Pet Store Boys – Different Stage
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Nobody brings the Eighties and 2022 collectively fairly just like the Pet Store Boys. From the second Neil Tennant walks on the stage, inviting us to “a world of reminiscence” because the thumping drums of “Suburbia” start, we all know we’re about to straddle eras.
Chris Lowe, together with a superb reside band, be a part of later. There are Eighties synths, an look from Years and Years (though not singing “It’s A Sin” as predicted) and nostalgic anecdotes about holidays within the Caribbean.
The massive tracks get the Different Stage crowd leaping increased than half the late-night DJs at this competition. A “Shedding My Thoughts”/”You Had been All the time On My Thoughts” remix soars – as does “Love Comes Rapidly” and penultimate monitor “West Finish Ladies”.
“Alternatives”, for all its high-camp pleasure, is a private spotlight. After the final 5 days, I’m undecided any of us have a lot of the mind, appears to be like, brawn or a lot of cash they point out left… but it nonetheless will get us singing.
Their closing monitor, “Being Boring”, is an empowering tribute to the victims of the assault on a homosexual bar in Oslo, Norway. The phrases “you possibly can at all times depend on a pal” shut out the set, a becoming end to Glasto 2022. IL
Fontaines DC – Different Stage
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“My childhood was small, however I’m gonna be huge!” These have been the phrases promised on Fontaines DC’s debut album. With a gentle construct in the previous couple of years after which one gigantic swoop of success following their No 1 album, this yr’s Skinty Fia, the band have change into simply that. And on a scorching Sunday afternoon at Glastonbury, the swarm of twitching followers who buzz across the Different Stage solely serve to reaffirm it.
A real showman, frontman Grian Chatten – carrying his normal Pogues T-shirt – throws his arms upwards to summon a cheer. The Dublin-formed group have landed a troublesome time slot, clashing with Diana Ross within the Legends Slot over on the Pyramid. It’s testomony to their fearsome popularity as a reside act that they’ve attracted such an enormous crowd.
Now three albums deep, the five-piece have been on the forefront of the latest rock resurgence. They’ve additionally stubbornly resisted categorisation, as a substitute defining themselves by Chatten’s sharp, observational lyrics and their intense, driving instrumentation.
They throw out a number of numbers from their 2019 debut, Dogrel, together with the sonically moodier, but lyrically hopeful tracks of follow-up A Hero’s Dying. Normally an unflinchingly cool collective, they’ll’t assist however grin as mosh pits broil up in entrance of them. On the cue of “Jackie Down the Line”, a sea of sticky our bodies bash into each other. Fontaines gained’t be dying a demise any time quickly.
McFly – Avalon
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I do know we’re residing in an age of nostalgia, however even I (a former superfan) am shocked how huge the group for McFly’s first Glastonbury set is.
You’ve bought to offer it to ‘em. Nearly 20 years for the reason that sort-of-pop, sort-of-emo band burst into the scene with their debut single “5 Colors in Her Hair”, the four-piece have packed out the Avalon stage at Worthy Farm.
Issues kick off, surprisingly, with “Crimson”, giving the band an opportunity to flex their reside guitar expertise. Extra rock-heavy deep cuts observe straight after: “Track for the Radio”, “Lies”. It’s a few of their finest materials, however you possibly can inform the viewers is impatient for the hits. I believe I could be the one particular person in a 10-metre radius singing alongside.
At the least the band are self conscious. “In case you loved that, we’re Mcfly. However in case you didn’t take pleasure in that, we’re Busted,” the group are instructed, earlier than a rendition of “Clearly” that perks everybody up no finish. A trio of crowd-pleasers follows: “All About You”, “Room on the Third Ground” and the band’s cowl of “Don’t Cease Me Now”.
“Star Woman” will get the most important reception for its eternally juvenile lyric: “There’s nothing on earth that would save us/ After I fell in love with Uranus.” Something post-2008 falls a little bit flatter.
In brief: an ideal McFly set for me, particularly. Others within the viewers have been left wanting extra.
