Johndenis

Thanks for the feedback folks. I don't think the Mrs would buy into the idea of me going and taking it easy. As we all know glastonbury is a bit of an endurance test so it's not sometimes as simple as just taking it easy. Though I still joke about how one of the best sleeps I had after the birth of my first child in 2015, was the Thursday night at Glastonbury in 2017 😂

Hello all, long story but unfortunately I was in hospital shortly after returning home from "primavera sound Barcelona weekend 1" (to give it its full title 😁) . I have an NHS discharge letter which describes my diagnosis. While it doesn't say "cannot attend Glastonbury Festival", it's pretty clear that doing anything so potentially strenuous in the short term would be reckless. My question - can I apply for a refund or otherwise transfer my ticket? I have the physical ticket in my possession. Thanks.

It must have been the biggest crowd yo la tengo had ever played to. I used the word "nightmarish" in an earlier post and I don't mean to be dramatic. Just that it seemed like a weird dream. It was so big, it indicated what we were in for. The bottleneck / crush following Sharon van etten had been bad enough. I was pretty near the front for Radiohead in 2016 without much drama. Beck was the only pre 10pm mordor act I saw, but I would estimate even his crowd was easily bigger than Radioheads one.

My 7th Primavera, but my first since 2016. I did weekend 1 but have unfortunately been unwell since returning home, so just back up to speed now. The attendance was massive - do we reckon "oversold"? I've been at Primavera for supposed sell out days before but it felt far busier. I think the potential capacity of BITS is now taken into account, and really a lot of folk didn't bother with the hike to get there. I get how the twin stages at mordor are in theory excellent, as the big acts keep coming in quick succession, but in reality it has led to horrible overcrowding. Thursday was a car crash. Standing right up the back of the ray ban steps trying to see yo la tengo (!) was nightmarish. It was just such a different experience to the previous fests. Sad. Possibly a reflection of the relative weakness of Thursdays Bill. Most folk opted for the same things. The other days improved, but there are now crowds almost everywhere. Unless you're up for a battle and losing all your pals, you're not getting anywhere near the front of headline sets anymore. I was watching acts like Parquet Courts and Wet Leg, at the "smaller" stages, from almost behind pillars etc. I was halfway down mordor for tame impala, and in a sea of people. The boiler room looked comically flimsy. I hardly saw some friends who attended because of the crowds and intermittent phone signal. I enjoyed Caribou. I thought they put on a great show. Could have watched their drummer all night. My personal highlights were always going to be the return of Pavement, whose set list was fantastic, plus Nick Cave and Gorillaz on the Saturday night. Nick Cave was 2 hours of magnificence while Gorillaz gradually upped the ante - there can't be many better live acts on the planet. The crowd crush between Cave and Gorillaz was pretty crazy though. I also stayed on to see Tyler, and he was well worth it. But I did then have a bad time getting home. Nobody knew where the shuttle bus was, the metro queue was huge, and I eventually got a tram. As a final point, trying to get a beer during Sharon van ettens lovely set, I found there was quite a hefty sheer drop over a low wall at the side of the Binance stage. If they're going to pile all these people into the venue, they need to stress test it much better. Otherwise, death or serious injury seems inevitable. I wont be back but I'm a 42 year old dad, and really I need to do more chilled out fests from now on, if at all. The acts are simply on way too late for me 🙂

I wonder how these guest appearances are set up. Is there a group whatsapp 😆. "Beck left".

@Ohad "The Cut" has told me to turn up with my ID and pay 10 Euros for entry. If I end up in the vicinity of it, I will pop in. It's near the modern art museum and also garage beer co, both of which I want to visit. I don't really know how the shop works though - if I can buy pre-rolled reefers (or cakes?) and then take them away for later? The Thursday line up is a bit retro/weak imo so something to liven up tame impala could be good.

What was "this", doesn't seem to be loading for me! He is a dream boat, last saw him at royal Albert Hall around 2013. Quite a time out he's had.

Dinosaur Jr into yo la tengo on the Ray ban. Borrowed nostalgia for the unremebered noughties primavera sounds that most of us didn't attend. I think yo la tengo will play at least a handful of the big recognisable songs. I saw the bass player watching the other 2 band members performing in Mike mills' big star auditori show in 2012. I just went up to him, shook his hand and said "Stockholm syndrome" 😁

I will be seeing fontaines dc as I think they have a bunch of good songs now. Wet Leg, not so sure. Chaise song is obvs incredible. They will be fun to see I'm sure. Out of interest, what are the blogs that you're referring to here? I genuinely feel like all the nice music blogs I visited 5 - 10 years ago have all faded away or ended. I used to get into whatever Thug Clive cited in Vice, but he just mentions ambient stuff now 😂 - he turned me on to Tyler about a decade ago.

@blakesterif you have the flexibility would deffo recommend the mini bus. Boilerman and his missus are wonderful folk! They met Mr Eavis last time, very jealous... Don't know if @clarkete or any other resident Bristolians could advise re my daytime taxi quandary (described above).

Barcelona is unfortunately in my opinion one of the more dangerous European cities I have visited, in terms of petty crime at least. A friend was mugged in the "el raval" area round 2007. A guy attempted to mug me there in 2011 (he pretended he was doing a football dance with me, but tried to head butt me). That whole area (halfway down ramblas, into the right) is rough. Keep your wits about you if venturing to (for example) bar marsella (the fun absinthe bar). I had my phone stolen off a restaurant table in Barceloneta in 2013 (daft to have left my phone out, I'm not even sure how it was stolen, I think there's a possibility it was one of the staff 😞 ). In-festival itself, a friend had his phone stolen (from back pocket) making his way nearer the front for Radiohead in 2016. I wouldn't be surprised if the fest itself was now a hunting ground for pickpockets.

@BenG92do you think the SXSW setlist is close to what he will play at Primavera? I looked at it a few weeks ago and was a bit bewildered to be honest. Nothing off Guero, which I think is one of his most fun and accessible albums. Neither of the huge Midnite Vultures songs. I would only have recognised 2 of the 4 (!) covers. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/beck/2022/acl-live-at-the-moody-theater-austin-tx-63891ad3.html Compare it to the set I saw him perform at Flow in Helsinki in 2015 - it flagged a bit in the second half, but it was a greatest hits in comparison - https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/beck/2015/suvilahti-helsinki-finland-bf7f962.html Imo if you are going to take a festival's money, I think you should perform a festival set.

Hi folks, enjoying all the build up chat. To think primavera sound threads on here used to run to about 10 pages max 😂 This will be my 7th PS so I'm not going to make the rookie mistake of trying to wedge in loads of sightseeing, but I am hoping to a wee bit easier at the fest so I can see (and enjoy) a thing or 2 daytime. I'd like to go up to Bunkers. Any tips for a rooftop bar are welcome. Went to a cracker atop a hotel on ramblas in 2016 (can provide further details). I've seen folk mention the Barceloneta one but it appears to just be a few stories high. The Beck - Little Simz - Parquet Courts thing is brutal. Is there a definitive clashfinder yet? Lastly In slightly off topic chat, all being well I will be back in barcelona at end of June for a few days before I board a cruise. The cruise line says I need the following. Could anyone point me to a decent company in barcelona to book this with? Thanks. "a certificate of a negative Antigen or RT-PCR test taken within 48 hours before embarkation" Thanks very much.

So, in 2019 I flew down at about 5.30pm on the Thursday which meant i *just* missed any bus or train connections. From memory, they were a bit of an epic anyway. I got a pre-booked taxi to the site. It took about half an hour and I stopped at a supermarket on the way to load up. It was around £50. I don't know if it was so easy to access the site because of the time of evening. There didn't seem to be any traffic jams. It was frankly brilliant. I see @Glast0baby@Glast0baby is mentioning a shuttle post-taxi, but I was dropped close to Gate A (top left of map). Just walked in. Maybe this was again to do with it being 7.30/8pm. I just cant judge. This year I am arriving on the morning flight. I am tempted to repeat the taxi tactic. Unless I'm dooming myself to crazy traffic. (All tips appreciated from anyone reading this.) Would you be interested in sharing a taxi? It would be me and my friend. Just FYI in 2019 I was on the 3pm flight back from Bristol on the Monday afternoon. I am pretty sure I got the first bus from site to Bristol train station, as I wasn't sure of traffic jams. 6 or 7am. Not a big deal as sleeping patterns are a riot by the Monday anyway. And it's not like you ever get a lie in! It worked out I ended up at the airport (via shuttle bus from train station) at about 10am! So this year I am on the 11.35am flight. I can't recall where I got the bus time info from. Maybe online? I have a vague memory of asking at some sort of info desk (?) sort of south of the Pyramid, but I could be totally making that up! Hope this all helps your assessment.

@TapeRecorder some light reading for you 🙂

While we wait for the main fest time splits, thought it might be fun to mention highlights from previous "editions". I'm talking here about stuff that felt genuinely transcendental/life long happy moments.. Pulp, Grinderman, watching Barcelona win the European Cup in Parc de la ciutadella, 2011 Mike Mills' band playing Big Star, John Cale (both auditori), justice 2012 Blur, Solange 2013 (weather was "fricking freezing, Barcelona" (c) nick Cave that year, had my phone nicked off a restaurant table in barceloneta, watch out for that pals, keep valuables away) Arcade Fire, st. Vincent, Jackmaster, twilight sad, 2014 (went a bit overboard on the liquor this year tbh, it also rained a lot, was shattered by the Saturday, had my phone nicked accidentally by an English chap in the food court, he got it back to me next day) 2015 I genuinely have no WOW memories (i had a great time at lots of stuff but nothing earth shattering - I saw a very random comment recently that the black keys drummer was shite, made me laugh as I recall being puzzled about that too on the night) Radiohead, Brian Wilson 2016 There are some names I see now on old clash finders that I'm very disappointed I didnt go to see. Sufjan. Kendrick lamar. Kamasi Washington. 3 very obvious ones. If any of these future significant artists are hiding away on the bill for W1 please alert me. Thanks.

Do you mean it reflects well (or badly?) on her or the fest? I was a wee bit surprised. Some of her big songs are features or remixes, but she does seem to perform most of them. I think beach house would look a wee bit weird on the top line. The likes of interpol on the top line in 2022 also looks a stretch of course. In general primavera tends to have a bunch of quite big acts, rather than 2 or 3 identifiably monstrous headliners. Over my years of attending there's only been a few exceptions when Mordor (or equivalent) felt rammed - for English rock bands. The Cure, Blur, Radiohead.

Very interested to see if Macca tailors the set to Glastonbury, or if he reckons he's above that. I would be sorry not to hear Jet, or Coming Up. He definitely does play those. Mr Kite is an odd one. He played it when I saw him in Glasgow in 2018. It's a John song. Help! or, given the recent documentary, Don't Let Me Down, seem much more obvious John Songs to choose. Or even Tomorrow Never Knows, given Macca is always keen to point out the tape loops were his idea. But I'm not sure he has ever performed any of these. ps until reading recent posts here I haven't even entertained seeing Noel as a credible option. But maybe he would be good fun.

It's hard to put a finger on exactly why, but when the new material is played back to back with even relatively "weaker" older material like "ready to start" (as happened on my Spotify this morning), there is a noticeable gulf in quality.

Thank you 😆 that was certainly a Good One, Florence was so shy and retiring.

MA and Turnstile are 2 sore ones. Hope there's not many more of that calibre.

Yeah peak of their powers here. If we get them on the same sort of form, it will be a treat. They're a live juggernaut now with 100s of shows under their belt - Glastonbury 2010 was one of their first ever proper gigs.

I'd really recommend Brian Ray's "On Tour" podcast. Brian has been Paul's guitar player and bass player for 20 years. Interested to see what the setlist is tomorrow night. I assume Back in the USSR will be dropped! I hope he adds some songs from McCartney III. I'd prefer to hear The Kiss of Venus than, for example, Here Today.

Does the view just look out to sea/along the coast? Probably a very cool bar in terms of lights etc but I really like being in among the buildings. I've also seen 1881 per sagardi at Barceloneta mentioned, but I think that's "just" looking across the harbour on a slightly raised platform.

Thank you @Martin_89 @ConfidenceManI'm convinced that part of the reason I've sometimes felt so dreadful at the end of previous PS's is because I've eaten virtually nothing for 3 days whilst also going a bit overboard on the liquor etc. I'm trying to make a plan for each day that will get me out and about a wee bit. For example I want to go to Carmel Bunkers on Thursday daytime (I arrive pretty early). I've read Brutal has quite grumpy staff? But is potentially where you might bump into performing musicians? I'm vegetarian so that maybe limits my dining options. Any tips for rooftop bars would also be cool. I was on the roof of Terraza Hotel 1898 on the Thursday afternoon of Primavera 2016. Nice view. Probably nowhere near the coolest rooftop bar but it was pleasant all the same.