they are considered amongst the genre of Nu Gaze. It was an intoxicating set, one easy to become immersed in, and as the band kicked into the trippy ‘Mirrors Image’ it was clear that the crowd were under The Horrors’ spell.The band had time to fit in a few new tracks from their recently released third album, Skying. The first single, ‘Still Life’, which has seen the band receive more radio exposure than any of their previous singles, was greeted rapturously by the crowd and the other newbies - including ‘Changing The Rain’, ‘I Can See Through You’ and ‘Endless blue’ - also received positive reactions.



With the evening drawing near it was time to head to the Pyramid to see Manchester’s finest, Elbow. Whilst many ventured to the Park Stage to check out the second special guests Pulp, Elbow still managed to draw a huge crowd, and they duly delivered one of the most accomplished and impressive sets of the weekend. Songs from their most recent album, Build A Rocket Boys!, sounded even better live than on record, with ‘Lippy Kids’, ‘Open Arms’ and the slow-building opener, ‘The Birds’, all getting an airing. However, it was the classic songs from their Mercury Award-winning album, The Seldom Seen Kid, such as ‘Grounds For Divorce’, the beautiful ‘Mirrorball’, and the epic closing song, ‘One Day Like This’, which led to a sing-a-long at least equal to Coldplay. Yet it was not just the music that made Elbow’s penultimate slot on the Saturday so special - although it bloody well helped - it was also the phenomenally likable frontman, Guy Garvey, who interacted with the huge crowd throughout. From downing his pint at the crowd’s direction, to cajoling the thousands present to sing happy birthday to the Manchester act - who were celebrating 20 years together - Garvey had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. it was a truly impressive set, one that left Coldplay the unenviable task of trying to top.

Coldplay have become Glastonbury veterans and it is easy to see why. Whilst, like U2, it is generally considered ‘uncool’ to like Coldplay these days, they have millions of fans all over the world and huge anthems that everyone can sing-a-long to. It was probably the biggest crowd of the weekend, demonstrating the universal acknowledgement that Coldplay put on a good live show. And it was good, although Chris Martin made mistakes in ‘Violet Hill’ and one of five new songs debuted during their headline set, ‘Us Against The World’. As Martin himself said in the pause whilst explaining the mistake, “We’re supposed to be professional headliners”. Well, yes you are ‘supposed’ to be professional headliners, headlining one of the biggest festivals in the world. It may seem like a small gripe, but when your day job is to perform music, it’s not asking to much that you remember the lyrics to your own song.



Perhaps it was disappointing because the new songs were actually really good - bar ‘Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall’, which is not only a bad song, it was a terrible song to close the set on. ‘Major Minus’ sounded pretty epic, and ‘Charlie Brown’ not only has a great name, but also has a chorus destined to be a future staple of Coldplay sets. However, the atmosphere really livened when Martin and Co. played the classics, such as ‘Shiver’ and ‘Yellow’ from debut album, Parachutes, the latter causing a mass sing-a-long unlikely to be matched by most bands.

The set was mainly dominated by A Rush Of Blood To The Head - ‘The Scientist’, ‘Politik’ and ‘God Put A Smile On Your Face’ all achieved huge ovations -and Viva La Vida, with the stomping self-titled track, ‘Lost!’ and ‘Violet Hill’ causing further sing-a-longs. When they were good, they were very good, however, it was far from perfect and it was unsettling to see a headline act mess up the words twice - even if it’s sort of acceptable for the new track, there was no discernible reason for Martin forgetting the lyrics to ‘Violet Hill’. Yet, at the end of the day Coldplay entertained, they fitted the Glasto headliner mold perfectly, and, like it or not, they created an unbelievable atmosphere from start to finish.