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Tuesday 6 July 2010

Glastonbury Day 3: Happy Birthday to ya

The last day of the festival and for some, the day that England played f**king awful and were elimated from the World Cup. For the others, the day they watched Slash play a slightly disappointing set, due to his rather dominating vocalist, Myles Kennedy. Whilst many were left wanting to hear more from the 44-year old guitar legend and less from his unknown and rather annoying side kick, nonetheless Slash showcased his completely unprecedented guitar skills and played a few crowd pleasing Guns and Roses classics including ‘Sweet Child of Mine’.

Kinks frontman Ray Davies followed with a brilliant set, refusing to cut it short and playing ‘See My Friends’ in a moving tribute to late Kinks bassist Pete Quaife. Including the likes of ‘Lola’, ‘Waterloo Sunset’ and fittingly ‘Shangri-La’ into his set list - the crowd were completely entranced and as sad to see Davies leave the stage, as he seemed to be to go.

We Are Scientists followed with a comical, if slightly poor sounding, set on The Other Stage. By no fault of the eccentric indie collective, high winds lessened the tracks impact and whilst the band were energetic, the set found a lot of audiences leaving or taking the opportunity to lay down and have a snooze.

Broken Social Scene graced The John Peel Stage early evening. With ten members of the Canadian outfit on stage and a plethora of, often unrecognisable, instruments, the band wowed with their orchestral, big band sound on tracks like ‘KC Accidental’ and ‘World Sick’, while still managing to deliver the goose-bump provoking delicate vocals of ‘Fire Eye’d Boy’.

With the final headline act of Stevie Wonder every bit as surreal and festival affirming as each crowd member had hoped for, the musical legend rounded off with bringing Michael Eavis on stage to sing Happy Birthday. And what a party it was.

Glastonbury Day 2: 'mon the Biff

With the weather feeling even hotter and a serious dent made in the dry shampoo, Kate Nash played The Other Stage to a huge crowd brimming with high expectations. Blasting out tracks from both her new album and her debut, it was often clear that the majority of the audience were more there for the pre-fringe lemon-consuming Kate, than the screaming flailing version that accompanied her newest tracks. Sounding at times mroe like a really pissed off Stacey Slater, the qualitiy of tracks from 'My Best Friend Is You' was a little lost and to seemingly attempt appear more alternative and less cockney popster, it all ended up a little unceccesary.

Special guests and possibly Glastonbury's (delberately) worst kept secret, Biffy Clyro took to the Park Stage later in the day and played tracks from their incredible back catalogue, as well as the more mainstream pleasers. The end result being a effortless display of talent that is now as characteristic of the band's live shows as their success is deserved.

Electro charmers Foals took to the John Peel Stage as the sun set to showcase tracks including 'Miami', 'Balloons' and the one that we were all waiting for, 'Spanish Sahara'. The Oxford-hailing five-piece seemed to hypnotise the audience, with them dictating the movements of each audience member as both inside and outside of the tent the crowd danced on each beat and sang back every one of Yanis's crafted lyrics.

Muse later headline the Pyramid stage in a set that drew on their achive of tracks and demonstrated exactly why they had deserved their prestigious slot on Glastonbury's 40th line up. Rounding off their set with U2's 'Where the Streets Have No Name', The Edge joined the band in a sincere tribute to a band that a lot of fans were disappointed to have not seen.

By Laura Routledge

Glastonbury Day 1: All Dizzle, No Drizzle

Having already spent two days camping in temperatures hotter than Brazil, you could have been forgiven for forgetting you were at a festival at all, let alone at Glastonbury - usually better known for flooding and mud wrestling than bikini clad festival goers and their typically British t-shirt tan lines. So kicking off the first day of music with a surreal early morning set from none other than Rolf Harris, seemed like the perfect reminder that sunshine or showers, Glastonbury holds the crown for the most eclectic line up of all festivals. After re-starting tracks because of crowd clapping that was out of sync, the 80 year old (yes, really) treated the audience to renditions of 'Two Little Boys', a cover of Led Zepplin's 'Stairway to Heaven' and of course, 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport' before inciting a chant about himself. Completely surreal but spot on. Miike Snow later appeared on the John Peel Stage, showing how perfectly his own brand of electro pop translates into a live show and leaving few disappointed as his vocal prowess prevailed in the rammed tent.

Snoop Dogg took to the Pyramid stage early evening to greet hordes of fans, curious bystanders and some rather sceptical glares. Donned in a tight white wife-beater vest and some serious, ahem, bling, whether it was the setting sun or the aroma of marijuana filling the air, Snoop Dogg seemed to not only exceed the expectations of his fans but put a smile on even the most serious of music fans, who had doubted his credentials and ability as a main stage act. Yelling out more explitives in between tracks than a character on Shameless, the American rapper included 'Gin and Juice', 'Signs' and crowd pleaser 'Jump Around' in his set list. After bringing out Tinie Tempah for a remix of 'Frisky', Snoop had some wise words to leave with the crowd, 'Every morning when you wake up, you must clean your teeth, thank God you are a live....and smoke some m**** f****** weed ya'll' Cue crowd hysteria.

Mumford and Sons later played to a packed out John Peel Stage, with the band looking and sounding noticeably humbled by the difference that a year has made to their loyal fan base. The crowd exuded more folk-driven giddiness and hoe-down happiness than Dr Stomp (a YouTube must) as the band leaped barefoot through tracks from their debut and showcasing four new tracks.

The headliners of the night were of course Gorillaz, replacing U2 due to Bono's back surgery. Promising something of an audio visual spectacle and with such big boots to fill, Gorillaz failed to make a lasting impression as despite bringing out Snoop Dogg and other guests from the album, the crowd talked amongst themselves and petered off. Many of whom found themselves at The XX's late night headlining of the secluded Park Stage, the perfect backing for their spine-tingling live renditions of their debut album, and indeed the perfect end to the first night of the festival.

By Laura Routledge