31 replies to this topic

[martpol]

Saw George Clinton headlining West Holts on Saturday night. It  was a dream moment for me, as I adore funk and love Parliament and Funkadelic.

Sure enough, they were fantastic - outstanding musicianship, great crowd interaction (altoghet: "Shit, goddamn, get off your ass and jam!"); a set that started with a 20-minute guitar solo takes some balls.

But then, soon after they started the encore, the speakers went off. The only ones left working were the stage amps, which was all right (though hardly great) for about the first tenth of the field. The band soldiered on, through the crowd chanting "Turn it up" and a few people (shamefully) booing. Then it came back, then it went off again. By this point they'd have had every right to storm off, but they were real troopers and continued for a good 10 minutes or so until it became clear that things wouldn't get any better.

I've never felt more sorry for an act, at Glastonbury or anywhere else. They'd put on a storming show; to have it finish so anti-climatically must have been awful for them. It was pretty bad for the crowd too.

Basically, a disgrace for this sort of thing to happen on one of the biggest stages. They'd be justified in kicking up a shit-storm and never playing the place again.

[lord stradmor]

To be fair it was probably cos of the licence. They'd reached the end of their set, and took a long time to come back on. by the time they did, they'd overrun. having the stage PA on would have breached the sound limits, so i expect they got turned off.

funky set, mind

[Wooderson]

Given the volume on the female singer he has with him (audible near the other stage!) when the sound was on it was defeaning.

[thenavyone]

I wondered what happened during that set - was it to do with it being so late?  Either way it was amazing!!

[Salt_On_Everything]

I'm afraid I'll have to agree to disagree... We went to watch them, I'm by no means an expert on the man and his bands, but I have 4 Funkadelic albums and was expecting pretty good things. But to be honest, yes, starting with a 20 minute solo (was it the one off 'Maggot Brain...?), was brave, but i thought it sucked a bit... Wish they'd gone straight into something more party-ish to get the place moving! After that start it took a while to get going, seemed pretty lacklustre, we were all a bit bummed out by it and we pissed off to watch Ed Byrne in cabaret. I bet they played songs I wanted to hear after we'd gone tho!

[CaledonianGonzo]

Salt_On_Everything, on 29 June 2010 - 08:22 PM, said:

But to be honest, yes, starting with a 20 minute solo (was it the one off 'Maggot Brain...?), was brave, but i thought it sucked a bit...

The title number of one of his best-loved albums and a track widely-regarded as one of the most influential pieces of guitar music of all time?  

With the sun-setting in the background.

[Salt_On_Everything]

CaledonianGonzo, on 29 June 2010 - 08:26 PM, said:

The title number of one of his best-loved albums and a track widely-regarded as one of the most influential pieces of guitar music of all time?  

With the sun-setting in the background.

I don't disagree with your point, but as I said, me and my friends were expecting more of a party vibe and that song did NOT provide it... I'm not saying it's a bad song, I just didn't think it was right for the time!

[ralph250]

Salt_On_Everything, on 29 June 2010 - 08:37 PM, said:

I don't disagree with your point, but as I said, me and my friends were expecting more of a party vibe and that song did NOT provide it... I'm not saying it's a bad song, I just didn't think it was right for the time!

Was a fitting tribute to the late Garry Shider (guitarist/vocalist) who died just 10 days before though, no? Pretty emotive and personally I loved it.

[Salt_On_Everything]

ralph250, on 29 June 2010 - 09:14 PM, said:

Was a fitting tribute to the late Garry Shider (guitarist/vocalist) who died just 10 days before though, no? Pretty emotive and personally I loved it.

Ah, well I didn't know that, as I said I'm no expert! that's my friend Andy's area of experience, and he's currently somewhere on the other side of the world! The 4 of us who were there are admittedly George Clinton novices...

[ralph250]

Salt_On_Everything, on 29 June 2010 - 09:16 PM, said:

Ah, well I didn't know that, as I said I'm no expert! that's my friend Andy's area of experience, and he's currently somewhere on the other side of the world! The 4 of us who were there are admittedly George Clinton novices...

No worries man. Can see how that as an intro might not be everyone's cup of tea.

Overall the set was pretty cool though; George's voice sounded pretty shot to f**k and sadly no Bootsy from what I could see ( ??? ), but still pretty enjoyable after a fair few ciders.

[ben dover]

We had all planned to see the funk. We were delivered a guitar solo.

We left

[fantomas]

loved the intro and the whole set (up until the ill-fated encore)!

Does George Clinton himself normally hardly sing at all?  All the singers were excellent however.

Edited by fantomas, 29 June 2010 - 09:53 PM.

[Mr.Tease]

martpol, on 29 June 2010 - 06:47 PM, said:

Saw George Clinton headlining West Holts on Saturday night. It  was a dream moment for me, as I adore funk and love Parliament and Funkadelic.

Sure enough, they were fantastic - outstanding musicianship, great crowd interaction (altoghet: "Shit, goddamn, get off your ass and jam!"); a set that started with a 20-minute guitar solo takes some balls.

But then, soon after they started the encore, the speakers went off. The only ones left working were the stage amps, which was all right (though hardly great) for about the first tenth of the field. The band soldiered on, through the crowd chanting "Turn it up" and a few people (shamefully) booing. Then it came back, then it went off again. By this point they'd have had every right to storm off, but they were real troopers and continued for a good 10 minutes or so until it became clear that things wouldn't get any better.

I've never felt more sorry for an act, at Glastonbury or anywhere else. They'd put on a storming show; to have it finish so anti-climatically must have been awful for them. It was pretty bad for the crowd too.

Basically, a disgrace for this sort of thing to happen on one of the biggest stages. They'd be justified in kicking up a shit-storm and never playing the place again.

I was near the front and so had a good view of what was happening. Don't panic!- it's not as bad as you fear! Basically they finished their set and left the stage- they weren't planning to do an encore, and I think George was well on his way out. Then the West Holts announcer noticed people wanted more and weren't going anywhere, so asked someone if the band were planning on doing an encore. George must have been against the idea, and the runner told the announcer no they weren't doing one. However as the crowd continued, a few members of the band came out intending to wave and say thanks, and then decided: f*ck it, they were doing an encore even if george wasn't. By this point the stage crew had assumed there wasn't going to be an encore, and had switched off some of the stuff AND the curfew was basically about to start. Once they started playing, it took a while for them to realise the mikes weren't working, but once the realised, Sir Noze (the dancing man with feathery waste coat) started jokingly telling the band to be quiet, it was curfew time. They carried on, George eventually came out, and they broke the curfew (first time I've seen a Jazzworld act do that), and still refused to stop until everything was shut off.

From the looks on their faces, the band really seemed to be enjoying themselves and were really appreciative of the crowds response, and gestured to the crowd how much it meant to them once everything was switched off. So a good time was had by all!

Parliament/Funkadelic and all of that P-Funk melarky are some of my favourite bands and this was one of my favourite glastonbury performances- I'm just quite peeved that the BBC decided not to bother filming any of it (my poor memory needs these documented reminders of what I've experienced!), though it's not suprising as they did the same with the fantastic Roy Ayers a few years ago. I can understand if the artists refuse filming, but if it was the bbc's decision to exclude such important musical figure, it's pretty lame!

[keyfun]

ralph250, on 29 June 2010 - 09:14 PM, said:

Was a fitting tribute to the late Garry Shider (guitarist/vocalist) who died just 10 days before though, no? Pretty emotive and personally I loved it.

was my highlight of the festival truly beautifull and fitting tribute to starchild .

on a side note whilst dancing in the crowd some young girl asked " was i jamacan" (obviously not as im white) then just randomly took a picture of me side on for no reason ? and was doing this to others , did this happen to anyone else , or any idea why ? might just be a random thing but she was damn close scared the shit out of me when the flash went off  

Edited by keyfun, 30 June 2010 - 12:49 AM.

[tinners]

[/quote]Parliament/Funkadelic and all of that P-Funk melarky are some of my favourite bands and this was one of my favourite glastonbury performances- I'm just quite peeved that the BBC decided not to bother filming any of it (my poor memory needs these documented reminders of what I've experienced!), though it's not suprising as they did the same with the fantastic Roy Ayers a few years ago. I can understand if the artists refuse filming, but if it was the bbc's decision to exclude such important musical figure, it's pretty lame!
[/quote]

It was a shame about the BBC. They use to cover the stage over the whole weekend until last year when they only filmed the Black Eyed Peas. This year they came and filmed 5 acts on the Sunday and we can only hope they do more next year. Otherwise their coverage of the festival is far too skewed towards white indie bands. Personally, I reckon not filming Parliament or Jerry Dammers Spacial AKA Orchestra was a crime.

Edited by tinners, 30 June 2010 - 08:54 AM.

[tonyblair]

Salt_On_Everything, on 29 June 2010 - 08:22 PM, said:

I'm afraid I'll have to agree to disagree... We went to watch them, I'm by no means an expert on the man and his bands, but I have 4 Funkadelic albums and was expecting pretty good things. But to be honest, yes, starting with a 20 minute solo (was it the one off 'Maggot Brain...?), was brave, but i thought it sucked a bit... Wish they'd gone straight into something more party-ish to get the place moving! After that start it took a while to get going, seemed pretty lacklustre, we were all a bit bummed out by it and we pissed off to watch Ed Byrne in cabaret. I bet they played songs I wanted to hear after we'd gone tho!

the 20 minute guitar opening sucked big ones, he was crap too.... what were they thinking? I wandered off to see Alabama 3, who were great, then wandered back and it seemed like the the same solo was going on... that's NOT the funk

[blackcockerel]

For God's sake, as someone above mentioned, the "guitar solo" was Maggot Brain, one of their most famous songs, the title track to one of their most important albums and a song that was played at the start because they have recently lost Garry Shider, a very important member of the band. They don't normally start with it but they were remembering Garry. As for them continuing to play till the sound cut out, they're always doing that, they just like to carry on for as long as they can get away with

[LostRiot]

Salt_On_Everything, on 29 June 2010 - 08:22 PM, said:

I'm afraid I'll have to agree to disagree... We went to watch them, I'm by no means an expert on the man and his bands, but I have 4 Funkadelic albums and was expecting pretty good things. But to be honest, yes, starting with a 20 minute solo (was it the one off 'Maggot Brain...?), was brave, but i thought it sucked a bit... Wish they'd gone straight into something more party-ish to get the place moving! After that start it took a while to get going, seemed pretty lacklustre, we were all a bit bummed out by it and we pissed off to watch Ed Byrne in cabaret. I bet they played songs I wanted to hear after we'd gone tho!

For me maggotbrain was the highlight of the festival. Its pretty much my favourite guitar solo, love the fact that they opened with it.

I wanted to try to catch the end of midlake, and as their encore didn't seem to be going anywhere I left during it, then as I got to the back of the field I could hear the quietest music ever starting, but I didn't hang around.

Midlake were awesome by the way.

[delaysee]

Did you see that parachutist coming down during Maggot Brain - it was George !!!:-P

It was always going to be a strange and tough gig –ever since I heard about the passing of legendary Garry ‘starchild’ ‘diaperman’ Shider the week before I was wondering ‘WTF is going to happen at Glasto?’. He’s had such a strong prescence in the band ever since the 70s, and perhaps even more so in recent years as such a showman and one of our last O.Gs of the Mob. Every P show I’ve experienced Garry was there with his omnipotent ‘ SOMEBODY SCREAM’ and  ‘RELAX’ chants …always seemed to be guiding the rest of the Mob & guests, always enthusing and hyping the crowd. Singing those live favs of One Nation, Cosmic slop..Dishing out those angelic touches on the guitar and vocals here in the 21st century….

With Starchild there in spirit and half the ‘regular mob’ of today MIA – ie Clip, Boogie, Belita, Treylewd, Greg Thomas and Bennie (we MISSED those horny horns!) and others. I guess that’s the economics of bringing the mob across the pond – we get our funk a little CUT. So was a skeleton more FUNKADELIC guitar oriented lineup wiht GC, Hampton, Kash (pretty sure was on the kit the whole time), Lige, Ricky Rouse, Shaunna, Danny, Kendra, Kim, Poo Poo, P Nut, Steve Boyd, Sativa (??? Another female background singer – what’s her name?), and Mary Griffin

No choice now for GC but to take to the front and command the show again. Was hoping for a ‘which one is george?’ moment with the crowd. And it did happen reading some posts about Sir Nose and ‘f**k George’  and no long hair...but we could’ve had so many more if more of the mob were on stage! In 2010 GC can’t dance, can’t sing (never really could anyhow:-p ), and still don’t play an instrument – but he’s the funkin ringmaster with the melodies and P moves n themes and so the one and only true funklord! Watching him interact and direct his P mob is a true pleasure. His smile is one helleva infectious smile. Pure. FUnkin. Joy.

Opening up with Maggot Brain was entirely appropriate given the occasion. Though it seemed the mob were having some technical difficulties getting the show started, sorting our the guitar rig mainly. We were about 10-15min behind schedule. Kash came on and dedicated Maggot Brain to Shider straight up. The only odd thing here was starting the ‘we want the funk’ chant…why? when we’re going into Maggot brain territory? Hampton played well, their def were moments from Kidd that were outstanding and I dug the length of time the rest of the mob took to join in- wasn’t rushed. I think this lost some of the non-clones though. They were expecting their FUNK uncut from the start. But it was the only thing to really do – maggot brain as Garry once said it’s about a ‘brother crying out.’ This was for you Starchild…. Fusing into the riff from ‘Alice in fantasies’ it was funny watching them close as Lige was giving Hampton some strange looks and pointing at him as if to say ‘it’s you, come on move on’…

Setlist wasn’t radical and considering this is a fairly white middle class festival what were we to expect? What was different was the ordering of songs – almost in complete reverse from what I’ve heard. After the 15odd mins of maggot brain the mob plunged into usual closer Atomic Dog and everybody came out at once. Including George! Used to him making a late entry but he was bouncing and bopping as he came on in, looking full on energy…George kept iot simple with his sideways white baseballcap and black baggies…Geez he had some energy though, looking a lot more livelier than previously. So great to see this,  he’s also lost those coloured locks and looks more like a GC from 1969 with that Mohawk! If only they dropped some more Westbound Fundalelic…

After finishing Atomic Dog with the fast “Pussy’ lick  Ricky lounged straight into Red Hot Mama which was cranked it up. Not so much of the Hendrix theatrics from Ricky though tonight – felt he was a little more restrained…though I think the audience here would’ve loved more of that.

Moved straight into Flashlight with Carlos Sir Nose doing the obligatory ‘F**George’ act. You gotta love Sir Nose for doing his thang...…Danny went loose on the ‘motor booty’ theme here and was grooving high. Sativa came out for Something Stankin / Harder as Steel with GC doing his skunk request to the crowd, took a while but he eventually got a big J…Sir Nose goes out to the audience to pass to GC to light up…back to flashlight!

With Knee Deep Kim M strutted her stuff, heard her before but this time her vocals were spot on and she was rollerblading all over the stage. Ricky and Hampton hammered home the dual guitar solo sweetly…Steve boyd took to the vocals to sing the scatty bit.They morphed the groove and Kendra took up Belita’s ‘Sentimental Journey’ duty. She pulled it off but I do miss Belita’s husky voice coming through on this and the outro…

Think we got We want the funk next and the crowd lapped it up...love hearing them sing constantly we want the funk give up the funk we want the funk...haha gotta have that funk!

Mary Griffin up next with her insane voice. Doing some ole blues. Sheet Mary can sing, but this don’t feel like pfunk for me. Give us some Eulogy and Light Mary!!

Setlist finished up with a smoking Thumpasourus peoples. Slow n stanky then full on overdrive…GC says his farewells and he don’t come back…getting ready to sign tees down the front I spose :-P

The rest of mob come back after a couple mins and blast out Bop Gun. Except the sound dood has turned off the PA - we can only hear the monitors from front of stage!. Crowd starts chanting ‘turn it up, turn it up’. Yet the Mob keep on keeping on and flow into ‘Undisco Kidd’ with Kendra and Steve guiding. Finally a litte of the PA kicks in. We an really hear Kendra signing the ‘girl is bad. She’s bad’….Yet after those few mins the PA fades again as the mob end with ‘Bounce to this’. Pop. The electricity is cut and Shaunna shrugs and holds her guitar up to the sky. Kash hits it and quits it. We’re left with an insatiable appetite as it feels the Mob have just kicked into gear for the evening and it’s shut down…arh shit! Festivals and their flamin’ curfews… I turn to those in the crowd they’ve had a fab show and are enlightened..

The Mob gave us a great show but there was a certain party vibe missing – but who can blame them??? What a way to end the sat night. Maggot brain at dusk.... Shit get off your ass and jam... we want the funk, give up the funk! we need the funk, gotta have that funk! Funk is it's own reward.

[FunkyDenz]

That's a great review delaysee. I'm gutted I missed the first few songs of their set, as they are some of my faves. Got there when Flashlight was playing.