Glastonbury Festival, Friday Evening

After The Walkmen play their last triumphant number we head back across to the Other Stage to see Badly Drawn Boy and as a bonus we get the last 3 songs of The Rapture’s set, which hasn’t really changed much since we saw them way back in January.

As the evening sun shines down on Glasters the little fella with the wooly hat shambles on stage - the most unassuming rock star of the festival. His voice is horse from playing a set of pub gigs in the run up to the festival, but that doesn’t stop him some beautiful songs. Last time I saw him play on this stage he played a duet with his girlfriend that had me on the verge of tears. This evening he dedicates songs to his girlfriend and their two children, as well as Joe Strummer, who BDB claims is his inspiration for playing the festival. You see it turns out that Damon wasn’t actually booked to play this festival or any other – in his words “no fucker wanted to book him” – and so he is here as a replacement for Ozzie chancers Jet. We definitely got a good deal and not even BDB’s political rant can take the shine off the set (actually his admission that he’s gone all Bono, except better looking and with a better singing voice is indeering). Can the evening get any better?

Oh yes, because next on are Franz Ferdinand who draw a huge crowd of fans and curious onlookers for their run through their million selling debut album. And so they rattle through the songs with the crowd singing back every lyric. Some of the songs are now complemented by Shadowsesque dance routines but we can’t hold this against them. This band were meant to play festivals and it’s a headline slot on the Pyramid Stage next year or I’ll eat my tent.

Next we zip round to the main stage (with a quick stop for liquid refreshment) to see Kings of Leon. This time last year KoL played the New Tent to a massive crowd, causing the buzz that launched their career. Tonight they’ve been moved to the Pyramid stage and are second from the top of the bill, supposedly by request of Noel Gallagher. Maybe the move up is too much too soon as they look very nervous; maybe it’s the curse of Gallagher (I’ll write about it some other time) jinxing another new band; or maybe the loss of their trademark beards has removed their groove. Either way this evening’s mix of old “classics” and new tracks is a little dull.

Shortly after 10:20 Liam Gallagher swaggers on stage with all the arrogance we’ve come to expect wearing what can only be described as a sleeping bag designed by Versace. The rest of Oasis shable on behind him and launch into Rock and Roll Star and the crowd at the front goes mental. For the rest of us the band appears to be a parody of their old selves, there is no fire driving them anymore and we could be listening to a cover band. Five songs in and the band launch into Columbia and no-one on stage has acknowledged the presence of the crowd out front. We’ve had enough and head off to see The Chemical Brothers.

The Chemical Brothers are Glastonbury stalwarts. I think they’ve played here every year that I’ve attended. They’ve played all of the stages with both “Live” and DJ sets and every one of them has been a blinder. Tonight is a live set and by the time we get around the site to see them they’ve already played a five minute segue of their greatest hits allowing them to wander off into 10 minute explorations of some of the more obscure tracks. Never fear there’s plenty of stuff to keep us amused and the light show is a great distraction from two lab technicians playing keyboards. The set finishes and we wander off towards the stone circle as happy, sun burnt campers.

- posted by Nigella @ 8:47 PM