glasgowbury ’10: the good, the bad, the fugly1

(photo from the BBC ATL Flickr photostream from the excellent Carrie Davenport)

Wow. I’m aching, shattered and my ears are still ringing. Glasgowbury 2010 easily met and exceeded my high expectations, both on a personal level and in terms of music: simply a great event for all involved. A massive thank you to the organisers and the bands involved, we all had a ball. I will be posting reviews of The Rupture Dogs, Fight Like Apes, LaFaro, The Q, Wonder Villains, Pocket Billiards, Axis Of, ASIWYFA, Panama Kings and More Than Conquerors over the next day or two- in the meantime, check out the BBC ATL brief Glasgowbury reviews if you need your review fix as soon as possible.

Last year I ran a little feature on the festival in general, and behold! It’s back for another year!

The Good:

• The weather. Nice and dry for the weekend, with two lovely warm evenings.
• The festival attendees (for the most part). With the exception of one guy declaring his love for the disability living allowance to the tune of “On The Ball” for nigh on 3 hours and the guys throwing bystanders into the “circle of death” at LaFaro everyone I met was surprisingly nice. Many festival goers admitted to me they only knew General Fiasco, but wandered from tent to tent and discovered bands such as John, Shelly & the Creatures or Cashier No 9. That’s the real beauty of Glasgowbury: the rubbish is mostly filtered out, so you can be guaranteed to find someone you will love.
• Cheap drinks. Well, festival cheap. Buckfast cocktails probably contributed to the good atmosphere.
• The side attractions. The ability to customise your wellies, the massive graffiti wall and the ability to make signs really adds to Glasgowbury- it makes it a family friendly festival (not to the same extent as Willowstone but they make a strong effort) and some adult attendees created certain hilarious signs.
• The staff (for the most part). Helpful and knowledgeable for the most part. The security staff took a hands off approach in terms of crowdsurfing, and generally intervened if things were getting out of hand in the moshpit.
• Silhouette: Shauna Tohill’s project seems to be reaping real rewards. I caught the last few tracks of her set and the entire tent was singing along or clapping, while “Volume Destroyed” is one of my singles of the year. A bigger stage and a later slot please, Mr Glasgow.
• Pocket Billiards: a perfect festival band. They may have been a little out of tune but the atmosphere in the tent was superb. People know the album word for word and even if you don’t, there’s a huge amount of crowd interaction- you always feel involved.
• LaFaro & ASIWYFA have both improved so much over the past year and both were highlights of the festival. And So I Watch You From Afar more than made up for their underwhelming headline performance with a raucous set in the G Sessions tent and stole the spotlight from Fighting With Wire, while LaFaro delivered an explosive performance that was surprisingly tight for a band that pride themselves upon their raw, explosive style.

The Bad:

• Certain individual staff problems. Certain staff members in the car park were unwavering in abiding to the letter of the law to some and willing to be pragmatic to others. We arrived at the car park at 10:03pm after travelling from Belfast- due to a car crash on the way we were delayed and hoped that the staff would make an exception. No such luck. Despite the fact at least 5 or 6 cars were in the same scenario, we were refused entry to the car park and no other options were provided. Ten to fifteen minutes later, the staff had changed their mind and let certain cars in. It was a sour note to kick off the Glasgowbury experience.
• Panama Kings. Don’t light the torches and ready the pitchforks. I’ve watched Panama Kings three or four times in the past two years and every time I come away feeling confused and disappointed. The elements are there and if they spark together they can create some excellent tracks, but it is a question of “if” and not “when”. In terms of the setlist alone, leaving out two of your biggest hits (in “Young Blood” and “Golden Recruit”) without really plugging the void at a festival is a risky business and the overall performance suffered.
• The fact there’s simply not enough time. The festival has expanded and the sheer quantity of quality acts means that most of us leave the festival regretting missing at least two or three bands. Would it really be a big ask for some acts to play on the Friday night in order to space things out on the Saturday?

The Fugly:

• Some of the attire on show. The mankinis scarred us all just a little.