25 June 2005: Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset, England
From WikiColdplay
Setlist
- Square One
- Politik
- Yellow
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
- Speed Of Sound
- Low
- Warning Sign
- Everything’s Not Lost
- White Shadows
- The Scientist
- ’Til Kingdom Come
- Don’t Panic
- Clocks
- Swallowed In The Sea
Encore
Reviews
So, as you may have heard from my constant and annoying tendency to keep mentioning it… I went to Glastonbury. This is my full account of how amazing the weekend was…. I will try and keep it relatively short as I could seem like I am boasting or just make people jealous if I ramble on and on. Thursday
At 9.00 I had my last A-level exam. It went a bit shit actually, I thought it would be easy as it was only General studies, oh well, we then had a very long train journey. We got there and after much deliberation pitched our tent quite near the other stage, about half way up the hill. Went and looked round the site as the sun was setting, it was so hot, and the site was so huge, we barely looked at anything, but still saw loads. Went and saw the pyramid stage, and this is when I actually realized just how lucky we were. Having seen this on TV for years, we were now right in front of the legendary stage itself…. We got back up to the tent at 1ish all prepared for the next day… but we weren’t prepared for what happened next…
Friday
Didn’t sleep brilliantly on the really firm ground (hadn’t rained for a month before the festival) so woke up at about 5 to the sound of thunder and torrential rain. It was extremely windy too, which concerned me more in a way – the tent could withstand rain but it could have been blown away quite easily, or so I feared.
At about 8 the rain slowed down and the storm seemed to have passed. It was very wet outside with a bit of mud, but not that bad in comparison to what was to come. We made our way down to the other stage area, to explore further. However, having got there, the storm circled back overhead. We stuck it out for a bit, but as we realized it was fork lightning not sheet lightning, and rumours of beer tents being sliced in two spread, we decided to get a drink inside a breakfast tent, til it cleared up. Half an hour later, and it had only got worse. We made our way back to our tent, through the hardest ran I have ever witnessed, and living in the north that is some feat! We were drenched by the time we had got to the tent. Joe had bought wellies, but I wasn’t going to pay £15 for a pair, so I made do with my soggy trainers. It was only a bit of water, wasn’t it?
At that stage it was…. The rain only got worse though, and we were quite miserable, sitting in our tent, soaked and a bit disappointed. However, at about 12 the rain seemed to stop, I looked out of the tent, and as I did so, a huge cheers rang out. Everyone in the entire place had realized the rain was over and the sound of their jubilation echoed around the hills. It was quite magical. 10 minutes later, the bright sunshine pierced the clouds; this was greeted by an even louder cheer.
We again left our tent, but we only had to travel a few 100 metres to witness the result of such a downpour. Apart from being slippy everywhere, as we reached the bottom of the hill, an area was cordoned off, with about 4 foot of water lying on the land, and about 50 portaloos floating in it (queue the ‘floater’ jokes please)… it was worse nearer the stage, as I had to wade through water up to my knees, and there wasn’t a bit of grass to be seen – it seemed bizarre to think how green the whole place was. My shoes were quickly ruined and my legs soaked – the thick mud was so heavy stuck to my shoes though. The pictures describe better how soaked it was, but there was so much devastation. Whole tents were submerged, and it would only get worse as more people trampled across the land. However, I did not care, for the bands were to go ahead, slightly late, and we made our way to the pyramid stage, rather excited…
The Undertones, Pyramid Stage Opened the festival, I actually knew a lot more of their stuff than I realized. Jimmy Jimmy was fantastic, but the obvious highlight was Teenage Kicks, obviously dedicated to John Peel. Really brilliant actually, perfect band to start the festival.
John Butler trio, Pyramid Stage I knew very little about this band, but was very impressed. The lead guy was an excellent guitarist and their songs were quite good, even if they were a bit long sometimes!
The Thrills, Pyramid Stage One of my highlights of the festival. Having not seen them before, but hearing such great things about them (mostly from Aaron!) I expected a lot. And got it. They played a mixture of stuff from their two albums, and that Connor really knows how to work a crowd. Could have picked any song as a highlight, but probably The Irish Keep Gate-Crashing was the best… incredible.
Elvis Costello, Pyramid Stage Actually, really good, didn’t know too many songs, but still ace. Joe was on TV during his set, so that was an added bonus really. Proved what a great songwriter he is.
Bloc Party, Other Stage I love Bloc Party, but I was most disappointed with their set out of the whole weekend. Part of the trouble was the speakers; they were a bit rubbish, probably broken by the weather! I was quite far back too, which never helps. But when Bloc Party played their best songs they were brilliant – Banquet was ace – but, as with the album, there were a few filler tracks in there.
Doves, Pyramid Stage Only saw the last few songs, but deserve an individual review just to say how special There Goes The Fear was. I have always wanted to see it played live, and it lived up to all expectations. One of the greatest songs ever written – just loved it when everyone sings “Close your brown eyes/and lay down next to me” or “think of me when he’s coming down/think of when your leaving town, tonight”.
The Killers, Pyramid Stage Stunning. Everyone singing along, played everything off their album, showed they could easily and probably should have headlined the Sunday night, Brandon Flowers was on top form. The set even managed to convert Joe! One of the best of the weekend.
White Stripes, Pyramid Stage I’ve never really loved the White Stripes, I think their album sound as if they have taken four weeks or whatever to record, and I know that’s the point, but not many of the songs or lyrics are that special to me. A lot of the time, I am left thinking, “If a band of 5 people did this, people would feel it was average, why should the White Stripes get away with it just cos there are only 2 of them?!”. However, the live set was particularly good, and you then appreciated how talented they both were really to sound that good with just two of them. What made it special though was the relationship between Jack and Meg. They were in sync for everything, even though most of it felt improvised and Jack White proved how talented he is. Although not as talented as Chris Martin obviously, because no one is, apart from possibly Thom Yorke. Anyway, tangent there – White Stripes = amazing. Waded back to the tent to try and clear at least some mud off before the next day.
Saturday
Saturday was the day I was most looking forward to, not because of Coldplay, but it had the best line up all round. Still very muddy though!
Deadbeats, Other Stage New band to me, well, had heard of them, but first time listening to their music. They were rather cool, may get the album. Sounded like a serious version of The Coral.
Engineers, Other Stage Disappointing really. They were good, but I went to see them on the back of their reputation as being a good Coldplay-esque band, but they just came across a bit samey really. They were good, but it had just been all done before.
Martha Wainwright, Acoustic Tent The first of three performances from Martha I saw over the weekend is in the acoustic tent. We were quite near the back, but her powerful voice was brilliant and loads of people went to see her, making it even more atmospheric inside one of the smaller tents.
The Stands, Other Stage Heard a few songs by them before, was extremely impressed, might be another purchase for me then!
KT Tunstall, Other Stage Wahoo, she did the pedal thing! Which was brilliant. A good set by her, but I’m not that big a fan of female singer songwriters so not one of the highlights of the weekend. Still really good. Athlete, Other Stage Just superb. Everyone singing, amazing set from one of my favourite bands. Break in the middle for ‘The Moment’ where everyone held hands to make poverty history, was a bit of an anti-climax really. We all held hands, cheered for a few seconds, and then let go, would have been a bit better at the main stage really, to see Sir Bob Geldof. However, then we would have missed Joel from Athlete’s amazing speech, followed by one of the best sing-a-longs all weekend – Wires. The end of Athlete’s set was the highlight though; as streamers fired everywhere, the band unloaded boxes and boxes off yellow balls with Athlete printed on them, which were then kicked into the crowd, which was so crazy but amazing. Unfortunately didn’t get one, but that might be a blessing as to carry that around all day would have been a bit awkward!
The Futureheads, Other Stage Amazing also, played almost every song of their debut album, really worked the crowd; any song could have been a highlight. The banter between the band was rife, the crowd loved them and best of all they played Danger Of The Water and First Day, and they were absolutely amazing. Probably third best of the weekend, they were really that brilliant!
The Coral, Pyramid Stage Just caught the end of this, looked quite good. They played Dreaming Of You too, which was a bit of justification for a couple of years back at V2003, when Joe and I waited 15 minutes for them to play it, and all they did was play a huge instrumental!
Keane, Pyramid Stage Brilliant, everyone singing, played a new song which was great, love this band, cannot wait til the next album. My voice got knackered round about now! Closed with Bedshaped, what an amazing song. The thing that made it special was you got the feeling both band and audience were just so delighted to be there, and you can never go wrong with that combination.
New Order, Pyramid Stage We pushed our way forward in anticipation of Coldplay, but we still had to endure this set first. Shouldn’t have been so high up the bill – especially not sandwiched between Keane and Coldplay. Felt out of place, often embarrassing themselves – rather than walk on stage triumphantly, the first thing he said was “Can you turn me up a bit” to the tech, before addressing the crowd. The worst bit was when Peter Hook (I think that is the bassist name) came off the stage and strutted in front of the railings holding the crowd back as if he were some kind of legend. Got no reception at all, and just looked like a twat! The songs I knew were ok, and a guest performance be Ana Matronic from Scissor Sisters was cool, but overall they were bit shite. Their last song was ace though – World In Motion, the world cup song – whole crowd bellowing “we singing for England, eng-er-land” was ace; however, it was almost as if the band had to rely on such a gimmick to get a reaction, especially as they brought on a dancing cow during the song.
Coldplay, Pyramid Stage Where do I start? There really are no superlatives capable of describing this set. There were so many brilliant performances over the weekend – however, Coldplay managed to make every single other band look mediocre. Beginning, as I predicted, with Square One, Politik, Yellow, they played a range of songs off each album, and Chris was in top form, with hilarious quips and several Buckland love-in comments. We were so close, and during Everything’s Not Lost, the BBC showed one of the only close-ups of the audience and in the centre of the picture, in my bright blue athlete tee shirt, was me bellowing out the words, glancing at Joe, then continuing, all with a great big smile on my face. We have it on tape; it will be kept forever probably! I have had millions of people texting me to tell me they saw me, it’s quite cool – feel like a D-list celebrity or something.
Could have picked anything as a highlight – White Shadows was ace, Clocks was as good as ever, especially with a new intro, Don’t Panic (during the acoustic part of the set) was chilling, and obviously the Kylie cover of “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” was so special.
But it probably has to go to Fix You, which closed the set. Chris started swinging this light around, faster and faster, until as the guitars kicked in he threw it away and fireworks exploded in the air. It was perfect. They didn’t play loads of the songs you would have thought they would, but still brilliant – no Trouble, Shiver, Talk, What If, A Rush Of Blood, Amsterdam or Twisted Logic. Yet everything was perfect, and we went back to the tent just in a state of awe that words just cannot describe.
Sunday
After Coldplay, the whole day could have been an anti-climax. It wasn’t but nothing could compare to Chris, Jonny, Guy and Will the previous night!
Martha Wainwright, Other Stage Preferred this performance to the one at the Acoustic stage, but only as we were nearer. Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole is such an amazing song – even without the mad swearing at the end it would be special. But the swearing makes it better! Will go buy her album for sure now (when I have more money – Glastonbury has sapped it all!)
Brendon Benson, Other Stage Heard a lot about him, was very good. May get his album when I have more money!
Thirteen Senses, Other Stage One of my favourite bands, their album is the best debut I have heard since Parachutes, but live they were only good. Not stunning. Probably cos hardly anyone went to see them, and no-one knew many songs, still good though, and very pleased to have got to seen them.
Van Morrison, Pyramid Stage Met up with a friend during this set, went and sat on the hill, now drying up after glorious sunshine all day, and it was really relaxed, drinking nice cold Budweiser (the only drink all weekend that was chilled!) and chatting to friends, and singing the ones we knew. He was brilliant, will be listening to my dad’s albums by him more often now!
Jem, John Peel Tent Only new a few songs, but very good all the same! And she is fit.
Rufus Wainwright, Other Stage Seen him a couple of times before, he is always a great performer. Didn’t think he suited a festival too well though, his gigs were better, still good though, and Martha cropped up too. What was Rufus wearing though? I know he always tries to be different, but this was the most garish suit I have ever seen!
Tori Amos, Acoustic stage She is such a talent, and despite knowing very few songs I really enjoyed it al the same. It was just her too, the only artist to do that all weekend, as far as I saw!
Bright Eyes, John Peel Tent I loved both of Bright Eyes albums this year, and I would love him to have played a mixture of the acoustic and electronic stuff, but given that he toured them separately I thought that was doubtful, and in the end, he stuck to just the Digital Ash stuff. The actual songs were brilliantly done, culminating in him smashing everything up during the last song.
However, the interaction between songs was weird – he is either crazy or was absolutely off his head. At times he was asking a technician why his guitar wasn’t working, only for a tech guy to run on and just plug it in for him! And he kept saying things like “Woo we’re making poverty history”, “By the end of this song John Peel will be alive again, and poverty will be history, so if you like Poverty, you’re fucked”.
He antagonized the audience loads, many of whom had come thinking he was Ryan Adams (Adams pulled out and Bright Eyes replaced), by saying things like “Get your MasterCard and your visa, on in each hand, slap them together.” He did apologise at the end, after a naked girl climbed on to stage and appeared to bite his neck for ages before she was removed. Interesting anyway, he just looked gone out, until she stopped and he went back to being crazier. Musically, however, brilliant, although his voice didn’t carry though as well as on the album. Debatable as to whether going to see Basement Jaxx would have been better – although, as Joe put it, I wouldn’t have paid to go see the Jaxx in concert, I wo9uld for Bright Eyes, so that sort of justifies my decision.
So thats the end of the review really, if you read it cheers, i am sorry for being boring!
[thanks EasyToPlease]
