I arrived back in Manchester yesterday after a 7 hour ( it should have taken 4 hours) drive back from a fantastic weekend at Glastonbury. I had to take a train back to my home town which was an effort with all the bags I had. But other than this my trip to Glastonbury has been the best week of this year so far.
Myself, my boy and our group of friends from university went down in a mini bus which we hired (Some of the people on the coach were less than thankful for this minibus being organised and other such rude comments between people which i will comment on in another post).My aim at Glastonbuy this year was to see as much as I could of the festival as well as obviously seeing amazing music. I decided to see the “smaller” bands and bands which i didnt know or music which i would not normally listen to. I did see some of the headliners but in my opinion a few were a bit of a let down in comparison to some of the other bands i saw.
The bands i saw which i feel had the most passion and talent were:
Lightspeed Champion – Who i have seen three times this year but everytime he has been more and more exciting. He has so much more stage presence now than the very first time i saw him. It was a fantastic set !
Hadouken – I had heard of this band before and heard a few odd songs but never really go into them, so whilst waiting for Lightspeed champion ( i was lucky to be at the front) we heard these! I have to say they were fantastic and i loved every second. I will make sure i listen to more of them but it is the kind of music that HAS to be listend to very loud otherwise it does not give them enough justice !
Hilltop Hoods – Again this was another band i have never really heard of apart from one song which my boy sent me. They really ot the crowd going and gave a fantastic set ! They are an Austalian hip hop group and are worth checking out.
Riz mc – I have been wanting to see Riz for a very long time. I first heard his controversial 9/11 blues and fell in love with him. His words mean a lot and he has so much passion in what he is doing. I am so glad i have finally seen him and can not wait to see more. He ended on a breath stealing accapella, i will try and find some footage of this. He was cut short at the end and as he was walking off from his set the security guy was clearly having a word with him. Very unfair !
Example – I was meant to see Example when he was in Manchester a few months back, the girl i was meant to be going with let me down at the last second for poor reasons after a day of building up to it ! ( Dont you hate it when people do things like that ) I was on a real downer and others couldnt come which was a shame and i missed out. Finally i have seen EXAMPLE and it was such a fantastic set, i think it was my highlight of the weekend ! He really got the crowd going and was clearly loving every second he was up there! So amazing !
Rodney Brannigan – Very unique, I saw him twice and neither time was intentional ! We first saw him do a very small set in a tiny hippy cafe with rugs on the floor and cups of tea for 50p. There wasnt many people there. We then saw him in the left field where he played to a very large auidence. This man has so much talent.
I also so many other smaller bands which when i have worked out their names ( as some i had never seen before I will post about ).
I danced away to Booka Shade, Audio Bullys and a few others in the dance tents which i need to work the names out of as im not sure who they were. Each of these were pretty different however but all very good.
I have a seperate post for jayz and the verve.I missed Pete Doherty and Dirty Pretty Things.. This makes me sad but there are valid reasons for this!Overall music wise i saw many different genres and loved every second.
This was my second year at Glastonbury and i didnt think it could get better than last year but it sure was. Maybe this was the bands i saw, the adventures i went on, the weather or maybe it was the people I went with either way it was out of this world !