JayDiesel

The Elton at Glastonbury top from last year. Regularly wear it, and see it as a great staple of a great cultural moment

It somehow didn't occur to me until after posting that 'we mention Ireland 20 times an album' Fontaines DC are, in fact, not British

Probably my favourite working British band, but very surprised they've booked an arena tour. Strike me as an absolutely slam on Academy sized band, are they that much bigger than 18 months ago?

Tbf, the existing Cardiff Arena is fine for that already. It's the smallest 'Main Arena' in the UK, think it's only 6,000 or so, but it does still attract most major bands - Paramore, 1975, Florence - but would still like that Bay venue to open

Agree on it all. I wish people from outside of the Swans area were as invested in the venue's madness as I am, it's mind-boggling. Swansea has had so little development for decades, so we finally get this new shiny arena which is useless. Not big enough to attract anyone of note, and not small enough to offer an 'intimate' experience for artists. I wish they just reduced the seating too, if it was halved, you'd offer another 2,000 or so standing spaces, which is then big enough for CIA level acts. Ahghh! If it helps, I know someone fairly high up in the Arena, and he has shared similar grievances on the current booking set-up. Told me that Idles were originally scheduled to play, but opted for Cardiff Castle when a space became free instead. That would have been fun

As someone that lives in Swansea (until very very very recently at least), I'd be amazed just to see the Arena book something relevant to anyone that isn't a Mum under the age of 55. Absolute waste of space

Cries in Wales 😞

Won Pendulum tickets (alongside half of the UK by the looks of things) for Cardiff last night. Combined with my girlfriend's NHS access, we managed to get 4 tickets for a total cost of £11.25. The show was pretty much what you expect from a Pendulum gig, load of drops, load of pits, load of fun (for 40 minutes or so). Only knew 5 or so of the songs they played, but can't complain for a literal free ticket. Interested in Pendulum's live techncial setup mind, they had four musicians on stage, and the drummer was the only one who I could tangibly work out their contribution to the sound. No DJ for a DnB show? I know Rob plays that funny midi guitar thing, but surely they must've been playing mainly to a backing track?

SHM are up there with The Eagles and AC/DC as 'bands that will never play Glastonbury for a pittance' - never going to happen

Also saw The Smile recently, but in Birmingham on Friday night. The band were fantastic, but I can understand why the commentor above wasn't frothing for them if they weren't in the mood - it was a very, very low energy crowd where we were, and by the sounds of things, everywhere else. I'm not saying The Smile are necessarily are spiral pit band, but songs like The Smoke, Bending Hectic, You'll Never Work In Television are so groovy and high energy that it's utterly tragic to be stood utterly still. I imagine the average demographic near me being close to 60 didn't help. Main point on the crowd was that, like all gigs seem to be now, chatting would not f**king stop. People near me were largely alright apart from the odd conversation every now and then, but people on the left hand side of the stage (Thom's side) were clearly causing a major distraction. Thom told one guy to 'Shut the f**k up' fairly playfully before playing an unreleased track, but then before You Know Me, the final song of the night - and, importantly, a very relaxed piano ballad - the same group of people were shouting again. It was genuinely quite uncomfortable to see a whole band waiting for three/four people to quieten down before continuing their set, but after maybe a minute or so of them piping up, Thom said 'Five more minutes and you can all talk as much as you like, but until then, can you just, please, shut the f**k up?'. They finished the set and were off stage immeadiately, really soured the last few minutes of an otherwise amazing show. Reading online, sounds like it was the standard cokehead/drunkards that fly about at gigs as a given now, but why security refused to kick them out is beyond me

The cross demographic of people who'd 'love' to see both Anne Marie and Heiling must be limited to exclusively you

Yeah, was my first time at Glasto so was unsure of how to get to The Glade, and was met with what felt like an Elton sized crowd completely filling up every pathway in and out of it. The overspill sent people all over the place, and a few of my firends that aren't as savvy with big crowds were understandably pretty nervous. We just left and had some bevvies on the hill instead

I've been to 100s of gigs and a fair few festivals, and Example last year was the only time I've ever been concerned about my safety at a show. Absolutely mental cowd numbers, was genuinely quite scary

The standout SZA observation for me is when you compare it to last year. Emily was on record as stating that it was hard to find a female headliner, and as a result had to pump for Axl and the Boys - but she had Lana and Lizzo right there! She made a conscious decision that neither of those two were big enough to headline, and pumped for Guns N Roses instead. There's almost no metric by which SZA is a higher profile booking than Lana or Lizzo, so something has to have gone wrong along the way. I cannot envisage a world where Emily has thought 'that's my headliner there' having turned down bigger acts just the year prior

Woodsies, Park and WH look great as always, but what on Earth is going on at The Other? 2024, and having The Streets, TDCC, and Anne-Marie at the top end of it is tragic