Quiet night in with the Beeb
June 28, 2008 by Andrew Booth
Filed under Anablog
I’m all at home in the country, nothing to do, since its too dark for croquet, and watching the Beeb’s coverage of Glasto.
Amy Winehouse is easily being upstaged by her fantastic backing singers. She’s sounds little better than the South American drag queen version of her.
The Racounters sounded weirdly subdued. Jack White still looks like Elvis from his cameo in Walk Hard.
James Blunt looks a lot like Conor.
Hot Chip don’t translate well to TV.
And although the Beeb do fantastic coverage of the main stage, they rarely touch upon the more obscure acts that make festivals magical.
Glasto didn’t sell out this year. Tickets were still available this morning. In the absence of a big name headliner, aside from Jay Z, there simply wasn’t the draw for tickets. Also the incredibly ill thought out ticketing systems and the wall of a few years ago also seem to have alienated fans. Mostly, however, there just seem to be much better options out there. Bestival on the Isle of Wight, The Secret Garden Party and the Womad Festivals all can lay claim to the original spirit of Glasto, and Leeds and Reading can often rival it for line up. And outside of the UK there’s Roskilde, our own Electric Picnic and the ones in Poland, Serbia and Spain… There’s only so many people that can go to festivals, and way too much choice. Whats the bets there’s a solid indie rock headliner next year, a big beast like Radiohead.
What, your croquet club doesn’t have floodlights?
I thought Hot Chip translated to the BBC better than usual. No Fit State, and that Wiley mash-up were magnificent. Not to make mention of the Nothing Compares 2 U cover…
The coverage is irritatingly bereft of any obscure acts, though Fight Like Apes strangely enjoyed the broadcast of two of their songs on the “Introducing” stage which they weren’t even headlining…
All the fun and games are up on http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury
I am 27. I watched the verve last night with my mam who is 62. She said “is that oasis? He’s looking very skinny isn’t he?” I said “yes mam he is. his music is rubbish too”. She said “yeah oasis were good when you were in school. I suppose they are content now. He looks very skinny though. Which one is he, Neil or Owen?” I said “It’s neither mam. its just some dork from a band who was popular around the time”. She said, “I thought so. I didn’t recognise the song.”
I wonder if Noel Gallagher appreciates hip hop enough to notice how stung he was by Jay-Z’s classic set.