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Glastonbury 2007 - Festival Blog

added 21 June 2007 at 20.49

The worlds best festival returns after two year break bigger and better than ever. Read reviews of the performances, all the onsite news and check out our photo galleries.

Throughout the weekend, Xfm Online will be posting comments, reviews, pictures, audio interviews and loads more on the Xfm website covering every corner of the festival and proving your essential guide to the 2007 instalment of the whole of Glastonbury and the bands playing. Keep checking for live updates throughout the weekend…

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Day 4, June 24 2007

23.45pm So that's it, Glastonbury 2007 is pretty much over and done. It's been both amazing and agonising at the same time but can still boast the fact that it is the world's greatest festival.

Xfm decided to finish with a slice of full on electro from Glasto veterans The Chemical Brothers over on the Other Stage. With a brand new light show and lcd screen which produced some jaw dropping visuals, they tear through a lot of their extensive back catalolgue in one continuous mix.

'Hey Boy, Hey Girl' and 'Star Guitar' sent the crowd into a frenzy, but strangely they didn't drop 'Block Rockin Beats' and only played for an hour, leaving the stage to a slightly flat note and a frenzied audience wanting more..  

Speaking onsite just as they arrived, Ed from The Chemical Brothers described to Xfm how he's been itching to get here and their new music. [listen] 

7.20pm After being highlighted as pick of the day in the official programme the brilliant Beirut play in front of a massive crowd on the Jazz World.

The majority of the set runs through their wonderful debut 'The Gulag Orkestar' and the beautiful single 'Postcards From Italy' is the perfect soundtrack to a wet and windy Sunday evening..one of the best new acts of the weekend..glorious stuff..

6.30pm In the backstage bar Ninja from The Go! Team spoke to Xfm about doing Glasto for the money and cake. [listen] 

6.00pm The diva has taken to the Pyramid Stage and Dame Shirley Bassey is proving to be one of the biggest hits of the weekend with her wonderful voice and fifty-piece orchestra that fills every each of the stage.

Her hits 'Goldfinger' and 'Big Spender' garner huge applause from a clearly impressed crowd and after a sublime 'Diamonds Are Forever' she cheekily nods to the Arctic Monkeys Friday night cover, by stating 'that's how you do it..'

5.15pm Having just arrived from Germany a busy James Dean Bradfield spoke about why Glastonbury is a mudfest quantum leap and ruling the police for one weekend. [listen]

4.30pm That's what we like to see, the Arctic Monkeys have been onsite for practically the entire weekend soaking up the Glastonbury fun and prior to shooting off to Oslo and watching Shirley Bassey, Xfm spoke to Alex Turner about the Arctic Monkeys friday night performance in this world exclusive interview. [listen]

4.00pm Xfm is starting to feel truly exhausted and discovering mud in some interesting places..

2.50pm Unbeliveable, just like when Brian Wilson played in 2005 the sun has suddenly shone all over Glastonbury when the Marley Brothers took to the Pyramid Stage to perform their fathers seminal album 'Exodus' in full.

Feet are shuffling and smiles are on all faces as the wonderful reggae band groove their way through amongst many others, 'Buffalo Soldier', 'One Love' and a truly uplifting 'Could You Be Loved'..what a Glasto moment.. 

12.45pm Despite the dreadful start to the day both The Holloways and The Enemy entertained the masses and sounded fantastic during early slots on the Other Stage..and as ever Xfm spoke to both The Enemy [listen] and The Holloways [listen] about their Glastonbury debuts. 

11.00am Please for the love of Moses can it stop raining for just two minutes...pretty please...

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Day 3, June 23 2007

11.45pm No such trouble on the Other Stage though as Iggy Pop & The Stooges bring Saturday to a close. They may be in their sixties but rock and roll chaos will always follow them, when playing a mighty 'I Wanna Be Your Dog', Iggy called for fans to come up on stage, which about fifty did...trouble is they weren't going anywhere and a mass fight broke out with the security team trying to get them off.....bloody marvelous...


11.20pm With The Killers once again struggling to overcome the sound problems on the Pyramid Stage like the Monkeys last night, large parts of the crowd start jeering and booing from their frustration...

10.50pm Former Creedance Clearwater Revival front man John Fogerty has just produced one of the weekends best performances on the Jazz World stage mixing up rock classics with the cream of his former bands songs such as 'Bad Moon Rising' and 'Fortunate Son', all of which sounded incredible...Jazz World has become Xfm's favourite stage of the festival...

9.15pm It seems like more people are now hanging out backstage in hospitality then there are out in the rest of the festival...

8.30pm It wasn't all raveraverave at the dance tent this year... Well, okay it was pretty much all raveraverave, but there was one brief respite in the chaos, and that was the ever lovely Husky Rescue who's mellow Finlandian (is that a word) electronica and swathes of heartmelting guitarism helped spme very frazzled people throigh the afternoon... They also wanted to spit roast a giant pig made of tofu. Odd. [listen]

8.00pm Paul Weller is clearly enjoying entertaining a massive Pyramid Stage Crowd with a brilliant greatest hits set. Some of the biggest cheers of the festival were saved for when he played a pumped up 'Town Called Malice'.

Meanwhile on the Other Stage Maximo Park are thrilling their fans with the likes of 'Apply Some Pressure' and 'The Coast Is Always Changing'. When they played recent single 'Our Velocity' it probably broke records for the loudest the word'..Me!' has ever been screamed when dropping into the rousing chrous.

7.00pm Xfm once again spoke to new festival friend Mark Ronson. [listen]

6.00pm Headlining the John Peel Stage on your Glastonbury debut shoes just how far The Twang have come and they chatted to Xfm all about it. By god they like to swear..[listen]

5.45pm Playing just before Iggy & The Stooges on the Other Stage and with Klaxons making a right old noise in the background we caught up with Editors. [listen]

5.10pm Looks like indie fans are going to have a tough choice to make for what to finish off with today. With Klaxons currently playing a massive audience on the Other Stage they'll be followed by the likes of Babyshambles, Editors, Maximo Park and headliners Iggy & The Stooges still to go.

Meanwhile Lily Allen has charmed the Pyramid Stage and will be followed by The Kooks, Paul Weller and headliners The Killers who look set to pull a crowd as big as the Monkeys last night...hmm..decisions..decisions...

4.55pm Not only do we bring you the uber-huge headlining names, but we also bring you the stars of tomorrow, the bands that may be near the bottom of the bill in 2007, but in 2009 could be storming the Main Stage. As such we bring you the Young and Lost record label's new signings Noah And The Whale. [listen]

4.40pm Ha ha ha Will Young is here, god knows why...

4.10pm It's still bloody raining and isn't looking like it will stop, but that didn't stop a massive crowd wading through the mud paste to see CSS on the Other Stage.

Lovefoxx once again displayed two ridiculously colourful outfits, first stripping out of a rain coat then into her rainbow coloured delights whilst putting big smiles on the audience faces with the wonderful single 'Off The Hook' then asking what people had been drinking before launching into 'Alcohol'.

Just after we spoke to CSS about their brilliant performance. [listen]

2.30pm With the rain pretty much constant all day over on the Jazz World stage The Bees played a superb set, kicking things off with a cheeky nod to the weather with 'Wash In The Rain', then proceeded to delight the large crowd with tracks from both their current album 'Octopus' and choice cuts from their previous 'Free The Bees'.

Much audience participation was called for in their stoner-friendly rock, with hundreds of hands moving side to side during their awesome instrumental 'The Russian'...why don't more people love this truly great band?  

1.30pm Luke from The Kooks has just arrived, he's loving the mud and we spoke exclusively to him. [listen]

11.00am Switches gather a large audience, pounding out 'Lay Down The Law' around the site whilst everyone arrises from yesterdays exhausting day in the mud.....

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Day 2, June 22 2007

11.50pm With a huge weight of expectation and a massive audience filling nearly every inch of the Pyramid Stage, Arctic Monkeys rose to the challenge of headlining with aplomb, playing a massive setlist of tracks from both their albums.

Littered with sound problems through their set, the boys battled on giving everything to a high energy performance with much banter and jokes being fired off in between nearly every song from a clearly happy Alex Turner.

The biggest praise and crowd participation was saved for a wonderful 'Mardy Bum' with pratically every word sung by the audience..

Dizzee Rascal made a sligthly strange guest appearance, chipping in his part on 'Brianstorm' B-side 'Temptation Greats You Like A Naughty Friend', just a shame his mic wasn't working througout his whole bit.... 

Best of all, as a tribute to Shirley Bassey taking the stage on Sunday the Monkeys threw in a sublime cover of her classic 'Diamonds Are Forever' during there four song encore. 

Just before Arctic Monkeys played their headline performance Xfm spoke exclusively to drummer Matt Helders about Glastonbury. [listen]

9.45pm With the likes of Kevin Spacey and Thom Yorke hanging around backstage to watch them, Arcade Fire prove to be one of the weekends most popular bands drawing a massive crowd into the murky mud around the Other Stage. 

Playing a set that drew heavily from second album 'Neon Album' they saved the best for an awe-inspiring finale with 'Tunnels', 'Power Out' and 'Rebellion' given as a triple whammy to a near crazy sea of fans..absolutely superb performance from a truly great band...

8.55pm Prior to them walking out in front of thousands, Tom from Kasabian spoke about his love for Glastonbury and why it's so much more than 'sh!t and f!*king fields'. [listen]

8.15pm Rufus has just acknowledged to the audience that he is somewhat overdressed...

8.00pm In typical grand flare Rufus Wainwright took to the Other stage wearing a red and white stripped suit that will surely have television viewers of the festival reaching for the contrast button.

7.00pm Bloc Party prove to be a very big draw on the Pyramid Stage opening with a frantic 'Hunting For Witches' and then flicking between a handful of tracks from current album 'A Weekend In The City' and old favourites, the biggest cheers were saved for 'Banquet' and 'Helicopter' which they did brilliantly..

6.20pm With the glorious sunshine continuing for what was left of the afternoon The Coral returned to Glastonbury and delighted the crowd with old classics like 'Dreaming Of You', 'Pass It On' and 'Goodbye' whilst also treating us to a smattering of tracks from forthcoming album 'Roots & Echoes'.

5.40pm The Cribs have always got something to say and after a storming performance stopping earlier on they spoke to Xfm. [listen] 

5.10pm Plenty of sunshine and The Magic Numbers are powering through the hits on the Pyramid stage....what a perfect combo..

5.00pm Let the Sunshine in! Thank god the sun has returned after some difficult conditions eating up a lot of the day a cheeky Amy Winehouse said at the beggining of her sublime set that the sun would appear and alas it did, virtually putting Glastonbury back into full gear. Working through most of her 'Back To Black' album she also included a wonderful Sam Cooke cover and gave the obligatory nod to her new husand...aww bless... 

4.20pm The mud is up to Xfm's knees...

3.45pm It seemed for the majority of the day that the rain would never give up, battering the 180,000 revellers from all sides Worthy Farm has once again descended into a swamp but it hasn't lowered spirits or stoppped the party carrying on with sets from Modest Mouse and The Cribs earlier on in the day sending out great vibes to a weary crowd.

2.00pm Prior to their Pyramid Stage performance, Romeo from The Magic Numbers spoke about his previous Glastonbury experiences and the nerve wracking move to the main stage. [listen] 

12.20pm Xfm has just seen Harry Enfield turning up with tent and bags underarm....bit weird..he's not performing and please god don't let him on to the Comedy Stage if he tries...

12.00pm Tony from The Hours is wearing a long white jacket, in this mud??!!, listen to him explain himself right here. [listen]

11.30am Well the rain certainly stuck around for most of the night and this morning meaning a lot of people were hiding in their tents until late morning, and now there's a lot of mud...

As hoped though it quickly cleared up and it meant a lot of eager fans raced to the Pyramid Stage to check out a blistering set from The View who rasied many spirits and blew away a few heavy hangovers with the likes of 'Wasted Little DJ's' and recent single 'The Don'.

Meanwhile on the Other Stage hot new act Reverend And The Makers pulled in a large crowd wanting to join in the mass sing and dance-along to the anthemic 'Heavyweight Champion Of The World' and there's still so much fantastic music to come today..

Xfm caught up with Reverend And The Makers backstage, hear the interview right here. [listen]

1.30am Xfm had just returned from the wonderful new area The Park organised soley by Emily Eavis and what a brilliant extension it is. Amazingly it has two more stages and entertainment coming at you from all angles, many will spend their nights in it this weekend before making the trip into Lost Vagueness which is as crazy and interesting as ever...the terrifying, life-size Alien statue made out of black metal will freak the hell out of anyone on too many disco biscuits...

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Day 1, June 21 2007

8.00pm Hurrah! Glastonbury 2007 is go and the build up saying this will be biggest year yet has more than been justified with thousands of people already pitched up and ready for what looks like one hell of a weekend.

Yesterday it was reported that a record number number of punters turned up on the first day, maybe eager to get on it straight away and start an early weekend or possibly to get the best pitch spots in fear of tents being washed away like back in 2005.

Thankfully thought the weather, so far, has held out with only a smattering of rain all day, and even the odd burst of sun! If you're travelling down tommorow wellies are still the footwear of choice with the grass and mud already churning up under the surprising numbers already here.

Friday night headliners Arctic Monkeys are here, getting in some serious drinking and relaxtion before ahem 'work' begins tommorow.

What a weekend its going to be...

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