I never felt at ease at festivals, always felt like people are there not for seeing the bands in the first place.

Hyde Park 2011 was my first time seeing Pulp for instance, but i much prefered the Olympia gig.

I dont know, i feel silly watching (or not seeing a band) from far away, with overly loud PA, a bad sound, and a lot of people behaving badly around me. I just cant ignore that around me. So i just dont go to those kind of gigs anymore.

That said, Jarvis at Rock en Seine was pretty good, but there wasn't many people around 

 

-- Edited by andy on Tuesday 1st of July 2025 10:30:15 AM

andy wrote:

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I never felt at ease at festivals, always felt like people are there not for seeing the bands in the first place.

I dont know, i feel silly watching (or not seeing a band) from far away, with overly loud PA, a bad sound, and a lot of people behaving badly around me. I just cant ignore that around me. So i just dont go to those kind of gigs anymore.

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Some festivals are better than others.  I was at Forever Now weekend before last and it was very good seeing bands close up and the behaviour was generally very good bar one minor squabble.  Decided to pass on Fontaines DC/Kneecap this weekend as I expect the crowd to be less well behaved and getting out of Finsbury Park is a drag.   Off to Audley End in August which is an excellent festival where you can bring camping chairs. Saw suede and Johnny Marr there a couple of years ago. Closer than I have ever seen either indoors.

That written, most of my upcoming gigs (Divine Comedy, suede *3, Boomtown Rats, DAM) are all seated.  Only standing for Stranglers and Damned, but that's with loads of old folks 

 

 

seductivebarry wrote:

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Hello.

One thing I've been wondering.

Before Common People, Jarvis says 'we are running out of time, skip the video'.

Do we know what video this is?

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 I think he was starting to panic a bit that they were going to run over their time. I took it as, maybe the huge background videos take a little bit of time to line up between songs. At first for CP they just had the big new Pulp logo but they seemed to sort it a little way into the song. 

-- Edited by weed on Friday 4th of July 2025 01:53:33 AM

andy wrote:

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Divine Comedy is always better seated. I'm going to a standing one, first time since 2016, its gonna be odd. I'm used to hearing that great music in a comfy (or not so comfy) chair. 

I enjoyed some festival when i was younger. Oasis at Finsbury was great, but like you said, i dont know how many hours we walked to get into the tube. 

All in all, i guess festivals are for people who enjoy standing still. I dont, i'm made to walk. So maybe they should do walking festivals, where the stage would move and you would have to follow it 

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I always regret Finsbury Park at the end of the evening. I get sent all the way up to Manor Park and then have to walk all the way back down to get back to Highbury and Islington with every road blocked on the way. I did enjoy Pulp last summer but didn't have a single drink all day (waiting times - 1 hour plus) and didn't manage to meet up with friends who couldn't get into the front section.

Forever Now was a good walking festival, plenty of room to walk in front of main stage and a short walk back to the small stage for the abridged sets of Damned, PIL and Happy Mondays.  Saw 8 acts in the space of 7 hours. And 30+ minutes walk to/from National Bowl.  Was quicker getting home from there than Finsbury Park.

 

Have you got a link?

Eamonn wrote:

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https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLpqN59tOg_/?igsh=MTFlNTF4ajh0NnlzNA==

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 Good on you for standing up for the lad! Some very odd comments from those looking for a rise. 

hehe i was wondering what was happening there too when i watched the gig. 

Really thought he forgot to turn it off and feared a ring 

-- Edited by andy on Sunday 6th of July 2025 07:43:59 AM

Eamonn wrote:

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It's an amusing quirk that of Pulp's 5 Glastonbury appearances, Acrylic Afternoons was performed at 4 of them despite not being a perennial set-list staple. I think it's only bettered by DYRTFT (played on all five occasions) and equalled just by Babies and Common People.

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Its a great live song. I never get tired of listening to it, and on the record too. 

Eamonn wrote:

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When Jarv ripped-up his 1995 speech after referencing it at Glasto at the weekend, do you think it was the original paper (actually looked like cardboard)?

Hope he photographed it first for inclusion in his sequel to Good Pop Bad Pop (which, he is apparently working on - when he's not doing Pulp Summer).

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 A shame if he did destroy a piece of Pulp history, and a bit weird that he said 'history and stuff doesn't matter, it's all about now', which might sound ok as rhetoric to a live performance, but you don't have to think about it much to know that's proper b*llocks.

Looks like it might have been the real thing, it looked brown with age. Freeze framed (2025), and could read 'Can't buy [something]', and 'If I can do it you can do it' - which fit with what he said in 1995, just improvising lanky get. Can't see the 1995 well on a ropey youtube clip, looks like A4 paper folded twice in his pocket, and can see some printed text through it; can see something printed through the 2025 version, but it looks A5 size folded once. Did enjoy that he failed to tear it on the third go, and tried to style it out.

BTW, thanks to Pip for the upload.

I agree too with people saying Pulp should have headlined, but it was a blessing in disguise that they didn't really.

They wouldn't have commanded as big a crowd if they had headlined because Charli XCX is huge, and Scissor Sisters were also a big draw.

Pulp fully DID deserve to headline, and would have received a far bigger crowd than Neil Young that night, but there will have been a lot of under-35 pop fans that would have likely picked Charli or Scissors over Pulp had they been faced with that dilemma.

I saw Charli in the evening myself. We planned Scissor Sisters but the tent was closed as it was so full. Charli was good but having seen their set back, not getting to Scissor Sisters on time was the biggest regret of the festival for me.