Saturday, June 28, 2008

Glaston the box: Day two, evening

Given the between songs stuff which the BBC have left in during the Winehouse set, you have to wonder what the hell they've been axing when you get a very obvious jump cut from song to song.

Much of the between tracks bits we've seen have been attempts to raise the status of jailed thug Blake to some sort of national hero - when the audience tried to object, Winehouse lectured them about "being rude". We're treated to a rambling reminiscence about how they met - "he hit me over the head with a cricket bat" she reveals, before realising that with his reputation, it's probably best to point out that this wasn't literal.

She's almost gone over a couple of times, too - once neatly saved by a backing dancer. You wonder if they're actually trained doctors, too; the insurance bill would be greatly reduced if the help is on stage rather than in the wings.

And is it worth it, this performance? Not really. Even if you didn't care for what she did, you couldn't deny that she did it well, but this version of her is more a demonstration of what she had. A Joe Longthorne version of Amy Winehouse. Sure, it's unquestionably a bloody impressive for a woman who was at death's door (or at least up the same street) this time last week - but that makes it sadder. Do we really need a spectacle of a woman apparently risking her life, and certainly teetering on the edge of disaster, to warm us up for Jay-Z?

She's dancing like a nervous geologist passing a particularly persistent parasite, too.

Winehouse has kicked off BBC Two's coverage for the evening, where things are helmed by Laverne and Radcliffe and, erm, an introduction where Andrew Marr suggests we take lots of underpants to Pilton.

Back over on BBC Three, earlier, we leaped into the middle of what we thought at first was an interview with someone from a previous series of Big Brother. Suddenly, we realised it wasn't - quite - but instead was Will Young. Even Young might have been surprised at how much screen time he got, indulging with Bowman in the creation of what a straight man might imagine a gay man's fantasy world to be. Something about Jay-Z being supported by Dale Winton, since you ask.

More surprising, though, was Zane Lowe's fawning in the face of Will, praising him as a "credible artist". It turns out that they were waiting for Hot Chip to take the stage, and so we were watching a bobbing boat clinging to a giant Will Young flotation device. We say this often, we say this each year, but: why not just slap on some recorded music in the lulls between live stuff?

Damn, though: it's spooky how close to Edwyn Collins Reggie Youngblood sometimes sounds.

[Parts of this post have been made possible through the generous assistance of the Mr Copper Foundation; part of Glastonbury 2008]


4 comments:

Simon said...

I wondered what the delay was between actuality and TV, given the programme was running two minutes late when it cut off and Jay-Z was due on at 10.45. Which was a shame, as I really wanted to hear how Scrawn was going to be able to smoothly link out of it.

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

When BBC Three was ending its coverage, at 9.30, you could hear Cupid in the background; it turned up about ten minutes in to the BBC Two set - which is what I'm taking to be the gap. Was the two minutes late Amy's fault, or a knock on from the tennis which was still going on when Glasto was starting on 2?

Miles McClagan said...

Sounds like good news for Amy Winehouse impersonators/doubles, they'll be filling in for the real thing at short notice at this rate, if they aren't already...

Ams said...

Wow what a surprise, you dissed Will Young! How original! God help us if he ever becomes "credible".
Good review otherwise though, the whole Jay-z delay thing was a but annoying but he rocked when he got on stage.

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