After waking up with a pear cider hangover, things at Glastonbury were quickly freshened up by a heavy rain shower at about 10am. Just what was needed to start to turn the site into a mudbath, as the rain arrived just before 180,000 people started moving around to watch bands, thereby trampling the water into mud, before it had a chance to soak in or run away. Quite possibly the worst time for a heavy shower of rain, and it set the tone for the rest of the festival.
The first band I went to see were The View, who played a set at around 11:30am on the Pyramid Stage. It was a very standard View set, following the same setlist that they had been playing for the majority of the year so far. This must have been their biggest gig ever, being the first major festival of this summer, and with them being much bigger than they were at last summer’s festivals. Their set was excellent, as usual, and by the time they finished up with the standard Same Jeans and Superstar Tradesman, they had won over a fair few new fans, and got an excellent ovation from the Pyramid Stage.Next up, we wandered towards the Other Stage, to watch The Cribs – a band I would be unlikely to ever want to go to a headline gig by, but was nevertheless interested to see. Their set was interesting enough, with current single Men’s Needs being an obvious highlight. The singer did talk an awful lot of rubbish in between songs, making me wish that he would just shut up and concentrate on playing music.
Towards the end of The Cribs’ set, the heavens opened again for a 30-minute monsoon. This had the effect of turning the remaining grass in the festival site, into a nice shallow layer of brown muddy water – excellent! I therefore changed some of my plans for the day, and decided to watch some bands from inside nice dry tents, instead of outside in muddy fields.
So, it was off to the John Peel stage, which is handily housed in a tent, and also features some of the better up-and-coming bands that the festival has to offer. I was going to spend a large part of the day here anyway, watching people like The Hold Steady, Jack Penate and The Maccabees - but the mud situation just made the decision all the easier. First band I saw there were Annuals, who played an atmospheric set, which was heavy on long instrumental sections in the songs, so it reminded me somewhat of bands like Mogwai, Mew, and Sigur Ros. Not bad at all, but not very high on mainstream appeal at the same time.
After Annuals came one of the highlights of the festival for me - Good Shoes. Another brief downpour just before their set, forced lots of people into the tent - so it was a good sized crowd. The band absolutely ripped through an awesome 40-minute set which really won over a lot of first-timers. I have been listening to their album heavily over the last few weeks, so this set was ideally-timed to cement my love for this band. Halfway through the set, a group of people carrying a big flag saying "Morden", worked their way towards the front of the audience - just in time for the singer to dedicate the song Morden to them. They finished off with a riotous version of All In My Head, which had the by now full tent dancing. A great set, and one of the definite highlights of the festival - if there is any justice, Good Shoes will be big.After Good Shoes, I took advantage of a rain break to get back through the mud to my tent - and to pick up some more waterproof clothes! Whilst trekking back and forth, I managed to catch a decent amount of Amy Winehouse's set on the Pyramid Stage. This had a pretty big crowd, as it was understandably one of the big draws of the festival - especially in mid afternoon. Her voice sounded amazing, and the few songs that I heard sounded very good indeed. Again, I would probably never go and see an Amy Winehouse gig, but it was great to hear a bit of one of her live performances. She is very good, but just not my cup of tea.
After the change of clothing, it was back to the John Peel tent for a succession of decent bands - The Hold Steady, Jack Penate, Mumm-Ra and The Maccabees. But before all that, I caught the set by a Canadian band called The New Pornographers. This was strangely good, but a bit weird, and I couldn't put my finger on exactly why. Some of the songs seemed to build up and up forever, whilst others were much punchier and more concise. Not a bad band, their set was certainly an agreeable way to pass 45 minutes or so.
Passing that 45 minutes or so brought us to the Hold Steady, a band I had really been looking forward to seeing - again thanks to some heavy listening to their album recently. Their set was fantastic I thought, mostly drawn from the current album, but with a few older songs as well. The band engaged with the crowd (amongst which there was a real hardcore of massive Hold Steady fans) really well, and were one of many bands I saw over the weekend, that just seemed really excited and pleased to be playing at Glastonbury. During their set, the singer kept shouting, off mic, "this is amazing", and kept saying so on mic as well. A really good set, although you probably needed a couple of beers inside you to really appreciate it fully. The NME also seem to have noticed them now, although in this review of their set, they got the setlist utterly and hopelessly wrong.
After The Hold Steady came Jack Penate, who I have been watching and raving about quite a bit lately - starting at the Camden Crawl in April. He played a standard set, and by that I mean a normally excellent set, to a very appreciative audience. There was one surprise, a cover of Beats International's 1990 number one, Just Be Good To Me, which got a huge reception. He played more covers at a different set later in the evening, but this was a classic Penate set, culminating in a riotous version of current single Torn On The Platform, which prompted a mass singalong.After the highs of The Hold Steady and Jack Penate's sets, and the anticipation of The Maccabees set to come, it was hard to get up for the Mumm-Ra set that happened in between them. I watched all of it, and kept thinking that at their best, Mumm-Ra are an excellent live band. Their best songs really get a venue rocking, and sound absolutely fantastic. But the problem is that there are not enough of the really good songs in their repertoire. If all sets were 4 songs long, Mumm-Ra would play amongst the best you could see. But I don't think they have the depth of good songs to play a great set for an hour or so, so this was a mixed gig for me.
No such problems for The Maccabees, who were on the John Peel stage after this - one down from the headliners for the day. They were incredibly humble, reminding the audience that they could have been watching two of the best live bands in the world at the time (Kasabian and Arcade Fire), repeatedly thanking the crowd for choosing to watch them, and being generally amazed that so many had turned out to see them. I was glad I did (even though it meant missing both Kasabian and Arcade Fire), because it was much, much easier to get up close to the band than it would have been on the bigger stages, and because their set was brilliant from start to finish.
Of course, in a 45-minute set, the band played almost every song from their debut album, with Felix the guitarist providing excellent backing vocals, and getting involved in some great banter with the audience. There was an excellent early version of Latchmere, and a version of Precious Time which prompted a mass crowd singalong. Finishing up with First Love and Lego, this was a triumphant set which, although it won't get the headlines that Kasabian or Arcade Fire will get, it was a pleasure to have seen.And so to the headliners. The choice was Arctic Monkeys, Bjork, Hot Chip, and of course over a dozen other acts on other stages. I plumped for the Arctic Monkeys on the Pyramid Stage, and have to say that it was disappointing. Although all the obvious reviews will say that it was an amazing, triumphant set, I was left thinking that it was a flat, disappointing set. Alex Turner in particular seemed moody and in a hurry just to play the songs and get off stage, the sound was not great, and I think that this set will be looked back on as the moment where the Arctic Monkeys lost it. Headlining Glastonbury is a huge achievement in a short career, but I think it may be the beginning of the end of their massive popularity.
So that was the first day of Glastonbury. Ten bands seen, several rain showers caught in, and several more avoided, and much mud waded through. This was the best day of the festival in terms of the lineup, but plenty more good fun to come, for sure.
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