Pyramid Subs - Did They Pull It Off?

[Reckoner]

The xx were great. I was really only there to position for Radiohead but one of those sets that turned me from a sort of fan to a huge one. Completely won me over.

I thought Beck was great as well. Maybe it was better towards the back not being surrounded by Coldplay fans.

I caught the last bit of Liam. I thought it was good, but then I only saw the wall to wall oasis song finish, and its hard to get that wrong. 

so 3 of 9, yes to all 3 

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

It's sacrilege to even repeat on this forum but in 2009 I was surrounded by quite a lot of people (Blur fans, presumably) impatiently and impolitely requesting Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds to exit stage left 

[mcshed]

15 hours ago, Gnomicide said:

I always thought so but didn't know what the general opinion was.

Cracking view.

Nobody I know enjoyed it and Morrissey himself seemed pissed off with the size of his crowd or the fact he was on a dairy farm or the fact he was supporting U2 or the fact that he is a miserable racist sod or something.

[Ryan1984]

7 hours ago, incident said:

Some of it may be the change in timings.

Back in the 90s and the early-mid 00s, the Pyramid Stage finished at twelve thirty and you still only had half an hour changeover before the headliner. A lot of acts around that time would claim that the sub-headline slot was actually better because you caught the sunset.

Nowadays, the curfew is set half an hour earlier (which I believe was a licencing trade off for increased volume limits), and they irritatingly leave at least a full hour gap prior to the headliner - so while exact timings vary the sub headliner is now likely to be at least an hour earlier in the day than they would have ~15-25 years ago and the actual sunset tends to occur during the changeover.

I noticed this at the last few festivals. I remember Radiohead coming on in daylight - didn’t feel right!

[Avalon_Fields]

The Amy Winehouse one is difficult to rate, my immediate thought is it’s obviously a tick (brilliant talent, songs, an icon) but it was also her beginning to really struggle with herself. How many came to see her with a morbid curiosity? I certainly remember thinking is she going to be ok? I’d caught up with some younger friends and they thought she was inspirational and I’d definitely have given her a tick then, but now I’m not so sure.

[Zoo Music Girl]

16 hours ago, mcshed said:

Morrissey in the rain in 2011 whilst everyone fucked off to the Park to try and see Radiohead was pretty grim.

Leaving this set to try to see Radiohead with my best mate and just trudging through mud in the rain to get nowhere near them is one of my worst regrets  at the festival! That Friday in 2011 was grim all round really.

Most successful subs on the Pyramid for me would be: Amy Winehouse in 2008 (I love her and it's the only time I got to see her - I know it was a bit shit); Leonard Cohen in 2008 (sublime and my first Glastonbury, I was in bits); Nick Cave twice (obvs) - he is at home in that slot anyway, but 2013 still one of my favourite performances of theirs ever; Faithless, Dizzee and Scissor Sisters in 2010 (one of my favourite years so all felt special).

Ones that didn't cut it for me were: Morrissey (for the aforementioned); Pendulum (I quite liked them at the time for some reason, but that was awful); Primal Scream (never got it); The National (I used to love them an insane amount but that set did not do it for me and was the start of my waning interest).

What's clear to me from this is that I used to watch a lot more Pyramid subs in my early years than I do in later ones. Think I'm more likely to be at West Holts or Park at that time now.

 

[Zoo Music Girl]

13 hours ago, TheBoz said:

I still regret seeing Smashing Pumpkins rather than Nick Cave in 2013. I think that will haunt me for the rest of my life! 

I remember Elbow in 2014, Tame Impala in 2016 and George Ezra in 2019 being particularly fun. 

It was possible to see a fair chunk of both! Racing over to Other for the last 30 minutes or so of Pumpkins after Cave (including most of the hits) is one of my greatest moments at the festival, especially as I managed to find my mate in the crowd. I agonised over that clash, so was pleased to see some of them. But wouldn't have missed that Cave set for the world.

[Avalon_Fields]

2009 Nick Cave I really didn’t appreciate as I didn’t know his music well enough, and it doesn’t grab you immediately so I’d have given it a x at the time as a casual listener, and apart from at the front I’m not sure the crowd were greatly engaged but it may just be me (last time I saw him, 2-3 years ago, was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been at). 

[Losing my hair]

I've only seen 2 so

The National 2017 - out on a limb it seems here but I quite enjoyed it and perversely (it seems) liked hearing some new stuff but I'm happy to concede that isn't what most people want from a festival set - a sing along Vanderlyle Crybaby might have been a better last number than Turtleneck.

Vampire Weekend 2019 - great set, absolutely loved it, got showered in confetti.

[Zoo Music Girl]

1 hour ago, Avalon_Fields said:

2009 Nick Cave I really didn’t appreciate as I didn’t know his music well enough, and it doesn’t grab you immediately so I’d have given it a x at the time as a casual listener, and apart from at the front I’m not sure the crowd were greatly engaged but it may just be me (last time I saw him, 2-3 years ago, was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been at). 

To be fair, my memory of this is pretty bad and I'm a Cave mega fan so am very biased. I happened to find a little pocket of Cave fans and enjoyed it with them but other sections of the crowd might have been shit. 2013 was a definite step up and they were on fire for the whole PTSA tour.

[Hugh Jass]

I didn't see Cave in 2009 and looking back at the lineup I have literally no idea where I would have been instead.

Complete gap in my memory between YYY's finishing at 18.00 and Blur starting at 21.50.

[jparx]

The xx stand out to me as the best sub from what I’ve seen in person. I wouldn’t say I’m a big fan, and I’ve seen subs that I personally like more, but hard to argue that they didn’t smash it. To say a lot of us thought The National were the obvious choice to sub Radiohead, Emily and co are obviously much more qualified than us and made the right call. Maybe not the right call for the National though 😂

[Zacko]

9 hours ago, incident said:

Some of it may be the change in timings.

Back in the 90s and the early-mid 00s, the Pyramid Stage finished at twelve thirty and you still only had half an hour changeover before the headliner. A lot of acts around that time would claim that the sub-headline slot was actually better because you caught the sunset.

Nowadays, the curfew is set half an hour earlier (which I believe was a licencing trade off for increased volume limits), and they irritatingly leave at least a full hour gap prior to the headliner - so while exact timings vary the sub headliner is now likely to be at least an hour earlier in the day than they would have ~15-25 years ago and the actual sunset tends to occur during the changeover.

Ah ok, I didn't know that! That makes a lot of sense thinking about it. 

Agreed with the xx as a perfect sub (although I've got a Jamie xx avatar so I'm probably biased). The Specials and Faithless were two other highlights, perfect weather and atmosphere for both. 

I was (am?) a huge Smiths fan so I loved Morrissey at the time purely out of novelty, but looking back it was pretty dire and the weather that Friday was a pure slog. Bright Eyes on the OS an hour or so before him was great though. 

[thewayiam]

1 hour ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

Leaving this set to try to see Radiohead with my best mate and just trudging through mud in the rain to get nowhere near them is one of my worst regrets  at the festival! That Friday in 2011 was grim all round really.

Most successful subs on the Pyramid for me would be: Amy Winehouse in 2008 (I love her and it's the only time I got to see her - I know it was a bit shit); Leonard Cohen in 2008 (sublime and my first Glastonbury, I was in bits); Nick Cave twice (obvs) - he is at home in that slot anyway, but 2013 still one of my favourite performances of theirs ever; Faithless, Dizzee and Scissor Sisters in 2010 (one of my favourite years so all felt special).

Ones that didn't cut it for me were: Morrissey (for the aforementioned); Pendulum (I quite liked them at the time for some reason, but that was awful); Primal Scream (never got it); The National (I used to love them an insane amount but that set did not do it for me and was the start of my waning interest).

What's clear to me from this is that I used to watch a lot more Pyramid subs in my early years than I do in later ones. Think I'm more likely to be at West Holts or Park at that time now.

 

The weather was awful but personally a run of Biffy Clyro, Morrissey and U2 was great for me. I can't think of any festival anywhere where you would get that.

[found home in 2009]

    
I thought the Specials were brilliant, but I'm surprised to find out that was a sub headline slot. In my memories it felt like it was quite early in the day. Think it was because it was the main thing I wanted to see that day.

Also not a popular opinion to hold on efests, but every time I've seen Kasabian they've been brillliant, they are a really fun live act.

Jack White was a no for me, but I was kind of hoping for a faithful recreation of the songs he had that I liked. I often wonder if I'd went in with more of an open mind and expecting him to improvise lots if I would have enjoyed it more. Or was he just so wasted would I have thought it was shite no matter what attitude I had?

Missing Libertines in 2015 is a regret for me. Didn't bother as I was seeing them at T in the Park a few weeks later. But it was the first and only T in the Park at a new venue, the sound was shit and the festival was so badly organised it never recovered. Honestly still can't get my head round how badly that festival was organised. The main stage and the other stage were connected by a narrow corridor fenced corridor. Half way along the corridor was King Tuts (the third biggest stage) and directly across from it was a cocktail bar pumping dance tunes. It was like they'd deliberately tried to create the worst most dangerous choke point possible. And they also fucked up the organisation of the roads around the festival. We had day tickets and had 2 queue for about 2 hours to get in, then the bus home turned up 4 hours late and it seemed that everyone else had similar experiences, it was very much festival organisers fault rather than bus companies. That was a fucking long day! Hence the long rant (sorry)

Really enjoyed Foals in 2016 and ZZ Top before them were superb. That was a good run.

Also had a great time at Beck. Though watched it back on tv and the crowd seemed flat and he seemed a bit annoyed about it (which I didn't actually notice when I was there). Really he deserved a better slot. I suspect there is a lot of crossover between the Ellie Goulding and Coldplay audience and none between that crowd and Becks audience so there were definitely a lot of people there that were putting up with him between two acts they wanted to see.

[Avalon_Fields]

1 hour ago, Hugh Jass said:

I didn't see Cave in 2009 and looking back at the lineup I have literally no idea where I would have been instead.

Complete gap in my memory between YYY's finishing at 18.00 and Blur starting at 21.50.

That depresses me, I missed the YYY's and I'm trying to find out why. I possibly saw Beth Rowley. Disasterous choice.

[Avalon_Fields]

2 minutes ago, found home in 2009 said:

    
I thought the Specials were brilliant, but I'm surprised to find out that was a sub headline slot. In my memories it felt like it was quite early in the day. Think it was because it was the main thing I wanted to see that day.

Also not a popular opinion to hold on efests, but every time I've seen Kasabian they've been brillliant, they are a really fun live act.

Jack White was a no for me, but I was kind of hoping for a faithful recreation of the songs he had that I liked. I often wonder if I'd went in with more of an open mind and expecting him to improvise lots if I would have enjoyed it more. Or was he just so wasted would I have thought it was shite no matter what attitude I had?

Missing Libertines in 2015 is a regret for me. Didn't bother as I was seeing them at T in the Park a few weeks later. But it was the first and only T in the Park at a new venue, the sound was shit and the festival was so badly organised it never recovered. Honestly still can't get my head round how badly that festival was organised. The main stage and the other stage were connected by a narrow corridor fenced corridor. Half way along the corridor was King Tuts (the third biggest stage) and directly across from it was a cocktail bar pumping dance tunes. It was like they'd deliberately tried to create the worst most dangerous choke point possible. And they also fucked up the organisation of the roads around the festival. We had day tickets and had 2 queue for about 2 hours to get in, then the bus home turned up 4 hours late and it seemed that everyone else had similar experiences, it was very much festival organisers fault rather than bus companies. That was a fucking long day! Hence the long rant (sorry)

Really enjoyed Foals in 2016 and ZZ Top before them were superb. That was a good run.

Also had a great time at Beck. Though watched it back on tv and the crowd seemed flat and he seemed a bit annoyed about it (which I didn't actually notice when I was there). Really he deserved a better slot. I suspect there is a lot of crossover between the Ellie Goulding and Coldplay audience and none between that crowd and Becks audience so there were definitely a lot of people there that were putting up with him between two acts they wanted to see.

T in The Park: your comments bring back memories. What really was frustrating was you couldn't get access to the stages early, and one time there was a hold up so although we were close to the front of the queue we still only got in after the first acts had started. we ran to the second stage where Kasabian were first on. We were there for maybe the second number of their set with about 10 others. It wasn't busy for about 20 minutes.

Still, wasn't as bad as Bowie being replaced by The Darkness as a headliner act one year.

[John the Moth]

Shockingly, I’ve only seen three of listed sets... Weller, Beck And Biffy I rate them good, good, great.

Ps I’m rather glad this thread wasn’t structured as a fake profile nursery.... sorry, hurt/heal game. 

[Hugh Jass]

I enjoyed The Specials, but through the lens of history I wish I had gone to Gaga instead.

[Kalopsia]

2015
The Libertines - Walked past the opening song on my way to Mark Ronson.
Pharrell Williams - Caught the last 15 minutes, was okay.
Paul Weller - Didn't see.

2016
Foals - Yes, they set the bar high and were better than Muse that day. 
Tame Impala - My personal favourite of the subs, love Tame Impala great atmosphere where I was stood.
Beck - Didn't see.

2017
The XX - Brilliant Set
The National - Didn't enjoy this one. 
Biffy Clyro - They were ok.

2019
George Ezra - Didn't see.
Liam Gallagher - Didn't see.
Vampire Weekend - Caught the second half, great set.

[deadpheasant]

Regretted seeing LG at the last festival. Spent the majority of the set wishing I went to William's Green to see Shame (who were ace apparently).

[found home in 2009]

29 minutes ago, Avalon_Fields said:

T in The Park: your comments bring back memories. What really was frustrating was you couldn't get access to the stages early, and one time there was a hold up so although we were close to the front of the queue we still only got in after the first acts had started. we ran to the second stage where Kasabian were first on. We were there for maybe the second number of their set with about 10 others. It wasn't busy for about 20 minutes.

Still, wasn't as bad as Bowie being replaced by The Darkness as a headliner act one year.

My mate was a massive Bowie fan and had pretty much only got tickets because he was playing. To say he was disappointed was an understatement!

Not quite on the same level, but one year I was really looking forward to Gogol Bordello and even made my own Gogol Bordello flag , only to find out they'd cancelled as I was standing at the stage waiting for them to cone on

[mazola]

1 hour ago, Hugh Jass said:

I didn't see Cave in 2009 and looking back at the lineup I have literally no idea where I would have been instead.

Complete gap in my memory between YYY's finishing at 18.00 and Blur starting at 21.50.

Same! looking at the poster maybe I saw Roots Manuva, I've definitely seen him at West Holts but that may have been a different year

[The Nal]

20 hours ago, Gnomicide said:

2011
Pendulum - Yes

To paraphrase old Russy, Pendulum was like 9/11 for your ears. 

[MEGABOWL]

12 hours ago, Zacko said:

I've just ended up watching a bit of this on YouTube as I always like to watch Glasto footage from around then. I'm not sure exactly why, but I always feel like sets from those early post-fence years impact me more than footage from about 2013 onwards.

Maybe it's because everything is still familiar (the Pyramid, the field etc) but you also get a snapshot of a time where there were no phones filming, and the acts playing those slots were quite different to today. 

Then again I was only about 14 then so I'm potentially just romanticising it. 

 

 

Yeah I bet that’s a lot of it. You k ow the place and the stage but it now looks like a completely different era when you go that far back. Like looking through a hazy lens of history.

That Friday in 2003 was the first day of music at my first Glastonbury. I’d gone from a monstrous hangover in the rain through De La Soul and the Sun coming out to that point. That was when it all really hit me and I was absolutely buzzing. It’s hard to say how much of that the as Gray or just (waves hand in the air) everything. He seemed to love it, and so did me and my mates.