Spiringsteen

[eFestivals]

Who were these 100 people? When did you ask? I dont believe that you asked 100 random people who had seen Bruce play, and found that the majority all said he was bland.

Or did you just ask people who were near the back wearing "i hate springsteen" t-shirts and packing up their chairs to go back to their campsite after a "boring" song that Springsteen learnt and played especially for the glasto crowd on his way down to the festival.

(yet again. Why is that no Bruce fans seem to be able to read?)

They were 100-ish random people, who were asked randomly at various places around the site (wherever I happened to be at the time) over the next two days after Bruce had played.

As i've already posted, they were on the less rocky side of the site, and so from that it's a pretty fair assumption that had I asked the same thing on the more rocky side of the site, I'd have probably got very different answers.

No, none were wearing "I hate Springsteen" t-shirts.

The negative comments ranged from (essentially) "as bad as it gets" to "I didn't think it was very good". Of the people I asked just one thought him fantastic - but he happened to be a guy I'd spoken to on the Friday, when he'd banged on about how excited he was to be seeing him.

I've said the survey wasn't scientific; I've said that I wouldn't expect the results I got to be replicated thru the whole crowd. All I've taken from those results is that clearly there were thousands who didn't think him fantastic, and the polls done on this site bare that out.

But it's nice to be called a liar yet again, so thanks for that. You Bruce fans really are something special.

[LRW]

Seriously Neil. If this was anyone elses argument, you would of closed the thread by now.

Come on do the decent thing, and put us all out of our misery.

[eFestivals]

Seriously Neil. If this was anyone elses argument, you would of closed the thread by now.

Come on do the decent thing, and put us all out of our misery.

I doubt I would have. There's plenty of similar here (including plenty without a single post from me).

I'll continue to stand behind my opinion thanks. The more the morons call me a liar or say my opinion is worthless, the longer it goes on. They get to choose when it dies.

[LRW]

Well I would say that there are plenty of people that have been called liars on here, or that their opinion isnt worth anything.

I think you should rise above, move on and get over it.

[Kizzie]

I think we should have attatched a camera to neils head just so we can be sure the people he asked were random people in the crowd.

[LRW]

This is my one and only post here....I was with Neil when he did his 'unscientific' survey, yes the whole time. We may have asked 100 people we quite possibly asked more than 100 people. We asked every random person we happened to sit next to, stand next to at bars, in crowds, in loos....wherever, over the following days....we were genuinely interested in how Springsteen had 'gone down', as we were quite surprised in just how underwhelmed we were.

I remember one person saying he thought it was fantastic.....the others were very ambivalent.....we were genuinely surprised about this as we were led to believe it would be a 'defining Glastonbury moment' by Springsteen fans.....that's all really..... :angry:

[lilac]

Bruce was Awesome

[Schofe]

I was actually really quite looking forward to him, and I'm familiar with his classics. Unfortunately, all he seemed to play were new songs I'd never heard before, so after 45 minutes or so I gave up and went over to Jarvis. I'm sure he played some classics as the night went on, but really, given the occasion (headlining at Glastonbury) I expected more. I just got bored.

[pehaw]

I skipped from page 4 to here but here's my take on it...

Some people expected it to be shit/tedious/bland/etc and discovered it was.

Some people expected it to be great/awesome/etc and discovered it was.

Some people expected it to be shit/tedious/bland/etc and discovered it was great/awesome/etc

Some people expected it to be great/awesome/etc and discovered it was a bit less than that

Now f**k off the lot of ye and go and do something less boring instead you pile of c**ts.

[benissright]

But it's nice to be called a liar yet again, so thanks for that. You Bruce fans really are something special. :angry:

[The Nal]

I was questioning you, i wasnt calling you a liar.

It would be nice if the person running the largest festival website could have a better grasp of english.

I just found it surprising. Everyone i met followed the pattern of, "i like him before, i loved his live set" or "i didnt like him before, i hated his live set".

Of course i also heard someone complaining that he didnt play secret garden, which depressed me. Theres not liking bruce springsteen, thats fair enough, but then theres thinking his best song is the drivel that is secret garden.

[LRW]

So Springsteen - He was bland wasn't he?

[sdaveak47]

So Springsteen - He was bland wasn't he?

[pehaw]

So Springsteen - He was bland wasn't he?

[Fluxus]

I came on here to say that I wasn't a big fan, but I enjoyed it. But, seriously!

If Springsteen had come on and called his fans arseholes and morons, then pissed all over them, they would have probably thrown things for a while then walked off and never seen him again.

I hope the analogy isn't lost.

Lurked for years. But f**k...This is a man going down.

[De Coverley]

I didn't see any of his set so will form my opinion entirely on the one song of his showing on BBC2 RIGHT NOW. This opinion will then be set in stone and nobody (nobody!) will be allowed to disagree with it. The song is 'Born to Run', but what will the opinion be?

[Three minutes later]

He was ok. There were too many flags though.....

[nina3d]

I didn't see any of his set so will form my opinion entirely on the one song of his showing on BBC2 RIGHT NOW. This opinion will then be set in stone and nobody (nobody!) will be allowed to disagree with it. The song is 'Born to Run', but what will the opinion be?

[Three minutes later]

He was ok. There were too many flags though.....

[albietrue2]

Yet another recent case of the bland leading the bland...

[Pads]

I have to say from his build up i was expecting more from his performance!

In a way i now wish i had left early but i was at the back of the front barrier area so it would of been pointless trying to get out!

[scudetto_boy]

Prior to the Festival i wasn't bothered about seeing him, however his performace was amazing! I don't know how he managed to hold my attention for so long because i knew approx 3 of his songs-outstanding!!

[pedmills]

The overriding theme of this thread is that everyones opinions on music are equal.

BUT THEY ARE NOT.

Sorry, as much as you (Neil mainly) would like to think they are, they pretty much aren't.

Back when I was 13, U2 were my favourite band. Now I think they are boring. Why? Because I've spent time listening to more music, and realised that there are bands I like a lot better.

If I meet someone who says Coldplay and The Killers are their favourite bands. I don't think 'Fair enough, you have my tastes, I have mine', I think 'You need to listen to some more music that isn't top of the charts'.

I'm not as stupid as to think I have a 'good music taste' as there are millions of bands and types of music I haven't listened to, and many bands that I have listened to but haven't properly appreciated. In ten years time I'm sure I will look back and think I had crap music taste.

I expect everyone agrees with this theory even if they don't immediately think it. Neil, earlier in this thread you mentioned some granny who knew nothing about music and a westlife fan. Examples of people you obviously thought needed some musical education. How many people think they have a better music taste than their kids or their grandparents? A lot I expect.

I personally find Bruce Springsteen a bit boring and bland. Now either the people who like him haven't listened to enough non-bland music to see he's bland or they haven't listened to him well enough to realise he's bland or I haven't listened to Bruce Springsteen well enough to appreciate it properly. That's the way I see it.

There is always going individual/personal differences in music taste and a whole host of reasons why people dislike and like music, but I think that unless there is such thing as good music and bad music then it loses all artistic value.

[ukslim]

If I meet someone who says Coldplay and The Killers are their favourite bands. I don't think 'Fair enough, you have my tastes, I have mine', I think 'You need to listen to some more music that isn't top of the charts'.

[pedmills]

No. Not at all.

I used to think like this - gosh, these people think they like this music, but if only they listened to [insert 'better' music here], they'd become enlightened.

But then I realised - who the hell am I to tell someone whether they're enjoying something or not?

If someone tells me that the The Vengaboys' Party Album, makes them feel better than any other piece of music, who the hell am I; who the hell are you; to tell them 'no it doesn't'.

For some reason neither Neil nor I understand, Bruce Springsteen's songs - with their conventional chord progressions and their well-worn orchestration - speak to certain people. We can't tell those people it doesn't. Nor can they tell us we should keep listening until it speaks to us too.

Edited July 6, 2009 by pedmills

[Filthy]

Myself and half of our group of 20 camped together, went to Arcadia early on to see Alex Metric, Freeland and Evil nine. This was one of the best things of the weekend and topped off a perfect Saturday (Although STK in the bladerunner tunnels that night was also incredible).

The other half of our group went to see springsteen and joined us at 1.30am with forlorn looks on their faces.

When asked "Was Springsteen good then?" they all replied "He was dull, went on for hours, and caused us to miss this. We're now so drained we can't even enjoy the rest of this properly"

I never like to say I told you so but I did. Several times. For the rest of the festival

[eFestivals]

The overriding theme of this thread is that everyones opinions on music are equal.

BUT THEY ARE NOT.

<snip>

I personally find Bruce Springsteen a bit boring and bland. Now either the people who like him haven't listened to enough non-bland music to see he's bland or they haven't listened to him well enough to realise he's bland or I haven't listened to Bruce Springsteen well enough to appreciate it properly. That's the way I see it.

nah. If things worked like that then there'd be no space for anyone to be able to say "I dislike this music" for any piece of competently composed music. And that's plainly bonkers.