themunn

Mumford and Sons

Dave was bragging to his boss one day, "You know, I know everyone there is to know. Just name someone, anyone, and I know them." Tired of his boasting, his boss called his bluff, "OK, Dave, how about Tom Cruise?" "No dramas boss, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it." So Dave and his boss fly out to Hollywood and knock on Tom Cruise's door, and Tom Cruise shouts, "Dave! What's happening? Great to see you! Come on in for a beer!" Although impressed, Dave's boss is still skeptical. After they leave Cruise's house, he tells Dave that he thinks him knowing Cruise was just lucky. "No, no, just name anyone else," Dave says. "President Obama," his boss quickly retorts. "Yup," Dave says, "Old buddies, let's fly out to Washington," and off they go. At the White House, Obama spots Dave on the tour and motions him and his boss over, saying, "Dave, what a surprise, I was just on my way to a meeting, but you and your friend come on in and let's have a beer first and catch up." Well, the boss is very shaken by now but still not totally convinced. After they leave the White House grounds he expresses his doubts to Dave, who again implores him to name anyone else. "Pope Francis," his boss replies. "Sure!" says Dave. "I've known the Pope for years." So off they fly to Rome. Dave and his boss are assembled with the masses at the Vatican's St. Peter's Square when Dave says, "This will never work. I can't catch the Pope's eye among all these people. Tell you what, I know all the guards so let me just go upstairs and I'll come out on the balcony with the Pope." He disappears into the crowd headed towards the Vatican. Sure enough, half an hour later Dave emerges with the Pope on the balcony, but by the time Dave returns, he finds that his boss has had a heart attack and is surrounded by paramedics. Making his way to his boss' side, Dave asks him, "What happened?" His boss looks up and says, "It was the final straw... you and the Pope came out on to the balcony and the man next to me said, 'Who the f**k is that on the balcony with Dave?'

Park Headliner I reckon - especially after Leftfield knocked it out the... park... there

Surely direct comp for DD is Pet Shop Boys closing out 2022 on Other Stage. Can't see them as a Pyramid headliner

At almost all times in the festival I have an empty beer cup in my back pocket - just waiting to be binned and replaced with a new empty beer cup when I finish the next one. It's not hard to carry your rubbish around with you. It's pretty straightforward, but culturally we just don't seem to do it - go to Japan and there's zero rubbish on the streets always - there's also no bins ANYWHERE. It's a massive pain, but in reality people just carry their litter with them and bin it when they find one, or at home.

Did anyone find Skream's secret set? Where was the "magic dinosaur" then? I walked past Babylon Uprising on the Sunday and realised there was no f'n chance the festival would ever have allowed it. My streak of always missing Skream when he plays glasto continues - tried to see at Nowhere on Thursday but was way too packed (and we were tripping), and then my group all wanted to head to bed at 4.30 on Saturday so missed the SL set too

You can have your flags or you can moan when I push my way to the front, but you can't have both.

Thursday - VTSS at Levels Friday - Chemical Brothers Saturday - Helena Hauff (though I got there 30 mins late as I thought it started at 1, doh!) Sunday - Daphni at Levels

That show was a learning point for me for future glastos. I had said beforehand that I wasn't too fussed about seeing Lil Nas X but, given we were keen to get a decent spot for Elton would probably watch it. I was expecting him up on stage performing his songs but that show was completely unexpected and by far the most "I didn't expect this to be so good" moment I had this year. From now on I need to watch a couple of videos of artists live performances as part of my glasto warmup because I would have loved to have been in the pit for that.

Combination of covid and planning permission - my understanding was that the intention was to try and keep a significant proportion of the construction there permanently. They were unable to secure permission for all of it, though they managed to keep the base. However, the planning permission for that ran until 2022, and with 2 years of no income thanks to covid, the cost of renewing the permission *plus* the additional cost of setting it up and dismantling every year made it to prohibitive.

Show off. Not making me feel any better! Truthfully though, if I'm going to watch a headliner I want to see the whole thing. I've seen leftfield before and I'll see them again, but damnit I wish I'd seen them this time too!

Leftfield for sure. I opted to watch the entirety of GNR, which was great, but in retrospect could have easily watched Leftfield and caught the last hour of GNR. Watched the Leftfield set back on Iplayer and it looked incredible.

My frustrations are more like "mild irritations" rather than being frustrated, but there are a couple: 1) Arcadia crew area/camping/Tow and Hitch now taking up the entirety of that field, which seems like a significant encroachment of space while there hasn't been any new innovation since Pangea (appreciate that was a large sunk expense for them) 2) General overall crowdedness everywhere I went - I don't know if it's through overselling or fence jumpers or what, but I queued more than ever for everywhere this year - even at HMS Sweet Charity of all places I was almost caught in a crush queueing to get in. I know a lot of people had complaints about 2022 but that wasn't my experience - I even made it into the Temple twice without queueing at all, so not sure if it's just a reversal of fortune but in reality I don't think they quite did as well in spreading the crowd out as they have done in previous years. I think they also need to find a way to extend to Silver Hayes license to 4am - at 3am (or even 2.30 on Sunday), people will still trek to the SE corner for another 2 hours of dancing, but if it finishes at 4 it's a bit of a mission that might only gain you an extra hour. 3) Lizzo/Maneskin and GNR/Leftfield clashes. I know clashes are part and parcel of Glasto, but that doesn't stop me getting frustrated at them! 4) Getting stomach ache at around 6pm on Friday and Saturday. Nothing kills my mood faster! In any case, was still a fantastic time, can't really complain!

If you don't like Elton all that much don't go. I made the mistake with Paul McCartney last year thinking it would be a spectacle for the ages, but ultimately I got there and after 4-5 songs remembered that it's just not my vibe, I went instead to watch Meghan thee stallion which I don't regret at all - my only regret was not going from the beginning. I will be at Elton this year because there are too many songs I love and I know I will enjoy it - I'm gutted to miss QOTSA but I've seen them before and probably again, so this one I am happy to skip them for that headline act. If you DO like Elton though, then I think do it, because you will have the chance to see Alt-J another time.

Did the Foos headline 5 years ago? They've only headlined once in 2017 no? With previous apperance before that 25 years ago? On that - I imagine if the Churnups were actually say Radiohead nobody would have a problem with it, even though they headlined in 2017 as well. In my view it's a pretty massive get to have a headline level act do a 3rd from top set - and if they were just listed as "Foo Fighters" everyone would be talking about how massive a booking it was to have them there. Somehow because it's "secret", people seem way more upset about it. Last year's same slot was Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, the year before Lauryn Hill, 2017 Royal Blood. I actually missed Foo Fighters in 2017 in favour of Goldie at Arcadia (which was worth it), so just because they headlined doesn't mean everyone looks at it and says "oh i don't think they should play again so soon"

Did you manage to find a liftshare/taxishare? My girlfriend has had to fly to Italy last minute and so will be coming back Thursday, landing at 12.10 in Bristol, so would be keen to join a taxi share or liftshare if there's any space - will only have a small bag with her (we're taking her camping stuff) so shouldn't take up too much space!

The light is not so good today but it looks like they might have fenced it up now - crew camping maybe?

Brixton was good, but agreed that it was much different vibe than Boiler Room, or his All Points East set which was hectic. I think that given Mike Skinner, Romy, Flowdan, even the Blessed Madonna are all on site that there's a good chance we see a few guest appearance (maybe not all) which will elevate this show over his Brixton show.

I'd really appreciate it if the weather could be a nice cool low 20s on Wednesday instead of bloody 30 degrees whatever it was in 2017 2019 and 2022. You slog and carry your tent and everything in the baking heat then you have to put it up and die for the remainder of the day. Just please stay cool for a bit until at least I have my first pint poured. Still, rather it 30 degrees than rainy. Saturday 2019 was probably the toughest day I've had at glasto, though I did go to bed at like 8.30am and wake up at 11 with the heat so perhaps it's unsurprising.

That 2nd one is way bigger! It takes up the whole photo while the other one is only a tiny little thing in the middle of the photo, like 10% of the size!!

Don't think the line-up was specified anywhere but this insta post from official Shangri La should help you track down https://www.instagram.com/p/CfKACJKo6JU/?hl=en

Friday night Park headliner maybe?

It just felt STRANGE last year, like they increased the space in the field but then simultaneously trimmed back the features - no arms, no flaming lampposts - in fact it felt like they made a lot less use of the fire cannons in general (cost savings?) so it felt a little flatter than previous years. Don't get me wrong, I was there directly under the belly for 3 hours both on Friday and Saturday having a wicked time, but they definitely need to step it up this year.

The crane didn't flop - they had planned for a permanent structure which required planning permission (which they didn't receive). The planning permission they did have expired and the costs of renewing plus dismantling reassembling the crane meant it was no longer viable, having had 2 years without revenue. In any case I'm of the opinion that the crane was better than the spider - the size of it meant the crowd didn't need to be so close to enjoy (in fact it was even better from a distance), which dispersed everyone over a wider space. The sound was better too - and also it was amazing to see it kicking off from the other side of the site, whereas with the spider you can only see the lasers.

Oh man, can't wait to listen to this later - had an absolute blast at this set. And remember Sandstorm very clearly!!!