Late back from the studio so haven’t seen anywhere near what I want so far. I see Lizzo drew the largest crowd yesterday - bit of a surprise - but she sure worked the crowd. Blossoms and Rick Astley were interesting. Need to catch Jockstrap from yesterday and Black Country from today. Teskeys will be good; interested to see War on Drugs, Thundercat, Alt-J and Rudimental.
It says more about Glastonbury and its audience than the music industry, I think. Plus there are loads of smaller stages with less geriatric acts, even some pretty unknown ones. It takes a certain level of stagecraft which comes with experience to shine on the Pyramid stage.
Yeh plenty of other music around, sadly if BBC don’t put it on we can’t see the musicians coming through (unless you’re there of course). Big shame they’re not showcasing the opportunities they are giving to bands on their own ‘introducing’ stage for me. Woodsies (aka John Peel) stage used to have more upcoming bands too - so disappointing to see that not used to carry on that tradition. Still … loads of lovely music to celebrate. I’m all up for looking on the bright side and soaking it up.
I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, and I'm always interested to read assessments from posters like Steel, of contemporary musicians. But it seems like a niche market now, rather than household names. Fans rave about Taylor Swift, but I doubt most people could name more than one of her songs. Compare withThe Beatles, Stones, Bee Gees etc
I'll watch EJ tonight, but without much anticipation of a great set, more out of curiosity as to who will turn up to join him. My daughters are quite excited about the possibility of Harry Styles showing up.
My daughter and wife and a variety of their friends are registered on websites for tickets to see Taylor Swift either in the U.K. or France next year. It’s a complete mystery to me, but she’s very popular.
The problem with the music industry now is that most people listen to what they want to, and blank out everything else. Most genres have their dedicated radio stations instead of only having Radio 1 or 2 to choose from (I listen to 6Music which covers indie, punk, alt-rock and a whole bunch of the more leftfield genres) A lot of people I know listen to the Absolute (****e) chain of stations which just regurgitate hits from yesteryear - how do new bands break in to the mainstream if all people want to listen to is hits from the 80s or 90s? And the kids of these people, all they hear are hits from way back when, so unless they are feeling inquisitive how are they going to discover new bands? If you think back to the days of Top of the Pops it catered for everyones taste - you could have Rick Astley on along with Iron Maiden and the KLF...nowhere mixes all these genres anymore, and if you wanted something like that you'd need to curate your own playlist on Spotify. Personally, I listen to a lot of music, buy a lot of vinyl and go to lots of gigs - it's my thing, and I've been doing it for years. Discovering new talent and then watching them grow as a band as they develop and push their creative boundaries brings me great joy. For instance, I watched the Murder Capital set yesterday, looked like there were several thousand people in that tent....I saw them in a tent back in 2019 and you'd be lucky if there were 50 people there, but I could tell they would go on to do something. Same with my sons band, when they started out it was just me, my wife and a couple of randoms turning up to their gigs....now they are breaking on to the Glasgow scene and headlining venues that some very big bands have played in the past, but it's been hard work for them to get noticed above the other bands in the city. The music industry isn't what it was, the downfall started with MySpace and Napster, and YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music are all partly responsible too.
I did Reading a while back. It was the weekend Ray Jones died and I passed out that day on vodka as it really upset me. He was a year or so older than me at the time. Great weekend though. Glastonbury never really appealed. Lots of people from work go every year and it’s generally the middle-class lot from Surrey. It probably is a load of fun until you get stuck behind some bint on her boyfriend’s shoulders.
Jockstrap set was great, though Georgias outfit stole the show! On the Warpaint set now, loved listening to these gitls for years, very chilled
Totally agree Steels. Music has become so segmented and pigeon-holed now. People seem to stick to a genre. For me, that’s all too singular. Music is a mood for me - who knows what hits the speaker on any day in the studio - could be reggae, indie, prog-rock sometimes, mainstream, soul, r’n’b, opera … it’s a mood thing. Like you I love finding new music; it does entail listening to some crap and average music, that’s part of the intrigue, but occasionally something good comes along and they make it to a second EP or album and more - sadly some never come to anything. Tough industry for sure. Always appreciate the suggestions Steels and I do check them out Good luck to The Skins, be great to see them stick to it and make it. All gained through hard work.
West Holts Stage right now...a band I've championed for a few years, Black Country, New Road. First couple of EPs were astonishing so went to see them at a small venue in Glasgow, about 100 people, and then the first album came out, went to no4 in the charts and nominated for the Mercury. Where could they go from there? Well the second album was equally as good, if not better - two days before release, the lead singer quits citing mental health issues so they have to re-invent themselves as a six piece, and although the album got to No3 they refused to play any of the stuff that Isaac had been involved in. Phenomenal great musicians, I've seen them a couple of times in the new format and it's great to see them play to such a large crowd.
I'd echo that. I know that Ed Sheeran seems to release songs every 5 minutes and is certainly the darling of every tv and mainstream radio station. However I cannot remember a single song or performance of his. Taylor who? Did we sign him on loan last year?
So agree. I go to a lot of festivals, most small but a few middle sized ones. I cannot believe some of the music I have stumbled upon and now think is amazing. Music just makes me happy. Watching Glasto on the red button is a lovely way to do it...when it's blazing hot, you are near 70 with dodgey knees
Isn’t that just an age/generational thing ? I’m betting my old man couldn’t name a song from The Specials or The Smiths when I was a yout ?
