Roadmender's weekend: Glasvegas

There's a lot of red lights down at Roadmender's, isn't it? Here's Glasvegas, swathed in red light, doing Daddy's Gone:


[Buy Glasvegas]
[Part of Roadmender's weekend]

Glastonbury 2011: View from the sofa - Saturday

Cussedly, the BBC Red Button service fell off our TV last night, which made the opportunity to roam over the BBC coverage a bit harder. And BBC Four wasn't interested at all last night. It meant that I started to hit the "here's a GUIDE to Glastonbury" and "here's a person in our studio area doing some poetry" pieces that I'd managed to avoid on the first night.

Naturally, I avoided Coldplay at all costs, but did catch Guy and Chris doing a post-set chat with Jo and Mark "apparently the ghost of John Peel" Radcliffe.

Hold on. In an uncharacteristic twist, I'm about to say something positive about Coldplay.

Chris Martin, in particular, looked like a man who had just had the time of his life. Compared with Bono's attempt to try and explain how U2's set was probably the cleverest and most historic thing that had ever happened, Martin looked like someone who'd just really enjoyed himself and had been thrilled to be asked. Which was beautiful and refreshing to see.

They played a clip of the set after, and obviously it still sounded like weaponised turgidity, but at least their attitude was lovely.

Lots of space found across the BBC for Janelle Monáe, despite her having moved swiftly from the "brightest hope" to "not going to happen" column.

More Noah And The Whale last night, this time from a stage where the camera could get far enough back to have more than two of them in shot in at the same time.

Jessie J did her set sat on a massive, throne-like chair, and then brought on a kid from the audience to sing along with her. Coming at Saturday tea time, it was a bit like an attempt to reboot Jim'll Fix It. Jessie J did have mud smeared all over her face, making her look like part of the walking dead. Which, again, didn't shake off the sense that this was a Jimmy Saville joint.

At least her set was engaging, unlike Rumer, whose show was so blandly inoffensive the National Viewers And Listeners Association might have rejected her as entertainment for their Christmas Children's Party on grounds that she lacked grit.

Three triumphs yesterday: Glasvegas (although the blue light did nothing to shake the 'late night in a city centre Pizza Hut' feel to the set); the Daniella Nardini-plays-PJ Harvey of Anna Calvi; and Elbow. You've got to love Guy Garvey for taking to the stage with trousers covered in mud, like he'd just been out on a ramble before the show. By the time he got the audience doing a reverse Mexican wave and then twisted it into a spontaneous game of Simon Says, he'd won Glastonbury.

[Part of Glastonbury 2011 full coverage]

James Allan alive and well, more or less

The front of the BBC News website reports that James Allan's whereabouts are still a mystery:

Allan went Awol four days ago and missed the Mercury Music Prize, where the Scottish rock band were nominated.

But he got in touch soon after the ceremony on Tuesday to say he was safe. He did not reveal where he was or why he took flight.

Nobody seems to have told them that The Independent revealed his whereabouts yesterday:

The band's manager, Dean Cunning, said the singer had telephoned him yesterday afternoon after finding out that people were concerned for his safety.

"James is not missing, he's in New York," he said. "He got in touch with me yesterday at about 1.45pm to tell me he was OK because he knew people were worried, but to be honest I've been just as much in the dark about this as anybody - the last time I saw James was at the gig in Cardiff. I don't even know exactly when he went missing."

Not quite "not missing", then.

When asked whether the singer would be able to join the band for their American gigs, Mr Cunning said: "I fucking hope so."

I'm not entirely sure that I'd file Allan under 'found' just yet.

Glasvegas drop Coachella

Ah, that nasty "exhaustion and dehydration" has claimed another victim, with James Glasvegas succumbing to being tired and in need of liquids. As a result, Glasvegas have pulled out of Coachella.

Downloadable: Glasvegas

Together, at last: Glasvegas and Reverend and The Makers, as the latter remixes the former's Go Square Go and RCRD LBL serve it up as a free mp3.

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet - Glasvegas

Variety tramps down to the Troubadour to see Glasvegas. It isn't impressed:

It's a scenario that should be familiar to anyone who has followed pop music for the past two decades: A band is hyped by the British music press, only to cross the Atlantic and disappoint. Call it the Empire's new clothes.

Barat makes solo return

Dirty Pretty Things pretty much done - save for one last fleeting farewell gig - Carl Barat is preparing his solo career. First business? support for Glasvegas in Hollywood.

Is it just me, but with a gig on Santa Monica Boulevard and that shades-on Buzzcocks appearance, haven't Glasvegas managed to catapult themselves to the 'slightly disappointing' status that it took years and years of diminishing self-awareness for Primal Scream to achieve?

Glasvegas bring back Christmas

While the BBC is pulling on the Scrooge pants, Glasvegas are rushing to complete their to-do list in order to deliver a Christmas album. Complete with Christmas ghosts and everything:

Singer James Allan said: "One of the guys working on the record was that tired he started hallucinating.

"He saw somebody in a chequed shirt waving at him in the studio."

The frontman added: "That gives you an example of how intense it was. We were in a mad rush to get it finished."

And, as any student will tell you, there's nothing like the quality of work you get when you're working ragged at three in the morning and starting to see things.

Columbia's war on fans

Glasvegas. Popular with blogging music fans, of course, and drawing a lot of their status from the free publicity they give. Their label must be thrilled, right?

Not quite: Columbia Records bullied Google into taking down an interview on 17seconds with James Allan because there were dead links to mp3s. Mp3s which aren't commercially available anywhere. And which weren't actually owned by Columbia in the first place.

So that's a label enforcing a takedown of an interview whose content wasn't connected to them, because you used to be able to download tracks that weren't anything to do with them, and which you couldn't even get to any more. This isn't about intellectual property; it's about control. 17seconds is clear that they don't blame the band - but Glasvegas surely should answer for what is being done, after all, in their name.

[Thanks to Simon T]

Glasvegas having some trouble

Glasvegas are reported as having cancelled their Boston gig; James is having troubles with their visas, apparently. It's not known if this is a tit-for-tat action following Busta Rhymes' problems getting into the UK.

Death Magnetic comes early

Metallica's new album has been released in the UK a day earlier than planned - ostensibly because it had been leaked on the internet, although The Gauntlet wonders why only the UK release date would be affected by the leak - could it be that only the UK internet leaks? Or is it that it's only in the UK that the band are battling Glasvegas for the number one slot?

Glastonbury Web round-up: Wellies and webcams

This is the scene from Glastonbury now - or at 10.17 this evening, anyway - as captured by the BBC webcam. They've made a widget so you can poke it wherever you like, too.

The BBC are predicting that it's going to rain heavily tomorrow; Weather.co.uk suggest rain tonight, tomorrow and on Saturday. But Gigwise found someone prepared to buck the gloomy predictions:

Michael Eavis sold a pair of wellies this evening for one hundred pounds as he told festival goers there is no need for them, we have sunshine all weekend.

His daughter, talking to the NME, was slightly less positive about the prospects, but still upbeat:

[Emily] added that the site is looking good, and based on her knowledge of the air – Eavis grew up on the farm – while she is not expecting a totally dry weekend she's confident conditions will be much better than in previous years.

"It's beautiful down here today, It's boiling hot," Eavis explained. "I'm expecting a bit of a shower at some point over the weekend but we think it will be pretty fine all weekend from knowing what it's like here."

Sponsors Q have actually put on some music:

Q's Queen's Head was rammed full this evening as Glastonbury's musical treats kicked off. As the first main stage to swing into operation at this year's event, there was a huge crowd baying for tunes with the tent packed to capacity and more than a thousand more people at the fringes trying to catch the early acts.

Glasvegas and Santogold (pictured) were among those to benefit from the huge interest in the Queen's Head and the "up for it" crowd happily tolerated the latter's slightly late appearance after getting stuck in traffic on the way to the Somerset site.

Here's a simple rule of thumb: if you're going to use a creaking with-it phrase like up for it, daddio, don't draw attention to it by putting it in quotes.

Back to Michael Eavis, finally: the first video from this year's events to hit YouTube is this, shot at the official opening:


[Part of Glastonbury 2008]