Glastonbury

Subject: Review: Glastonbury
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 29 Jun 19 - 05:10 PM

For UK viewers the TV coverage seems pretty comprehensive. Between that, Queen's Club tennis and Women's World Cup football, there's not much else on TV (UK).
Is It my age, or why don't I recognise anyone at Glastonbury, except maybe snarly chops Liam Gallagher (and even then, only because my son was into Oasis!) I had to look at my Radio Times (another age indicator?) to see who that wumman was, on for ages: Janet Jackson.
So, my Mudcat friends, who do you recommend at Glastonbury (on this year's list) and who would you like to have seen/see in the future there?

Subject: RE: Review: Glastonbury
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 29 Jun 19 - 05:34 PM

I'd have mainly English folk acts, with some guests from other nations.

Subject: RE: Review: Glastonbury
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 29 Jun 19 - 06:04 PM

I see that Dervish are on, but wonder if they'll make the TV coverage? Will see them in Stonehaven at their Folk Festival anyway.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 03:41 AM

Saw Foals last night and enjoyed that though they are a relatively new act in the scheme of things. For acts who have been around the block.Not seen the set by The Killers yet but will catch it and I believe Pet Shop Boys guest with them. Want to catch Sheryl Crow and also Lauren Hill. And The Cure are on tonight. I have seen them live but must have been about 39 or so years ago.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Acorn4
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 04:56 AM

The Killers put on a good show but is there really any need to expand a three and a half minute pop song to 20 minutes?

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Johnny J
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 05:16 AM

Janet Jackson has been around for a long time, TB. :-))

In the early days, Glastonbury was far more "cutting edge" and "alternative" for want of a better description. I'm sure there's still lots of good music there on the smaller stages but the event is just too big these days to interest me although I've never actally been.

I've got to the age where I actually prefer less choice at a festival. Sometimes it's better just to have one or two concerts happening at any one time albeit that there may still be an opportunity to attend several of them over a weekend. Of course, we still need variety but it's still possible to book several artists for such events and there are enough good musicians, singers, and bands that they don't all need to be back every year either.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Johnny J
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 05:18 AM

It's not just rock festivals either. When I have to navigate The Edinburgh Fringe programme, I lose the will to live and Celtic Connections has also become too "bloated" compared to the early days too.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 05:43 AM

Re the age indicator. Thinking Janet Jackson is a newish act is an enormous age indicator. She had her first UK hit about 35 years ago and hasn't had one for about 17 years. Folk approaching retirement are probably better placed to recognise Janet Jackson than any youngster ??

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 10:05 AM

No, I wasn't thinking that at all, Allan and Johnny J.
Of course I knew that she was one of The Jacksons from way back, once I'd found the name in the RT, and of course I'd heard of her. I just didn't recognise her: but I don't think I ever paid much attention to The Jacksons back in those far-off days!

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 10:17 AM

Btw, just looked up "The Jacksons" and Janet Jackson: she was the youngest and not in the original 5! Wasn't born until 1966. The whole late 70s/80s/90s pop scene is pretty much not on my radar!
And I'm well past retirement now too.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 10:36 AM

"The Killers put on a good show but is there really any need to expand a three and a half minute pop song to 20 minutes?"

Guess you wouldn't be a fan of Led Zeppelin then.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 11:54 AM

Where are the top pop groups like Herman's Hermits and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich...???

That's what us younger mudcatters want to see...

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 11:54 AM

I used to live in Glastonbury, and even then the festival (or "Pilton" as the locals call it - Worthy Farm is in Pilton) never held much attraction to me since the end of the 1970s - it all seemed a bit dull. There have been good local acts, I suppose, but I think that if you want to have the Glastonbury experience then all you need to do is to stand, fully clothed, in the shower listening to (BBC) Radio 2. You'll save yourself a fortune. IMHO.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 12:03 PM

I remember in the late 70s...

Notices on shop and cafe doors & windows stating "NO HIPPIES"...

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Vincent Jones
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 01:30 PM

Ee, those were the days - slightly more bigoted than it is now but with decent music. Even if the more celebrated revelled in the bigotry (Bowie's pro-fascism Playboy interview, Clapton's drunken racist rant).

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 01:45 PM

It wasn't too many years after I saw those notices in Glastonbury,
that local business's cottoned onto how much money
the posh trust fund hippies could spend in the town...

Millfield's not too far from Glasto...

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Vincent Jones
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 02:05 PM

Dead right. I first walked Wainwright's Coast to Coast in the mid-1970s soon after its publication, and noticed the newly-erected "Keep Out" signs in farmers' fields. When I walked it again 20 years ago I was struck by how many of these signs were replaced by invitations to stay for bed and breakfast, use their camping barns and buy their ice cream.

Similarly, a number of Pilton farms become car parks for the weekend.

And Millfield pupils discard their caps, blouses and blazers and put on grunge gear...

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: GUEST,Some bloke
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 02:19 PM

Acoustic stage has been interesting. Pyramid stage does its duty.

Glastonbury overall hits it right with the target audience. Always has.

Mind you, when you are too old to be target, it’s you that has altered, not Glastonbury.

Brilliant celebration of music as ever. Not enough folk? Sure. Not enough {add genre} to suit all.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 02:37 PM

Modern England is a national disgrace:

When office teams go out for a meal they nearly always choose a foreign restaurant, rather than support the few locals who try to make a living with their own culture and food - i.e., home from home food, like you still find in France and Italy, e.g.

The huge majority of English fanatically support a World X1, call it a "Premier" League, then scratch their heads as to why we lose to nationalistic nations such as Croatia and Iceland.

The huge majority of English have been hyped into thinking American pop, rock and (c)rap are somehow above their own good English folk and classical music.

Etc.

My poem, from WalkaboutsVerse, "Nationalism without Conquest"

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 30 Jun 19 - 02:40 PM

Far-right skinhead OI bands don't seem to get a fair representation
on the Glasto line up...???


[..that'll peeve at least one mudcatter...]

..and it looks like 'Britain First' Morrisey has just destroyed any chance he might have ever had of playing there...

I'd guess Johnny Marr is glad to be rid of him...

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 04:30 AM

"Not enough folk?" Was there any ?

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Acorn4
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 04:35 AM

Dervish apparently on Sunday but only a minor venue.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 04:47 AM

Glastonbury is a grand and superbly-managed cultural institution. We can all gripe about something or other to do with it but I prefer to applaud the organisers, especially Emily Eavis. And I could watch Miley and her dad all day long. Well Miley anyway. I'll save my griping for the next two weeks of Britain's professional losers playing a silly game in which grown people hit a furry ball at each other. Come on Tim.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Vincent Jones
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 06:19 AM

>> Glastonbury overall hits it right with the target audience. Always has.

>> Mind you, when you are too old to be target, it’s you that has altered, not Glastonbury.

Fascinating. So someone who hasn't altered (i.e., the "target"), whom Glastonbury has "always hit right", is someone whose tastes encompassed Edgar Broughton (in the 70s), The Style Council (in the 80s), Tom Jones (in the 90s), Rolf Harris (in the noughties) and goes on to listen to Janet Jackson today?

And someone who is too old to be target is someone who found Hawkwind cool in 1970, but doesn't particularly like Kylie Minogue nowadays, and that's because they've let age catch up and are no longer "target"?

Crumbs. It must be all them leylines what keep 'em all inside the target.

Ah, the Isle of Avalon is truly a land of myths.

Glastonbury is indeed a grand and superbly-managed cultural institution (why does that sentence make me think of Groucho Marx?), but so is the state opening of parliament (although the latter is not run by decent, morally astute Methodists with a concern for the planet).

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 06:42 AM

Is it actually possible to not like Kylie much, Vincent? :-)

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 08:26 AM

I'll quote myself from a week and a half old thread...

"Around 1976 or 77 our band of mates took a drive to Glasto
and found a free festival in a field with a band set up on a flat bed lorry..
There wasn't much of an audience.
But there were a few nudey hippy girls walking freely about.
Including two 16 year olds who were our college friends and backing singers...

We were told that was Glastonbury Festival...

The next and only other time I went was I think 1982,
when it had become a colossal sprawling alternative tented city...
More a part of the upper classes organised summer season events calendar
than a free spontaneous hippy happening..."


We'll catch up on a few of the glasto music downloads on BBC catchup
until the July Sumo Wrestling tournament starts next week
on NHK WORLD-JAPAN News channel and app...

..a half hour edited highlights show once a night for 15 days...
with a couple of early morning live shows chucked in as a free bonus...

We started watching it for a laugh and are now hooked..
An intensely exciting sport steeped in traditional Japanese culture...

Trouble is the mrs still loves boring middle class tennis...

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Vincent Jones
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 10:34 AM

>> Is it actually possible to not like Kylie much, Vincent? :-)

:)

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Acorn4
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 01:31 PM

There's a post going around facebook at the moment :-"Survey reveals 75% of people who go to Glastonbury do so so that they can say they've been to Glastonbury" - not sure how true this is but one or two of the posts on here seem to hint that there might be a grain of truth there.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 01:59 PM

Walkaboutverse - Which acts would play at this “mainly English folk acts” festival? Can you name a few names? Aside from Morrissey?

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 04:10 PM

Hi Jim - frankly, I have lost touch a bit the last few years and there are probably some good new acts that I am not aware of but, off the top of my head, The Unthanks; The Young'uns; are Bellowhead still going? Morris Dancers; that good squeeze box player who worked with Martin Carthy; Waterson-Carthy; Jim Causeley..will that do? Anyone care to add others?

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 04:23 PM

Kate Rusby; Bella Hardy...

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 04:24 PM

Walky - errrmmm.. Glasto is not a folk festival...!!!!!

Same as it is no longer accurate to call it a rock festival...

And it is almost 100% certain it will never be a British nationalist festival...

A certain bunch of political thugs tried all that with their own 'family friendly' nationalist folk festival
about a decade ago...

Yes not the most memorable music event ever...

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 04:30 PM

Glastonbury is in England, PFR, so should be a festival of primarily English culture - with some guest musicians from other nations including America.

If you visited the USA, PFR, would you expect to see an English folk festival? So why should we have a festival of primarily American pop, rock, and rap?

Clog dancers...

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 05:35 PM

Walky - you're welcome to put your case to the Eavis family, for what their festival should be...

https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/contact-us/

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 01 Jul 19 - 06:19 PM

Will do, PFR, thanks.

Joe/all: Is it okay to put a link to this thread (https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=166340&messages=34) in for their team to copy/paste to browser? They allow 500 characters.

I'll come back to it tomorrow evening...

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 02 Jul 19 - 07:34 AM

Walky - after you bend Glasto to your will,
next have a go at telling WOMAD how wrong they are doing that sort of unpatriotic thing on British soil...


btw.. the first WOMAD at Shepton Mallet 1982 was the best, most joyous, and last big UK festival I've ever been to...
Though nearly 40 years later I now see the 2019 festival is promoting exclusive glamping areas for the rich poshos...

I've never actually liked huge festivals that much,
I prefer free community celebration fests..
There were loads of really good ones for the 15 years I lived in London.
..and for 10 years since I moved back home to the west country,
the Burnham on Sea free folk fest was the highlight of our summer
Shame that's gone RIP though...
Compare and contrast that kind of low key fun local experience
at one of the least loved lowest ranked UK seaside resorts,
to bloated over hyped nearby mythical Glastonbury....
or very middle class inaccessible for public transport Priddy folk festival...

Mind, it helped having a relative near Burnham who provided a free spare bedroom for the festival weekend...

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 02 Jul 19 - 12:40 PM

You'll have to scratch that Martin Carthy from the bill,I read somewhere on Mudcat he had Irish heritage. Can't have that on dear ol' Blighty soil, eh?

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 02 Jul 19 - 02:28 PM

You have misunderstood me - having majored in anthropology and travelled through about 40 countries, I doubt anybody loves our world being multicultural more than me and, thus, I like the idea of WOMAD celebrating our world's many forms of music, arts and dance, and would love to attend such a festival HERE.

But where I differ from the status quo here is in a strong belief that our own good English culture should remain a part of our multicultural United Nations and, thus, am anti-globalisation/Americanisation.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Jack Campin
Date: 02 Jul 19 - 02:47 PM

They've found a body in a tent.

Sorry, but murder at a pop festival has been done before (Peter Robinson, Piece if my Heart). But that was in Yorkshire.

Is there a crime writer who specializes in the area around Glastonbury?

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 02 Jul 19 - 02:48 PM

Walky - I'm happy to accept you are a good guy at heart..

But the stuff you write here certainly does not discourage bad guys
who do believe in the kind of hard nationalism,
that you are perhaps naively promoting...???

Your words can easily be taken too literally as their kind of propaganda..

That's why I, and others, take the p1ss...
.. banter between mudcat mates.....

If you don't want folks to think you are a wrong kind of nationalist,
maybe try not to sound so much like one...???

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Jul 19 - 03:02 PM

But where I differ from the status quo here is in a strong belief that our own good English culture should remain a part of our multicultural United Nations

I can't think of anyone on here who doesn't think that! Can you give us any examples of this alleged "status quo" that believes our own culture should be lost?

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 02 Jul 19 - 03:13 PM

I think a lot in England now are going through life not knowing how good and enjoyable English folk among our other traditions can be.

I questioned someone who spoke with an English accent then sung with an American/"mid-Atlantic" accent and they were not even aware of doing so.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 02 Jul 19 - 05:20 PM

As PFR said Glasto is not a folk festival anyway. Even if it was though there is nothing wrong with welcoming music from all over the world. It does not affect you celebrating your own culture and roots and indeed even the connections between your own culture and the likes of Americana. Why the negativity?

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 02 Jul 19 - 05:51 PM

It's gone from one extreme to another here in England, Allan:

100 years ago, English lording it over every other culture to, nowadays, preferring every other culture to our own - cuisine, music, etc - as I said above. That IS a negative.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 02 Jul 19 - 05:58 PM

And, when people lose their own culture, society suffers; or in verse - "People Lose"

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Jul 19 - 01:36 AM

So, no examples then, Walkaboutverse? I am aware of one English person on here who sometimes sings in an American accent. I don't like it but it is hardly rife in the folk world, let alone on here. As to preferring every other culture to our own - Pifle! I like world music, culture and cuisine. I like European music, culture and cuisine. I like English music, culture and cuisine. It is not an either/or situation. We have the wonderful situation that we can enjoy the best of all worlds. If you seriously believe that something is better just because it is English, then you are what is referred to as a supremacist and I feel sorry for you.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 03 Jul 19 - 02:30 AM

One of my slight gripes about this site is that there is so rarely anything about music which is not from, or derived from, the British Isles. There is a fantastic amount of traditional music from Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, even Australia, and we never discuss it, apart from the occasional post from Kerboxeru. Alan Lomax understood this, he collected traditional music from all over the world.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 03 Jul 19 - 03:39 AM

Our greatest cultural figures have always thrived on interaction with other cultures. Shakespeare wrote a lot about Italy, and almost certainly spent time there. Turner studied at the Louvre and spent a lot of time in Venice. Elgar visited Leipzig and wished to study there, but couldn't afford it. Handel was an immigrant from Germany. Culture is always about interaction.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 03 Jul 19 - 02:21 PM

"If you seriously believe that something is better just because it is English, then you are what is referred to as a supremacist and I feel sorry for you."...you yourself, Dave, would admit that is ridiculous if you had read my life's work.

For a start, I repatriated out of support for Aboriginal Land Rights - I hate imperialism whether it is Roman, German, American or English; I love our world/our United Nations being multicultural and want English culture in England to remain a part of that.

When I visited Barcelona last year and Rome this year, I didn't have any English food; rather, in Barcelona, I enjoyed a nice vegetable paella and a glass of sangria, with a performance of flamenco - there are MANY places in Spain where one can have such an experience but how many in England where one can have a nice roast, and a gin and tonic whilst watching Morris or clog dancing? I rest my case.

Subject: RE: Glastonbury
From: David Carter (UK)
Date: 03 Jul 19 - 02:22 PM

Still no examples Walkabouts Verse? I am curious to find out from you (or anyone) what "English cusine" might be.