Apologies to non-UK members who might not be able to access the BBC site and their coverage of the Glastonbury Festival, but there's been a lot of negative press over here about a) how many people were paid to cover the festival and how much the BBC spent (I've seen £5million quoted) and b) how poor the presentation was.
Now I've got to say, what I saw was excellent - Neil Young rocked, CS&N were superb - like they were stuck in a time warp! Those harmonies are just as good as ever. Quo were, well, Quo - same as always, they got the crowd rocking. Springsteen was excellent, played a lot of my faves - though not Rosalita.
The presenters? Hmm, not too impressed - but then, they were only filling space between acts.
One thing I did notice about Springsteen, though - is it just me, or has his in-between songs patter got really corny? Cheesy and showbizzy, even? He started this chat about building a house of hope, a house of rock, blah blah - after he'd been babbling for a couple of mins, I'm shouting at the telly, "SHUT THE **** UP AND GET ON WITH THE MUSIC!"
And some of his exchanges with Stevie were a bit corny, too...."Stevie, it's curfew time! What are we gonna do?" "Screw the curfew!" "We goin' play all night!"....they played another 7-8 minutes. I'd really hate Springsteen to become a showbiz/Las Vegas parody of hisself - I used to love the stories about his dad, and growing up, between songs. Didn't hear any of that....but at least the music was really good.
OK, what did YOU think?
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
I agree with you about Springsteen, it was really corny, particularly the "house of hope" stuff. It's what I'd expect from a born-again Christian on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
The Beeb were reckoned to have 400 people at Glastonbury, including a lot of fairly high-ranking managers. It didn't show in the presentation, between acts and, to some extent, in the direction. Shots of flags waving, with a glimpse of the act through the gaps was not good direction, in my view.
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I thought the coverage was reasonable (I reviewed most of the acts you have mentioned Vic in the "Reviews of Shows" thread).
The thing that annoyed me most was Radcliffe & Co saying something like "Neil Young or Bruce Springsteen is on behind us as you can hear" but they wouldn't switch live to these acts then, we had to see someone else pre-recorded first. It was almost like the Beeb is frightened of live in case something goes wrong.
Apart from Bruce's preacher bits I thought he was outstanding. I hope I've got as much energy when I hit 58 years of age.
My favourites have to be "The Fleetfoxes" on reflection. Simply fantastic harmonies and acoustic work. Especially as they had said they hadn't performed before such a huge audience before and were worried how they would come over. The quality of their sound more than equalled and even surpassed their studio album sound I thought.
Rodders would be pleased about one thing, and that is that I always told him that I didn't rate Neil Young's "Rockin In The Free World" much (I prefer his slower acoustic stuff). But after his Glastonbury performance of the song as a closer I can see where Rodders is coming from. Fantastic!!
Chris
The guitar is all right John but you'll never make a living out of it! (John Lennon's Aunt Mimi)
Just to add a little further to this - the BBC's been pretty good with its music coverage the last couple of years or so. I've just turned over to a programme called "Guitar Heroes" - first track was a clip of Hendrix (in glorious black-and-white!) from about 1967 from the Lulu show - they (the Experience) did a completely different version of Hey Joe to the recorded version. Half way through, Jimi stopped the music and said something along the lines of, "We're going to stop playing this rubbish and dedicate a song to the Cream...." and knocked out an instrumental version of Sunshine of Your Love. That was followed by a clip of Free from 1970 playing All Right Now in the Top Of The Pops Studio, the original line-up of Fleetwodd Mac playing Albatross, and a classical guitarist called Manitas de Plata who's pretty darn good - taken off the Rolf Harris Show, again in black and white. Moving swiftly on, here's Rod and the Faces (another TOTP clip) doing Pool Hall Richard...
I'm....going to stop typing now, too busy watching telly - and God bless Auntie Beeb!
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
I didn't mean I don't like Auntie Beeb Vic,
Perish the thought!!!
It's just that I found all the DJ's link chatter and interuptions a bit tiresome. The filming and sound recording of all the artists I saw was as always matchless.
All the best chris
The guitar is all right John but you'll never make a living out of it! (John Lennon's Aunt Mimi)
I didn't mean I don't like Auntie Beeb Vic,
Perish the thought!!!
It's just that I found all the DJ's link chatter and interuptions a bit tiresome. The filming and sound recording of all the artists I saw was as always matchless.
All the best chris
I downloaded some of the BBC coverage over the weekend, and I agree that the broadcast of the actual performances was excellent.
But I found myself yelling at Lauren Lavern to shut the h*&% up and get on with the music.
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
