I used to go every year - I well remember my friend Marc Bolan at an early one - but after the third year of mud I arrived in the Rolls, stepped out into two feet of black slime; sat back down on the driving seat with my legs protruding; removed shoes, socks, trousers and threw them away (having emptied my pockets); replaced my bare feet into the car, slammed the door shut and drove straight back to London.

I've never been since; just watched it on TV (the best years were Peely and Jo sending each other up backstage).

No reports from anyone there - but I've caught some of the TV coverage and hated it; live gigs tend to be badly balanced and out of tune. Jimmy Cliff was way out of tune; looked elderly and those cute dance steps when he was young look sad and fumbling in his 60s; one keyboard player was doing a fiddly riff in the wrong key; the only thing was being impressed by the quantity of good tunes he wrote.

The one thing about the live experience is the shared vibe; when you're not there (listening or TV) you spot the errors without the atmosphere.

There is a solution to the poor sound balancing and out-of-tune performers: get some professional session musicians backstage to play the parts for them; this way they could mime to their hearts' content and give us all the exciting onstage antics we love and expect from our favourite bands.

I remember hearing years ago that this was quite a commonplace practice, especially in the early seventies with the likes of the Bay City Rollers and Slade. I'm sure you can tell us more. KGK...

"get some professional session musicians backstage to play the parts for them"
This is still happening today but for different reasons. When Bono isn't playing guitar U2 are a 3 piece band and as such they could never recreate all the soundscapes they put on their albums. They decided some time ago to only appear on stage as themselves without any extra musicians. What they do is have someone behind or below the stage filling in parts when required. I think if they played to tapes that wouldn't be acceptable but hiding someone is (probably) justified to keep the on stage dynamics consistent.

How was Beyonce?

From what I saw on TV and have heard this morning - She nailed it.

She obviously realised or was told what an important gig it was for her and she did her homework and lots of rehearsal and got it right. It's not easy for a pop act to win over a festival crowd but thats what she did. A couple of select cover versions (Kings of Leon, Alanis Morisette) helped plus attention to detail on the staging (eg showing backstage footage of Wayne Rooney). I think this will keep her up there with Ladt Gaga as a star whose crossover success goes upwards in the credible scale and not downwards.
She took a gamble by opening up with her two biggest hits but that got everyone on her side and after that they were putty in her hands.
Well done Girl!

She wasn't at all averse to letting us all know how much she supports Barack Obama. I hope that hasn't put you off her Ken.

Celebrity name drop: did anyone see Gwyneth Paltrow enjoying herself in the wings?

Her music isn't really my cup of tea but I do understand why the younger generation adores her so much.

I was at Glastonbury on Sunday, so I missed the rain. Don McLean had a couple of duff notes but for a live gig he was really good. I had to leave his show early because I had to catch part if the Wombles. Wow, they haven't aged at all. I could only watch from outside the tent because it was packed. Then my Dad told me that the guy playing guitar was Chris Spedding. (blank looks from my brother and me, but I googled him now). I'm not sure why he wasn't in costume like the others.

I was well impressed with the Hurts. You have to experience them to fully appreciate them. I had school the next day so I wasn't sure why my father wanted to stay for Kool & The Gang but we did. They were Awsome, really enjoyable. I didn't expect such high quality stuff from them. I guess I learned a lesson on music appreciation.

Quite possibly the best way to reach the widest audience possible is to duet, guest etc. with other artists thus combining each artists fan-bases (in theory). Most artists play this trump card a few times in their career whereas Beyonce has done it to such an extent I'm surprised her fans haven't disowned her. Talk about a total sell out:

Jay-Z
Sean Paul
Shakira
Amil
Luther Vandross
Alejandro Fernández
Justin Timberlake
Usher
Lil Wayne
Alicia
Lady Gaga
Missy Elliott
P. Diddy
Stevie Wonder
Kanye West

There's probably more....

In brief, U2 were astonishing with Bono in the best voice -a throw back to the 80's with The Achtung Baby material sounding fresh and memorable.

Coldplay threw everything at their performance and the crowd loved them. Still not a great frontman Chris Martin , nor a singer in Bono's league but the set worked well.

Elbow were too laid back but again the crowd loved them .

Beyonce was outstandingly good , with her choice of songs and dynamic stagecraft. As suggested earlier in this thread she was savvy enough to work out carefully in advance what would work and so delivered brilliantly.

Apart from Lauren Laverne, the presenters were uniformly dreadful , particulary Zane Lowe and Mark Ratcliffe, nil charisma, smug , arrogant and often plain wong. Why do the BBC perist in using these rank awful DJ's who have no tv experience or training.

Thank you Bunk; it's good to hear from genuine music lovers.

JK2006 wrote:
Thank you Bunk; it's good to hear from genuine music lovers.

..and the rest of us aren't?

Oh no Blue Boy - thank you too; but there is a dearth on all music forums (just check Record of the Day Glasto threads).