Groove Armada

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.