Glastonbury Festival – Review

Ever wondered what Glastonbury is like on the other side of the fence? Ever wondered what a celebrity would have to say about Britians most famous festival? Wonder no more, because Dominic Masters, lead singer of British indie pop band, The Others, shares with wristband4festivals his weekend’s experiences.

Hello Everyone, I’ve been going to Glastonbury since I was 13 years old & haven’t missed many years, I always appreciate going or playing, this year was superb & this is my take on events.

Wednesday

After leaving the house at 12pm we reached the Festival site at 10pm Wednesday night, it was a long journey via Bus, Coach & Taxi but once there we partied with our friends from Nottingham, London, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol & Somerset.

Thursday

We went to see a very funny, comical gig by East 17, they were so funny, I hadn’t laughed so much for ages, the crowd chuckled & we sang Brian Harvey’s name.

Friday

The first band of the Glastonbury Festival me & Sally went to see was The Rumble Strips they were alright, nothing to complain about.

Then we went to see Pharrell Williams’ band N.E.R.D they were superb, brilliant lots of energy, really exciting but was disapointed that the Glastonbury Powers that be, cut the last song “Everybody Nose” which is my favourite, Pharrell complained & continued to no avail, he was damm good.

Then we went see Fleet Foxes, they were also superb, (bits of The Byrds/Crosby, Stills & Nash, Neil Young, The Eagles & The Beach Boys) lots of a Harmonies & Melodies & Acoustic Guitars, looking like Hippies from the 1960’s.

Then to The Specials who put in a perfect performance as if they hadn’t been away at all, loved them, the crowd danced all the way through, I thought they were excellent in all departments particularly Terry Hall & the horn section.

Neil Young was a superb headliner, his guitar playing was the best of the festival & his choices of songs from the back catalogue was a joy, as I’ve got a lot of the old favourites “Down by the River” & “Cinnamon Girl” was especially good. Then we went partying in “Arcadia” “Trash City” & “Shangri-La“.

Saturday

We started with Rolf Harris, firstly they put him on a small a stage on the Jazz World Stage, it was over-populated, thus the crowd could not hear a thing through the moderate sound system. The hits were there but we could hardly hear them & when Ralf talked it was even worse, they should have put him on a bigger stage, it was sad as we all wanted to hear Ralf waffle on, that’s what I was there for.

Spinal Tap were alright, almost workman-like & going through the numbers, the English voices were down to a tee but the jokes were limited &  I expected more of a funny show.

Horace Andy was cool & Chilled, I had heat stroke as it was so hot at the time, so sat in the shade & chilled to some beautiful reggae from a master, very lovely.

Crosby, Stills & Nash were alright, but as David Crosby said on stage “Nash writes the Anthems & I write the Weird Shit” & that’s exactly as it was, I enjoyed all the David Crosby song plus the hits at the end but didn’t enjoy most of Nash’s songs.

Kasabian were entertainers in every sense & knew how to motivate a crowd. My band The Others played with them in Switzerland & Japan & they’re good lads with good hearts.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band were alright, ploddy but the last few songs from “Born in the USA” era were really good & worth waiting for. Again, afterwards we hit “Trash City” “Arcadia” “Shangri-la” “Stone Circle” & “The Green Fields”.

Sunday

Went to watch Howard Marks for breakfast at The Glade, he was alright, enjoyed some of his points & his stance on Tobacco with Nicotine & not with Nicotine, The Glade was a good venue for him but his instance on playing songs straight from his iPod through the speaker every now & then interrupted his flow & the crowd got bored because of it.

Status Quo’s 2nd half of the set was good when they started knocking out the hits, shame “Pictures of Matchstick Men” wasn’t played but didn’t quite expect it.

Tom Jones was a winner & still has a Voice of a Opera Tenor, the crowd loved him & so did my Granny who was on site to see the great Welsh Man.

Madness got the whole field dancing like teenagers, fun & jolly throughout.

Nick Cave was amazing, I’d been advised for years to get in to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds by my bass guitar player Johnny but had always rebuffed the temptation to listen due to by own collection being good enough to get on with, but of late I had thought about taking chances on something else to listen too & thought I’d take a gamble on Nick Cave, & what a great gamble it was.

I really enjoyed the anger, bitterness, aggression, depression & the pure reality of the whole performance, it was excellent, can’t compliment the bloke enough, well, worth a watch & would pay to see him & his band again, even went & bought his greatest hits Wednesday & got “Lyre & Orpheus” & “Abattoir Blues” as a result of that one performance so they must have done something for me.

Blur, were superb, even, better than Neil Young & I never thought I’d ever say that, I’ve seen Neil Yong 4 or 5 times & Blur 4 or 5 times but this was Blur’s best gig, I’d ever seen, as they understand what a festival is & that fact that we all wanted hit’s to sing along too, simple as that.

Song for song was hit for hit, it made it very & very palitable & easy to listen too, so the evening turned in to a complete pleasure. It was a lovely Glastonbury, The Weather was beautiful, people excellent especially my Scotish friends Davey, Stevey Louise & Ross, & me Sally had a lovely holiday away from work.

Dominic Masters

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