Idolator: glastonbury

Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me About Ethiopiques At Glastonbury?

Dan Gibson — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EDT

We covered a bit of the Glastonbury lineup announcement, had our bit about Jay-Z as headliner, even that stupid "upside-down house" tent, but at no point did I hear that an all-star band comprised of those featured on the 23 volumes of the Ethiopiques series would be performing. Not that I would have been able to fly out to England or spend three days in mud/fecal matter-soaked fields, but I would have at least wanted to know, so I could wistfully stare eastward on Saturday dreaming of Mulatu Astatke and his band. I'll get over the pain somehow, but it's some consolation that the act's set is available to watch on BBC's site for a week or so, along with full sets from the Verve, Candi Staton and Massive Attack. [BBC]

Amy Winehouse Punch-Out Victim: "I Was Just Trying To Grab The Free Hat"

Maura Johnston — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:00:00 EDT

London resident James Gostelow, the 25-year-old who achieved minor notoriety when he was punched by Amy Winehouse at Glastonbury Festival on Saturday night, is not mad at the troubled songstress at all. Hey, at least he has the best story of all his friends who went to the festival, right? Gostelow would, however, like to clear up the whole discrepancy over whether or not he was trying to paw Winehouse's cleavage before the attack. He was just trying to get a hat that was flung by someone in the back rows! Why a hat would be worthy of grabbing during a once-in-a-lifetime extra-slurry Winehouse performance is beyond me, unless it was a Hat FM model.

"I saw a hat being thrown from behind me and it hit Amy's beehive," he said. "She looked down, saw me looking up, and her elbow went for me.

"She caught my forehead, then someone may have shouted something from the back, which is when she went in again.

"At the end of the day it is all part of being at the front and being pushed by thousands of people. It is all part of the Glastonbury experience. I'm just pleased I got to see her. She did a great act.

"Not everyone can say they have been hit by Amy Winehouse. I just want to shake the person who threw the hat."

Well, now we know: You do not fuck with Amy Winehouse's hair. Hey, if she ever gets her life together, maybe she can be in a remake of Spaceballs!

Amy Winehouse Glastonbury 'punch victim' speaks [NME]

Franz Ferdinand Have A New Pro-Sex Dance Song For You

Anthony Miccio — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:45:00 EDT

I'm not sure how I feel about "Katherine Kiss Me," a new song that Franz Ferdinand performed at Glastonbury this weekend. On the one hand, I'm glad to see the band consolidating its strengths (bouncy numbers with raised eyebrows and lyrical come-ons) rather than unleashing some rock opera that proves its real artists bona fides. But the song doesn't add any new twists to make up for its lack of energy, which is especially striking when compared to the band's best material. It's unfair to judge a new song from a live YouTube clip, but still: Are we seeing diminishing returns or an exciting appetizer? [YouTube]

Jay-Z To Oasis: "Are Your Songs 'Appropriate' Glastonbury Material? Just Checking"

Maura Johnston — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:45:00 EDT

After months of buildup, Jay-Z played his much-discussed headlining set at the Glastonbury Festival last night, and he opened it with a special dedication to Oasis' Noel Gallagher, who had said that Jay was an inappropriate addition to the Glasto bill because it was "built on a tradition of guitar music." Jay strolled out with a guitar, strumming and warbling along to "Wonderwall," last-call-on-a-long-night-style, before breaking into "99 Problems." I think this is a way to tell Gallagher "your move," although I shudder to think what an Oasis cover of "Big Pimpin'" might sound like. (There's a download of his full set from last night here.) [YouTube / HipHopIsRead via madeupmemories]

Amy Winehouse's Fist Says "No, No, No" To Grabby Glastonbury Attendee

Maura Johnston — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:30:00 EDT

Amy Winehouse apparently made it through her set at Glastonbury last night standing, with highlights including her covering "A Message To You Rudy," finally spitting out that gum that she's always chewing during her performances, and calling Kanye West a "cunt" in the middle of one song. (Kanye, naturally, responded right away on his blog, saying that being hated by "Whinehouse" was a sign that he'd really made it and appending a LOL.) But at the end of her set was when things really got real; she jumped offstage and sang while teetering around in front of the crowd, and one fan was so excited by this that he allegedly went in for a quick grope of either her breast or her beehive. Winehouse "thanked" this person with a quick punch (at the :45 mark of the above video), although the BBC is reporting that said concertgoer hasn't pressed charges yet. Well, it takes time to get to the police station from the front row!

Meanwhile, the Times Of London says that "music critics" are claiming that Amy was in top form throughout the set, and Glastonbury organizer Michael Eavis is already claiming that she could be next year's headliner. But the YouTube clips I've spot-checked would seem to be at odds with that assessment. See for yourself:

Amy Winehouse - Rehab - Live At Glastonbury 2008 [YouTube]
Amy Winehouse performs at Glastonbury 2008 [YouTube]
Amy Winehouse appears to punch a fan at Glastonbury Festival [Times Online]

Jay-Z Is Not A Hippie

Maura Johnston — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:30:00 EDT

After months of buildup, including rumors of soft ticket sales and Oasis members sniping over whether Jay-Z was an "appropriate" Glastonbury headliner, the festival is finally on the horizon, and organizers are getting ready to roll out the muddy carpet for the hip-hop mogul, who'll headline a bill that also includes Kings Of Leon, Jimmy Cliff, The Verve, and Leonard Cohen. (Amy Winehouse is expected to show up too, despite a recent emphysema diagnosis and hospital visit; she may be on the path to wearing an oxygen mask all the time, but for now she's still as ready to sing as she can be, according to her father. Good looking out, Dad.) Jay, who said of his Glasto gig that he's "never been involved in anything this controversial," has a busy, yet soulless, weekend ahead of him:

The VIP arrangements in place for the rapper include a Land Rover tour of Worthy Farm, the muddy dairy fields where 72-year-old farmer Michael Eavis hosts Britain's largest and best-known festival.

"I had a word with his manager," said Eavis. "And he said: you're country folk down there, we're city kids. I said that a lot of people that come to Glastonbury are city kids too, and I would show him around to prove it." Eavis said preparations included a tour of Trash City - a field of sculptures and robots made of waste - a trip around Shangri La, this year's weird and wacky "festival within a festival", and a stop in the comedy tent.

However, Jay-Z and his partner Beyoncé Knowles, recently rumoured to have married, will avoid the stone circle, a place many fans view as the spiritual soul of the Somerset event. "The hippy thing, his manager said, isn't quite up [Jay-Z's] street," Eavis added.

Not yet, anyway. Wait until he needs a big idea for one of his Live Nation-produced tours, though, then he'll be all about finding some rocks and soul.

Jay-Z gets into the spirit of Glastonbury to silence critics [Guardian]

Glastonbury's Newest Venue To Inspire Lots Of Lionel Richie Remixes

Maura Johnston — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:00:00 EDT

"From the outside 'The House' looks like an ordinary house with a front garden, picket fence and hanging baskets, but inside there is an upside down lounge room, floating 3D imagery and upside down video projections." This could be great or it could be just asking for someone who's had a little too much "fun" outside the tent to cause serious damage to everything in an effort to "make things right again." But that's what insurance is for! [NME / [YouTube]

Another American Glastonbury Headliner Makes Another British Band Cranky

Anthony Miccio — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:30:00 EDT

First Noel Gallagher clucked his tongue at Jay-Z, now Shrek The Third campaigners The Fratellis are grousing about the Kings Of Leon headlining the Pyramid Stage right after their performance. No, the Fratellis don't think they should headline instead, they just think Kings Of Leon isn't cool enough for the honor. Says bassist Barry, "Someone said I didn't like the Kings Of Leon—I actually love them, but I just don't think they should be headlining. Not to say I think we should be headlining, but I don't think the headline acts this year are too good to be honest." Aw, I was hoping to finally hear a Brit admit the Kings Of Leon kinda suck.

The Fratellis lack of enthusiasm about the upcoming festival can be partially blamed on the crappy time they had last year, when they were one rung lower on the Pyramid Stage line-up.

"We had a disaster last year. Everything that could go wrong, did.
"Backdrops fell down, equipment broke, and other sh**.

"We built it up in our own heads: 'F***, we're playing Glastonbury, third from the top on the Pyramid Stage.'

"We built it up as this big thing and it was sh**e. The only thing that saved our weekend was that I got to see The Who from the side of the stage.

"If it hadn't been for that I would have gone home in disgust and never come back."

Why did you come back, guys? I don't think there's a law in England that says you have to play Glastonbury. Is there?

Frats Behead Kings [Daily Star]

The Allure Of The British Festival Is Wearing Off A Bit

Dan Gibson — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:00:00 EDT

The Guardian "leaked" most of the Glastonbury lineup this morning, and while there are certainly portions that sound very alluring (especially ignoring the logistical issues of actually traveling to an muddy field in the middle of England), it appears American festivals aren't alone in having an off year.

Glastonbury tickets, which normally are nearly impossibly to obtain, are moving slowly this year, and there's already been some grumbling about Jay-Z as a headliner (although Brits should thank their lucky stars they didn't end up with Jack Johnson, right?) However, the acts announced today are a mixed bag of wtf's and pleasant surprises, with John Mayer, James Blunt and Gilbert O'Sullivan leading the former and Leonard Cohen, the Verve and The National the best of the latter. Somewhere in the middle, we have Duffy, The Feeling, Manu Chao, and Goldfrapp. Another category adequately covered is "Who The Hell Are These People And Why Do Their Names Seem Like Noises Toddlers Make?", featuring The Ting Tings and Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong.

The TBA filled announcement below:

Friday, June 27

Pyramid Stage

Kings Of Leon, The Fratellis, Editors, The Gossip, The Feeling, KT Tunstall, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, The Subways, Kate Nash

Other Stage

Panic At The Disco, The Enemy, We Are Scientists, Foals, The Hoosiers, Ben Folds, Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong, Vampire Weekend, Hilltop Hoods

John Peel Stage

Jamie T, The Cribs, Reverend And The Makers, MGMT, The Ting Tings, Young Knives, Lightspeed Champion, Glasvegas

Saturday, June 28

Pyramid Stage

Jay-Z, Very Special Guest TBA, Manu Chao, The Raconteurs, James Blunt, Crowded House, Seasick Steve, The Hold Steady, Shakin' Stevens

Other Stage

Massive Attack, Hot Chip, Elbow, Duffy, The Wombats, Neon Neon, Black Kids, The Golden Silvers, The Travelling Band

John Peel Stage

Biffy, Clyro, The Futureheads, Band Of Horses, The Courteneers/The Black Keys, Vampire Weekend, The Teenagers

Sunday, June 29

The Verve, Leonard Cohen, Goldfrapp, Very Special Guest TBC, John Mayer, Gilbert O' Sullivan, TBC

Other Stage

Groove Armada, The Zutons, The Pigeon Detectives, Mark Ronson, Scouting For Girls, Jack Penate, Newton Faulkner, Black Mountain, Hoodoo Gurus

John Peel Stage

The National, Spiritualized, Crystal Castles, Brain Jonestown Massacre, The Stars, The Courteneers/The Black Keys, Rocket Summer

Glastonbury festival lineup leaked [Guardian]

Gallagher Brother Goes "Veiled Racism" Route In Effort To Get Back Into News (And It Works!)

Maura Johnston — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:30:00 EDT

As a former headliner of the Glastonbury Festival, Oasis' Noel Gallagher is not happy with this year's lineup, which is headlined by Jay-Z (for now) and apparently suffering from low ticket sales. Why? Well, of course, it's hip-hop's fault! Because it hates melody! Or something like that.

In an interview with the BBC, the Oasis man said the festival was "built on a tradition of guitar music" which the rapper failed to fit into.

Asked by the interviewer what he made of Glastonbury's failure to sell out, he responded: "Well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Gallagher continued: "Sorry, but Jay-Z? Fucking no chance. Glastonbury has a tradition of guitar music, do you know what I mean? Even when they throw the odd curveball in on a Sunday night and you go, Kylie Minogue? Don't know about that."

According to the BBC, Gallagher, whose band Oasis headlined the festival in 1995 and 2004, also said: "I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. It's wrong."

Hmm, he didn't seem to have a problem with the Black Eyed Peas sharing the bill with his band in 2004. Could our man Noel be a little, well, embittered over the fact that his band isn't sharing top billing with the Verve and Kings Of Leon? Or does he just have a long-brewing crush on Fergie?

Gallagher brands Jay-Z 'wrong for Glasto' [Guardian]
[Photo: AP]

Glastonbury Festival: Low Sales, Jay-Z Pull-Out Rumors Making Everybody Cranky

Anthony Miccio — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Registration for tickets to the Glastonbury Festival re-opened today, following relatively sluggish sales since Sunday. In previous years, tickets to the three day British event sold out within hours, but over a fifth of the 137,000 tickets remained unsold after the first day. While some blamed the horrible weather that plagued the Festival over the last three years, others claimed that planned headliner Jay-Z was the cause of the lack of enthusiasm. And you know Hov doesn't appreciate that.

After Jay-Z announced he would headline the upcoming four-day O2 Wireless Festival at Hyde Park (an indoor gig) a week after Glastonbury, rumors spread that he would drop out of the earlier festival, offended by claims that British campers aren't psyched to wait through three days of mud (and bands like Kings Of Leon) to see him. Word even got out that Prince might replace him. But Glastonbury organizer Michael Eavis says such claims are rubbish.

Speaking to XFM, Eavis said that the reports of a possible Jay-Z cancellation were "completely unfounded" and "nasty, malicious rumours".
"The Sun was carrying a story that he was pulling out," he continued. "I'm not sure where they got from, probably from the people that were doing a show in London the following week [the Wireless festival in Hyde Park, which Jay-Z is set to headline], because they were tying to sell tickets for their show."

Jay-Z's great and all, but I really can't think of a context where I would be disappointed if he wasn't magically replaced by Prince. Songs, concerts, candid tabloid snaps with Beyonce—Prince would always be preferable.

Jay-Z Ready To Pull Out Of Glastonbury [FestivalWise]
Prince replacing Jay-Z at Glastonbury? [DigitalSpy]
Michael Eavis: 'Jay-Z Is Not Pulling Out Of Glastonbury' [NME]

Confirming earlier speculation, Glastonbury ...

Maura Johnston — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:00:46 EST

Confirming earlier speculation, Glastonbury organizer Michael Eavis said that Jay-Z would headline this summer's installment of the muddy music festival because he was in the mood to "break with tradition this time and put on something totally different." [BBC]

Rumors that either Kanye West or Jay-Z would ...

mjohnston — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:15:28 EST

Rumors that either Kanye West or Jay-Z would be headlining this year's Glastonbury Festival have started to churn after fest head Michael Eavis told the BBC, "I'm putting on a black American headliner, who's terrific." Eavis later hinted that the headliner in question was from New York, which may rule out Kanye, although I'm sure he has a crash pad somewhere in the city. [Guardian]

The Inevitable Out-Of-Context Photo Assembly

Brian Raftery — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:51:14 EDT

There are hundreds of pictures from this weekend's Glastonbury Festival on the wires, and the breakdown goes as follows: 90 percent of them are shots of Pete Doherty, and 7 percent are shots of Kate Moss staring at Pete Doherty. Of the remaining images, our favorites include Paul Weller's eyes-wide-shut playing style; Brandon Flowers' hologram-sticker outfit; and Lily Allen's valiant attempt to rescue E.T.

[Photos: Getty Images]

Glastonbury Ticket Reseller Is Looking For Someone Who Loves Rocky Road, Chunk

mjohnston — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:04:48 EDT

This year's Glastonbury Festival, which takes place this weekend in the UK, has tickets that are stamped with the bearer's photo in an effort to sidestep scalpers. What this has resulted in people who can't attend the festival for reasons unrelated to price-gouging attempting to unload their tickets on eBay. The ads all have descriptions of the sellers—brunette with blue eyes, slightly receding hair—attached to them, making the whole enterprise part StubHub, part Nerve. One ad in particular caught our eye, if only because we're thinking that replicating this ID photo will require a very adept glam squad:

According to the listing, the seller's a Fratellis fan, but we have to admit that we're a bit suspect on that particular point. Wouldn't there be some residual bitterness there?

GLASTONBURY 2007 TICKET [ebay.co.uk, via Guardian Unlimited Arts Blog]

British Festivalgoers May Have A Hard Time Seeing The Arcade Fire

Brian Raftery — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 09:50:25 EST

Those of you hoping to make it to this June's Glastonbury Festival—the three-day camp-out concert that will feature sets by the Who, the Killers, and our Northern saviors—had better start begging on Craigslist UK:

...with 145,000 places up for grabs at this year's Glastonbury Festival, organisers have announced that as many as 395,000 people have registered to buy one. Glastonbury's new registration system, which required people to fill in a form and submit photo ID before they could actually apply for tickets themselves, was introduced this year in an attempt to combat touts.

The deadline for the scheme passed yesterday, and festival organisers today confirmed to the BBC that they received nearly three times as many applications as there are places on site...In fact, when tickets go on sale on April 1, those who have completed the registration process will be able to apply for up to four tickets each, making them an even rarer commodity.

Of course, if you don't get a ticket, you can easily replicate the Glastonbury experience in your backyard: Simply fill up a mini-pool with mud and feces, put an NME compilation on shuffle, and hire some out-of-work British actors to stagger about and occasionally break into drunken brawls. Cheaper than the real thing—and cleaner, too!

Glastonbury buried in ticket registrations [Guardian]

Massive UK Festival Forces Attendees To Smile For The Camera

mjohnston — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:21:08 EST

The UK's huger-than-life Glastonbury Festival—which just announced that the Arctic Monkeys and Bjork will be on the bill—is trying to crack down on scalping by using a pre-registration process for tickets and requiring attendees to submit a photo for identification purposes. From the festival's official site:

As part of Glastonbury Festivals continuing campaign to combat touting, pre sales registration is being introduced this year. Everyone wanting to buy a ticket for the 2007 Festival will first have to register. This will mean supplying your contact details and a passport standard photo. Each ticket sold will feature the photograph of the person in whose name it is registered and will be non-exchangeable.

Registration will take place during February, with tickets going on sale April 1. While we're certainly not on the side of the touts—who, last year, marked the price of a Glastonbury ticket up by almost 550%—we're a bit skeptical about the photo-ID plan. Unless the festival's organizers beef up security to airport levels, we suspect a few "artsy" scalper-provided pictures will slip through. What, you've never seen a fake ID fool someone working the door at a rock show?

Glasto Puts Fans In The Picture [Pollstar]