Who would you recommend I see at Glastonbury? (other than the Wombles, obv)

are the wombles really embarrassing in the context of the average Glastonbury lineup

I'm a big fan of bonkers Glastonbury scheduling (all time favourite = Robbie Williams followed by Tricky) but the John Peel Stage has kind of a transitory crowd. People will sit in front of the Pyramid or Jazz World stage all day but if you do that at John Peel you're clearly some sort of weirdo. Unless it's raining.

vs kooks or athlete or jools holland or some pseudo ethnic kitsch

Omar Souleyman is literally the only act from this whole thing I'd definitely go and see.

Also, I find the amount of mediocre dirge on at the John Peel stage intensely depressing

Pyramid Stage is like the Q Readers Poll Winners awards or some shit... Really, this lineup looks really old fashioned and bland as fuck.

Definitely go and see Big Boi - he was a riot at Primavera. Janelle Monae might be worth a look. Primal Scream, maybe, so long as they aren't in Riot City/Give Out mode. Nicolas Jaar is awesome live. DJ Shadow puts on a good live show, although Ken C disagrees. Battles are bound to be ace. Caribou's always worth seeing. Katy B. Is it really necessary to have Carl Cox headline EVERY FUCKING DANCE TENT AT EVERY FUCKING FESTIVAL EVERY FUCKING YEAR?

Other than that, this is a very mainstream and pretty boring lineup imo.

Can anyone imagine John Peel rooting for Example and the Streets?

I'm sure he rooted for The Streets, back in the day.

Janelle Monae live is absolutely brilliant and I imagine her cheesy, pantomine brand of performance being very fun in a festival situation.

I'm just kind of in awe of Carl Cox at this point. The guy was doing 10-hour tribal house sets in massive clubs in like what... 1992? And he's still doing it. I'd rather see Tenaglia of course...

Primal Scream are doing Screamadelica. It might be a laugh, and my friends are going, but it clashes with my favourite disabled girlfriend Alice Glass.

Yeah, the Pyramid lineups really do look v.staid. As Matt says, it can be nice to have things during the day that you can just lie around and nurse your hangover to. Laura Marling might be good for that, not sure what else.

A rough idea of a schedule. Some of the clashes may not actually be clashes. Can't find much to see early Saturday. Perhaps I'll go to the circus tent.

Fri

Primal Scream (Other) or Crystal Castles (The Park)
Morrrissey (Pyramid)
James Holden (Oxylers)
Tensnake (Wow)
Katy B (East Dance)
Metronomy (Pyramid)
Narasirato (West Holts)

Sat

Chemical Brothers (Other)
Janelle Monaé (West Holts)
Toddla T (Wow)
Neneh Cherry (Wow) or Omar Souleyman (West Holts)

Sun

Beyoncé (Pyramid)
Hercules and Love Affair (West Holts) or Lykke Li (The Park)
John Cooper Clarke (Acoustic)
Paul Simon (Pyramid)
Azari & III (East Dance) or Laura Marling (Pyramid)

Matt - the last time I went was 2007. The Park area existed but not Shangri-La, I don't think.

Also, there must be more guitar band music than this worth seeing, surely?

where's the chillwave & related?

and where are the wombles?

Updated Clashfinder here. Yay @ the Wu-Tang and Katy B no longer clashing.

Also, there must be more guitar band music than this worth seeing, surely?

I think your tastes are a bit different to mind in this regard BUT - Friendly Fires are very good live in an indie-dance manner, the Joy Formidable are pretty good if you like massive walls of noisy guitars... it's vaguely possible that the Vaccines and the Horrors won't be awful. So, erm, no, not really.

I like that Cubehenge has something called Jah Shacka Soundsystem playing live, apparently, for twelve hours.

DJ Shadow puts on a good live show

i wonder if he will be bringing his sphere !?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0fjUgopSdw&feature=player_embedded

if so, then it could be a killer set as this looks insane (6 mins 42 seconds of the clip = whoaaaa)

^^ Saw this at Primavera. Thought it was awesome, but Ken C thought it was naff.

I saw the Vaccines earlier this year on the NME winners tour. They were quite ridiculous.

Might see Friendly Fires, yeah.

Will check out Joy Formidable - thanks.

^^ Saw this at Primavera. Thought it was awesome, but Ken C thought it was naff.

I'm with Ken.

Saw H&LA in the Dance Village one year and thought it was really dull whereas Lykke Li in the Park was really good fun. H&LA might be a bit better suited to West Holts though. Also close enough that you could probably catch both, no?

Wu, depending on lineup
Primals if they're doing Screamdelica, avoid if it's recent stuff (oh I see this has been answered. it is GREAT.)
Chems current light show is p spesh
Twilight Singers
Big Boi
Janelle Monae
Aloe Blacc
The Go! Team put their all into making a show pop, if there's nothing else on against them you could do worse
Hercules & LA were super-muscular touring the first album, if it's the same live band I'd try again
Nicolaas Jaar
Omar Souleyman (more for the kbd dude than him. He might have a full band here tho? was a duo here a few months back)
Robyn kills it live
Gruff Rhys was 100x better than I expected in a pub here last month, if it's a tiny crowd/small tent give it a go
BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE!!!
Lykke's good live.
Katy B <3
is Ms Dynamite MCing or singing? avoid the latter, run to the former
can't imagine Suzanne Vega or Thea Gilmore being a letdown in the acoustic tent
if you like Azari & III's records, you'll like them live. the two singers cleared a passageway through the crowd to have a vogue-off at each other in the second half.

friendly fires strike me as a band who won't really be able to recreate the best things about their album(s) on stage (this is more based on watching their glasto 08 set on tv rather than actually seeing them live tho)

Thought I were pretty great at Glastonbury last time I thought, although the proper gig I went to was better. Almost everyone sounds like shit on the Other Stage so they must have done pretty well almost by default.

BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE!!!

indeed.

missed em on the recent tour proper, much to my regret.
reports were that they were on good form.

I'm going to pretend they played none of the first album singles, most of Tighten Up and NOTHING off Megatop Phoenix, and sucked to boot.

I've remembered who Janelle Monae is, and that I love her. Good.

Friendly Fires were v good when I saw them @Digital in Brighton. Not sure how it transfers to Glasto.

I imagine Digital would be a great place to see them, assuming it's the same sound system as last time I went.

I now have a ticket for this and am very excited. Not sure how work will feel about this but I've already handed in my notice so I guess they can just deal with it.

How did you get a ticket at such short notice?

Fire stewarding. Some friends of a friend dropped out so I signed up on the spot, with no consideration as to whether or not it was practical to go. Which it definitely isn't.

Upt0eleven - what was it you didn't like about DJ Shadow?

Mostly that my feet hurt like fuck tbh. I didn't not enjoy it, just thought it was a bit over the top and not in an in ironic, self-aware way. The music was great but I think I might have enjoyed the spectacle of it more from further away.

Here are some rankings for acts I've seen live in the last few years.

*****
Beyonce, Elbow, Crystal Castles

****1/2
Fleet Foxes, Noisettes (MUCH more fun live than on record), Bellowhead, Katy B

****
Morrissey, Plan B, Tinie Tempah, Laura Marling, Twilight Singers, Big Audio Dynamite, Lau

***1/2
Rumer, The Low Anthem, The Vaccines, Bombay Bicycle Club, Glasvegas, The Joy Formidable, The Walkmen, The Pierces, Melanie, System 7, Show Of Hands, Fujiya & Miyaji

***
White Lies

**1/2
Friendly Fires (maybe I caught them on a bad night), Noah & the Whale, Hurts, Gruff Rhys, Guillemots

**
Kaiser Chiefs, Everything Everything

xpost
I missed the bit where the Shadowsphere took off into the crowd and started rolling over people's feet ;-)

Crystal Castles are so good live. I've got to get way from Primal Scream early to catch them.

You should see the Mighty Stornoway

I kinda feel like I should be arsed to see Morrissey, but I'm not.

Robyn is pretty much the only act I'm seriously psyched about seeing. And TVOTR if I don't end up going to Wireless.

wd totally be all about the acoustic tent for me if I was going. Suzanne Vega is a very funny performer these days. The Webb Sisters were the divine backing singers on the Leonard Cohen tour. Hear them doing "If It Be Your Will" and weep.

If Primal Scream are playing Screamadelica in order you can get away with leaving halfway through easily.

Kind of make a point of spending a bit of time at the Acoustic Tent most years, it's a good Sunday afternoon place to hang when your hangover is raging and you want to ease yourself back into the day by virtue of the awesome real ale tent nearby.

They don't do Screamadelica in order. They cunningly move the slowies to the middle so they can have Loaded and Come Together as the full-blast finale.

Awesome.

I am a bit worried about the queue situation for the late night area, can see it ending with 1x enormous queue throughout the circus field at 1am. There seem to be more late night venues everywhere else this time round though.

Despite being a bit of a Glasto-sceptic this year (the missus is going and I'm not, so sour grapes) - I am a bit sad for not seeing Screamadelica as I've been loving the reissue this year.

Everyone's a Glasto-sceptic when they're not going, it's all "hah, look, it's U2 and Coldplay, vindicated!" as if that matters.

go to U2 for the anti-U2 protests IMO

Downside is a) you won't be able to hear them because U2 will be playing music instead b) you won't be able to get near the protests because the crowd will be enormous.

It was also shooting lightning rods of electricity up into the sky at the end of the set. Entire stage genuinely looked like it might kill someone.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5234/5878162749_e0cd5d80d1.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4774469312_60fdeeb830.jpg
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6013/5877845219_3a1038d7dc.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5270/5880802406_284f9f6fb7.jpg

wow.

For some unknown reason I left Orbital's set halfway through to go and find Bez's Acid House.

I also missed Janelle Monáe because I ran out of tome before meeting people for Chemical Brothers. But Katy B, Hercules and Love Affair, Atomic Drop (on the mental flame throwing stage before Orbital) and Beyoncé were all spectacular.

They were listed in the programme as a DJ set - but everything they played for the first 3/4s of the set was unfamiliar and sounded very like Orbital.

Didn't they do Satan early on?

Stone Circle was so lovely and green and dry when we lay out there on Saturday afternoon.

Wish I'd git there early enough to do Optimo on Thursday afternoon. Caught up with Matt for Katy B but generally failed to do much catching up with anyone. Had a great time though (except when losing my friends two nights running at Shangri-La).

Didn't they do Satan early on?

I heard bits of Satan in one of the tracks but it wasn't the whole thing.

Was Bez's Acid House any good?

I thought the rave bullring was the best thing in that part of the site fwiw.

bez's acid house is the hansel and gretl story i want to read.

don't nibble them biscuits tho.

I found Bez's Acid House mildly depressing, despite the presence of Bez dancing on stage. The other tent nearby, Reverend Sharky’s Church of the Holyroller, had better DJs and a vibe I much preferred.

despite the presence of Bez dancing on stage

plz say that he was the only one on the stage, dancing, and that this was his 'solo' career after the HapMons...

i see orbital have been to burning man and were suitably impressed