Kanye West

[The Nal]

It's what went down in the field that matters

Yep. And it was completely dead. I was in 2 or 3 different places during the gig and apart from the first 5 minutes all I saw was people leaving and saying "Fuck this". Some were also laughing at how bad it was.

Fully appreciate a lot of people enjoyed it but in general terms it was an absolute stinker of epic proportions.

[fatyeti24]

I'm more alluding to those opposing it beforehand simply because he is a hip hop artist. 

yeah fair enough.  i agree on the petitioners, and those who turned up wanting to hate it.

[Gregcharlie]

I'm more alluding to those opposing it beforehand simply because he is a hip hop artist. 

 

And that you can draw the criticism 'he's a c***'/'he's got a massive ego' from those people yet they will claim Noel and Liam Gallagher are the two greatest things to ever happen to music. 4 sweaty boys with guitars can be egotists, hip hop artists cannot.

[Gregcharlie]

yeah fair enough.  i agree on the petitioners, and those who turned up wanting to hate it.

Yeah I couldn't believe some guy I spoke to earlier in the day before Courtney Barnett saying he'd go to watch Kanye because "he's going to do something, he'll either fuck it up or I dunno". I think it's just completely the wrong attitude to go and watch any musician or artist with.

[rpfranks]

If I'm honest I really couldn't care less if he is a c**t. I just wanted to watch him, he isn't my mate.

 

He has the songs to headline a festival and, in my opinion, put on a show worthy of being a Glastonbury headliner.

[TomWales]

Which is why thousands left. Also why he was a poor choice of headliner. The worst since Rod Stewart.

 

Even in the recent few years we've had dross like Mumford and Kasabian which Kanye was definitely a step above.

Edited June 30, 2015 by TomWales

[Alcatraz]

It was the oddest Glastonbury crowd I've ever been involved in. People turned up with the mindset to see Kanye fail and seemed to relish everything negative about the performance.

 

The amount of cries of "Kanye you're sh*t" - or similar - or people walking off after ten minutes was incredible. I'm not even a fan of his but going to watch someone just to see if they mess up or not is just a little pathetic. 

 

This

 

I even heard people talking about afterwards how long he'd gone on talking about Kim before Lost in the World?!?! I told them it couldn't have lasted much more than a minute. Sure enough, I've just checked, it was 1.05 minutes. Think how much time bands spend talking to the audience. Kanye got through 11 more tracks than The Who and 15 more than Florence and that was even without the likes of Flashing Lights! He let the music do the talking

 

It was like people were hearing and seeing what they wanted, when no such things actually happened

Edited June 30, 2015 by Alcatraz

[man next door]

It's an interesting mix of views...

 

for me, I beleive that a main stage headline act should have musicians - as in people who play instruments. I don't beleive a headlining artist at glastonbury should have a backing track generating 90% of the sound you hear.

 

Given that situation - I'd also like it if the 10% that is live is either in time, or in tune, or both.

 

But, despite all this many, many people have enjoyed his performance. To me this is baffling, and raises questions about what makes a 'performance'. Perhaps it's a 'whole is greater than sum of its parts' situation... or somehow the above is ok because he's a celebrity, or none of the above is of any importance at all.

 

Does the audience have any interest in how the music is created during that 'live' show, because from a raw musical point of view it really was as poor a performance as you're going to see on that stage?

[topmarksbri]

It's an interesting mix of views...

 

for me, I beleive that a main stage headline act should have musicians - as in people who play instruments. I don't beleive a headlining artist at glastonbury should have a backing track generating 90% of the sound you hear.

 

Given that situation - I'd also like it if the 10% that is live is either in time, or in tune, or both.

 

But, despite all this many, many people have enjoyed his performance. To me this is baffling, and raises questions about what makes a 'performance'. Perhaps it's a 'whole is greater than sum of its parts' situation... or somehow the above is ok because he's a celebrity, or none of the above is of any importance at all.

 

Does the audience have any interest in how the music is created during that 'live' show, because from a raw musical point of view it really was as poor a performance as you're going to see on that stage?

 

No disrespect to you mate but if you think that a headliner needs to play instruments then you kind of need to realise that music just isn't in that place any more. I'm not there to stroke my beard about how impressive some guys guitar solo is, I'm there to have a good time and for hip hop acts that's about engaging with the crowd and the performance of rapping etc.

 

And where do you stand on dance acts? Live dance is hardly ever produced with instruments but with something like ableton live.

 

As it stands there are far far far too many white people playing guitar headlining the pyramid stage, it doesn't represent the contemporary musical landscape in anyway. If anything Kanye's set and the reaction to it shows that there needs to be MORE risks taken it Glastonbury seriously wants to be considered a festival of contemporary performing arts.  

[CC22]

It's an interesting mix of views...

for me, I beleive that a main stage headline act should have musicians - as in people who play instruments. I don't beleive a headlining artist at glastonbury should have a backing track generating 90% of the sound you hear.

Given that situation - I'd also like it if the 10% that is live is either in time, or in tune, or both.

But, despite all this many, many people have enjoyed his performance. To me this is baffling, and raises questions about what makes a 'performance'. Perhaps it's a 'whole is greater than sum of its parts' situation... or somehow the above is ok because he's a celebrity, or none of the above is of any importance at all.

Does the audience have any interest in how the music is created during that 'live' show, because from a raw musical point of view it really was as poor a performance as you're going to see on that stage?

I know it's a bit of a cliche, but at the end of the day the "instrument" is his voice. As others have said, he uses things like auto tune as an effect - people slagging him off for that almost appear to be deliberately missing the point!

He could have done it all with a live band, he's done things like that in the past. However for his Glastonbury set he opted for a backing track.

[Cheesey]

I quite liked the lights, and the novelty of witnessing a "show" which consisted entirely of one man shouting over a pre-recorded music track. The level of audacity and ego required to believe that that is sufficient for the Glastonbury Saturday headline slot is interesting in itself.

 

I learned my lesson a few years ago about not hanging around if you're really not enjoying something (thanks to Bruce Springsteen), so after 25 minutes I migrated to Sonic to see Leftfield, who were awesome.

 

My only regret is not seeing Kanye being waved around in a dirty cherry picker.

Edited June 30, 2015 by Cheesey

[ghostdancer1]

people saying it was a CD/all pre-recorded, you do realise there were people at the back of the stage doing instruments and effects, right?

 

watch Black Skinhead again after the prankster idiot, it's clearly different to the actual recorded version and you can hear extra guitar lines slightly out of time for a few seconds.

 

you can even see their risers at the very back of the stage catching the light every now and again....

[frostypaw]

Ah tosh. If you imagine for one second that there's that vast an amount of rap/urban music being played then you're very blind to the majority of the country - are you a londoner?

I've got a friend who does children's parties. When he lets them select the mix they pick a load of the kanye style crap and the parties are dead so he doesn't let them pick it anymore and now they're always hopping

Just because something's cool doesn't give it musical credit, nor being unique etc - if you want to hear beat poetry that doesn't have to rely on saying nigger every fifth word to get it's point across pop over and watch Luke Wright or any of the other excellent acts on in Poetry and Words, or Cabaret. A pyramid headliner should get the crowd roaring dancing and partying and considering how lowly the mumfords gig 2013 was rated look at this crowd and then find me more than five seconds of kanyes crowd going as wild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i05g9vO_72E

[jparx]

To the people praising how 'different' and 'risky' his set was -

 

Yes, true, but that doesn't make it good by any means. You can be different and risky all you want, but if you fuck up the lyrics and have to restart songs, it CANNOT be considered a good performance. It was unique, it was certainly an experience but musically it left a LOT to be desired.

 

I've seen Kanye West before and he was absolutely marvelous. He played with a great attitude and put on a really fun, energetic show whilst still getting in his more artsy, 8 minute long auto tune moments. At Glastonbury he looked and performed like he didn't want to be there, the whole show felt very dull and it all came across as an unrehearsed mess. I have no issue if you enjoyed it, but to say it was a great performance really isn't accurate. A great performance cannot involve having to restart several songs, covering a song without knowing the lyrics and playing without any energy at all.

 

That was so far away from the Kanye West of 3-4 years ago, when he arguably was one of the greatest rock stars on the planet and that's what I found to be the real shame. He genuinely performed like a shell of his former self. If he turned up and performed like we all knew he could then it would have been great, but for whatever reason he under delivered. It wasn't controversial and it wasn't mind blowing, it was tedious and, frankly, boring. 

 

Edit: I wish they booked him 4 years ago when he actually put on great shows. If they booked him and Jay-Z for a Watch the Throne headline set, it would have been incredible. 

Edited June 30, 2015 by jparx

[TomWales]

Even though he used a fair bit of backing track stuff it was cool that he used remixed different versions of a few tracks.

 

And some of the instrumentation WAS live but the majority wasn't.

[grandadcollective]

Is it his own cherry picker? It's just there's a few bulbs need changing in the street lights down our road.

[pedmills]

 

It was like people were hearing and seeing what they wanted, when no such things actually happened

To some degree, I think the people defending the set are doing that.

Why was the bit where he stopped Touch The Sky, disappeared for ages, and then reappeared on that cherry picker obviously a stunt/joke? I heard him say something like "Mike, that's not how we rehearsed it in the dressing room." He is not a man known to have a brilliant deadpan sense of humour, so I think the most simple explanation is that it was a cock-up either from him or his crew.

 

[jparx]

To some degree, I think the people defending the set are doing that.

Why was the bit where he stopped Touch The Sky, disappeared for ages, and then reappeared on that cherry picker obviously a stunt/joke? I heard him say something like "Mike, that's not how we rehearsed it in the dressing room." He is not a man known to have a brilliant deadpan sense of humour, so I think the most simple explanation is that it was a cock-up either from him or his crew.

 

Unfortunately, Kanye is one of those artists where his fans will see a fuck up as something intentional, rather than just a fuck up. God forbid he actually makes a mistake live - the guy is perfect after all! 

[st dan]

Although I did enjoy it .. I'm sure that his performance was a reaction to the 130,000+ signatures on the petition to stop him playing - and it wasn't the reaction the majority of us were expecting.

He'll definitely have been aware of the initial backlash of his booking, and rather then trying to prove the doubters and haters wrong, he just seemed to turn up, go through the motions, and leave.

Whilst doing this he managed to ticked it off his list, got people talking about him (one way or another), got a payday (although not his usual high demands), benefitted from record sales etc .. So there was enough in it for him.

He, and everybody else, know he's capable of much more than was on show on Saturday.

Edited June 30, 2015 by st dan

[jparx]

Although I did enjoy it .. I'm sure that his performance was a reaction to the 130,000+ signatures on the petition to stop him playing - and it wasn't the reaction the majority of us were expecting.

He'll definitely have been aware of the initial backlash of his booking, and rather then trying to prove the doubters and haters wrong, he just seemed to turn up, go through the motions, and leave.

Whisky doing this he managed to ticked it off his list, got people talking about him (one way or another), got a payday (although not his usual high demands), benefitted from record sales etc .. So there was enough in it for him.

He, and everybody else, know he's capable of much more than was on show on Saturday.

 

That really is the key point here. When he's on form he's one of the best live acts around, with a back catalogue that anyone would make any artist envious. He didn't deliver anywhere near his potential. It was just quite dull.

[ghostdancer1]

Unfortunately, Kanye is one of those artists where his fans will see a fuck up as something intentional, rather than just a fuck up. God forbid he actually makes a mistake live - the guy is perfect after all! 

 

er, he didn't make a mistake.

Mike Dean, who was doing keyboards/guitar/instrumentation behind him, started too early.

[jparx]

er, he didn't make a mistake.

Mike Dean, who was doing keyboards/guitar/instrumentation behind him, started too early.

 

It was still mistake. Makes no difference who made it. 

 

Not to mention, Kanye fucked up on numerous occasions when it was his fault.

[eFestivals]

for me, I beleive that a main stage headline act should have musicians - as in people who play instruments. I don't beleive a headlining artist at glastonbury should have a backing track generating 90% of the sound you hear.

 

It's a view I have an amount of general sympathy towards, and yet.... when the Chemical Brothers headlined, there was none of the same complaint.

 

So i'd say - don't take this personally - that a complaint like that is driven by something else that's not really about the lack of instruments, and is instead driven by a person's attitude towards that act.

[topmarksbri]

Ah tosh. If you imagine for one second that there's that vast an amount of rap/urban music being played then you're very blind to the majority of the country - are you a londoner?

I've got a friend who does children's parties. When he lets them select the mix they pick a load of the kanye style crap and the parties are dead so he doesn't let them pick it anymore and now they're always hopping

Just because something's cool doesn't give it musical credit, nor being unique etc - if you want to hear beat poetry that doesn't have to rely on saying nigger every fifth word to get it's point across pop over and watch Luke Wright or any of the other excellent acts on in Poetry and Words, or Cabaret. A pyramid headliner should get the crowd roaring dancing and partying and considering how lowly the mumfords gig 2013 was rated look at this crowd and then find me more than five seconds of kanyes crowd going as wild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i05g9vO_72E

 

I'm not really sure if this is a joke post?

 

I don't think childrens parties are a great way of judging what has musical clout at the time or 'musical credit' whatever the fuck that means. 

 

Shall we take a quick look at the current top 10? in the top 10 there's Tinie Tempah, Major Lazer, Jason Derulo, Flo Rida and Fetty Wap. All of this is either 'urban' or heavily influenced by 'urban' music. I refuse to believe that these records are solely being bought in London or metropolitan centres. This and dance music is far and away the most popular music in the country at the moment and it has been for the last few years. You cite Mumford and Sons as a recent headliner and they are undoubtably popular nationally but they are the outliers. 

 

Rap isn't beat poetry and it's pretty offensive to say it is, beat poetry is fundamentally the preserve of white intellectuals and Rap and Hip Hop comes from essentially black inner city poverty. While personally I don't agree with the prevalence of racial slurs in a lot of rap the argument is incredibly complicated and the idea of 'taking back' the word and using it as a means of empowering the traditionally downtrodden is not a new concept by any means. 

[ghostdancer1]

It was still mistake. Makes no difference who made it. 

 

Not to mention, Kanye fucked up on numerous occasions when it was his fault.

i never said it wasn't a mistake.

 

it was a mistake by his backing band. if you're going to have a go at people defending Kanye's mistakes, at least actually refer to one that is his own making.