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'The King Is Gone But He's Not Forgotten' - Glastonbury's Reaction To Michael Jackson My thoughts on the poignant tributes and sick jokes... By Chris Reynolds on 30 June 2009
There are times in your life when you remember where you were. Glastonbury was winding down after a scorching Thursday and I was sat in a circle around my tent sipping a luke-warm Magners and still salivating over the prospect of Neil Young to come the next day.

My phone buzzed for the first time in the day (bloody signal!) and a flurry of messages came through. “Meet me at the Green Fields”, “Has it rained yet?”, “Where are you camped??” The final message from my mate Jake made me jolt out of my seat. It simply said “Michael Jackson is dead.” I read it out to my friends who immediately asked if Jake was taking the piss. As we all know now, he wasn’t.

At that moment the whole of Glastonbury began to buzz with rumours. We took a stroll to the Park area and within 10 minutes the news from the outside world was spreading like wildfire. “He’s dead??” “No Way!” It was truly one of those moments when you’re pinching yourself.

The rest of the evening was dominated by drunken punters approaching randoms and informing them. The inevitable jokes began to flow and even before Glastonbury had properly started we already had the biggest news story of the weekend.

Backstage it clearly had an effect too with countless artists playing tribute throughout the weekend. It all began rather oddly though with Alan Donohoe simply saying “Did you hear the good news about Michael Jackson?” to the Other Stage on Friday morning. A muted response wasn’t surprising.

Dizzee Rascal’s gigantic crowd were treated to a medley of Jacko hits which came off as well as ‘Bonkers’ did. In particular Billy Jean was eulogised throughout the weekend with Mike Skinner doing his best impression over on the Jazz World stage.

Perhaps better hidden (according to Maximo Park’s Paul Smith) was Neil Young paying tribute to the king of pop during opening track ‘Hey Hey, My My (Out of the Blue)’ as he pulled a Jacko pose on the line “The King is gone, but he’s not forgotten.” The track was also referenced in Kurt Cobain’s suicide note (“It’s better to burn out, than fade away”) so clearly Mr Young is more than aware of the significance of the poignant song.

Jacko tribute boards were erected on site, everyone from Rolf Harris to the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s paid their tributes and even Spinal Tap jokingly admitted they wouldn’t exist without Jackson.

Of course for every subtle or kind tribute we had the obligatory sick joke or money maker. The Jackson 'tribute board' featured the comment “Don’t blame it on the boogie, blame it on the aortic valves...” which might be too close to the bone for some. Fucked Up singer Pink Eyes flippantly asked the crowd “So, Michael Jackson is dead. I know, I was wondering who he was too but apparently it's a big deal.” Hardly in keeping with the Glastonbury spirit eh?!

T-shirt sellers could see the dollars in their eyes and a swift trip to the printers meant we had Jackson joke t-shirts on sale as early as Friday. Joke texts also became widespread – I think I counted nine by the end of Thursday alone, perhaps this was why my phone wouldn’t work all weekend?! A tent near mine was also kindly offering Michael Jackson’s nose for sale at a ‘reasonable price’.

The award for the biggest tosser of the weekend though went to the compere on the John Peel Stage. He decided to go all out and make a Jackson joke after every band until finally on Saturday people began to openly boo him. I think it was the joke about Michael Jackson, a computer and children touching him which might have pushed me to realise this Gandalf look-a-likey was just an annoying twat.

In fact, whether Jacko’s death made you want to cry or piss yourself there was no doubting that not a soul on that campsite didn’t have something to say about the King of Pop during the course of the weekend, and that is a tribute of its own to Jackson’s influence.

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Michael Jackson's Death Robs Us Of Music's Greatest Icon Gigwise's Deputy Editor recalls his memories of the star... By Jason Gregory on 26 June 2009
I can still remember the morning well. It was like Christmas; awaking with that unique feeling that something special is waiting for you. Except this wasn’t December, there was no decadent tree in my front room or half eaten mince pie - just a video tape sitting in my family’s VHS player.
While I’d been sleeping (I was a mere six-year-old at this point, early nights weren’t by choice), my parents had recorded Michael Jackson’s 1992 concert in Bucharest as it was shown live on a BBC telecast. The spectacle at the city’s National Stadium formed part of Jackson’s Dangerous tour, which would eventually see the star perform to nearly four million fans in 89 concerts around the world.
I was already a huge fan of Jackson at this point – his stage presence, as much as his music, had first captured me at an even earlier age. It was, therefore, at my request that the gig be recorded. But even as a fan I wasn’t quite expecting what unfolded over the course of those two hours in Bucharest.
Jackson’s appearance in the city that night – like the other 88 dates – wasn’t just a pop concert. It was a complete and incomprehensible pop spectacle; the vision of a musician, a dancer and, more fittingly, an entertainer at the top of his game. It was joyously relentless to watch.
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Why Does It Always Rain On...Glastonbury? Choose your favourite wet weather tunes... By Jason Gregory on 25 June 2009
The Glastonbury Festival gets under way on Friday and one thing's for sure – it's going to rain.
After days of glorious sunshine, a cloud the size of, well, Worthy Farm is set to descend right on top of Glastonbury just before Neil Young starts playing the opening chords to 'Heart Of Gold'. Or at least that's what the folks over at the Met Office have been telling me the last few days – and they're never wrong, are they?

Whatever happens, come rain or shine, one shouldn't get too despondent. That's what wellies are for. And tents. Indeed, a light shower or four will even provide the more astute bands with the perfect opportunity to crank out a fitting cover or two.
But what song would work best?
Unsurprisingly, a quick tweet to Gigwise followers on Twitter has come up with some pretty fantastic suggestions. From the obvious – Travis's 'Why Does it Always Rain On Me?' – to the more obscure and, well, darn right ridiculous of 'Thunder' by East 17. Whoever knew adamkillip was such fan?
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Stars And Stripes: How Do US Gigs Compare To The UK? Our US blogger gives her view from across the pond... By Caroline Lees on 22 June 2009
I was giddy this January when I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, tickets in hand to see some bands that I love who rarely come to the US I spent spring in London this year, and was spoiled by its amazing music scene. There was always an awesome gig to go to! Everyone knew about Crystal Castles! 7” singles were available in stores, not just on Ebay for five times their actual price! London felt like a musical wonderland, particularly in its abundance of great gigs.
Don’t get me wrong; there are lots of things I love about America. We have Coachella and SXSW (and lower sales tax and better Mexican food). But our live music scene differs significantly from Britain’s, particularly in the bounty that London’s high density of gigs offers.
A major hindrance for American concert junkies like me is the sheer size of our country, which prevents the kind of centralized, dedicated gigging that London (and most of the UK) offers. I live on the East Coast about two hours south of New York, an area dotted with urban, musically inclined enclaves. But my Last.fm events list often yields only a few results for each day, and driving two hours or more to a gig is a regular part of life. While a friend of mine in England has to choose which Muse gig he wants to attend near his hometown, I find myself just hoping they’ll add a date somewhere within a two hundred mile radius. And it would be many times worse if I lived in the vast Midwest. Distance also makes it harder for up and coming bands to promote their music by touring; it’s one thing to drive from London to Liverpool on your own in a shoddy van, another to trek from New York to Austin without a label backing you. The constraints of space make fans of local scenes in America more devoted, but also prevent a lot of small bands from breaking out nationwide rather than in just a city or two.
I’m not saying that I haven’t seen amazing gigs here. In fact, the US is a great place to see international artists who haven’t quite broken the American market. One of my favourite gigs this year was a fabulous Wombats show in the tiny, sweaty basement of First Unitarian Church, arguably Philadelphia’s most unusual venue. And I have to give credit to East Coast cities, especially Baltimore, where the local music scene is expanding exponentially. But America also favours gigs in the giant, nondescript arenas that populate the country. I’ll desperately miss bigger shows in London’s unique venues, particularly Camden’s theater-style Koko and the vast, glass-ceilinged Olympia.
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10 Acts I Urge You Not To Miss At Worthy Farm Gigwise writer Chris Reynolds on his choice Glastonbury acts... By Chris Reynolds on 20 June 2009
Glastonbury is on the horizon folks and it’s looking gigantic. This year Worthy Farm boasts more stages than you can shake a stick at and enough live entertainment for anyone to die happy so what sets shouldn’t you miss and which hidden (and less well-hidden) treasures are waiting? Here’s a list of 10 bands I won't be missing:

Mr Hudson (Other Stage – 10.50am Friday):
So by 4 in the afternoon you’ll probably be wanting the sun to be out and some party music to set you in the right mood for the evening. Well the Hot 8 Brass Band is here to answer your prayers with a heady mix of feel-good tunes and an inspired cover of ‘Sexual Healing’ in their back catalogue. Brass bands have never been so cool.

Lady Gaga (Other Stage – 8pm Friday:
When Michael Eavis booked Neil Young people moaned that it was contradictory to his assertion he wants to bring the young people back to Glastonbury. Do you know what though – any young person who knows anything about music will have been influenced/listened to/heard of Neil Young. He wrote the book on guitar rock and Eavis clearly agrees because he’s booked him for a 2 and a quarter hour set. That should be enough time for classics like ‘Cortez the Killer’, ‘Rockin in the Free World’ and enough guitar solos to send your head dizzy. He may be 63 but wouldn’t you be bloody proud to be headlining the best festival in the world at that age?

Baddies (John Peel Stage – 12pm Saturday):
A few weeks back Emily and Michael Eavis announced a very special guest will play the Park stage which even they’re scared to announce due to health and safety fears. Currently this 7.50pm spot remains unfilled and I’ve come up with 3 bands doing the rumour rounds.

1)      Arctic Monkeys – Reading Festival might not like this but who cares. The Monkeys embark on a European tour a few days after Glastonbury so they should be in the right area.

2)      Radiohead – yes they will headline again soon but a sneaky spot on the Park Stage might just remind Worthy Farm goers of their excellence and the band do have a soft spot for Eavis.

3)      The Libertines – OK this is a bit outlandish but the signs have been there from messers Doherty and Barat that a reunion show could be on. Pete’s already on the bill so you don’t have to worry about him failing to show up and where better to play the old classics again?

Kasabian (Pyramid Stage – 8pm Saturday):
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It's Time To Stop MP3 Players Killing Off Albums Our blogger examines shuffle culture... By Rupert Langlands Pearse on 15 June 2009
Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPod. It has enabled me to enjoy music wherever I go and create a soundtrack to each day - until last week.
Whilst listening to a couple of tracks 30mins before I had to get a train to the airport, the Pod decided to reboot and wipe all my songs for an inexplicable reason. Sheer horror swept over me. The limited capacity on my player meant that I couldn’t just copy everything from my computer and the limited time meant that I couldn’t go through and choose all the songs I wanted. Out of sheer desperation I copied a random handful of the albums and off I went for two weeks. To be completely honest I was dreading it. I wouldn’t be able to put on Otis Redding to ease me into each morning or play Zero 7 to de-stress me when my connecting flight was delayed.
For the first couple of days I shuffled through the songs I liked off the albums and it was fine. Then the same 20 songs over and over again get boring, so I began to challenge myself listen to whole albums. Every track, no shuffle, no skipping…and it was brilliant.
Suddenly I remembered what it was like to be 10 again, putting on repeat that CD that you had saved religiously for six months to get and enjoying every nuance that the artists were attempting to put across whilst frantically trying to learn the lyrics (Ok, maybe the Chumbawumba CD didn’t have all that but you know what I’m getting at).
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If A Recession Is Supposed To Produce Great Music, Then Where The F*ck Is It?! Reed and Destroy: Hitting out at the arse cracks of the music world By Paul Reed on 9 June 2009
So, the old chestnut is getting rolled out in every pub conversation and blog across the land at the moment. Yeah, sure we’re all broke, down and out but at least it will produce some great art and fantastic music. It’s a simple, neat equation isn’t it? Poverty and social unrest = good music.
I can’t help thinking that this is a typical crime of the kind of people that Jarvis Cocker sang about in ‘Common People’. Only cultural vampires and voyeurs would ever romanticize having no coin because we all know that it simply isn’t fun.
If it is the case then where is all this great music at then? You can point to the updated Spice Girls escapist vacuous pop of Little Boots et al but that isn’t what is needed right now. You can also point to Springsteen changing his set-list to reflect these troubled economic times but The Boss is 60 this year. Where are the young musical equivalents of Molotov cocktails?
From where I’m standing, they are all playing it safe. There are fewer genuine eccentrics with an original vision and something to say as each year goes by. It’s gotten so desperate that the fucking flowerpot man from The Enemy is considered to be some kind of generational spokesman. Not on my watch, son.
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Waster or Wasted Talent? Pete Doherty's American Dream Our US blogger looks at the liberal Libertine... By Caroline Lees on 4 June 2009
I’m in a minority in America - a Pete Doherty fan. The thing that surprises most Americans about Pete isn’t the shocking number of drug charges he’s racked up in the past few years. Or his bimonthly YouTube escapades with a brigade of kittens. It’s that he’s relatively famous in Britain. Besides the rare mention on E! as Kate Moss’ former erstwhile boyfriend and a lone Spin cover last year, Pete is largely under the radar in the United States. It’s a strange situation; he’s been selling tabloids for years in England, but Americans would be hard pressed to pick him out of a line up of weedy, trilby-bedecked pale guys.
Why? Well, it certainly doesn’t help that his criminal record makes it virtually impossible for him to tour the U.S, leaving his work with Babyshambles and his stunning new solo effort, Grace/Wastelands, unpromoted. This would be a major problem for any artist, but it’s especially bad news for Pete because a lot of his shambolic charm is lost if you don’t get the live experience. I saw him twice in London this spring, with Babyshambles and then solo, and his performances profoundly changed the way I listen to his music. The emotion that he brings to his lyrics in a live show lingers when you hear his albums again. Doherty can be infuriating-- he showed up at 2 a.m. for the Shambles gig I saw-- but he’s also incredibly compelling on stage. It might be his saving grace in the UK; no matter what he’s doing in the tabloids, he’s an undeniable talent.
The upside to Doherty’s complete lack of publicity in America is a lack of bad publicity. After years of exposure to Pete painting with his own blood, cancelling strings of gigs, and cavorting online with Amy Winehouse and a litter of mice, English audiences have every right to be sceptical about the quality of his music. His reputation here is much more innocuous; “Isn’t that the guy who used to date Kate Moss? He does music?” He has an opportunity, especially in his new incarnation as the more serious, professional ‘Peter’ Doherty, to break through in the U.S. He doesn’t have to win over an alienated or critical audience, just win fans for the first time. Which should be easy if he can keep up the new persona; when he’s sober, it becomes apparent that he’s witty, likeable, and incredibly gifted.
So why not just push 'Grace/Wastelands' without a tour? The album is terrific-- easily Pete’s most put-together, relaxed, accessible work. But is it accessible enough for an uninitiated audience? Half the joy of Pete’s work for UK fans is in the complex mythology of his musical past, the autobiographical nature of his work and references to his legendarily volatile partnership with Carl Barat. Most of his fans have been listening since The Libertines (and listening hard; the crowd knew every word during his gig at Camden’s Proud in April, even when he broke out the Libs' 'The Ha-ha Wall'). It’s questionable whether he could make it without that kind of intensely dedicated fanbase, as well as the fawning support of the NME and the irrefutable evidence of his talent in the form of Up the Bracket in recent memory. Plus there’s no obvious niche for him in America, no easy way to explain him to prospective listeners. At home he’s got an entire battalion of bands like The View and The Courteeners who desperately want to be The Libertines, bringing his music into at least a tributary of the mainstream. Here he’d end up falsely classified with acoustic, shoegazing American indie that populates our college radio stations.
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Who Can Replace Paramore As Robert Pattinson's Twilight House Band? Paramore want out of Twilight Saga... By Jason Gregory on 3 June 2009
On paper, it seems like a pretty good deal. A band agrees that two of their songs can be included on the soundtrack to a new film about vampires, which then explodes into one of the biggest teenage movie franchises of the 21st century.
But for Paramore, donating their hits 'Decode' and 'I Caught Myself' to the soundtrack for Twilight was enough.
Drummer Zac Farro has this week revealed they won't be contributing any music to the score for the Twilight sequel, New Moon, because "we don't want to be, like, the vampire house band”. Farro also dashed hopes of their songs appearing on the third and fourth movies as well. “We don't want to seem like we're trying to get in every single movie they put out,” he moaned.
Those familiar with the Stephanie Meyer's bloodsucking saga will know all too well that the Twilight dealt with some pretty heavy teenage angst as vampire Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson, failed to resist the urge to fall in love with schoolgirl Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart). Consequently, the dark, looming guitar riffs and lovelorn lyrics of 'Decode' were pretty much the perfect fit for the first movie alongside the likes of Muse's 'Supermassive Black Hole' and 'Leave Out All The Rest' by Linkin Park.
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Muse - Can They Get Any Better Live? We take a look at some of their best performances... By Jason Gregory on 2 June 2009
If, like me, you're a Muse fan, then you'll be slightly pleased by today's news that the band are set to return to the road in the autumn for a world tour. The jaunt, which includes seven dates in the UK and Ireland, supports new album 'The Resistance'.
Little is known about the follow-up to 2007's 'Black Holes and Revelations', expect for singer Matt Bellamy's cryptic comments in March when he claimed the record would be Classic FM friendly. (No, you don't have to be over-70 to listen, it's something to do with strings.)
But one thing is for sure – the live shows will be amazing. I was fortunate enough to see Muse three times during their Black Holes and Revelations tour, initially in Birmingham and then twice within the space of seven days as they headlined the Isle of Wight festival and played Wembley Stadium. One each occasion they just got better; the sound and look of a band in total control both musically and visually. It came as no surprise when they took home the Best Live Act award from just about ever awards ceremony going.
Indeed, one wonders whether they can top it. What songs will they choose? What set will engulf them as they unleash 'The Resistance'? Will Matt Bellamy finally get his wish and get a flying UFO?
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