24 June, 2011 - Glastonbury Festival - Somerset, UK

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I've just returned from Glastonbury, Beyonce wasn't enough to keep us there for another night and my poor feet have got enough blisters to last me until Songs Of Ascent is released

Just watching the re run and must say it looked a lot better on the tv. But I am going to post my original thoughts!

The sound was fucking shite, we were by the mixing desk, I can't speak for the rest of the field (we watched Coldplay from further back and the sound was much better and more importantly much LOUDER.)

To me the band, especially Bono, looked almost scared and intimidated by an audience that wasn't the all adoring U2 crowd (despite Jem and Joyces best efforts). A bit of swagger was missing imo. In their defence the weather was terrible and the stage, after looking on tv, almost had puddles on. I don't think Bono was comfortable with the big gap at front of stage. If you're gonna have a catwalk at least make it worthwhile!

A few points of note

Four big screens, biggest band in the world and to introduce U2 to Glasto we get some Damien Hirst wankfest film of a slug or fly or something. Four big screens, four band members,not that difficult is it?

Trying to encorage a Glasto singalong at the end of Bad, but not Pride or WOWY, bit silly really.

Making a big thing about Streets in the lead-up interviews then just plonking it in about 6th place in the set, hello! encore opener!!!! Not to include the organ intro to give more of a build up was criminal also.

Out Of Control. Fucking ace!

I didn't want to sound too negative, but I do think the band looked uncomfortable with their surrounding. I'm sure if they played a few more shows like this would soon realise that you have to work harder at a festival crowd and cannot just rely on 100% crowd adulation.

It was great to meet up for the first time with Matt (Earnie Shavers), Patrick (Gareth Brown) and Joyce (Domo-Kun) the night before the show and to meet Jem (Bonoishot) again. Matt I hope you managed to get to the pyramid through the swamp after Radiohead. Patrick hope you made Pulp (we did)

Great little drink beforehand with Cathal (I will leave the story of how he got there to him!), Brad and Javi. Which continued well into and after the U2 set with rather amusing consequences......

I didn't actually take many U2 pics during the show as I had one hand on a bottle of Bacardi and one hand on a bottle of Pimms. But I will post a few images of Glastonbury in general
 
On Tv these flags look great and add atmosphere. Unfortunately when you are there it means you can't see anything. It was half way through The Fly before I saw a band member on either the screens or stage:lol:


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The Glastonbury Festival

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The Pyramid stage the day before the music started

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The Pyramid stage friday afternoon. The rain has come.

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Get off your boots?

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The womble police

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I'm still waiting for my train back to uncomparably flat little country. So egypte not write a review to pass time and think back .
I waved goodbye to the real world on thursday ,
After a good 8 hours of travelling by train, ( 6 of them actually )
I got to.meet up with Jem to commence plowing to he biggest mudfest ever, and set up camp. For anyone who hasnt been to glasto yet.
Seeing the first glimpse of the camping and parking site alone when you arive by shuttle bus, is just uttely fucking amazing, and absolutely terrifying at the same time.

Anyway thurday was spent exploring the big festival site, and getting to know how to get Kevin around, as well as meeting , , Matt , Patrick
For the first time. Was lovely meeting you all,
Even tough it was a bit cold ( my bad for not bringing a hoodie haha.)

Skip allot of talking , exitement , sleep , and lack of the last mentioned for Jem, and Friday finally arived.

Jem and I went for a front row spot at Adams side. Which partly turned out to be a bad choice for me... camera/photo wise , more on that later.
We sadly had to sit trough some pretty shite bands , I.e. metronomy , and Wu tang clan.
I can't even believe that this kind of Shit sells around here, but according to the NME mag I just read .. it does.
Brighter side : BB king was great.

After BB's set , the pit was full, but got even more pushy and stamped becuase of the lack of gates on either side of the pit. By the time the crew came on Jem an I where unable to jump, let alone turn around or grab something out of our packs.

As rumoured , u2 brought some of their own attire. But kept it basic , it was a small catwalk ,
And some extra screens, all in all very basic.
I have to agree with Kevin on the visuals,
90% of it was "wack"
But then again, compared to I.e. Coldplay its was pretty much the same. Not to over the top.

The setlist was great , and the boys sounded great from our spot, so I never noticed any of the sound issues , which I think was one of the main real problems afterwards.

Front row and pit seemed to explode at the very first sight of the fly on the screen. And those who actually could make any movement,
Went apeshit for the shot of AB the band shoved in the set.

Bono did seem nervous but regained himself after 2 or 3 songs. I never noticed the ripping of his pants , I only found out while checking the blue craic, and that ofcourse amused me to death, since its his second time.

It took me around 4 days to finally understand why the Bman needed some gaffa.
The good old bullfight and some head to head battleing with Adam got the crowd going during UTTEOTW.

SBS was the only song that really dissapointed me. There seemed to be a lack of energy in the band, hence the people never really got into it .

The flower suprisingly was MOS followed by Out of control, which was my first time seeing OOC live and got me super psyched!

The encores stopped there which made me sad,
Out of control isn't working as a closer for me, and I expected.40 to be played becuase Larry mentioned it.

Still , I think they managed to pull off a great gig, especcially becuase it was pissing down with rain, the field was a big mess of mud, and they still perfomed a very exiting setlist, a great show , and it looks like they had a pretty awesome day themselves too.

No pictures unfortunatly, the lightig conditions from Adams side where terrible, and I didn't want my camera to be squashed and murdered , so I gave it to security. Kind of pissed of but its partly my own fault.


Oh and Kevin , beyonce was pretty good,
You should have stayed ! ;)

More later my train is here !




Sad I couldn't meet you guys and Cathal after the U2 gig.
 
Awesome reviews everyone!!! So bono's pants DID rip! I wondered what that suspicious looking peice of duct tape really was.. Turns out it was duct tape. :lol: So it must have been near the beginning when Bono had his back to the audience for a second and a roadies was right there doing something. Maybe its time to change the tight leather pants to sweatpants, eh bono?! :applaud:
 
Trust me you were lucky:wink::lol:

Haha, I know the state you guys where in.
But we where just as knackered. I have some U2 battle scars to prove it.
My knee was absolutely swollen. And intoxicated by U2's AB testosterone :wink:
 
So , anyone interested in buying some authentic Glastonbury mud ?
I scraped mine of my suitcase this morning and have enough for a couple of jars full.
 
Ha domo, you made it back (I posted in an other thread before checking here first, oops lol)

I watched from tv and missed a part when they switched from BBC2 to BBc4(which I don't have), but accidently we noticed they were on BBC HD (and I didn't even knwo we had that lol) so we got back live at the end of Beautiful day.

I saw there was something weird with Bono's trousers but took me while to realise he's ripped them (again). I do remember right after his 'battle' with Edge at the end of End of the world, he did say he needed something... but couldn't make out what (was asking for some tape probably)
 
My Glastonbury Review!

I know its late but i just wanted to add my two pence worth into the debate

I was at the festvial for the fourth time and i love the place , id always dreamed of seeing U2 there and it finally happened.

Just a few thoughts on the gig itself i was about 5 people deep from the front barrier so i was in a prime postion.

The first song didnt go down too well for me , the edges guitar was really low and i could barely hear Bono's voice not a great start in my eyes. I love the remix of the song but i couldnt make it out at all.

Then they ripped into the fly and my worries ended. U2 had landed at glastonbury. The next few songs were great sound wise. Then the start of streets was very dodgy and killed the full impact of the song.

Going into the last third of the gig bonos mike went really low again , to the point where i could just about make out what he was singing. Like i said i was 5 people deep from the front barrier so the sound at the back couldnt of been too good.

I really dont think it was at u2's standards it was great but it wont go down as a legendary glastonbury set.

The pyramid stages sound just didnt do the band justice to make it epic in my opinion.

The sound at a 360 show is the best sound ive ever heard at a gig and is head and shoulders above the glastonbury show.I wouldnt class the glastonbury on par with croke or cardiff on the 360 tour.

Why did the band put themselves under so much pressure for the show , f**k me there the best band on the planet did they doubt themselves.

From other forums[non u2] ive been on the set went down quite well but alot of people didnt like it [70/30 in u2's favour id say] people have complained about the sound and stated that the rain beat them!

All in all it was great but ive seen better [cardiff and dublin 360]

U2 should have been the best glastonbury headline set ever but i dont think they did themselves enough justice to claim that!

After watching it back on dvd and downloading the bootleg i thought the sound came across loads better on cd and dvd. The bad sounds in places werent picked up [apart from ebttrt and wtshnn]
 
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