Sunday 28 June 2009

All we hear is, Lady O'Ga Ga


What a classic Glastonbury 2009 is turning out to be! Some of the flabby old wrinklies on stage look as though they can hardly even stand up! But that's enough about Lily Allen's dress for the moment.
What has really made the event so enjoyable this year has been our new big telly which I've now got wired into the old hi-fi for all round audio with thumping bass from the sub-woofer. Oz always did have a good sense of rhythm. You can almost FEEL you are there, but that may be more due to my other devices - we've slept on the stairs, eaten cold baked beans with senna pods added, used a hole in the back lawn as a toilet and not changed clothes for 3 days. (Nobody noticed the last one in my case)

Highlights have been Steven Stills old Fender, Lady Ga Ga putting on a fabulous visual show, The Ting Tings and best of all, the grouchy old bear Neil Young proving he can still blow them all off the stage. Genius! Blur and Springsteen have yet to come along and spoil the party though.

The BBC should stop their ridiculous self-flagellation (publishing their expenses then wandering through the streets asking for public reaction!??) and congratulate themselves on a Festival coverage second to none which is worth an increase in licence fee all by itself. I only have two gripes (Ed: only two?)


1. Why do we have to have the brilliant show interrupted by tortuous 5 minute segments where a "zany" presenter goes off to see the "wacky" entertainers and extroverts in wigwams and silly haircuts doing "madcap" things like juggling. These buffoons and Colin Hunts in hippy hats and brightly coloured overalls are trying harder than CBBC presenters and think they are being hip and entertaining when they are merely buttock-clenchingly embarrassing. I suppose after 3 days of dodgy latrines at least the buttock-clenching comes in useful.

2. Jo Wiley. She is paid £100,000 a year more than John Humphries to sit in armchairs and talk shite with faux-enthusiasm. I'm sure her surname must give us a clue as to how on earth she obtained this dream gig with zero talent. Bring back Annie Nightingale in shades, I say! She'd do a much better job for a tenth of the fee.

I have to admit that Lily Allen was rather good, strutting up and down singing about effing and blinding and giving head with her grandad gazing down proudly from the VIP balcony. There was a touching moment when she told the crowd how it was exactly a year since she lost her grandma at last year's Glastonbury.

I'm not surprised. It's a massive place and rammed with people.

17 comments:

Sarah said...

Wish I had known you had new big telly and woofer...would have made the long and winding journey into indian country to join you.... I am having to watch it on iplayer as beeb 2 and 3 wouldn't play the game last night...atmospherics or summut!
I loooorve festivals...latitude in 3 weeks yay!

Dave said...

What is Glastonbury?

Geoff said...

Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lye-sester-shyre.

GaGa and the grizzled old buzzard are the highlights so far. But whenever I turn it on it's always bleeding Pendulum.

Rog said...

Sarah: Some of the zany entertainers and jugglers are given too much latitude. A big telly top trumps squatting in a field any day.

Dave: Have you driven past our door without popping in for a cuppa? Oz was ready with his "More Tea Vicar" line which you've probably never heard before.

Geoff: Watching pendulum is like watching a Wimbledon match in a visual sense. My son watched the Buzzard in Hyde Parke yesterday whilst his erstwhile colleagues Crosby Pills and Hash were doing Glasto.

Mr London Street said...

Nice blog! And I agree - Jo Whiley = skeletor in a wig. But I hate all those crappy Radio 1 types. I'm even starting to dislike Marc Radcliffe - I thought it could never happen but the umming and erring is becoming a speech impediment rather than an endearing vocal tic.

Zig said...

I haven't watched the tennis either

Dave said...

I went down the A11, so avoiding having to drive past your door.

I didn't notice you in church, either.

I was cut up by a blue car which looked remarkably like yours. I didn't gesture towards it as I was wearing a dog collar.

KAZ said...

So the success of Glastonbury was all down to your new big telly.
I see.
Neil is looking more like Willy every day.

Unknown said...

Geoff, Blackdurn is in Lanc-i-shire!

Rog said...

Mr London Street: Welcome! I think you are on the verge of going through to "the other side" (Radio 2). Chris Evans beckons!

Ziggi: It's GREAT on a big telly but I've been so busy you see....

Dave: Our car is a lovely shade of brown. Oz makes gestures at other motorists even when he's wearing a dog collar.

Kaz: I'm afraid it's a sad fact of evolution that old blokes as they get older gradually look more and more like Willies. Chris Evans just started young that's all.

John: They both make good cheeses.

Richard said...

I've been listening to it on the BBC's digital platform wireless medium. I can't say I've ever been a big Bruce fan but I was listening to him last night and finally heard what it was all about. But then they broke away to Franz Ferdinand and Jarvis, who are OK anyway. I heard a bit of Doves as well whom I've liked since Gideon Coe played them for me on my 40th birthday when he was still doing BBC London. Bit of a pisser to be on the same time as Neil Young though. Of course the major blessing about the radio is that you don't have to watch or listen to that self-important twat Wiley. Christ, woman, it's music, it's not important, it's fun.

Betty said...

I think Edith Bowman is far far worse than Jo Whiley, if that's at all possible. About eighty per cent of her vocabulary consists of the word "amazing". The world's most vacuous human being.

Mr London Street said...

I hate Edith Bowman. What is she doing on telly or the radio? She has the voice of a Glasgow welder and the face of... well, a Glasgow welder actually. In a bad wig.

Rog said...

Richard: I've never seen eye to eye with "The Boss" and he just seemed to be shouting and showing off a lot of expensive "work". Quite getting into yer Doves tho.

Betty: After reading your comment we watched a re-run last night and suddenly all her "amazings" leapt out of the screen every sentence! Even more than Andrew Marr's "extraordinary"'s.

Mr Street: Without sounding sexist, she should have covered up those mighty thighs. Or used one to assasinate Jo Wiley.

You'll all keep quiet when they designate "The Edith Bowman Stage" in 25 years time mind.

Zig said...

post something new Drew, I've run out of things to look at!

Ms Scarlet said...

Fearne cotton is the worst.
Sx
WV: gaststl

Liz said...

I realise I am arriving at this post way after everyone else, but I've had to do actual work at work these past two days and have been deprived of bloggy land.

I enjoyed the Glastonbury coverage on the BBC, although I was a bit disappointed with the same few artists on heavy rotation via the red button. There were hundreds of bands on and I'd like to have seen shorter snippets of more of them.

Just how disappointing were Blur? I saw them at the V Festival about 12 years ago and they were band of the day on that ocassion. They looked like the has-beens that they are on BBC2 on Sunday night. And what the thump were Jo Wiley and Zane Low getting so exctited about? Bring back Phil Jupitus, a far more down-to-earth presenter.