The day started at the rather uncivilised hour of 10:45, when Kate Nash's set on the Pyramid Stage started. Sporting a fairly elaborate stage set, with some shiny letters behind her saying "Kate Nash", she played a very well received set. Starting with Pumpkin Song, the set was much, much better than I expected. Obviously, most of it was drawn from the album Made of Bricks, but she did also find the time to play a couple of decent newer songs. Most of the songs seemed to be being played a fair bit faster than they sound on record, which meant that they didn't hang around for too long and allow people to get bored. The Glastonbury crowd (especially on the Pyramid Stage) often seems to like whatever Michael Eavis decides to put in front of them, but the warm reception for Kate Nash definitely seemed to be a genuine one.
Following Ms Nash were The Subways, who I saw recently, and wasn't impressed by. As the NME Review of their set points out, it was difficult to see them for lots of the set, because somebody had been a bit over enthusiastic on the smoke machine. What they didn't mention was the crowd's reaction to the band, which I thought was very muted indeed, and hardly helped by Billy Lunn's on stage performance. The annoying American accent was out in force, and although the band sounded good, I thought that Billy talked too much, and tried to interact with an audience that mostly wasn't interested.During Oh Yeah, he didn't sing the chorus, telling the crowd to sing it instead. In a 1000 capacity venue where everybody knows the song and has specifically travelled to see you, that may be fine. In a field at midday with 40,000 people, many of whom have no idea who you are, it is a stupid thing to do. Their best song therefore fell completely flat as you couldn't hear the chorus, and people started to lose interest. Very silly - it may have sounded great to the 2000 people at the very front (and via the microphones on TV), but more than 20 yards back and you would have wondered what on earth was going on.
After leaving The Subways feeling a bit disappointed, I headed over to the John Peel stage for Glasvegas. This was quite busy, probably helped to some degree by the fact that it started to rain just as the band came on. They played the exact same set that I had seen the previous day, to an equally good reaction from the audience. You probably wouldn't say that Glasvegas are the ideal band to cheer you up, but during some of the particularly loud and powerful guitar riffs, I found myself standing in awe of the noise they were making - fantastic.
Having seen one of the most talked about and recommended bands of the weekend in Glasvegas, I immediately headed to the Other Stage to see another in Vampire Weekend. This set drew an absolutely huge crowd to the Other Stage, definitely the biggest I saw there all weekend. The band sounded excellent, one strange thing was that they sounded exactly like their album, in a way that few other bands do to quite the same extent. The singer was wearing an interesting luminous pair of sunglasses, but the band were dressed like middle class American college students, which of course is their core audience. I really enjoyed their set, with final song Walcott being a particular highlight.Next it was off to the John Peel Stage, via my tent, to see The Young Knives and The Ting Tings. During The Young Knives set, the back of the tent was already getting packed for the Ting Tings set which was due immediately afterwards - providing the annoying prospect of people watching a band that they weren't there to see, so talking loudly all the way through. Mind you, I thought that the Young Knives set was one of the more disappointing that I saw over the weekend. The band are clearly competent enough, but their set selection was somewhat strange - being almost entirely composed of songs from their new album, which of course very few people had heard. I know that bands need to promote their records at gigs like this, but the Young Knives also have a number of established singles from their previous album, most of which didn't get an airing. They sounded good, but the festival crowd didn't really seem to want a full showcase of their new album.
The Ting Tings did know how to give the crowd exactly what they wanted, though. There is nothing like a recent number one single, combined with a fairly small slot with little competition on other stages, to really bring out the crowds. For this set, the newly expanded John Peel Stage saw its biggest crowd ever - the tent was absolutely packed, and there were people as far as you could see outside as well. Luckily, given the number of people there, the band played a fantastic set, which very much justified all the attendees. Singer Katie was electric on stage, with a neon microphone cord, and seeing 2 people switch between guitars, vocals, keyboards and drums was constantly entertaining. The tent frequently erupted into huge cheers as songs started and finished, and of course the band saved the best reaction until last, when they played That's Not My Name to one of the best receptions I think I have ever seen at a festival. One of THE great Glastonbury sets.
Another trip back to the tent to escape the rain saw me catching the majority of Editors' set. It seemed to get a very good reaction from the audience, and certainly sounded like a classically big Pyramid Stage show, but I was struck at times by how similar many of the songs sounded. Before that had quite finished, though, I dashed back to the John Peel to catch MGMT play to another big crowd (although I think the rain was definitely helping to fill the tent). Somewhat surprisingly given their album, MGMT played what sounded in effect like a pretty standard rock show, with a normal rock band setup. Many of the songs very long, drawn out and self-indulgent from a guitar solo point of view - classic New York cocaine rock. The set was good, and the band sounded good, but at times seemed to lack something.
Then, 3 songs from the end, "something" arrived in a massive way. The singer (who had been wearing his normal clothes until then) disappeared, and came back wearing his psychedelic kaftan. The band then fired up Time To Pretend, and the tent went absolutely crazy. A fantastic song anyway, but the band's performance of it was out of this world - absolutely amazing, and you wondered whether to concentrate on dancing, or on keeping your eyes locked onto the stage. If anybody thought that things couldn't get any better, they immediately did, as the band launched into Kids - which was even more incendiary, and sent the audience even wilder. The song (and set) ended with the entire audience chanting the tune to Kids - always a good sign. The MGMT set was a weird one - I think they could probably play the best 4-song set in the world, and their last 2 songs certainly would take some beating, by any band. But, there was a lot in the set that was nowhere near as good. Maybe a reflection of just how good Time To Pretend and Kids were, maybe a reflection on the rest of their stuff - I'm not sure.
Next on the John Peel Stage were Reverend and the Makers, so naturally, I ran away as fast as possible. I headed for the Other Stage for a beer, where The Enemy were playing. I caught about half of their set before heading off again, but they had a big crowd, and sounded really good. Starting your set with Away From Here is always going to get things going well, and they played a couple of interesting sounding new songs as well. The crowd were very up for the set, and there was even a red flare in the audience at one point - Italian football style. The Enemy looked very confident, and totally at home in such a big slot - nothing seems too big a challenge for them. They are not the most photogenic band by any stretch of the imagination, but they definitely seem to have a hardcore fanbase, and write songs that strike a chord with lots of people. And, they sounded really good, which always helps.
And so to the headliners - the final band I saw on Friday were The Cribs, headlining the John Peel Stage. Arriving in the tent about 25 minutes before their set, I was amazed at how empty it was - especially with Panic At The Disco and Kings Of Leon not exactly being "must see" as headliners for various reasons, I thought there would be more undecided people wandering around. Despite the NME Review saying that they packed out the tent, this was absolutely not the case in my experience. There may have been people stood all the way to the back, but I had more space around me than I'd had for any band all day - and that was pretty close to the stage. Anyway, not to worry - although I had partly hoped for a packed tent, with people going crazy for The Cribs' set, this did at least mean that you could get pretty close. The band came on and went straight into Our Bovine Public, which obviously kicked things off very well. The set was fast, frantic, and the crowd at the front were going mad. The sound (as is often the case for Cribs shows I find) was distinctly dodgy, sounding like the music was coming through a cushion - but no matter, the band played an excellent set, and it was a great way to finish a brilliant day. Because the set finished early, I also got to hear the last 3 or 4 songs from Kings Of Leon's set, as I wandered back to my tent. A band-packed Glastonbury day.
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