Jay-Z is a genius. Kings of Leon are a brilliant band. Headline Oxegen this year too. The Verve = rubbish.

I betcha Nial Diamond rocks (excuse the pun) as did Shirley Bassey last year. I was at Glasto a few years ago - there was a s**tload of tents robbed at it & far too many scumbags for my liking. It's the Oxygen of England. Best avoided.. Benicassim usually has a similar line-up to Glasto / Poxygen, but has more of the athmosphere of Electric Picnic. Plus the weather's a lot better... lots of people don't even bring tents!

And Exit festival in Serbia is totally class, though a lot more dance orientated.

Are you havin a laff? Is he havin a laff?

Oxygen of England? That'd be V Festival. Glasto was the model for Electric Picnic.
They ripped off everything from Lost Vagueness right down to the flags and random stuff in trees.
They've even openly admitted this.

Were you there years ago before the wall/security measure were put in place?
I've been over to Glasto 3 times and never even saw a hint of trouble.
Easily the best around.

like way to many like totally cool like upper-middle classes man..what a complete 'mare!

losing its coolness by the year, as I suppose all festivals do to a degree due to a major influx of one section of society, namely nackers and posh folk

PQ

Was at Glasto in 2005 and had a great time..thought everything about it was cool..music atmosphere etc....

Oxygen is flannerys and coppers all in one venue.....pile of idiots...

Electric Picnic...was great the first two times....then the organisers figured they could take far more wedge in return for a far worse standard of lineup.... get the punters who have been earning a couple of years and screw them....

Oxygen gets the studentos and the knackers and EP gets the yuppies with the hippy taste....

"Fiachra!"

"Whats that Oran?"

"You going to the Picnic?"

"Like yeah!! Are you groove?"

"No, but i'm totally Armada"...

No thanks.

EP had great line-up in 05, (Kraftwerk), 06 (Mogwai, Massive Attack) not so great last year...it's a good festival but a little overrated.

I am reliably uninformed about Glasto.. I was there years ago when I was a kid & with my dad, well I THOUGHT I was. Apparantely it was the Reading Festival. That's where all the tents were getting nicked!

on EP, suppose the first couple of years will go down better than last, but, lineup inc, I cannot seriously fault EP 07, had a ball. Having a wee post work stout on friday, one of the guys produced a video clip of a squad of us dancing in the Pussy Parlour on Saturday afternoon, now what else would you wanna be doing....you got game?

PQ

the last festival i did was EP in '05... that was a very good lineup... the EP '06 lineup was a serious disppointment... far too many middle of the road indie bands... just like any other festival - so i didn't go... '07 lineup looked better...

but as i said on another thread, even ATP is dumbing down

EP 2007 was excellent.. Jesus & Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, LCD Soundsystem, Beastie Boys, Go! Team, The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Ladytron, M.I.A., Iggy & The Stooges. Hardly a s**t line-up. Hardly dumbing down.

EP 2007 was excellent.. Jesus & Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, LCD Soundsystem, Beastie Boys, Go! Team, The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Ladytron, M.I.A., Iggy & The Stooges. Hardly a s**t line-up. Hardly dumbing down.

you said it twice... but you still misread my post...

Maybe - but I don't know what you mean by "dumbing down". Last time I had an intellectual response to music was... well, never actually.

well you actually misread two points... the first said that i thought the EP '07 lineup looked quite good (it was '06 i didn't like)

the second referred to ATP dumbing down, not EP... i meant it was moving more from left to middle just as other festivals were moving right to middle... i.e. there's too many providing the same product...

when i mentioned this before, i got a one line response frome unicron: "well i'd rather see the national than wolf eyes..." which missed the point on about a million levels...

Fair enough! Still dunno how "providing the same product" = dumbing down, regardless of the festival. I also wasn't aware that there was a "left" or "right" in music. I can only presume you mean "mainstream" as opposed to more "obscure" music, in which case, surely that's simply a matter of exposure.

You obviously didn't get the memo. Didn't you know that Neil has now done a Johnny Cash and got himself a cool makeover by Rick Rubin ? We'll now have a clip to rival the one of the muddy masses at Glasto serenading Robbie Williams with the chorus of "Angels", namely the bellowing hordes shouting "I AMMM I SAIDDDD....TO NO ONE THERE......."

I for one can't wait.

Oh, of course, he's 'cool' now. Silly me.

partly... it seems to me to do with two meanings of accessibility

less accessibilty could mean purely lack of exposure because of lack of advertising, hype, major backing etc... less accessibilty can also mean not appealing to the majority because of the content, because the music is more niche (to steal from binokular)... put those two together and you have 'obscure'... however, whereas the second meaning can often result in the first applying as well, the opposite does not apply

but yeah,

left = obscure
right = mainstream
middle = the same indie bands that do the festival circuit for an entire summer but may still be hanging on to a semblance of "cool" as opposed to widespread acclaim by the masses... these bands will undoubtedly have been hyped in all the right places though... see pitchforkmedia for a prime example...

Your definitions might be "interesting", but they're meaningless to me. For me, a good song is a good song, whether it be "Call the Shots", a mainstream single from Girls Aloud, a song from the "middle", like "Same Jeans" from The View, or an obscure number from the "left", such as an untitled live song off an italian bootleg of a concert by the Songs Ohia.

They're all good tunes & I wouldn't mind going to a festival with all of those bands on the one bill. Then again, people laugh when I say I like Status Quo's "12 Gold Bars", but tbh, I couldn't really give a f**k - if I like it I like it.. it's like people who list songs as their "guilty pleasures". What the f**k is there to feel guilty about? You like Abba's "Mama Mia"? Cool - it's a great tune. Doesn't mean you can't listen to M.I.A. beside it.

you are towing the party line there i feel...

although i agree with you in principle... and for me EP '05 was so good because there was such an eclectic mix (including some good pop music)... that was what was lacking in EP'06 and almost every other festival every year...

all i'm saying is i want different festivals to offer me different things... not the smae rehashed festival circuit where reading = oxegen = benicassim = pinkelpop = electric picnic = bonnaroo etc...

What party line? Would that be the left, right or mainstream party? Like I said, I don't subscribe to that idea.

As for the "rehashed" festivals - does it matter.. it's not like yr gonna go to ALL of them! No festival's gonna be perfect or have every band you like playing at it. I just think you enjoy complaining.

of course it matters!...

festivals are no longer about the music... they are a product...

and by the way, the best things about festivals are getting blown away by someone you've never heard of... increasingly rare when all the lineups are firstly the same and secondly extremely safe...

never mind...

You know what ruined EP for me? Making it a 2 day festival.

The first year of EP, it was like a slacker festival, a festival for people who can't be arsed going to festivals. It was only one day, you didn't have to walk round a huge site, and there was OK food at it too. I was able to drive up, enjoy the music and sunshine, drive home again (wasn't drinking), stay in bed sunday morning and not feel wiped out monday. Maybe not the best lineup in EPs history, but the general vibe of the day was good. Now it's like any other festival, only those with two-three days to spend will really be up for it. If I'm gonna do something that involves spending a weekend without sleep on a campsite, it's gonna be LeMans 24 hour, Petrolheads are friendlier and more fun than music fans.

I can see Allys point, festivals should try and stick to their guns, stay with the original concept. When that concept becomes irrelevant, it's time to stop doing it, otherwise, as she says, it's just a product.

Music's always been sold as a product. You're just getting old & narky. If you want something different entirely, head over to Serbia in July - I was at Exit last year & it was f**king class.. best festival I've been to by a long shot (& I've been going to festivals since I was 7 years old)... last year's line up was;

Robert Plant and the Strange Sensations
The Prodigy
Groove Armada
Beastie Boys
Dynamite MC & Zinc b2b Friction
Ms Laurin Hill
Basement Jaxx
Snoop Dogg
LTJ Bukem and MC Conrad
Audio Bullys
Wu-Tang Clan
Pendulum
Danny Tenaglia
Roger Sanchez
John Digweed
Richie Hawtin
Eric Prydz
Frankie Knuckles
Green Velvet
Trentemoller in Concert
Black Strobe Live
2020 Soundsystem Live
Meshuggah
The Business
U.D.O.
Satyricon
Jarboli
Peter & The Test Tube Babies
Obojeni Program
Darkwood Dub
Hladno pivo
Beogradski sindikat
Edo Maajka
Majke
Ritam Nereda
Terence Fixmer Live
MKDSL
MANASYt
N.O.H.A.
Balkan Beat Box
Gnawa Diffusion
OI VA VOI
Soda Inc.

I'm sure there must be one, possibly two artists you mightn't have heard of there!

A 1 day festival's just a gig! I love the weekend ones - I loved the Picnic this year AND Exit. The music might not suit you, or a weekend on a campsite either, but that's yr own business. Doesn't make 'em s**te.

Yr all just gettin' too old to last a weekend. Plus going to a gig & not having at least a few drinks is like going to a strip club with a blindfold on.

It's that sort of attitude that sorta bugs me about the whole gig going music scene to be honest (not a go at you personally by the way). It's the sort of idea, that your not a real music fan unless you're willing to stand in field for a couple of days sleeping in a tent, putting up with morons getting out of their tiny minds and acting like muppets. Well, sorry, it's just music, something we do for fun, I can have similar amounts of fun doing other stuff without half the hassle. Two day festivals take planning and crap. Can't be arsed. So a one day festival is a gig, so what? Lots of bands in the one place, sounds good to me.

Wasn't having a go at you either dude - though Ally does have a tendency to wind me up... especially when he comes up with s**te like the reference to toeing a party line when it comes to liking music from different genres (wtf?).

I see yr point, but for me there'd be no point in spending half a day driving across the country for a 1 day festival & driving thru the night to get back home. Have to agree though, that 1 day-ers can be class. I was at Sunstroke in Dalymount Park when Sonic Youth played at it... but then again, I lived in Phibsboro when I was a kid, so I could be home for tea when the bands were changing over!

mission accomplished then.....

when i said "towing the party line", i just think it is too easy to say there is either 'good' music or 'bad' music... people i know say that when they want to sound like they have wide tastes and superior knowledge... apologies if i've tarred you with the same brush but i don't believe that kind of statement shows any thought whatsoever...

i like one day relaxed festivals also... during one day, i would likely only watch three full sets... festivals in general bombard my eardrums and by the end of them, it's all just noise... pointless

http://www.nme.com/news/glastonbury/35165