Glastonbury 2013: the Rolling Stones, Mumford & Sons and Artic Monkeys

Are the Rolling Stones opening for the Arctic Monkeys? (judging from the poster)

it's written as headliners by day, ie the Stones are on Saturday

Headliners are always a red herring at Glastonbury and there's only a limited pool to draw from. OK, Kraftwerk would have been good but who else? Prince? Too expensive/ornery. Daft Punk? Not touring. Kanye? See Prince, and I'm not sure his current me-and-my-madness live show would work at Glastonbury anyway. Stone Roses? I'm sure they asked. I could see Depeche Mode, the Cure or Madonna working but I don't think the list of potential headliners is ever very long.

Mumfords are as inevitable a booking as there has ever been - you could see it coming two years ago. Stones will be fun, otherwise several alternative stages await.

The pool of potential headliners is much shallower than it was in the 90s as well, you have to be bigger to headline now, and fewer bands get to that level (or even late 90s level frankly).

Looking back, any old chancer could headline in the 90s. But when you've had Beyonce! Jay-Z! U2! you can't be dicking around with the equivalents of the Levellers or Skunk Anansie. Obviously on one level Mumfords ARE the Levellers, but they have Grammys.

lol was just about to mention Skunk Anansie

Skunk Anansie piss all over the likes of the Arctic Monkeys

Both terrible bands but I think DL's point was more about how big you needed to be to headline. Skunk Anansie didn't actually sell that many records as far as I know, they wouldn't get near the top of the bill now.

Would they even get in the acoustic tent?

didn't Skunk Anansie fill in for someone else at the last minute? p sure I was there whatever year that was. could look this up I guess

It's not so much Skunk Anansie's relative merits as compared to Arctic Monkeys (not keen on either band) but the fact that they actually headlined Glastonbury which I find unbelievable- and did at the time too, given that the other two headliners were The Prodigy and Radiohead. I seem to remember you're right DJ Mencap, but can't seem to find anything online...

I might be conflating it with Ash in 1997 (subbing for Steve Winwood of all ppl), this comes courtesy of an aged ILM post from DL hisself

Was it the final night? There's a history of headliners on the final night being a case of "it's only xxx, if you want to leave early to avoid the crush, no biggie"

Also, what's a headliner? When they boldly stated "Beyonce, the first female headliner", I thought "um, Susanne Vega? and, yes, Skunk Anansie?"

Listening to 6Music over breakfast this morning, there was a record by the Wonder Stuff. I forgot they had a fiddle player. I blame them for Mumford & Sons really.

Did they ever? "Hey, compare us to Slade, everybody! Look, look, we're doing "Cz I luv u"..."

xxp Skunk Anansie were on the Sunday night, yes. Given the atrocious conditions that weekend I recall a fair few people had given up already.

Skunk Anansie headlined in 99, same year as REM and the Manics, it was boiling and completely dry that year.

hah correct what am I on about, it was Ash headlining that year, sorry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Festival_line-ups#Pyramid_stage_10

Kula Shaker (replaced Neil Young)

So which year was it when the stage started sinking into the ground while Echo and the Bunnymen were performing?

1486

'85 IIRC.

No it was during their post Electrofixion comeback

Ah, I'd stopped going by then.

I could totally see Mumford & Sons doing Size of a Cow for Comic Relief.

Glastonbury 2013: Old Men, Old Man Hat, and Old Hat

xxp saw it on the news

Stage sink year was the first if the 2 insane mud fest 90s years; 1997. Second stage as good as sank.

*of

Anyone else going this year? I got tickets in the final wave of release and after initially being less than bothered I'm now at the requisite level of giddy excitement.

Still holding out for Mumford & Sons pulling out at the last moment though.

We're going to get back out on that stage at Glastonbury as four brothers and do what we do

Great for the guy himself but a bummer for many a Glastogoer

Chic will be mental amazing on the Friday night i'd wager in that (relatively) small field.

They show early 00s glastonbury on palladium hd all the time, outdoor fests seem so horrible, even good acts can't seem to real do anything compelling, the only ppl I've ever saw that even cut through the muck were bjork & ray davies who did waterloo sunset with a choir

Then there are all these already forgotten shitty brit indie bands throwing stadium moves & looking pathetic

Was there ever a time when outdoor fests were good musically? They seem so gross

Basically Evan dando otm

I don't really think that ANY live gig really translates particularly well to being filmed, but I don't know how anyone would expect to get the fun of an event from watching 15 year old footage of long-forgotten bands on TV.

Particularly the case with Glastonbury actually where a lot of the best and most memorable stuff happens well away from the TV cameras.

In my experience outdoor fests regularly produce good performances if you actually go to them instead of watching old footage on TV.

i've been to outdoor festivals btw

i'm not going to spend several thousand dollars going to glastonbury to see mumford & sons tho

i've also watched shitloads of great performances on TV or DVD wtf

Did you enjoy the outdoor festivals?

I don't know why you think it looks crappy on TV. All I know is that I've seen plenty of great performances at Glastonbury and when it comes to big outdoor shows I'd rather see someone there than in a stadium. Plus there's all the other off-camera stuff that Matt DC mentioned.

hit & miss i guess

it's not the best way to see music IMO

i could see it being preferable to a stadium i guess if the weather was nice

assuming you're not stood behind some pillock sat on their partner's shoulders flailing their arms about

lol or that

what's with ppl waving all these flags up by the stage? why is that a tradition?

people like to celebrate the good vibes and inclusivity of music by telling you what country they're from

primitive form of co-geolocation, and what NV Said

people like to celebrate the good vibes and inclusivity of music by telling you what country they're from

i met some irish people at about 4/5 in the morning at glastonbury 03 or 04 and they invited me to go see christy moore the next day and they kept talking about having loads of flags.

it was very strange.

Fucking hate people waving flags during the bands but they are kind of useful for finding people in big crowds.

I like the medieval battle vibe you get from lots of flags if you're stood further back and seeing them en masse, especially at night when you can see the steam rising from the crowd, but obviously you don't want one in your face.

Part of Glastonbury for me is suspending misanthropy and being tolerant of pillocks for a weekend.

I'm going. This is my vague, and clashing list of picks. Most excited about Solange, but she's playing the Park stage, which from memory is not great, sound-wise. I think I have reached the stage in my life where West Holts is my favourite stage.

CHIC FEATURING NILE RODGERS, BOYS NOIZE, DIZZEE RASCAL, PORTISHEAD, ALICE RUSSELL, TORO Y MOI, GOLD PANDA, DISCLOSURE, SOLANGE, DJANGO DJANGO , FRANCOIS AND THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS, THE ROLLING STONES, ELVIS COSTELLO, RODRIGUEZ, MAVERICK SABRE, MAJOR LAZER, FATOUMATA DIAWARA, AZEALIA BANKS, THE ORB FEAT. KAKATSITSI, ALABAMA SHAKES, ROZI PLAIN, DAUGHTER, MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER, BOBBY WOMACK, ULRICH SCHNAUSS, CAT POWER , LIANNE LA HAVAS, PHOENIX, VILLAGERS, FIRST AID KIT, THE DANCERS, TRWBADOR

Lest we forget…

http://theonlycharts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/21-largely-forgotten-bands-who-played.html

Anyone watching it on from the comfort of their sofa?

It's nice to have the live streams on the BBC website to avoid all the endless repeats that will undoubtedly fill up the BBC broadcast channels.

FWIW I think kids are an integral part of Glastonbury, they've been there as long asd I can remember, and there are two kids fields, one of which they don't let people into without a child. The Green kids field had a big pirate ship and kids on spacehoppers. It looked pretty idyllic to be honest. Plus the area around the circus and theatre fields are really kid-friendly.

You definitely see more babies these days, usually wearing big ear protectors. Can't say I'd consider taking one, but friends of ours brought a one-year old, although we didn't see them past Wednesday.

It was definitely crazier pre-fence, because pretty much anyone could get in, but I feel like the craziness has ramped up in the last few years, since the Shangri-La field became a big thing. But there's been a family camping field for years, which looks pretty sedate.

Is there a "field where people get a good nights sleep" yet?

(it's not for me...)

when that bookie is talking about headliners does that not imply Saturday night headliners...?

I assume it means on any of the three days. So Kasabian or Kings of Leon are quite likely to do Friday

as a non festival attender i guess the point is that they can have despicable shitbags like Kasabian headlining to draw in the drones and you're quite free to go and watch something musical instead

The BBC iplayer seems to have loads of these live sets in full.

they will vanish after 7 days though. http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury has approx. 1 hour highlights for each act that last for 30 days (UK only obv)

Will have to grab 'em while I can..

Didn't bother to watch any of this, but did have a look at the line-up over the three days and quickly found that there would have been only about 3 or 4 bands I would have wanted to have seen, anyway. Pretty taken aback at how much the line-up doesn't reflect what I'm actually listening to in 2013 for the most part, even on the smaller stages.

Yeah, but even when it did, I'd spend more time on the 'comedy' stages and the other places than the main / 2nd main stage..

Actually, I was dismissive about Glastonbury this year as I am every year but the line-up looks pretty great to me. I don't know what the West Holts stage is but looks like I could've just hung out there every day and had a reasonable amount of fun.

It's a good field to hang out in, in general, not usually too packed and also surrounded with good food and drink places.

just watched the portishead set on my big tv.
f*ck.
not that much of a fan, but that was brilliant.
intense.
love love love the way beth turns her back while the band get into it, and just soaks up the noise.
thought i would get bored.
but no ... mesmerising to the extreme.
lucky you matt.
(mate at work also said they were his fave of the weekend ... hence the double nudge)

they were amazing when i saw them at the barras in 97 or 98

Will have to save a bunch of these to DVD before they go..

taking orders? :)

Hmmmm. ()

I saw Portishead at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool in '94. Place was full of idiots who wouldn't shut up. Final 20 minutes were glorious though.

Their headline set at the ATP they curated was probably the best gig I've seen. It SOUNDED incredible.

Not managed to find the full portishead set on BBC catchup or iplayer yet. So far my highlight is Bobby Womack. I love him anyway, but he was on fire.

^^^ amazing show

Their headline set at the ATP they curated was probably the best gig I've seen. It SOUNDED incredible.

― kraudive, Tuesday, July 2, 2013 9:15 PM (Yesterday)

Same here. Their first night at that was especially spine-tingling, I thought.

I went to Glastonbury in the early '90s when the crusties/ravers were climbing over the fence in their droves, but I don't remember it feeling particularly dangerous.

Dr X, it's here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ej58q9/acts/aqnv4f#p01c2ftd

pretty intense Savages show in a third-full John Peel tent

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01c3hyb/Glastonbury_2013_Savages_Glastonbury_2013/

I saw their Friday afternoon in the smaller William's Green tent and it was magnificent. Surprised they didn't get a better showing on Saturday.

Just watched Portishead now, brilliant. Beth seemed so nice at the end as well, really humble

yeah .. that was a real eye opener for me.
after the cold distance of the performance, the 'hope that was all right' outburst was totally unexpected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ej58q9/performances/lg49mb

Really nice page with all the links!

You have until 30th July to fill your boots before it's all gone.

(Well, the performances, I mean. I daresay the pics will be there forever)

sorry, that date is the 29th July at 01:51, certainly as far as the Portishead foorage is concerned.

rokia traoré! oh wait it's not actually on there :-(

Thanks Tracerhand, I found Portishead footage, which was amazing, and am about halfway through Savages now