Never walked away before

[Guest musiclove123]

They were bobbins for me and the rest of our group- it was a very confusing set and somewhat boring to watch. They didn't speak to the audience at all when I was there. Left about an hour in

Edited June 28, 2010 by musiclove123

[nu-marc88]

for all you haters who walked off after a couple of songs, im sorry but you missed a great show! i agree it started off slow but with the arrival of the special guests and snoop joinin them for clint eastwood made my night.

[stevie rayvon]

What a great visual & musical experience the Gorillaz put on, absolutely amazing if you were there to witness the whole thing - those who left early missed the best part!

[Wooderson]

The majority of our group thought Gorillaz was shite. I don't know what people were expecting though... This was going to be an introspective show by a proper band of musicians. There were two or three big songs but it was never going to match Blur last year for crowd participation/emotional crescendo etc. I was just gutted to being that there was no Nenah Cherry or Mos Def...

It was a 7/10 show for me with a possible bump to 8/10 if you take out the silly Syrian interlude. What were you thinking Damon?

[Kowalski]

Thought they were excellent, absolutely loved it. The visuals and the special guests were amazing. Very bizarre and surreal when Lou Reed walked on stage.

But then I am a big fan and wasn't there just to hear "Dare" (nowhere near being the best song on Demon Days IMHO).

They're clearly not everybody's cup of tea which is a shame but they ain't mainstream which is why I like them.

The duets with Little Dragon were beautiful!

[winnets99]

yep im another who loved it. but then i already love the album prior to going to glasto.

[Salt_On_Everything]

Went to see The Flaming Lips so can't really comment... However we did leave George Clinton early on saturday, that was a massive letdown... So disappointing! :angry:

meant we got a good spot in the cabaret tent for Ed Byrne tho!

[hughesie]

Thought they were excellent, absolutely loved it. The visuals and the special guests were amazing. Very bizarre and surreal when Lou Reed walked on stage.

But then I am a big fan and wasn't there just to hear "Dare" (nowhere near being the best song on Demon Days IMHO).

They're clearly not everybody's cup of tea which is a shame but they ain't mainstream which is why I like them.

The duets with Little Dragon were beautiful!

[prestonmike]

we stuck it out for the whole gig but was so bored! only reason we stayed was because we were in the middle and didnt think we could make it to any other gigs in time, i had been 50/50 all day about seeing flaming lips or gorrilaz, if only i could go back in time and change my decision!

what the hell was that 10 minute flute band thing all about? and why did Damon pick that awful song to try and get a sing along going? it was never going to work!

[**claire**]

We stayed for about half the set(? when the long pipe bit was on) & then went back to the tent to listen from there - although we all like the more well-known Gorillaz songs & wanted to see what sort of a performance they'd put on, we're not massive fans (not their fault I know!), so maybe didn't know enough to appreciate it I guess!

Personally, I think that the part of the set I saw lacked in much crowd interaction, which disappointed me, so that was our main reason for leaving early, as well as one of my friends not feeling great.

The other two Pyramid headliners more than made up for it in my opinion though.

Edited June 28, 2010 by **claire**

[Wooderson]

Thought they were excellent, absolutely loved it. The visuals and the special guests were amazing. Very bizarre and surreal when Lou Reed walked on stage.

But then I am a big fan and wasn't there just to hear "Dare" (nowhere near being the best song on Demon Days IMHO).

They're clearly not everybody's cup of tea which is a shame but they ain't mainstream which is why I like them.

The duets with Little Dragon were beautiful!

[Nickyboy]

I think, like a number of posters have already said, you need to be familiar with Plastic Beach to have got the best out of the gig. I think Plastic Beach is one of the albums of the year so far, and was familiar enough with the material to enjoy the renditions they put on, and the thrill of seeing all the special guests stroll on, do their bit, and stroll off. Tremendous show I thought, but then most people who only know Dare and Clint Eastwood were bound to be disappointed - a bit like Bruce last year - not enough well known / sing along stuff for the masses....

[jackarmy]

I enjoyed the set, visually it was fantastic and as a group of musicians they were really tight. Like others have said, Gorillaz aren't a band that are going to produce mass singalongs, but I appreciated what I believe was a great way to end the first day of the festival. Even the singalong to Pirate Jet " because we left the taps running for a hundred years " wasn't too bad by me.

[lemoncrab]

Absolutely amazing. An extremely entertaining show with a very powerful and real message, too bad the crowd didn't appreciate it... I was quite far back and missed the first 5 minutes, but still was a mindblowing performance.

Edited June 28, 2010 by lemoncrab

[amfy]

I loved it - I loved the eclectisism of the sound and tha overall pure theatre of the visuals and guest appearances. I am not familiar with loads of Gorillaz material and only have the first album but I have always just found them interesting musically.

I think that what made Blur better than Oasis in the long term was their willingness to be "hit and miss". It's the bravery of stepping out and being prepared to miss than means that some stuff hits the spot so well. The Blur set last year had the benefit of 10 years hindsight to just pick up the bits that hit - The Gorillaz set this year was more raw in that sense. Yes - he went off on one at times during that set but that's Damon.

The second half of the set was loads better than the first half and the finale was brilliant.

Also - in terms of familiarity with the material - my 68 year old mum, at her first Glastonbury, had never heard of them and was totally blown away by it - she thought it was incredible - maybe because she had no pre-conceived expectations.

[Kowalski]

and why did Damon pick that awful song to try and get a sing along going? it was never going to work!

[spu98ajc]

Dire I think is the term I would use to describe the Gorillaz set on Friday. Very disapointed, I have a couple of Gorillaz albums and the songs come across as OK on those.

My personal experience was that we were roughly three quaters of the way back from the pyramid stage. Dizzy had the crowd bouncing and really well worked up. Then Gorillaz came on, and people around were just stood with arms folded.

After a while people started shouting things like "Come on Damon play something good" and then after about 30 mins we got fed up and walked way with the crowd (certainly around us) being very very flat. There was one bloke stood a little way back from us who shouted out that Damon was being arrogant and just played what he wanted - and although the Gorillaz are more than just Damon, the guy was probably right.

Groove Armada though in the John Peel tent was brilliant. I just wished we hadnt bothered with the Gorillaz and seen the whole of the Groove Armada set instead.

[ghandi]

I also saw them, i love the new album , Empire Ants (Love Little Dragon ) and Rhinestone Eyes were amazing! The only problem i found was the technical issues of delays between numbers and some around were loosing interest.

[AZZA&SAHA]

people that are saying they didnt have any time to prepare are wrong as they are touring so would not be alot to do. i have not seen them before but bf loves them and damon. i like some of there songs although i think some of them are weird but if they all sounded the same we would not be all talking about them like we are now. there different at end of day. i was expecting a cartoon gorilla to appear though

i can see why some people are saying it was boring as it was not really a performance that you could dance to and jump about to but thats exactly what it was a performance.

[Cockney_Jesus]

I was next to some people who spent the whole gig complaining, every time a guest came on they said things like 'who the **** is this' etc.

Dare comes on 'aah tune!'

Seriously, if you're going to see a band then complain when they play a song you don't know then sod off to t4 on the beach!

I thought Gorillaz were amazing! I'm glad the crowd was smaller because it meant I could get nearer the front!

[matty1708]

I've been lurking these forums for ages and I've finally decided to sign up to give my two cents about Gorillaz's performance!

For me they were the band of the weekend, it's only now that I realise that they are probably in my top 5 live acts ever.

I can see why people are saying that they aren't headliner material because they don't have the big hits, but for me Gorillaz aren't about that, they are about how beautiful and eclectic music can really be,seeing the syrian orchestra for arabic music performing with the lead singer of Blur and two uk rap artists just felt really special, and I'm a big Bashy fan so it was pretty cool to see him on the bloody pyramid stage!

When you look at it, Gorillaz only really have a few big tunes that you can sing along to, DARE, Feel Good Inc, Clint Eastwood and 19-2000, so what were people really expecting? They played three of them!

My one qualm with the set is that I felt Snoop Dogg ruined Clint Eastwood, fair enough he was another great special guest, but to not come out on the song that he actually raps on and then come on during CE and not even rap the normal lyrics was a bit annoying!

Edit: When Mark E Smith & Lou Reed came on stage there was a couple of lasses going on about how 'they just keep getting random people to come on stage, it's rubbish' I got very pissed off!

Edited June 28, 2010 by matty1708

[cejx]

Gorillaz were abysmal, worst set I saw all weekend. We were quite near the front, and there were people leaving after 14 mins, we stuck it out for about 45 mins but once that very strange band came on and Damon started smacking his legs I turned to the wife and said we are going. I do not know what Damon was thinking with this set, it looked like an amazing piece of arrogance and just some vehicle for Damon but it backfired horribly

Edited June 28, 2010 by cejx

[scorp]

Went and watched some bootleg beatles. Much better. I wish u2 were here

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

Headliners are about the euphoric singalong.

[Wooderson]

In your view. Headliners mean different things to everybody.