This summer I ticked of a major "Bucket List" item by attending the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts in Somerset, England. My brother and his wife arranged for the the highly sought after tickets. They agreed to pick me up in Manchester, England. They also arranged for camping equipment for me. Logistically, they came through in a big way!
Glastonbury is probably the world's premiere contemporary music festival, and I have been wanting to go for over a decade. The festival has about a half dozen stages, and many more dance tents and smaller venues. The site is blocked off by an 8-9 mile perimeter fence and divided up into various areas or neighborhoods with themes. There is the Pyramid Stage (the Main Stage), the Other Stage (the secondary stage), the Avalon Stage, the John Peel Stage, etc.
Check out Radiohead's 1997 set at the festival that sold me on Glastonbury. Bands typically go all out by putting together a tight set that appeals to the masses (read greatest hits rather than new stuff they may be promoting). Couple that with fans as far as the eye can see, multiple stages, and an atmosphere of "collective togetherness" and it makes for a memorable weekend.
Here is the list of the bands that appeared on just the four biggest stages, there is no way one could see them all over the course of the Friday-Sunday festival.
Pyramid Stage
The Other Stage
West Holts Stage
The John Peel Stage
One the first day, I was focused on seeing U2 so I hung out at the Pyramid Stage all afternoon and into the evening. U2 has never headlined Glastonbury. They were supposed to headline last year, but Bono hurt his back. They flew in from touring North America on their 360 tour. I saw this tour 3 times in 2009. I am a big fan. True to form, U2 played an awesome set, although I can't stand that "Get On Your Boots" song even with it mixed up. I had never heard them play "Bad" live and was thrilled to see that one performed. It has been 20 years since Achtung Baby came out, and so I think there was a bit of an homage by playing the first five songs from that album and opening with "Even Better than the Real Thing".
This is the setlist for U2's appearance on Friday. I found some clips on youtube that are decent quality from the TV feed.
Even Better than the Real Thing, The Fly, Mysterious Ways, Until the End of the World, One, Where the Streets Have No Name, I Will Follow, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Stay, Beautiful Day, Elevation, Get on Your Boots, Vertigo, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bad, Pride (In the Name of Love), Encore: With or Without You, Moment of Surrender, Out of Control
It was a spectacular success. Bono sang a few snippets from "She Loves You", "Jerusalem", "Never Tear Us Apart", and "Moving On Up".
This is a video of Even Better Than the Real Thing opener and the third song, Mysterious Ways.. They crushed it. The video is of poor quality because I was a sardine in a sea of people, but you get the idea of my proximity to the band, security fence, guards, etc. I could feel the bass shaking my body from the sound system (that's Larry Mullen, Jr.'s drums just thundering down and vibrating the Flip Camera).
Even Better than the Real Thing
Mysterious Ways
Primal Scream
The only downside of the performance was that this set coincided exactly with Primal Scream's set on the Other Stage. I am bummed I missed them, but I did get to see them at the 9:30 club in Washington, D.C. about 10 years ago. Movin' on Up is one of their songs that I like as performed at Glastonbury.
Morrissey
Morrissey was another highlight for me. I am not as familiar with his solo stuff, but The Smiths frontman performed quite a few of songs from his group's catalog. I have included a few of them here. I haven't bought into the whole "mserable" thing that Morissey is known for, but one can't escape it given some of his lyrics. He also moped a bit about stage, indicating that most of the fans were there to see U2 instead of him. He also took some time to point out a political issue about circus animals being banned in the UK ahead of "Meat is Murder". It was a good set, with a very well rehearsed band. The band members were brought in from various cities around the globe.
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