Wooooo! Glasto 19!

Download line up looked good this year, though I didn't go.

 

Glasto line up here

https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/glastonbury-2019-full-line-up-2483460

To be fair there's a lot ther I wouldn't mind seeing.

JEFF GOLDBLUM & THE MILDRED SNITZER ORCHESTRA: 14:00 – 15:00 being a particular doozy.

 

Worked in Apex Plaza for 10 years. That whole road and block opposite had a pub every 3 buildings when I was there. Still meet up there when I go to beer and curry evenings with others from EY.

 

Oh, it really has.

The modern music industry is just inundated with [insert acceptably good looking nobody who can sing and autotune them] nowadays; the ratio of manufactured, cynically crafted pap to true talent is probably the lowest its ever been. In many ways, it's like the US TV acting industry: they've been selecting purely for looks for so long that truly talented actors are in short supply and British theatre-trained actors are getting cast as Americans. The wrong "skills" are being selected.

That's not to say there's nothing new and good around, you just have to do some epic level sifting to find the gold nuggets among the mountains of ****, far more than in prior decades. Hopefully there will be a swing the other way.

 

It was ever thus, though wasn't it? I suppose social media has democratised music to an extent, so people can be famous without passing muster with the A and R men, so the sheer volume of music is probably bigger than ever, but there has always been crap and good stuff.

I'm trying not to turn into that oldiwonk who thinks music stopped being good at about the point I lost hope for the future.

 

Watching Glastonbury on TV is pants when you've not been able to get tickets for God-knows how many years.

Stormzy as headliner?! Trying too hard to be trendy or me getting old and out of touch wid da yoot?

As for The Cure - awesome live band! I get totally immersed in their three hour sets. No-one does middle-aged angst better than Robert Smith and as I can't see them at Glastonbury I will be making my way up to Glasgow to see them later this summer.

 

New album out shortly apparently. First one for about 10 years ? Lots of long deep atmospheric stuff rather than the pap of “Friday I’m in love” so that’s good.

 

Oh yeah, there have always been the Milli Vanillis/Paula Abduls/Spice Girls etc in every era, and there always will be. It's just that the ratio has shifted significantly now.

Music simply isn't pushing boundaries anymore. It's the same genres people already know taken on by new groups/solo artists. It's just that most of them are f*cking awful, and they do what's safe or gimmicky to produce guaranteed sales. I can look at pretty much every decade from the 40s onwards and find a plethora of talented performers (anything earlier just isn't my cup of tea) but I struggle to find decent material nowadays, and I find even less I actually like (there are plenty of good/talented groups I simply don't care for because they're not my style, but I can see they're talented all the same).

 

Been to Penn Fest a couple of times and thought it was pretty decent. Craig David was enough to stop me going

 

I've always really enjoyed it. A couple of years ago it was Charlatans, EMF and Primal Scream. Last year the Sugar Hill Gang were awesome.

Craig David? is he gonna do some hawking with his kestrel? Genuinely, for me, the Bo Selecta version of him is more memorable than the real one.

 

What are you using as a metric for awesome live band? The cure stand around in Ill fitting jumpers and occasionally bounce a bit on their toes. Rob Smith's off tune whining is easy to reproduce live though as it's hardly a strenuous vocal style.

 

I love the pappy stuff, series of great singles in the mid to late 80s. Can take or leave the deeply atmospheric stuff, certainly post Disintegration.

As for music not as being good as it was: I would say that happened around about the time of Mendelssohn. With some exceptions (Debussy, Satie, Backstreet Boys).

 

I didn't even know Gary Debussey was a musician as well as an actor, like his point break costar, Keanu

 

I normally go to Download. I tried to go to Download this year, but camper van tickets sold out quick, went to get camper van tickets for next year, sold out in 30 mins. They used to take a few months to sell out.

I refuse to slum camp anymore, no more Download for me. I was hoping Van Halen might play, so I could go wild like a tiger.

Going to see ZZ Top in a couple of weeks, hope they play loads of the 80s stuff, so I can go wild like a tiger.

 

He'll just argue with you about Brexit and the Tories.

 

You can't use metrics to determine what an awesome live band is. I've seen them enough to know they are awesome to me and that's all that matters. Stormzy and those of that rap/grime ilk don't move me, although a bit of old school Public Enemy are fantastic live.

 

No you’re right. Jumper fitting and the amount of bouncing around is the best measure. Not sure what I was think TBH. Probably something daft like the music and atmosphere .

 

I like it all, pretty much everything they have ever done, first to last, but Friday I’m in love was just too bland poppy crap for me.

 

Bring back The Violent Cheese,failing that Half Man Half Biscuit.

 

Might have more brevity if we have a “ Things Clive doesn’t hate “

 

Isnt Craig David one of those ones where people react with disgust, then watch him live and say "he was pretty good actually".

There are also plenty of musicians I like at glastonbury, just a larger quantity I don't. There's also too many. Some of the best acts will absolutley not be on the main stage. But for every person who wanders off to the 5th stage to watch something amazing, theres 10 who will want to see kylie, because, you know, shes an icon and you wont get the chance again.

 

Have been to Reading a few tunes, it’s still good if you avoid the ‘lads’.

 

I'd forgotten about idiots with their long flag poles. What is that all about?

Then women on shoulders

And people who try to dance to songs which are undanceable. Its hideous.

 

I guess it just means you have to be slightly more pissed for a weaker line up.

Primal Scream and Manics though were top notch headliners for a festival of that size. Craig David - does he even have 4 songs that anyone knows?

 

Does he actually sing on any songs or just talk fast like he did on the only song of his I know ?

 

Yeah, he's predominantly a soul singer. In fact, I think the rapping bit you're recalling is a collaborator and not him.

 

I've never seen the point of a DJ set. Person plays records rather than actually performing.

 

OK I was wrong. I caught some of his set on TV and was impressed.

 

Although totally un-Cure-like, this band are also awesome: Idles

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p07d6k71/glastonbury-idles-live-at-glastonbury

 

Craig David was a pretty well known Garage MC before he got big with the whole singing thing which is why he did some of the 'rapping bit' on his earlier songs.

 

Well, I've gone and mugged myself off, proper there then, ain't I?

 

I tried to watch young Mr Stormzy and his popular beat combo, but I'm afraid I didn't get it. Couldn't understand the words and the music, such as it was, grated on my grandad ears.

Still, that's how it's supposed to be with music through the generations. And at least Mr Stormzy appears to be speaking up for our side, the poor and sweated. I don't think he does much stabby cap in yo ass gang stuff either.

So far rather him headlining than bloody Ed Sheeran.