Glastonbury '05 BBC Coverage

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

no idea mate. It's a shame there isn't an "archiving, making lists, and dealing with the boring bits around whatever you find entertaining" forum, then you wouldn't have to bother with all this dull music and comedy.

What do you mean by that? It's through archiving that people are able to enjoy stuff in the future.

Ah well, let's just not bother recording or being interested in anything - so long as we can par-teeeeeeeee!!!!

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

My bum is still clenched from the embarrasment of that interview.  Colin and Edith hamfistedly interviewing a bunch of stonewallers.  

Why didn't Colin and Edith take the piss, like Simon Amstell might do? Why do they insist on being blandly sycophantic even when Doherty is doing his Sylvia-Young-Stage-School-version of-the-Bill-Grundy-interview schtick?

Whenever I see Doherty, I keep thinking of Patrick Marber's photcopier repair man in Knowing Me Knowing You ('Huh, I was sacked!').

[dot]

What do you mean by that? It's through archiving that people are able to enjoy stuff in the future.

What would it take for you to be to able to enjoy something now? If a butterfly, like a sweet moment, flits by in the sunlight, do you smile or do you jump up with a net, kill it and then pin it to a board? I think live music is good because it'll never be heard again. A photograph of an ice sculpture is pretty naff.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

You don't approve of recording/televising live music at all then?

I resent the idea that being interested in nerdy matters means you don't get any pleasure from The Thing Itself.

OK, if you were jumping up and down in a tent and I tapped you on the shoulder and said 'Yes, but what's their archiving policy?', I'd expect you to tell me to piss off. But not on a discussion board.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

Why didn't Colin and Edith take the piss, like Simon Amstell might do? Why do they insist on being blandly sycophantic even when Doherty is doing his Sylvia-Young-Stage-School-version of-the-Bill-Grundy-interview schtick?

I thought Colin was starting to get a bit pissed off which is why he questioned Pete Doherty about his previous Glastonbury (non) appearances.  Perhaps Colin Murray just doesn't have the wit to take the piss out of someone like Doherty

[Beagle 2]

The Kaiser Chiefs looked kickarse from the two songs they played, especially "Oh my god", would have really liked to have seen them. Much need for giant inflatable dinosaurs. All in all looks like a much better day today, can't wait for New Order later on. Bloody hell, have you seen the size of that puddle next to the pyramid stage?

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

I quite like all the stilted linky bits, and when they interview someone strange in one of the weirder tents. But they keep cutting to A-list bands on the main stage playing incredibly dull songs.

[Beagle 2]

To say they've got BBC3 and 4 sitting idle up until 7 each night (or are those frequencies or whatever used for CBBC and Cbeebies?) surely just streaming more consistant coverage of mainstream and alternative type acts without the need to keep flipping about would have been a better idea?

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

It'd be great if they just kept a tape running all weekend, recording everything that happens in the Comedy (Cabaret?) Tent. Except for the times when no-one's on.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Has the comedy tent *ever* been televised?

[The Mumbler]

To say they've got BBC3 and 4 sitting idle up until 7 each night (or are those frequencies or whatever used for CBBC and Cbeebies?)

I believe that's indeed the case.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

I know clips have turned up on Edinburgh Or Bust, but they were just shaky camcorder shots of Simon Munnery. I know that they occasionally interview the acts (Munnery, for one, they must have done Otway too) but yeah, I don't believe they've ever set up a proper camera and captured Woody Bop Muddy for posterity.

BBC7 do documentaries on Glastonbury (usually with Jenny Eclair doing her guff throughout) which feature tantalising snippets of sets. I wonder if they do just bung a mic up and try to get everything?

[dot]

You don't approve of recording/televising live music at all then?

Na, I just don't approve of you :)

[Santa's Boyfriend]

It infuriates me that the BBC aquired the rights to show highlights from Glastonbury.  When C4 had it they actually showed quite a lot of it in the evening, but on the BBC it seems to be relegated to half an hour in the afternoon and an hour in the evening, unless you've got digital.  Yet they devote a huge amount of time to wimbledon.  Why the hell didn't they simply acknowledge that there were two summer events going on at the same time and that they simply couldn't do an adequate job of covering both?

At least on digital in the evening there are the two extra channels covering it, but during the day they're showing wimbledon too.  I'd be interested to see just how the potential audience for the two events compare in size.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the day where there are enough channels that all the tents will be continually televised live, and you can simply flick over if Jason Donovan or whoever is on.

[Robot Devil]

Interpol have just owned it on the Other Stage - fantastic versions of Obstacle 1 and Not Even Jail (my fave off Antics) especially. Anyone see it?

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the coverage consisted of just Radcliffe presenting like it was at the start of the first show and then all the interviews and festival feature bits were done by Simon Amstell who is without a doubt for me the funniest interviewer and presenter in ages.

[terminallyrelaxed]

Did anyone catch Doves doing 'There Goes The Fear' last night? I thought that were grand, very pleased to have seen that.
I keep thinking I'm not really up for festivals, but every year that they're on they look ace - I caught a Faithless doing 'We Come One' at the Download festival last week and would have killed to be there - well, just for that set at least, the rest of the festival didnt really look my cup of tea.

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

We'll have Coldplay for ages now won't we. Oh well, I'm happy we got so much White Stripes last night so can't really complain. God, I hated Jo Whiley's introduction to them though. Did anyone see Haysie Dixie do Ace of Spades? I quite enjoyed that, and they all seemed to be having fun.

[LadyDay]

Interpol have just owned it on the Other Stage - fantastic versions of Obstacle 1 and Not Even Jail (my fave off Antics) especially. Anyone see it?

Interpol were fantastic as usual, New Order were great fun, but what's with Ian McCulloch singing "spare us the catter"??!! It was always cutter whenever I've seen them.

[terminallyrelaxed]

Well I saw Coldplay do Yellow, which I still like so ner. Didnt bother with the live Clocks after Razorlight though.

But did anyone see Razorlight? I just watched the whole thing, it was fucking brilliant. A few of the bands I've seen haven't had the best acoustics or dodgy soundchecks or whatever, but they were crystal all the way through. Fantastic, gutted I'm not there now.

Did I hear Eavis say they're having a break next year? I've had other priorities over the last couple of years but I think I could get it together for the next one, although I think this year's lineup is pretty good and might be hard to top for a while.

[terminallyrelaxed]

Heh, yeah seeing New Order do Transmission was a treat too.

[Neil]

Them Futureheads seem alright.  I think I quite like the Kaiser Chefs too.  They don't really show enough of the Jazz World stage and the like.  There were two very impressive guitarists in on BBC2 there, that was good.  

Terminallyrelaxed:  Yes, I think they said they're taking a break next year, but do try to get there the year after.  And don't worry about the line-up, there is always a huge amount of stuff to do besides just going to the Pyramid and Other stages.  The first two years I was there I spent an ungodly amount of time in the Circus field, some great stuff going on in there.

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

Those guitarists were amazing weren't they, I was really impressed by that. Liked the guy playing the saw and generally most of the people they get in to do those intimate performances in the studio as well. I wish they'd show more of that and stuff you don't normally see on TV, what kind of stuff did they have going on in the circus tent Neil? Any particular cool things you remember seeing? As a juggler myself I wish they'd show some of the circussy things on telly, I'm sure they showed a diabloist or something last year.

[Beagle 2]

The futureheads were absolutely fucking brilliant, they screwed showing the new order set up badly but from what I saw they weren't great anyway, fucking priority to Kasabian was a terrible move what a bag of complete mediocre, ah well still I've enjoyed the Kaisers and Futureheads the most from over here so far. Not enough old farts this year!

[Sovereign]

yeah, glad I'm not the only person who was gobsmacked by those guitarists! They even slipped in a bit of Metallica and The White Stripes just to show how goddamn cool they are.

I immediately texted my mate who's at glasto to tell him to go and watch 'em, hope he takes me advice.

[The Plunger]

The BBC coverage isn't too shabby really. The BBC2 coverage seems to pander to the mass market, but still slips in a few leftfield choices.  I'm no expert (erm, obviously), but I'm not sure that the technology (or , probably more realistically, the funding) exists to have cameras at every stage - allowing the digital viewer to press 'red' and be able to pick and choose who they watch ? Or if it is, its maybe too expensive to run.  Either way, it can't be far away, surely ?

EDIT : Spelling

[Neil]

I wish they'd show more of that and stuff you don't normally see on TV, what kind of stuff did they have going on in the circus tent Neil? Any particular cool things you remember seeing?

Well it's actually a circue field, so in that you've got a proper circus tent, the much more interesting outdoor circus, and then assorted other things going on all over that particular field.  Lots of jugglers, juggling workshops usually as well.  Then there are kind of odd little things going on beside the bigger things. I remember one right at the side of the out-door circus, and it was a guy being chucked empty coke crates, which he'd then stack on top of the ones he was currently perched on!  He was rigged up with a safety harness thing, and they would keep a score of how high he got before the whole thing toppled over and he had to start again.  The outdoor circus itself was excellent, I was totally entranced by it.  I can remember seeing stuff like guys on unicycles juggling very dangerous objects, funny magic acts, all kinds of really odd stuff.  The best thing about Glastonbury is the scope of the thing, there's always something good to look at.  That's why the predominately shit line-ups never bothered me!  

That's also why I agree with Santa's Boyfriend about the BBC coverage.  They really should have at least one digital channel devoted to it all through the day.  I know that BBC3/4 don't start up till the evening, but they could stick coverage on 701.  There's really no need for them to be showing 3 or 4 tennis matches at once.  They did actually broadcast a lot more Glastonbury coverage in the old days...BBC Choice was it?

Regards the guitarists, you chaps might want to check out Kaki King. She plays in a similar way, doing lots of percussive slaps on the guitar body.  I think her site is at www.kakiking.com

[Hypnotoad.]

Interpol have just owned it on the Other Stage - fantastic versions of Obstacle 1 and Not Even Jail (my fave off Antics) especially. Anyone see it?

Interpol were fantastic as usual, New Order were great fun, but what's with Ian McCulloch singing "spare us the catter"??!! It was always cutter whenever I've seen them.

Interpol stole the show IMO, I just love their cool, low key approach. Kinda strange seeing loads of people singing along, I still look at songs like Obstacle 1 as having limited appeal

Why the hell did they cut away half way through PDA though?

Excellent set I thought, I assumed they'd go with just a few from the new album, didnt expect "Not even jail" which is my fave track of the album

[Hypnotoad.]

The entire Glastonbury Interpol set is available for download from the forums on their official site, for anyone thats interested, like

http://s15.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=135NW335SGLNO26BZERBQRC4UO

[Labian Quest]

I thought Coldplay were the best band on really, though I suppose they did have the advantage of playing at night so they could do a proper lightshow. Plus loads of tunes that I'd actually heard. Oh yeah, The Coral were good too.