My Thoughts on Glastonbury 2023

Many of you know my love for music, and potentially follow my end of year "Album of the Year" posts here on LinkedIn. A few of you will also know that I tried to get a ticket to Glastonbury this year, but failed, although a group of six in my syndicate of eighteen managed to get tickets, and so I felt a particular affinity to the event this year and ended up watching a lot more on television than I normally would (thank you to the excellent coverage on the BBC iPlayer).

There was a reasonable amount of noise around this years event prior to it starting; ticketing website difficulties (we had some of experience of this ourselves), price of tickets (￡340 does not seem ridiculous to me given that it includes camping for 5 nights, 3 full days of 8 stages of events), and all male headliners (apparently a female headliner dropped out, and there is already talk that next years festival will feature 3 female headliners); but I think eventually it ended being a great event.

I thought I'd talk about my thoughts about each of the days headliners, and a second highlight of each day for me. Love to hear other people's thoughts on the event whether you attended, or watched from the comfort of your sofa like me.

Day 1 - Arctic Monkeys & Foo Fighters.

I was always a little unsure about the Arctic Monkeys as headliners on the first night. They've already been headliners twice before, and while their first albums were full of singable anthems, their last two albums are more smoother affair, almost lounge music, and one which for me doesn't really fit with a festival atmosphere. While impressive, I don't feel Alex Turner (the lead singer) really connected with the audience, the set was a little too stop-start in terms of pacing, and the hits when they came didn't really deliver. It all felt a bit (to quote the Arctic Monkey's song "Fake Tales of San Francisco") "He's not from San Fransisco he's from Hunters Bar. I don't quite know the distance but I'm sure it's far. Yeah I'm sure it's pretty far." in the attitude to me. You're at Glastonbury Alex, not Caesar's Palace, treat the show as such!

Fortunately earlier on in the evening we were treated to one of the least kept secret "mystery bands" bands ever at Glastonbury - The Churnups - who turned out to be the Foo Fighters. I've never been a huge fan before, but their latest album "But Here We Are", reflecting on the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins, is already a favourite of mine this year and so I was really excited to see them perform. They didn't hold back on the hits given the one hour slot, playing only a couple of numbers from the latest album, and seven prime hits and a quick cover of "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. They finished on Everlong dedicated to Taylor and in my view did everything which a headliner act should do, but the Arctic Monkeys didn't.

To anyone looking for something away from the main stage I would recommend the Sparks set which was great fun including a special appearance from Cate Blanchett dancing in a bright yellow suit to their latest single.

Day 2 - Guns 'n Roses and Lizzo.

Guns 'n Roses were always going to be a difficult act to predict. Last year they'd played some gigs where they turned up late, cut sets short, where the sound was poor and Axl's voice was not 100%. At the end of the day it turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag. They showed up on time, and played a long sprawling set well into the night. The sound was questionable at times, although some have said the mix was much better live than actually on TV. Axl's voice was great for a lot of the set, but failed badly at times (most noticable to me when performing back to back their biggest hits "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "November Rain". Unlike the Arctic Monkeys though the previous night, they looked and acted like the rock stars they are. Axl roamed all over the stage (and scaffolding), Slash acted the guitar god he clearly is, and they played all the hits, along with some great covers (a clever "Down on the Farm" by UK Subs, and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Dylan as an encore). Dave Grohl (from the Foo Fighters) joined them for the finale of "Paradise City" ("You can never have too many guitarists" quipped Axl, flanked by arguably two of the best in the business), and the only minor disappointment is that they couldn't persuade Paul McCartney to come and sing the lyrics for "Live and Let Die" (he was there for most of the weekend watching from the wings). A flawed, but excellent set which has persuaded me to go and see them live in Hyde Park this coming weekend.

Prior to Guns 'n Roses we got one of the strongest (and just downright enjoyable) performances of the whole weekend from Lizzo. Anyone complaining about the male and (mainly rock) headliners only needed to watch this set to see what a change from the normal rock act can offer. I'm a bit too old to qualify as a Lizzo fan, but you couldn't fail to be entertained by her presence and charm on stage, the energetic show put on, and her engagement with the audience. Clever cover versions ("I'm Every Woman" by Chaka Khan, and "Yellow" by Coldplay - probably the only time at Glastonbury where it looked like Chris Martin was about to bounce on stage... and didn't), and some amazing flute playing given all the dancing that had gone before, along with a whole load banging tunes that had the whole of the Pyramid Stage crowd dancing - It's surely not long before Lizzo makes the headline spot her own if she carries on like this.

Away from the main events, the other surprise highlights of the day were given by the same artist - no other than Rick Astley. His midday slot of his own material went down well with both the crowd and the whole of the security team dancing to "Never Gonna Give You Up", and his afternoon slot with The Blossoms doing a whole set of Smiths covers was simply brilliant, and something which makes Glastonbury such a unique and special event.

Day 3 - Elton John and Blondie.

Sunday afternoon at Glastonbury has become a focus for "legend" acts to perform and provide a crowd pleasing end to the weekend. Blondie will celebrate their 50th anniversary next year (albeit with a 15 year break in the middle), and have released music covering an eclectic set of styles including punk, pop, disco, reggae and early rap. Debbie Harry looked as cool as ever, commanding a great stage presence and looking a lot more youthful than both Axl Rose and Elton John, who she is older than both. Blondie have more than enough hits for a one hour set, and they belted them out one after another. Personally for me, the intensity drifted a little towards the end of the set, but overall a great performance and I'm tempted to go see them next year at Crystal Palace where they play with Iggy Pop.

The highlight of the weekend was always going to be Elton John playing his (supposed?) final gig in the UK. I saw him earlier in the year at the O2 and he really is an amazing entertainer and artist. The band he has put around him is incredibly tight, and his piano playing is still top notch. A few people have mentioned that at times his voice can drift, but with the audience participation at the level it is for every song I fail to notice it. There were a few changes from his recent tour, but not the wholesale rewrite I thought there might be (although he did play "Pinball Wizard", which he's not done in over a decade), and for me the special guests were a little disappointing (although I understand what Elton was trying to do introducing "new" talent). However it would be churlish to nit pick. This will probably go down as one of the greatest Glastonbury performances of all-time and you couldn't help but shed a tear when he waved farewell at the end of an amazing performance of songs that have become part of British pop and rock history.

For something a bit different, those who have followed my Album of the Year articles for the last two years will know my love of Black Country, New Road and their Glastonbury set shows their confidence and musical ability despite lead singer Isaac Wood leaving the band following their second album last year. I fully recommend watching it as well as trying out their second album "Ants From Up There".

I hope you enjoyed my commentary, and it gave you some inspiration to catch up on some of the highlights on iPlayer, or to just have a listen to some of these artists again which you might not have done in a while. I'll definitely be trying for tickets again for 2024 and hopefully next year I'll be reporting back having been there myself.

Let me know what you enjoyed from Glastonbury 2023 in the comments as well!