FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: GLASTONBURY 2024 – PART TWO

Continuing my Glastonbury 2024 journey, today we look back at performances I caught on Saturday. But before that let's track back a day. On Friday, en route back from Avalon via Bread and Roses, a signboard flashed up that the sizeable West Holts area was completely full ahead of the appearance of Sugababes. Writing in the i-newspaper Eleanor Peake picked up on this and other shows that she could get nowhere near, arguably making some fair points about Glastonbury programming; essentially shouldn’t artistes who broadly count as legacy acts (Sugababes, Avril Lavigne) be on the Pyramid and does it work to put current stars like Charli XCX on intimate stages in the wee small hours?

Photo above by Uldis Silins

While I can appreciate her point, I wrote a short letter in response which the i-paper kindly published. My take is that there are usually 4 or 5 acts on at any one time you’d quite happily see, so it is not ultimately a deal breaker if you can’t physically fit into a field. It happened to me with Avril Lavigne too. There is so much more to see at Glastonbury; it is about making choices that avoid criss-crossing the vast site which would entail more time walking than watching. Many of the best shows I saw were on smaller stages - evidenced by those of us who watched the brilliant Ayoub Sisters followed by ace Irish band Kingfishr on the Avalon Stage first thing on Sunday. For that, more in Part Three!

Photo by Maja Smiejkowska

My Saturday began at the spacious Acoustic Stage just as Portaferry, NI native Ryan McMullan chose a novel way to exit the stage when overrunning his set time. The powerfully-voiced singer-songwriter foreshortened his closing song, teaching the crowd to sing the chorus so they could keep it going as he and his two band mates unplugged and exited stage left. Clever, and the audience clearly loved his performance. I had made the trek to the bright red and blue-striped Acoustic tent though to see Jessie Reid who had caught the ear of the stage booker after chancing her arm with a demo submission. Longlisted in this year’s Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition, the Shropshire born singer-songwriter has been busy crowdfunding successfully to help finance her debut album independently.

With sister Rose on backing vocals and a percussionist adding a third harmony, Jessie Reid has a quietly assured stage manner, opening today with an instrumental lead into her first song, “Lifeboat”, acoustic guitar laid on her lap as she hammered on strings and tapped rhythmically on the instrument’s body. Standing for the suitably reflective “Time Goes By”, the guitar inventions continued with her left hand offering a bass counterpart while her right coaxed hammer-ons and harmonics. Between songs Jessie revealed snippets of her life as an independent artiste, from surprise at having songs played on Love Island and Made in Chelsea – the latter used for a scene when someone’s grandmother had died – to fulfilling her bucket list wish to play Glastonbury (“I can quit music now!”) Somehow, I think that threat will remain tongue in cheek. Mixing new, as yet unreleased songs, with the more familiar, she delivered them all with a captivating, softly accented voice and adept fingerstyle guitar. The harmonies on “Home” were a particular delight too.

Photo by Maja Smiejkowska

The next few hours saw a clutch of far too many acts I would happily have watched overlapping and entailing choices that had to be made (see paragraph 2). I worked out that what I really, really wanted to see was Soccer Mommy’s entire set on Woodsies (formerly, and I struggle to get over this, the John Peel Stage). This meant I could see a bit of Cyndi Lauper on the Pyramid en route and catch the end of The Last Dinner Party on the Other Stage and nip round to the Pyramid again for a touch of Keane. However, this all meant sacrificing Corinne Bailey Rae on West Holts. Choices, as I said. I ended up seeing only a little of Cyndi Lauper, looking terrific as your fairy punk grandmother, mid set. Despite the sound issues I read about later, she gave it some mid-range welly on “I Drove All Night”, a song written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly for Roy Orbison but released by Cyndi Lauper before Orbison’s own recorded version came out after his death. She needed audience participation on the more delicate “Time After Time” to help nail the atmospherics of the song, however.

There was no time to wait for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” as Sophie Allison aka Soccer Mommy was calling. I first encountered the gifted Nashville singer-songwriter via her 2018 debut studio album, Clean, and followed her over subsequent albums, Color Theory and Sometimes, Forever. Despite the competing shows across the site, there was a goodly crowd in Woodsies tent for her Glastonbury debut; Sophie delivering a set that left the music to speak for itself. It was low on chat and platitudes aimed at the crowd; indeed, it was the first and only time over the weekend that I didn’t hear a gratuitous ‘Glast-on-buree’ shout-out from the stage. Nonetheless the experience was refreshing in its simplicity and laid-back delivery.

Photo by Paul Kerr

The seminal version of Leonard Bernstein’s “America” by late 60s English prog-rockers The Nice was playing before Soccer Mommy and her band arrived on stage. Well, at least the similarly-aged guy near me recognised it. It was no fanfare though as the band opened with the slow build, mid tempo “Bones” and built an economical set around the three albums with an earlier track and a beautifully stripped-down version of the emotive new single, “Lost”, thrown into the mix. “Shotgun” and “Cool” particularly stood out as immediately accessible songs. Sophie adds light and shade through her thoughtful lyricism while instrumentally there are pop hooks and the odd wall of sound closure to keep things fresh. The lady in front of me clutching a sign with a request on each side was finally rewarded by getting to sing along heartily to closing song “Your Dog”, joined by a fair proportion of the audience. Low key, maybe, yet for me still one of the most satisfying sets of the weekend.

Photo by Maja Smiejkowska

Next stop was The Last Dinner Party on the Other Stage, bathed in afternoon sun. Aperitifs were served from 3:45 so I was only able to catch the tail end of the popular yet much-hyped band’s set. For the first time, admittedly after cherry picking who was on my schedule, I was a wee bit underwhelmed by what I heard. New song “Second Best” (sic) and the couple of debut album tracks that followed it seemed indebted to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust period. Abigail Morris is a dashing frontwoman, a kind of Florence with a touch of Kate Bush but her voice is less sure outside her core range. That said, the band look great on stage with a mash up of baroque gowns and glam rock stylings, play really well together and the massive crowd seemed fully onside. So maybe “Nothing Matters” then; it’s a great tune but there are no prizes for subtlety.

For those with access to the Interstage area between the Other Stage and the Pyramid it is technically possible to exit the left-hand side of the former and make one’s way to a similar position though further back at the side of the Pyramid to watch the final bit of Keane. It was either that or the longer trek to West Holts to hear what might only have been the final song of Corinne Bailey Rae’s set. Such are the choices you need to make. Keane won though I got there too late to hear much. What it did affirm was that Tom Chaplin’s voice is just so great and the soaring majesty of “Somewhere Only We Know” is as good a reminder that after 20 years Hopes and Fears still survives as a true classic record, the glorious single from it hardly in need of its recent Tik Tok-inspired revival.

The final clash of the day for me was seeing the brilliant, genre-crossing Michael Kiwanuka on the Pyramid Stage versus showing support for Glastonbury Emerging Talent finalist, Olivia Nelson. I went with Olivia to end my day, prematurely perhaps, on a high note on the homely Bread and Roses stage. Opening her set alongside her exceptional backing band with “Morning”, Olivia announced this was indeed her fourth show of the weekend. Her original songs have a classic feel born of her naturally smooth, soulful vocal which comes with an emotive edge that makes you feel her pain and grip her hopes. Tight, unfussy bass and drums were complemented by a lead guitarist who knows exactly when to shine; his solo in “Smother Me” got a deserved, spontaneous round of applause. Olivia herself excelled on the dancey “Never Too Late”, with the raw trauma of “Oblivion” and the pop stylings of closer, “Someone That You Love.” I can’t show you that song via Bread and Roses but here it is as performed on the BBC Introducing Stage a day earlier.

Photos of Coldplay by Uldis Silins

We are nearly there! I felt it was too much in one sitting to inflict Sunday’s coverage on you as well today so that will follow next week. I’ll leave you with Coldplay who were, well, Coldplay; loved by millions and derided by many - among them the middle aged, middle class woman in the hospitality area with the t-shirt reading ‘Not F-ing Coldplay again’. A touch unnecessary and disrespectful, I felt. I do love Coldplay and defy the hairs on the back of your neck not to be upstanding for “Fix You.” Indeed, lights will guide you.