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NME Festivals Blog 2009 - Festival action, all year round -  Festival action, all year round

Category: Glastonbury

By Luke Lewis

Posted on 29/06/09 at 04:18:23 pm

And so it's over for another year. The traffic is crawling out of the site, the sewage-sucking lorries are out in force, and the only people left on site are the crusties, the drug casualties and the deranged.

It was quite a weekend, made memorable by the blazing sunshine (on Saturday at least), the brain-mangling, madly inventive spectacle of Shangri-La and Trash City, and of course the dramatic news of Michael Jackson's death, which broke while most of the NME team were watching East 17, of all things.

Here are our highs and lows from Glastonbury 2009. Let us know yours by posting a comment below.

Paul Stokes
High: The Blur crowd singing the 'Tender' "Oh my baby" refrain while waiting for Blur to return for their encore. It was such a genuine out-pouring of emotion and affection – and incredibly tuneful – that it inspired Damon and co to craft one of those special Glastonbury moments when they returned to the stage. Plus Regina Spektor’s set was touching, Jamie T’s was brilliant mayhem, Kasabian truly came of age, Shangri-la’s Blade Runner alleyway was mind blowing at 3am and Jaffa Cakes for breakfast were ace.
Low: Nigel Tufnell saying bugger all during Spinal Tap’s set. Christopher Guest is one of the world’s funniest men, but there was no good banter, disappointing. Plus there’s a rumour Mick Jones played a secret show and I missed it. Gutted!

Jamie Fullerton
High: Seeing a shirtless Pink Eyes from Fucked Up buying a massive ice cream near the Park Stage.
Low: East 17. Thought it was going to be the most ridiculously, stupidly fun show ever, but it was an earnestly-delivered backing track disaster. Had to leave after four songs because I found out Jacko died anyway.

David Moynihan
High: Florence And The Machine ending their Saturday sunset show on the John Peel stage with 'You Got The Love'. Everything about it was perfect.
Low: The bit when it was still raining at 11am on Friday, the mud was growing ever worse, I’d had 3 hours sleep and Bjorn Again were playing. Then I met a guy who hadn’t slept at all and who was eating every type of food imaginable heaped on one paper plate. The source of his tasty meal? “The bins,” he told me.

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By Tim Chester

Posted on 29/06/09 at 03:57:20 pm

Our video guys took a break from infiltrating backstage areas and chasing after bands to interview to take to the skies on Saturday for a bird's eye view of Glaston-berrry in all its glory.

Check it out and see if you can spot your tent / drugs / family / sanity...

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By Tim Chester

Posted on 29/06/09 at 01:26:49 pm

Watch some more of our video interviews from backstage and in the dressing rooms at Glastonbury 2009 to find out how the stars found the weekend on Worthy Farm.

More videos after the jump

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By Tim Chester

Posted on 29/06/09 at 01:21:33 pm

Check out some of our video highlights from Glastonbury Festival 2009, and find out who saw the naked man and which singer narrowly missed a flying vessel of piss...

More video interviews after the jump

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By Luke Lewis

Posted on 28/06/09 at 12:16:48 pm

The Twitter updates during Bruce Springsteen’s Glastonbury headline set were telling. "Thunderous!" "Magnificent!" "Glorious!", they started. Then half an hour later… "Bored now. When’s he going to play ‘Born To Run’?"

There was a feeling of collective deflation – the palpable sense of 50,000-odd people realising that they weren’t quite as keen on Springsteen as they thought they were, and didn't know as many of his songs as they thought they did.

Up to a point, you can sympathise. It’s safe to say a cover of Stephen C. Foster’s Civil War-era folk standard ‘Hard Times Come Again No More’ – "This is a song from 1855," he growled, to audible sighs and shuffling of feet - was not exactly what the keyed-up Saturday night crowd had ordered.

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By Luke Lewis

Posted on 27/06/09 at 08:41:32 pm

1. Dominic West is a lovely chap
‘The Wire’s Jimmy McNulty was the don of the backstage bar, attracting high-fives and ear-to ear grins wherever he went (and he was even kind enough to pose for a picture with us lot). All of which gave rise to speculation that other 'Wire' cast members might be onsite. Sadly, reports that Proposition Joe had been spotted bogling to Shlomo turned out to be inaccurate.

2. Bruce Springsteen: whatta guy
Leave aside the thunderous magnificence (and some might say, punishing length) of his headline set. How about guesting onstage with The Gaslight Anthem on the John Peel Stage? This sort of thing just doesn't happen at Glastonbury: headliners usually arrive late and act aloof. They certainly don't do favours for baby bands.

What was in it for Bruce? Barely a thousand people were in the tent. No photographers were there to capture it, so not much major press to be garnered. Yet he did it purely as a gesture of goodwill to some starstruck fellow New Jersey-ites. Springsteen: a god among men.

3. Those Michael Jackson jokes aren't funny anymore
OK, the kiddie-fiddler gags were amusing once. But now? Just days after the guy died? Even the wizened compere on the John Peel Stage was at it, prefacing Little Boots' performance with a lame "stroke in the children's ward" quip. No-one laughed. A lot of people booed. The mood soured. Whatever you may think about the outbreak of mawkishness and hollow celebrity tributes sparked by Jacko's passing, chortling at the dead is Not Cool.

4. The Big Pink are not suited to Glastonbury - especially when it's sunny
What makes The Big Pink so compelling is the slightly clammy, not-slept-for-days fug that hangs over what they do (in fact, we know singer Robbie Furze didn't go to bed on Thursday, because he told us). That works in a dank club, with sweat dripping down the walls; it doesn't work on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Glastonbury when people are wandering around clutching hot dogs and cider.

5. 'Secret' gigs are not all they're cracked up to be
We were just about happy to make the Long March up to Shangri-La to watch Lady GaGa (even if, er, we couldn't find the actual tent she was supposed to be playing in), but a Saturday night spent watching Africa Express on the understanding that Damon Albarn would show up - he didn't - was a few hours of our lives that we will never get back.

6. All things considered, we could probably do with getting some sleep now

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