U2 after Glastonbury thoughts and chats

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In regards to that sort of thing - of course no fuck the revolution/climbing the speaker stacks - but for anything even 5% of that, blame the weather. Off their extended stage, they had steps running down to the pit/barrier, that he never used. Surely he would have if it wasn't four inches of mud down there. You can imagine the lift off from Bad being tenfold if he was up on the barrier leaning over the crowd screaming his Wide Awakes. And you know that in better conditions he would have been doing that sort of thing.

Knowing the cynical UK press, I think if Bono had replicated his Live Aid performance of "Bad" by leaning over the crowd again, he would have been accused of repeating himself.

I don't get all they hype around this festival. Yes, many big bands play there, and it was good to see U2 play there, of course. But, why is it the "World Cup of festivals"? How is it so much more important than any of the other dozens of big festivals around the world? Is it because it's the oldest? The biggest? UK media hype? With all the crap weather there and that lame-looking Pyramid Stage, I wonder what makes Glastonbury such a big deal.

Regarding U2's performance, isn't it also possible that they were simply tired. Jet lag was probably a factor.
 
Don't get why people were expecting this over-passionate, positively electrifying performance a la "fuck the revolution"/Zoo/white flags/etc. They are 50.

It's always possible. And during the current tour U2 have given quite a few of these electrifying performances. Glastonbury just wasn't one of those. And that's because of a number of factors, some of which were out of the control of U2.
I kinda agree with this quote I got off another forum:
They gave it a good shot but think the rain/wind/ cold beat them in the end. We were half way up the hill and there was no-one there by about two thirds of the way through. Cant remember the pyramid being so empty for a headliner for years - especially one that had been so hyped up. Did the greatest hits bit - but always felt like it was a bit U2 by numbers. Possibly weren't helped by Moz being in a foul mood again as the prime support.
Coldplay on the other hand hit it bang on. Good weather - huge crowd, Elbow on before - no competition with the mood and the reaction the night before. And thats despite only playing "Yellow" 15 or so times with different song titles.

To get a memorable Glastonbury performance several stars have to be aligned perfectly. That didn't happen on Friday. Still, I'm OK with that, because U2 were good, it wasn't like they were rubbish. They gave it all they had and it was good, just not enough for it to be amazingly great.
 
Its like a breath of fresh air isnt it? i mean even someone in work came upto me yesterday and said "He's got a great voice hasnt he" :lol: i mean its not like its been hidden for the past 11 years,


Fresh air, armed with a wary trepidation that they will go back to the way they were and U2 bash again! :angry:

It's like I have been living in a parallel universe of U2 love all these years and they all have suddenly moved to my planet :hmm: LMAO @ great voice comment! And the "no shit Sherlock" award goes to ............... :lol:


it also possible that they were simply tired. Jet lag was probably a factor.


Well Bono did mention that at the time!
 
I don't get all they hype around this festival. Yes, many big bands play there, and it was good to see U2 play there, of course. But, why is it the "World Cup of festivals"? How is it so much more important than any of the other dozens of big festivals around the world? Is it because it's the oldest? The biggest? UK media hype? With all the crap weather there and that lame-looking Pyramid Stage, I wonder what makes Glastonbury such a big deal.

I think it might indeed be the UK media hype and that it's probably the biggest festival in the UK. To be honest, having acts like U2, Coldplay and Beyonce perform kinda makes things too big for me. Those are stadium-sized acts. The charm of a festival for me is to see smaller acts, who suddenly are in the situation of performing for thousands of people. Or just several hundred who are just passing by the stage and stay because something caught their interest.
 
I think it might indeed be the UK media hype and that it's probably the biggest festival in the UK. To be honest, having acts like U2, Coldplay and Beyonce perform kinda makes things too big for me. Those are stadium-sized acts. The charm of a festival for me is to see smaller acts, who suddenly are in the situation of performing for thousands of people. Or just several hundred who are just passing by the stage and stay because something caught their interest.

Marty, what is the biggest festival in Holland? Is it Pinkpop?
 
I was up at the back of the hill for Beyonce, talking to a random guy in the first row of tents who had watched every headliner from there (for years, evidently) and he said that the headliner crowds were definitely Beyonce>>>Coldplay>>U2, that people were leaving U2 in droves, and that a large part of the problem (apart from the weather - or because of the weather) was that the sound in general was rubbish, but Bono in particular simply could not be heard. He said you could only really hear him at all on a couple of songs.
 
Galeongirl, is there a general consensus in Europe as to the "biggest and best" music festivals?

I reckon Glasto, Pinkpop, Rock Am Ring are on the list, what are some of the others?

Here in the US, I think it's Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and South By Southwest.
Sasquatch, Bumbershoot and All Points West are getting huge, too.
 
I think it might indeed be the UK media hype and that it's probably the biggest festival in the UK. To be honest, having acts like U2, Coldplay and Beyonce perform kinda makes things too big for me. Those are stadium-sized acts. The charm of a festival for me is to see smaller acts, who suddenly are in the situation of performing for thousands of people. Or just several hundred who are just passing by the stage and stay because something caught their interest.

It's actually the biggest in the world. Debatable, obviously, but it's reputation is that it's 'the best' as well. It's a huge part of the culture in the UK. The media coverage of it while it's on is immense. Not just the near 24hr coverage the BBC gives it on multiple channels, but the newspapers are giving it front pages every day, special liftout sections and whatnot, and I got back to London two days ago, and almost everyone I've spoken to since is talking about who they saw, missed, thought was great, thought were shit - and they're only talking about watching it on TV, not actually about being there. It's a festival that has crossed over into a national event.

And there are over 50 stages/venues at Glastonbury. So you've got it all. You've got a few stages where you'll see acts taking a step up and getting a shot they wouldn't normally get by playing in front of 10,20,30K. You've got tiny out of the way venues where you stumble across someone you've never heard of who turns out to be amazing. And you've got of course, as happened on the weekend with Pulp and Radiohead, often the opportunity to see very large acts playing on smaller stages than normal. Plenty of bands - especially UK bands - can tell great stories that chart their rise based purely on their journey up the ladder at Glastonbury, from playing at 10am in some burger selling tent in some far off corner, to 'making it' into one of the proper tents, then into one of the bigger tents, onto one of the smaller stages, onto one of the larger stages, then up in front of 50,000, or even onwards to twice that. The headliners get the most media coverage because they're always the media stars, but there are plenty of punters who go nowhere near the Pyramid Stage all weekend, even make a point of doing so.

And that's not even mentioning that it's actually a performing arts festival, not *just* a music festival, so there are whole other sides to it too.
 
Rock Werchter is this weekend, pretty big Belgian festival hosting Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Kings of Leon and such. I think you listed the biggest ones there, can't think of any others right now. I guess the Oktoberfest in Munchen could count as a festival, but it's not really focussed on music, more on beer and sausages. :wink:
 
Galeongirl, is there a general consensus in Europe as to the "biggest and best" music festivals?

I would add in Benicassim, Torhout/Werchter, Roskilde, Isle Of Wight, V festival, T In The Park. There are also 2 relatively new festivals that I found, when having a snoozefest at work, in Lisbon and Gdansk (can't remember their names) which look pretty big, up and coming affairs
 
Rock Werchter is this weekend, pretty big Belgian festival hosting Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Kings of Leon and such. I think you listed the biggest ones there, can't think of any others right now. I guess the Oktoberfest in Munchen could count as a festival, but it's not really focussed on music, more on beer and sausages. :wink:

Oh yeah, Werchter is huge. Love the video of U2 there in 1982

YouTube - ‪I Will Follow (live from Werchter 1982)‬‏
 
I would add in Benicassim, Torhout/Werchter, Roskilde, Isle Of Wight, V festival, T In The Park. There are also 2 relatively new festivals that I found, when having a snoozefest at work, in Lisbon and Gdansk (can't remember their names) which look pretty big, up and coming affairs

Ah right Roskilde in Denmark! I forgot that one. I'm afraid I haven't heard of the others you mention. :hmm:

Werchter has been cool, couple of my friends are going but for me it's just too close to my Canada trip so I couldn't go.
 
It's now called Rock Werchter instead of Tornhout Werchter, I think they stopped doing Tornhout in the late 90s. There was some talk last year of launching a new Tornhout-Werchter combo, but it never happened.
 
I was up at the back of the hill for Beyonce, talking to a random guy in the first row of tents who had watched every headliner from there (for years, evidently) and he said that the headliner crowds were definitely Beyonce>>>Coldplay>>U2, that people were leaving U2 in droves, and that a large part of the problem (apart from the weather - or because of the weather) was that the sound in general was rubbish, but Bono in particular simply could not be heard. He said you could only really hear him at all on a couple of songs.

See, this kind of thing makes me quite sad and in a way takes away from the awesome but surreal experience I had of the show. I think U2 deserved better, but perhaps luck wasn't on their side this time around.

Maybe this will envigorate them with a new desire to really pull out all the stops for the next album. After they've been away for a bit obviously, which, as I said before on here, I now think is the best thing they can do - let the dust settle and allow people to forget about them for a while.
 
I was up at the back of the hill for Beyonce, talking to a random guy in the first row of tents who had watched every headliner from there (for years, evidently) and he said that the headliner crowds were definitely Beyonce>>>Coldplay>>U2, that people were leaving U2 in droves, and that a large part of the problem (apart from the weather - or because of the weather) was that the sound in general was rubbish, but Bono in particular simply could not be heard. He said you could only really hear him at all on a couple of songs.

Interesting... We made our way down the hill after Morrissey and it was fairly full. But I guess if you are there to specifically to listen to the music and are not necessarily a fan and you can't hear it, why stand in the rain for nothing? As I mentioned way back, the sound, even by the mixing desk was the worst I have ever heard at a big show.
 
Interesting... We made our way down the hill after Morrissey and it was fairly full. But I guess if you are there to specifically to listen to the music and are not necessarily a fan and you can't hear it, why stand in the rain for nothing? As I mentioned way back, the sound, even by the mixing desk was the worst I have ever heard at a big show.

When I had a look back at the field from the pit, just before U2 started, it looked pretty packed, but then once it got dark you couldn't really tell what was going on that far back.

Bono was mostly inaudible even right up the front, but that was the closest I had ever been at the Pyramid Stage and just figured it was standard festival sound laziness - bass heavy at the front - so just drowning him out. When Get On Your Boots came up I actually considered making use of the 5 minutes or so of not caring that it afforded me to get out of the pit and work back a bit, just to take it in a bit more with a wider view + better sound, but I couldn't be bothered being 'that guy' and it sounds like it wouldn't have made a difference anyway.

Must have been the weather. I just happened to be near the back of the field for the soundcheck and Mysterious Ways sounded like an absolute monster.
 
I always thought it was pretty fucking cool of U2 that they quit doing festivals as soon as they could
the quality of music doesn't fit the top 5 reasons of why most people go to festivals and bands go solely as a marketing tool

result is U2 playing Streets as #6 in the setlist so it fits the BBC 2 10pm broadcast
a good performance, but not their best by a longshot
U2 album sales up 700+% in UK

I still thought it was cool and the band worked hard
but I don't need a repeat

I didn't think Coldplay were better. And they had the weather (U2 had much rain, I think CP and Beyonce had none), the crowd, and the BIGGER visual effects on their side (and a fool proof built in singalong moment in virtually every song). And they're not 50, but the hottest act in the world for the past few years.

Considering the complaints of some fans, and the actual aftermath of 99% positive reviews and 747% rise in (digital?) U2 sales...I'd say they did very well. I'm amazed given the rain, missed intros of Streets and EBTTRT (sound issues?).

I don't think it was "legendary" (not happening since Slane dates IMO), nor that it needed to be.
 
It's certainly not 99% positive reviews, it's about 70/30 (which, for U2, is phenomenal), but even most of the positive agree that whether it was the conditions or otherwise, it wasn't the monster event they expected, but U2 delivered what they delivered very well.

And yes, Coldplay and Beyonce had a significant weather bump. 'U2 Day' and the other two could not be compared weather wise. Even I was in a foul mood all day leading into U2, and I had the once-in-a-lifetime dream Radiohead/U2 Live Double coming up that evening. It was just an awful wet, windy, miserable day. Coldplay and Beyonce had hot, beautiful, perfect days leading in, and the lift in mood all around the place was significant.

But... I do think Coldplay pitched it far better. Were the songs better? No. Were their theatrics over the top? Yes, but probably not to a lot of their audience (I mean, if you think Fix You is a great song, you probably think fireworks, lasers and butterfly confetti are awesome too.) Coldplay definitely played the crowd and mood better, but yes, they had a better crowd and mood to work with. They have played the festival four or five times now, so that they know exactly what they're doing might not be surprising. There is a bit of an individual art to it there, it would have been a change for Bono (less choreographed, far more spontaneous, and far, far more open), and the UK bands who are well practiced with it do always tend to nail it best.

Beyonce just put on a big show. No depth to it, obviously. It was like the opening number at an MTV Awards blown out over one and a half hours, on a much, much bigger scale. A lot of it was very, very, very impressive in that sense. And the Sunday night slots do have an atmosphere of their own. It's the end of the weekend, let's be less serious, go on, I'm drunk, put on a Beyonce track and let's dance.

Like I've been saying, U2 did not fail, they just didn't knock it out of the park. Expectations too high? U2 can't reach the heights of other 'legendary' Glastonbury sets? Maybe with only a few small changes they could have. But they didn't. And they didn't need to, but you look at the shift when not knocking out of the park - getting good reviews, some in the media and public actually daring to ask "Umm, should we re-think U2?", the shift in sales - and you can see a little bit of what could have been. There's a credibility gap with U2, and something like Slane is nice, but only U2 fans know about it. If they'd nailed Glastonbury as they did Slane, it would have been a great set-up for them. They would have known that too. That's why they did it. No Line tanked, remember? U2 don't do things randomly.
 
If they ever do another festival, I'd think it would be Coachella. It's the US, there's none of the extra 'Glastonbury' pressure, and they would probably have way, way, way more control over everything. But I think it's incredibly unlikely. This experience certainly wouldn't have endeared them to it. I think if you lip-read Bono coming off the stage with Edge, you'll find he's saying "And THAT is why we don't do festivals."
 
Earnie Shavers said:
If they ever do another festival, I'd think it would be Coachella. It's the US, there's none of the extra 'Glastonbury' pressure, and they would probably have way, way, way more control over everything. But I think it's incredibly unlikely. This experience certainly wouldn't have endeared them to it. I think if you lip-read Bono coming off the stage with Edge, you'll find he's saying "And THAT is why we don't do festivals."

To be fair i think you might be lip reading him a bit wrong, to me it looked like bono and edge enjoyed it
 
But again i do agree am really not sure they will do it again, i would actually like to think, and really hope they do
 
Knowing the cynical UK press, I think if Bono had replicated his Live Aid performance of "Bad" by leaning over the crowd again, he would have been accused of repeating himself.

I'm glad you mentioned that, because I kept forgetting to ask - did anyone think he was trying to bring someone up on stage during WOWY?

It looked like he was leaning and gesturing, but from the camera's perspective, all I could see where a couple of inflatable animals, so maybe he was trying to get the blow-up dolphin to dance with. :lol:
 
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