NowPublic Roundup: Glastonbury 2008

by Jarrett Martineau | June 30, 2008 at 10:44 am | 1041 views | 17 comments

As NowPublic member Zichi reported on Thursday, the Glastonbury Festival has undergone some significant changes in its 36 years of existence.

The 2008 edition of the UK's monster music fest featured blistering performances by huge headliners like Jay-Z, The Verve, and Amy Winehouse— and hipster-hot acts including: Vampire Weekend, Crystal Castles, MGMT, Editors, Santogold and Lightspeed Champion.

Glastonbury was held this past weekend on June 27, 28 and 29th.

NowPublic is looking to include your photos, videos, and stories to our coverage. If you attended the festival this year please post to this story.

JAY-Z ROCKS 'WONDERWALL' (no really, he actually covered Oasis)

Jay-Z hit back at Noel Gallagher's criticism of his headlining Glastonbury slot by playing his own version of 'Wonderwall' on Saturday.

The Oasis guitarist had criticised the decision to allow Jay-Z to headline the event, saying it should stick to its traditional indie music roots.

The rapper responded by opening with an acoustic version of 'Wonderwall’ with Gallagher’s "Hip-hop at Glastonbury is just wrong" comments dubbed over the top.

He told the crowd: "So they say you guys didn't want me to be here tonight. They said you guys weren't into hip-hop. Thanks for all the love here tonight.

"This is a beautiful moment, I'm glad to share it with each and every one of you."

Jay-Z then performed a set that included ‘Big Pimpin’’, ’99 Problems’ and ‘Hard Knock Life’, as well as covers of Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’, Estelle’s ‘American Boy’ and Amy Winehouse’s ‘Rehab'.
AMY WINEHOUSE THROWIN' BO'S
A man who was allegedly elbowed in the head by Amy Winehouse at Glastonbury Festival has handed his digital camera footage of the incident to the BBC.

James Gostelow, 25, from London, said the singer caught him on the forehead after someone in the crowd behind him threw a hat at her.

Winehouse, 24, was seen apparently lashing out at the audience during her Pyramid Stage performance on Saturday.

But police said they had received no complaints of assault.

Broadcast footage on the night appeared to show Winehouse elbow one fan after being hit on the head by a hat, then throw a series of punches into the crowd.

Mr Gostelow said the incident was a case of mistaken identity.

"I saw a hat being thrown from behind me and it hit Amy's beehive. She looked down, saw me looking up, and her elbow went for me.

"She caught my forehead, then someone may have shouted something from the back, which is when she went in again."

Winehouse, who performed in front of an estimated 75,000 people, jumped off the stage and into the security pit for the last two songs of her set.
THE VERVE CLOSES THE WEEKEND
The Verve have brought Glastonbury 2008 to a close, headlining the Pyramid Stage tonight (June 29).

Topping the bill on the last night of the three day festival, the reunited band served up a mix of anthems and previewed their new album 'Forth' due out in August.

Kicking off with 'This Is Music', frontman Richard Ashcroft shouted out the refrain of the next song 'Sonnet' - "there's love if you want it!"- urging the swelling crowd on and they duly obliged with a loud sing-a-long.

"Thank you, you're sounding good tonight declared Ashcroft afterwards. "A shout out for Jay-Z for putting in a good performance but tonight is rock n roll!"
CRYSTAL CASTLES
Fans of the huge Toronto duo Crystal Castles love singer Alice Glass' extreme on-stage antics. But last night, it seems that the security guards at Glastonbury didn't feel quite the same way.

Wearing red tights and a skirt, as well as a black leather jacket, Glass tore around the stage and repeatedly dove into the photo pit. But when she climbed to the stop of a speaker stack during the first few notes of "Alice Practice," the lights and music were suddenly shut down, leaving Glass on top of the speakers, not sure what to do next.

Eventually she climbed back down, saying, "They're shutting us off! Who's in charge?"

But the shut-down was short-lived. The crowd booed until the music came back on and Crystal Castles were allowed to resume their high-octane show - as long as they stayed low to the ground.
PREVIOUSLY | June 27thVAMPIRE WEEKEND
Vampire Weekend played to a packed crowd on Glastonbury's Other Stage this afternoon (June 27).

The New York band were one of the first acts rumoured to be playing at the 2008 festival after playing the London new talent night Holy Cow, run by some of the festival's organisers.

"I can't believe how many people we're looking at," declared frontman Erza Koenig. "It's such a beautiful site, we're really honoured to be back in your country."
MGMT
MGMT played to a rammed to the rafters John Peel Tent at Glastonbury tonight (June 27th).

The crowd was spilling way out of the tent by the time the boys took to the stage to huge cheers. 'Weekend Wars' immediately had people dancing in unison and the pace never let up.

'Electric Feel' caused a mass singalong, as crowd surfers made for the stage, but it was 'Time to Pretend' which really shook the tent. The duo - Andrew VanWyngardan and Ben Goldwasser - having been quiet between songs applauded the crowd's reaction as they left the stage.
EDITORS
Editors have played one of their biggest festival sets to date, taking to Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage this evening (June 27).

Returning after a break while frontman Tom Smith became a father, the band used the set to test out new material.
SANTOGOLD

Santogold brought a touch of glamour to the Park Stage at Glastonbury festival this afternoon (June 27).

Belting out hits from her recently-released eponymous debut album, including 'Creator' and 'LES Artistes', the singer pulled in a big crowd.

Performing choreographed dance moves with her singers, Santogold, who was wearing a T-shirt featuring pictures of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, joked with the crowd about the rain.
LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION

Lightspeed Champion performed two new songs during his set on the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury today (June 27).

However, Dev Hynes joked that fans should "go and get stocked up at the herbal highs tent" rather than listen to the new songs, titled 'Marlene' and 'Kill Me Baby Won't You Kill Me'.

Taking to the stage twirling around a cape, Hynes told the crowd to get ready for a "fat rave", before playing a set consisting mostly of tracks from his debut album 'Falling Off The Lavender Bridge' – including 'Galaxy Of The Lost' and 'Devil Tricks For A Bitch'.

See additional NowPublic coverage of this year's festival here and here.

Add a comment Comments (17)

JeffHuang

This seems like one craaazzy festival.

Rhonda J Mangus
good stuff:

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Rob Peters

I read (and posted) yesterday that organizers have already decided to go back with a guitar-based headliner next year, despite a critically-acclaimed performance from Jay-Z. Coldplay and Radiohead appear to be the biggest contenders. I'm not even a rap guy, but I think there's no harm in mixing it up a bit.

dunwho

The stone circle was the place to be at night, the view of the rising sun on the thursday night being an unmissable event for all those festival goers who felt the need to relate to the spiritual feeling of the event. Next to the ancient stone circle stood this sculpture of a Dragon made out of wood. As i walked around the site on the Wednesday afternoon the sun shone strongly on the green pastures that would soon turn to a soggy mess.

dunwho has contributed a photo to this story.

Northern Country Boy

Celebrating sunshine

Northern Country Boy has contributed a photo to this story.

taynghe


Song lyrics. Artists biography. Find your favourite lyrics, song-texts, artists biography and reviews

http://mixmusique.com/
http://justmusicstore.com
Ward

It was a great festival this year, and for those of us working there it was amazing to see the sight transformed on Wednesday day morning as tens of thousands people poured onto the site.
Jay-Z was interesting, but no more than that. For me Rachel Unthank & The Winterset were by far the best entertainment I saw over the long weekend.

Ward has contributed a photo to this story.

~ Rachel ~

I went to see Jay Z on the Saturday night out of curiosity seeing as I am not a rap fan at all. It was interesting for for the first couple of tracks and the video montage at the beginning was good. But after that I had had enough and went to see massive attack. For me, the best set over the weekend was from Eddy Grant - a truly happy hour spent in the Jazz field.

NP_1_806960

The view from the "Flag field" looking over the site.

NP_1_806960 has contributed a photo to this story.

Slint

My Morning Jacket, Glastonbury 2008

Slint has contributed a photo to this story.

2create

Over looking "The Park" stage, on of the smaller areas in Glastonbury Festival.

2create has contributed a photo to this story.

meplayuk

By the time this photo was taken I was on the verge of collapsing out of sheer exhaustion. If you ever wanted to eat well and keep your body in check, Glastonbury Festival is the place! Of course i didn't collapse, but endeavored to push through long after the sun had said it's final goodbye. If Noel Gallagher had bothered donning his wellies to walk around the festival, from one side to the other around and around, he might release that it was never just about Rock 'n' Roll or Jay Z for that matter.

meplayuk has contributed a photo to this story.

DirtyDavey

Glastonbury is the most famous festival in the world! And when it did not sell out this year, people did not know what to make of it all!

Was it the mud, the registration, Jay Z?

I think it was a bit of it all. Lets remember that the tickets when on sale on a day that it was snowing.

Its been interesting to here people saying that we should allow Jay Z to play, as its not a rock festival, and hip hop should be given a chance. I for one dont care if all the artists that play on the main stage are hip hop. Its the sexist lyrics of Jay Z that offend me. "I have 99 problems but a bitch aint one" That’s what we had a problem with. Glastonbury is about every one loving each other, no matter what your race, religion, sex or sexuality. We campaigned to have Rolf Harris replace Jay Z and made it to the Q festival daily.

All in all it was the best festival I have ever been too. And next year its bound to see out in seconds again.

The picture is the sun rise from the stones.

Dave Dunckley

DirtyDavey has contributed a photo to this story.

GauloisesBlonde

From the morning we set off to the journey home, Glastonbury 2008 produced smiles, laughter, fun and sadness. Not even the torrential downpour and the sea of mud could dampen our spirits. It is virtually impossible to see every band that is on at Glastobury, but we had a damn good go!

Watching The Levellers on the first night could've been a disappointment due to the rain but hey, that's what Glastonbury is all about and when the sun peeked through the clouds the following morning, our hearts were lifted like a euphoric plane!

Every band from The Feeling to Amy Crackhouse was fantastic! The atmosphere everywhere was as it should be and I have to say, I could've stayed until next year. All the villages and fields came alive at night and ensured there was something for everyone.

In true Glastonbury style, my friend and I, who is gay, got married and our Minister became our tour guide, taking us upto the Stone Circle to watch the sunrise. Amazing!

Lily Allen made us cry by singing a tributory song for Nana Allen who had died the day before and a big hard looking dude came over and had a little cry with us, what a moment!

My only regret is that we didn't watch The Verve. Leonard Cohen, I blame you personally for droning on and on!

Thank you Michael Eavis for letting us all dance in your back garden, see you next year!

GauloisesBlonde xxx

GauloisesBlonde has contributed a photo to this story.

Jarrett Martineau

Thanks to everyone for posting their photos! Check out the amazing gallery up on the left.

liverpool08images

The Orrery symbolises Liverpool's position as "the Cente of the Creative Universe".

The giant structure explores and celebrates cultural organisations and the 08 highlights in the form of planets, sun, moon and stars creating a Liverpool 08 solar system.

To see more images of the Orrery, please visit http://sites.liverpool08.com/TheOrrery/

liverpool08images has contributed a photo to this story.

retrotravelbug

Whilst watching Leonard Cohen you just knew you were experiencing a moment with a legend. To see him enjoying the show and the audience was particularly moving.

retrotravelbug has contributed a photo to this story.

Add a comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

June 30, 2008 at 10:44 am by Jarrett Martineau, 1041 views, 17 comments

closeSign in to NowPublic

is reporting from