Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival 2000
Groove
Armada
Jazzworld Stage
21:20 23rd June 2000
I
was looking forward to Groove Armada as their album, 'Vertigo' has
been a favourite in our house for the last year. The majority of
the album is cool, calm and sophisticated, unlike the popular single
taken from it 'I See You Baby'. Groove Armada at the Jazz Stage
this year were likewise cool, calm and sophisticated, but they hiked
it up a bit for the crowd, making the gig a dance sensation. They
got 'I See You Baby' out of the way at the start of the show and
moved on to lengthy numbers including excellent saxaphone and trombone
solo's. 
The
band was big, with Tom Findlay and Andy Cato on each side of the
stage making the most of the keyboards, decks and fantastic trombone.
Otherwise there were two main vocalists, a brilliant rapper who
spiced up the sound impressively and a female vocalist whose voice
was only eclipsed by her terrible posing at the film crew. The saxophonist
doubled up with a keyboard, and there were drums, bass and guitar
of course. The best performance, perhaps bar the duo of Findlay
and Cato, was by the percussionist. My God, his hands were moving
fast on those bongo's! He played his heart out, as did the rest
of the band.
The
mix of rap, vocal and sax was really impressive, particularly when
they played 'At The River', looping the vocal around with the trombone
glazing over the top in a seamless stream. The band didn't seem
to realise how much the crowd were enjoying it all. Their attempt
to make the crowd sing was unsuccessful, but this was due to a very
mellow crowd (as was the festival all round) and an extremely posing
female vocalist. She was far too busy pouting at the camera to bother
with engaging with the crowd. The discerning audience that Glastonbury
seems to foster was not going to sing for her! When the roar of
the crowd finally insisted on an encore the band seemed mystified,
but re-generated. They finished off with a storming set that left
us all danced out.
review by Zoë
more pages about Groove Armada (live)
