My God, what a bloody behemoth of a track live this is. I had either forgotten or never realised it. Was listening to 'Glasto 98' last night and this just blew me away, to the extent that i played it four or five times in a row. From memory I cant recall if this particular version is much different to that they played during the 'Different Class' tours, especially considering Russell's absence. Did he play the violin on this song live during 95/96? I know the performance of it at the Brixton gig from Dec '95 is on the live DVD and 'Something Changed' single so I'll have to dig those out.
The 'beefed-up' sound for Glasto really suits the song, from the spoken-word verses and the programmed-drum patterns to that eerie, ominous bass-sound. And that chorus! It just builds and builds into this tour-de-force complete with the staccato-like strings. The climax with Jarvis holding a pained 'Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah' for what seems like an eternity at the end is just sheer exhilarating.
And when the song suddenly stops, there's that momentary pause - that split-second gap where the audience make up their mind how to acknowledge the performance, the moment that every live artist surely lives for. Finally, a spontaneous, almost dis-believing and utterly gob-smacked roar from the x thousand amount of people standing in the field.
What a incredibly strange set Glasto '98 was. They played Seductive Barry, TIH and FEELING. Between those three songs, you had half the program.
To be honest, it was a pretty crap setlist. Almost all of TIH and a few of the lesser tracks from DC, rounded off with a half-hearted performance of Common People. It's no wonder FEELING stands out.
There's a rather irate bloke on the recording that shouts "PLAY A GOOD SONG!". I sympathize with him sometimes.
Quality aside, the set was quite odd for a big festival, don't you think? Maybe they thought all those songs about shagging would warm people up after a weekend in the rain and cold?
Well, I don't know; I mean, it's pretty much par for the course for bands who've not long had new albums out to play lots of songs from them at festivals, probably heightened in Pulp's case because it was their first in almost 3 years, and TIH isn't exactly replete with uptempo crackers.
I've only seen the TV coverage and heard what was on the radio and the TIH freebie CDs, so I still have some gaps, but I've always felt that the Japanese "Live at Glastonbury" album is much, much better than the truncated British version, because the performances in the last three songs suddenly get much better, the band starts to feel more in control, and it just feels so celebratory and defiant, and (/pseud) Well, This Is Hardcore works really well as a start-of-encore song, and I think the closing medley of Glory Days/Common People is as good as anything from the '95 set.
