Kanye West

[Amy Lawn]

I fucking loved it. It was a bizarre, antagonistic, defiant shambles of a show, but it was so totally, utterly and completely him.

 

I'm glad he didn't bring on special guests, or a live orchestra, or an insane light show. 

 

I'm still not sure what happened to the vocals in Hold My Liquor though.

 

Lee Nelson can do one. Awful comedian, now confirmed dickhead.

^

What Winslow said.

I have spent a lot of energy trying to explain to the muggles that Kanye's shortcomings are part of what make him fascinating, but they don't get it.

[Celery]

Was right in the middle down the front. What a (fairly enjoyable) horror show. Looked totally unprepared, no crowd interaction, crap setlist, only played snippets of several top tunes, horrific bassy sound, flares coming down and burning people, arseholes all throughout the crowd, awkward extended pauses, aborted songs. I could go on. And on. 
Saying that, I wouldn't have missed it for anything and had a complete blast. Probably something to do with my annual glasto bomb kicking in right during Jesus Walks. 
 

[jed123]

Enjoyed first 15 minutes, then next 25 minutes was terrible so left and decided to explore a quieter Shangri-La

[swede]

Swede. Glad you enjoyed it. Really am.

I guess hes as marmite as they come so. Most people I spoke to hated it, including a load of randomers. A mate of mine who knows his onions loved it on the telly.

Controversial as expected so!!

Thanks mate. Your right, he really is as marmite as they come. With us not being a massive fan me and the wife made a deal that if either of us got bored for more that 2 songs we would leave straight away, we ended up staying till the end thats how exciting it was for us.

 

Cant tell me nothing was fucking epic !

 

Being totally Gillespied really helped as well. Not as Gillespied as at Florence though, I was tripping that hard during her set I felt like I was stood on the edge of the grand canyon at times.

Edited June 29, 2015 by swede

[Rose-Colored Boy]

Watching it back on iPlayer now.

Couple of things:

a) Regardless of how it sour it did or didn't turn later on, I hope upon hearing the roar the crowd emitted in response to the opening notes of Stronger, and the following deafening recital of every last word of the track, those 'no audience for Kanye at Glastonbury' fools felt a little silly.

The 'murdering Bohemian Rhapsody' thing was way overblown - he sings it better than me and I'm a professional shower singer.

c) 'PMSL', as Neil would put it, at the bores taking the 'greatest rockstar on the planet' quote and banging on and on about how disgraceful it was that he should say such a thing, as though that wasn't exactly the intended reaction. Palm. Of. His. Hand.

I think that is all.

[bennyboi]

I absolutely loved it bar two things :- that slow shit about his missus half way through & the "greatest rock star ever" bollocks.

I understood the darkness between tracks, I thought it added too it but a few people around me didn't get it.

[ryan.smith]

I loved it!

My main issue was the Justin Vernom bit and not building to the epic closing of Out in the World, but apart from that I had a fantastic time.

And people moaning how he had to restart a song once or twice due to t cynical difficulties ... the Who did the same thing (and were boring as fuck too! Like watching and listening to a load of old blokes down the pub)

[thewayiam]

Biggest tosser I have ever seen. Almost 2 hours of my life gone that I'll never get back. I actually thought he started ok for the first 20 mins and then it just went down hill. No interaction with the crowd and no showmanship. And to round it off by singing a queen song.....well, he isn't in the same league as Mercury!

 

Dude, there was no need lol. It was the biggest waste of time booking from the start. 

 

I fucking loved it. It was a bizarre, antagonistic, defiant shambles of a show, but it was so totally, utterly and completely him.

 

I'm glad he didn't bring on special guests, or a live orchestra, or an insane light show. 

 

I'm still not sure what happened to the vocals in Hold My Liquor though.

 

Lee Nelson can do one. Awful comedian, now confirmed dickhead.

 

Haha, Lee Nelson was the best part of it. At least he actually finishes something lol. Yeezy or whatever his name is must think half way through, this is shit I better stop. All partly joking aside, I'm glad it sounds like it took him 30 mins to absolutely fuck it over. Fair play to the guy, I gave him 30 seconds.

[General Lee]

My thoughts (having left after about 20 minutes). Ok, it wasn't really for me, I gave it a go and ended up going to Suede.

1) absolutely the right choice of headliner. He's one of the biggest names in music, massive credibility, loads of material, popular.

2) we have white men with guitars headline at least once every year. A rapper does for the second time in 7 years and people are going mental about it. Get a grip.

3) I watched from halfway up the hill on the pyramid. To say people weren't excited isn't true. Those round me seemed to be singing every word.

4) the lighting rig and stage was great I thought. Really different and original. Must have looked brilliant close up, but one of the things that made me leave in the end was the lighting and stage. That far back it doesn't have the same impact and visually felt boring from my position.

5) I'm not a fan of his music particularly. I only know a few tracks. Black Skinhead which I do like was wrecked by the twat Lee Nelson.

6) nothing really wrong with what I saw to be honest. It just wasn't particularly for me (nothing wrong with that) especially watching from where I was so left (and the people I was with weren't enjoying it). If you were a fan and near the front I can imagine it must have been great.

[wilem]

Personally loved it, can see the flaws but from my perspective there were very few - along with Chemical Brothers and FKA Twigs, best performances of the festival for me.

[CHRLY]

Saw The Mothership myself, which I don't regret one bit. Having a watch on iPlayer now - can't judge how I'd feel if I was there, I'm not a fan of his music particularly but there seems to be plenty of people enjoying it.

The lighting rig is spectacular, saw it up there earlier on in the day and nearly went out of curiosity.

[Badlands]

Just watched the first couple of tracks again now. Absolutely nails the Stronger and Power. He dropped the ball big time later in the set though!!

[kingcrawler]

Don't know what the wider concensus is on this, but I loved it. Really fucking loved it. I couldn't get into the front circle, busiest I can remember seeing it, people around me jumping up and down and loving it for the whole thing, I was very shocked that the rest of my group at the back reported boos through the whole thing. Maybe it just didn't translate through to the back, or trolls turned up to heckle and soured it for the others and got them to boo as well? From where I was stood, it looked like a complete success, and my phone blew up with texts from home "Was Yeezy as amazing in real life as he was on TV?" for the most part, but one or two "stood and shouted swear words and stopped a lot" from the haters you'd expect it from.

I do have beef with Yeezy, though. There was one bit, where he was murmuring a few familar opening syllables, my heart nearly stopped, I thought it couldn't be true that'd he'd be doing it, but then there it was; fucking Lost In The World with Justin Vernon on stage, my dream scenario. But then he stopped halfway through to noodle and fuck around, then did the same with Hold My Liquor. Horrible cockteasing, shit shit shit segment of an otherwise wonderful show. It's not like he brought Justin onstage, but did something different yet good, it was just a bit shite.

You were the first person I thought of when Justin appeared as I remember you posting anout it a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully someone had a chat with him about doing next year with Bon Iver while he was there.

[airwaves]

I decided that I wanted some real musicianship and entertainment.

So I went to see Spiritualised for the former and then the Arcadia show for the latter.

Thoroughly enjoyed both

[fowls]

Not to be funny but how can someone who doesn't play a full song be entertaining. If it was just a little medley okay but it's not. I didn't see him I'll agree, think it was clear out of most I wouldn't but there's nothing getting away from the facts there.

Chemical Brothers? ...and about half of all DJ acts.

It's really not that unusual

Edited June 29, 2015 by fowls

[Matt42]

I do wonder if all of us attended the same gig

 

where I was the crowd was manic, and loving it! 'Leaving after 30 minutes'? where?? I turned around multiple times and the crowd was ginormous! And as far as I could see everyone was signing and dancing along. 

I think it's just easier to dislike Kanye than like him!

[Abu T Hamster]

Loads of people left apparently. I was at the other where the Chems put on a show

[Badlands]

Loads of people left apparently. I was at the other where the Chems put on a show

You must have been fucked up!!!

[Abu T Hamster]

My thoughts (having left after about 20 minutes). Ok, it wasn't really for me, I gave it a go and ended up going to Suede.

1) absolutely the right choice of headliner. He's one of the biggest names in music, massive credibility, loads of material, popular.

2) we have white men with guitars headline at least once every year. A rapper does for the second time in 7 years and people are going mental about it. Get a grip.

3) I watched from halfway up the hill on the pyramid. To say people weren't excited isn't true. Those round me seemed to be singing every word.

4) the lighting rig and stage was great I thought. Really different and original. Must have looked brilliant close up, but one of the things that made me leave in the end was the lighting and stage. That far back it doesn't have the same impact and visually felt boring from my position.

5) I'm not a fan of his music particularly. I only know a few tracks. Black Skinhead which I do like was wrecked by the twat Lee Nelson.

6) nothing really wrong with what I saw to be honest. It just wasn't particularly for me (nothing wrong with that) especially watching from where I was so left (and the people I was with weren't enjoying it). If you were a fan and near the front I can imagine it must have been great.

Lee Nelson went on to do his set t the Caberet tent??????  Was this a set up?

[Winslow Leach]

I do wonder if all of us attended the same gig

 

where I was the crowd was manic, and loving it! 'Leaving after 30 minutes'? where?? I turned around multiple times and the crowd was ginormous! And as far as I could see everyone was signing and dancing along. 

I think it's just easier to dislike Kanye than like him!

 

I loved it, but there were people streaming out and clearly losing interest. To be honest, I loved it precisely because there were people streaming out and losing interest. He made absolutely no concessions whatsoever to anyone who was there to keep flogging the rotting, festering corpse of the gay fish joke.

[august1]

gutted about the short version of blood on the leaves

[rubenz]

It gets better in my mind the more I think about it. I think some people were maybe expecting some of the more spectacular stage set ups with special guests, orchestras, dancers , brass bands etc that he has done at one off things like the brits.

Just him on the stage was pretty brave/ arrogant and it was a change to see someone do what the fuck they want rather than the usual crowd pleasing "I Love you Glastonberrry" type of stuff.

Still left a bit disappointed though.

[ImGonnaLive4eva]

I cringe every time somebody mentions the white guys with guitars thing. Like somehow race is the issue? The issue is he's an egotistical dick who is fucking shit. The people moaning would be more than happy with a black artist if they were good.

[Amy Lawn]

You were the first person I thought of when Justin appeared as I remember you posting anout it a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully someone had a chat with him about doing next year with Bon Iver while he was there.

If Justin is flying across the world for 10 minutes on stage with Ye (presumably unpaid) in the run-up to Eaux-Clares and Bon Iver's return, I reckon it's a fair bet he's a little bit taken with the festival

I did wonder if nobody else would be bothered about the Justin Vernon bit, I was the only one who properly lost their shit when Lost In The World begun, and the only one who appeared distraught when they fucked around a bit. Looking back on the set, I appreciate how much I loved it, but that bit really soured that moment of the set for me, I felt like he dangled it and dragged it away. To my shame, I have to admit that I was one of the boo-ers when he aborted the beginning of Touch The Sky, but I didn't dwell on that, because I had the biggest grin on my face when he appeared in the cherrypicker, he properly did me there. Checking my texts walking out to meet my group, I was replying to all the positive texts with "He fucked it right up with Justin Vernon, could've been so much better", then when I met my group and they all bitched about how they hated it, I realised I'd had a fucking wonderful time apart from that 10 minute segment.

Couple of question for you efesters; were you OK with the white-ass crowd screaming along the N-word, and did you join in? I was a bit uncomfortable and just missed it out of my screaming along, which prompted a black girl who had been stood right in front of me to notice what I was doing, she laughed at me between a song and told me that it was "so cute". Also, did anybody really expect the show to go any different than it did? Aside from the Justin Vernon surprise, it was pretty much the exact thing I had been expecting. I did think he would go easy on the Cruel Summer songs with it being a festival set, but 4 in a row, and no crowd interest was lost around me, people still shouting every word back to him, I was ready to paint that as a mistake and did think "this is a bad idea, Yeezy" at the intro to each one, then ended up loving it.

[Vacant0]

He pulled it off, no doubt about that.

I thought it lagged a little bit in the middle, the bit with that bloke from Bon Iver went on too long, and his autotuned song for Kim I really didn't need to hear, but overall, ye, Kanye was very good.