Glastonbury.... (yes I'm wading into the furore!!)

After literally wading around glastonbury last year i'm wading into the debate about the lineup, the removal of lost vagueness and the future of glasto if they don't get their act together.

the glasto lineup was announced yesterday and i'm shocked. It's moving further and further away from netting the best headliners in the world and promoting great up and coming new bands and edgeing closer and closer to... well.... V-festival who for years have put on slightly tired yesterday headliners and catered to the t shirt buying, lager swilling masses with the rest of the bill.

The lack of lost vagueness will definately be noticed at the festival, it was THE place that if you were still wasted and wanted to dance and look at random shit til 8am the nextday you could go. it was all rammed full of gurny mentalists. These guys were to wired for the green fields and to loud for the campsites, it kept the peace. yes there will still be the dance village but even (and perhaps especially) if you are on the verge of forgetting where you are completely you need some variety and to know you can stomp off somewhere else.

The biggest threat to glastonbury this year was festivals abroad. Last year the mud and the rain was HELL I insisted that it did not spoil my fun though and it was the bands that carried the experience. I tramped to the leftfield stage after having lost a shoe for Brakes, i found that one drop of rain could actually penetrate my leather jacket during Modest Mouse and I RAN over to the dance village for Klaxons. If Jay-Z or the Verve paid me to see them in the sunshine with tea and cake, i wouldn't really be that fussed. and as for the kings of leon, been there seen them last year at Benicassim, in the sunshine, with a beach and a go-kart track. there's no competition. Thats why Glasto this year should have upped its game, not lost the best headliners to other festivals like Beni and Primavera. Which is where i will be spending my festival money this year.

South by southwest

Alas i was not at south by southwest but earlier this month my delightful and gorgeous cousin Jess was, working for T.O.N.Y. she got a heads up for the hottest gigs and free booze way down in Austin, Texas. Here's what she said about it.....

Gerrybee: Hi jess tell me about what you've been up to at SXSW....
Jess: I've been working for Time Out NY, they have a showcase there. Ravonettes, Joe Lean and the jing jang jong, X and The Donnas are part of our show.
G: Cool, who were the highlights?
J: In our show the ravonettes were great, I also saw the ting tings who were really great too.
G: hmmm.... the ting tings? seriously?
J: Yes. ha!
G: who did you miss and why?
J: well i really wanted to see vampire weekend, but to get into the venue to see them we would have had to have got there hours, if not days in advance. its the biggest problem with SXSW, there is so much to see and do that you end up missing out if you wait in one place to see a band. Also they're really funny about capacities, because the venues are often brimming with people even getting back in after a cigarette difficult. The people i was with all got stuck outside after nipping out for a ciggy leaving me on my own!!
G: but all in all does SXSW live up to its reputation as being one of the best music festivals?
J: oh I don't know about the best, but its certainly different to the rural festivals back in the UK and it really does have the best bands, both brand new ones and bands like REM in much smaller venues than the UK's massive festivals.