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The Music Thread

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Yeah, I'm definitely getting it right away. And I too bought The Slip, and I love it, but it does have a different feel to it from the others. There is nothing NIN has done that I haven't enjoyed, even one off movie tracks (Perfect Drug, Deep, Burn).

 

Gotta say though, The Fragile gets the most playtime from me though.

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This song is absolutely wonderful. If you haven't, do yourself a favour and give it a listen.

 

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Glastonburrrrrrrryyyyy! I warn you, long post is long.

 

The Dream

 

Almost a year ago now, I contemplated the idea of going to Glastonbury for the very first time. My school finished on the same day that all the big bands would start playing on the Friday. So, I patiently waited on that Sunday morning when tickets went on sale and I managed to bag myself one and an additional one for the Ine.

 

The excitement continued to rise when two of my favourite bands decided that they were going to play: Crystal Castles and the legendary Smashing Pumpkins.

 

The Journey

 

Getting there was fine. I have recently bought a new car and was worried about it getting trashed, or having trouble with queuing getting into and out of the car park, or something or other. In the end, it all turned out fine. Getting in there on Friday afternoon was a doddle and leaving on Sunday night only took an additional 15 minutes when added to the drive back.

 

998826_10200954548280255_285057818_n.jpg

 

As I don't like camping, we also booked ourselves in a lovely little apartment that was about 35 minutes away. Getting out of the car park each day and getting there was easy. We literally just strolled right in. I was expecting much more of a hassle and was pleasantly surprised when this didn't seem to materialise.

 

The Layout

 

Fuuuuck, this place is massive. I had grossly underestimated how big or large this place is. There are one or two places we didn't get around to seeing, but it could easily take you 20 or 30 minutes just to walk from one side or another. My feet were officially dead at the end of each night. Saturday and Sunday morning were also very warm, which meant you also had that to contend with.

 

The walk from the car park can take about 30 minutes in itself. You basically have a number of "important" stages, and then lots and lots of smaller ones that can house smaller bands. For example, there's the main stage (Pyramid) which is where Mumford and Sons played, and the Other Stage where bands such as Foals or The Smashing Pumpkins played. In addition to that, you had the John Peel Stage where Crystal Castles played a blinding set and the Avalon where Newton Faulkner performed.

 

1045114_10200954553080375_1585404790_n.jpg - the legendary John Peel Stage

 

485409_10200954552840369_1876518728_n.jpg - some weird random jungle music stage

 

8869_10200954553680390_1147873049_n.jpg

 

1003439_10200954555080425_699761318_n.jpg - The Other Stage

 

Due to the scheduling of some of the bands, it did mean you would have to leave some performances early to get yourself into a good spot for the next band on another stage. We had this problem on the last night where I wanted to see the Pumpkins on the Other Stage and then Mumford and Sons on the Pyramid, but they're about 10 minutes apart. So, we missed the first few minutes of that. We also tried to go and see The Vaccines on William's Green, but that was an epic trek to get to and by the time we got there, we were told that it was full and nobody else could get in to see.

 

The Food and the Facilities

 

First off, the food there is pretty great. There's just about anything you can eat there. Lovely, tasty pizza, chinese or thai food, pastas, indian food, wraps. It's all good. You've also got the added bonus of being able to take your own stuff in, so you can save a bit of money that way. We definitely saved quite a bit on drinks this way.

 

999670_10200954550240304_584835903_n.jpg

 

The downside for this segment has to be with the toilets. They are your typical festival toilets, except that the men who went to their section were a bit disgusting. There are blue sheets which go around the outside of the men's toilet section, and there are urinals that you can queue up for. Some men (quite a lot actually) were deciding to piss directly onto the blue sheets, which would seep through the ground and could run through the outside section. Pretty disgusting, but that's men for you.

 

The Music

 

This is the reason why we all want to go. For the music.

 

I had work on Friday, so we didn't get through the gates until around 6. This meant that we had missed the Lumineers and The Vaccines, both are bands that we had wanted to see. However, we did get to watch Foals on the Other Stage who put on a really, really good show. We had overheard them playing on another festival and decided that in the future we would try to see them. They were brilliant and I'll definitely be looking into more of their stuff from now on.

 

1043967_10200954549480285_2124087720_n.jpg

 

1000077_10200954549160277_2035295276_n.jpg - somebody lighting a flare during Foals.

 

 

After Foals, the big one: Crystal Castles on the John Peel Stage. Absolutely mind blowing. Their light shows must have been designed to cause Epileptic Fits. Brilliant. I was buzzing by the end of this and really, really enjoyed what I had saw. There were two downsides: First off, there were sound problems beforehand, so they were late coming on. As a result of this, they had played a shorter set and so we only got around a 45/50 minute set list. But, it was 50 minutes of heaven.

 

1005251_10200954549840294_1564484901_n.jpg

 

We spent much of Friday just getting used to the layout and finding our feet, as it was a lot to take in.

 

Saturday morning/early afternoon saw us head to the main stage/Pyramid to see Ben Howard. I knew nothing about this man and so didn't know what to expect. The sun was baking, so it was a bright festival mood, which helped his performance. I thought he put on a really good show and I'll be looking into some more of his stuff now.

 

998006_10200954553920396_487369765_n.jpg - Ben Howard

 

After this, we headed to the Other Stage to see Noah and the Whale. In general, they're ok, but not reallllly my sort of thing. They played a cover of Daft Punk's Digital Love which was sweet. The downside was that as we were quite a way back, the wind was messing up some of the sound and it didn't sound as great as it could have been.

 

We headed towards the John Peel Stage, with our ciders in hand, to go and see Johnny Marr, one of my heroes from The Smiths. He was fantastic! He put on a really good show of his own and didn't just try to hide in the shadows on The Smiths. The crowd inside the tent got on his side helped to create a lovely atmosphere.

 

1003831_10200954555800443_623455619_n.jpg - Johnny Marrrrrrr

 

This is when shit started to get serious. It was soon before The Rolling Stones were going to head to the main stage/Pyramid, a band that I loathe and didn't want to see. Before they went on, Primal Scream were hijacking the Pyramid and played a good set of their own. As we weren't terribly close, we found that there were pockets of fans, but a lot of people were also stood around chatting, waiting for the Stones. The set list was good and they played some excellent tunes that I love. Country Girl got a good cheer, as did Rocks and Come Together, where they were joined with the lovely HAIM. :D

 

1002384_10200954557920496_792900486_n.jpg - Primal Scream

 

As most people were staying to watch the Stones, we headed in the opposite direction to The Avalon and went to go and watch the terribly under-rated Newton Faulkner. Fuuuuuuuuck! A very, very, very strong contender for performance of the weekend. Blew me and Ine away. Every song he performed was sung along with by the people of the Avalon tent and every member of the crowd was on his side. He gave a kick arse performance of Tear Drop, Dream Catch Me (which was godly) and his own one man version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, something that needs to be seen in the flesh to be believed. Just...oh my God. Due to this sublime performance, we missed part of Example playing their set, but it was really worth it.

 

1006261_10200954558440509_1910758062_n.jpg - The Unbelievably Good Newton Faulkner.

 

Shortly after this finished, we wandered over to the Other Stage and saw Example playing the tail end of their set. Brilliant performance and the crowd were hyped and pumped up. They finished with Changed The Way You Kiss Me, which just kicked so much arse.

 

1044185_10200954560160552_1166275842_n.jpg - Example. We started off towards the back, went in for a bit and then left to get some food before Hurts.

 

To round off a good day, we headed back over to the faithful John Peel Stage to watch Hurts, a band that Ine had been pestering me to see, convincing me that they were good. In short, they were fucking awesome and gave another stand out performance. We found our way close to the front of the stage, with tons of obviously huge fans who knew their songs inside out. They were awesome, almost on a par with Crystal Castles for me with their light show and thumping basslines. Definitely a band I'm now going to have to look at a bit more to find more tunes.

 

That was pretty much it for Saturday, along with tons of wandering around, getting into the spirit of things, passing by other stages and taking a listen. We passed the BBC Introducing Stage and saw the end of a performance by somebody called Indiana. A bit of a shame we didn't hear this earlier as it sounded quite nice, but that may have to wait for another time.

 

So, Sunday...didn't get off to a great start as we managed to suffer a double whammy of a blow. The Vaccines were at William's Green and the stage was completely full. So packed that there were a flashing sign telling us that it was full. Gutted. Things got worse a few minutes later as we passed by the BBC Introducing Stage again...the XX had just finished their surprised set. Had we been 10 minutes sooner, we would have seen this. Also, to add insult to injury, there was a typo in the program notes which meant that there was a clash between the XX and Mumford and Sons, which meant that we couldn't see them tonight either. Fucutuifjertoijewfifguerifkjnefiuweceu!

 

Once again, we walked over to the John Peel Stage to see another performer. This time it was Tom Odell, again somebody I didn't know a lot about. The stage was packed and it was a bit of a trek trying to get out afterwards. The set was good though, and I can imagine that I'll be listening to more of his songs at some point in the future.

 

A big one next, Of Monsters and Men, at The Other Stage, which is where we spent a big part of our day. Completely fucking awesome from start to finish. We were right in the thick of it and the crowd played their part really, really well. They finished off with an epic performance of Six Weeks. I strongly urge everyone to check out their music if you haven't. Another Icelandic Gem. :D

 

998845_10200954568040749_621905087_n.jpg - Of Monsters and Men

 

We took a little break after this to get some food and then stood around to watch The Editors on the Other Stage. They're a difficult act to watch because they came on right after Of Monsters and Men and right before The Smashing Pumpkins, and due to their type of music, you can't really sing along or get into as much live. Still, they were good and definitely worth seeing. But, in my mind, they were just filler between Of Monsters and The Pumpkins.

 

Shit gets serious, Volume II: The Smashing Pumpkins. Oh My GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! Performance of the weekend for me. They even fucked up at the start where Billy's microphone didn't work except for one specific line, which was fittingly "RIGHT ON!" Sweet Jesus. The crowd completely lost it during the midway trilogy of Disarm, Tonight, Tonight and Bullet with Butterfly Wings. So many awesome moments during this gig. I was very close to tears during Tonight. One of the best bands I've ever seen live. :D

 

1044881_10200954568880770_1935752196_n.jpg - The Smashing Pumpkinsssss

 

Unfortunately, due to the time conflicts, we ended up missing the first few minutes of Mumford and Sons. We've seen them before, at Pukkelpop in Belgium where they played in the Marquee and were awesome. They've grown in popularity since then, which meant that we were on the edge of things and only had access to the big screens that were on the side of the Pyramid stage. They were still completely awesome, especially during the encore of Babel and The Cave, the latter of which was out of this world. For me, I will still remember them in that tent at Pukkelpop, but the finale (particularly The Cave) is one of the definite highlights of the weekend for me.

 

1017104_10200954568800768_1419507467_n.jpg - another flare, this time during Mumford and Sons, who were excellent.

 

This has taken me about an hour and a bit to type up. :o Thanks for your timeeee.

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This has taken me about an hour and a bit to type up. :o Thanks for your timeeee.

 

..and yet I've just scrolled right to the bottom so I could post about something that noone will even care about.. except maybe you, ironically :indeed:

 

It was so good to have Bloc Party back again last year as I find it extremely difficult to find any music I like. It doesn't seem to matter what those guys do, though, as it always seems to do the business :yay:

 

They're releasing an EP in August (YAY :bouncy:) before they take some more indefinite time off (BOO :cry:)

 

Here's the first song from Nextwave Sessions called 'Ratchet'..

 

 

I hope the 4 other songs deliver too as I may be without decent music for the forseeable future.. unless Charlie Simpson's follow up to Young Pilgrim is as excellent as his first solo album!

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I'm absolutely obsessed with this lately. Plus, she is stunning.

 

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Yes Slaggis. YES.

 

I do love Delta. We even have a Delta thread somewhere!

 

Heart Hypnotic is a slight disappointment for me though as I feel she could do so much better. It's got that generic dance beat throughout which I think is beneath Delta.

But it does show she can do uptempo too!

 

Love me some Child of the Universe too!

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..and yet I've just scrolled right to the bottom so I could post about something that noone will even care about.. except maybe you, ironically :indeed:

 

It was so good to have Bloc Party back again last year as I find it extremely difficult to find any music I like. It doesn't seem to matter what those guys do, though, as it always seems to do the business :yay:

 

They're releasing an EP in August (YAY :bouncy:) before they take some more indefinite time off (BOO :cry:)

 

Here's the first song from Nextwave Sessions called 'Ratchet'..

 

 

I hope the 4 other songs deliver too as I may be without decent music for the forseeable future.. unless Charlie Simpson's follow up to Young Pilgrim is as excellent as his first solo album!

 

Song is awesome, dude. I wish Bloc Party would stop messing about with "oh, we're a band. And now we're not again, lolz!" and just make some music and TOUR.

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So Muse played a small gig in Japan the other day, here's a setlist:

 

Agitated

Dead Star

Micro Cuts

Futurism

Fury

Liquid State

Hyper Music

New Born

Yes Please

---------------------

Uprising

Time Is Running Out

Plug In Baby

---------------------

What's He Building? (Tom Waits song)

Panic Station

Supermassive Black Hole

Can't Take My Eyes Off You (Frankie Valli cover)

Starlight

 

And the reason for the crazy setlist? Matt Bellamy tweeted this afterwards...

 

"Hey, relax; that's was just a rehearsal for our 20 year anniversary tour!"

 

..AWWWW YEEEEAAAAH!!!!! :yay:

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