Glastonbury: Maximo Park, East 17 and more

The weather proves as unpredictable as the Shangri La area

26 June 2009

The northerners ran through their more recent favourites with a flourish as Paul Smith and Co. battled valiantly against both sound and big screen failures as they ran through tracks like ‘Books From Boxes’, ‘Going Missing’ and adding a punky feel to the festivities with ‘Our Velocity’.

‘Apply Some Pressure’ proved to be the festival starter gun though with the amassed crowd lapping up their first taste of live music after the gig had taken a while to get off the ground.

The crowd control and technical difficulties that marred the first few minutes was soon forgotten as disgruntled looks were soon replaced by a sea of bopping red shoulders.

Later on in the day Liz Green took to the stage with trumpet-player and double bassist as she gently ran through elegant tracks like ‘French Singer’ and ‘Bad Medicine’.

Elsewhere East 17, still without erstwhile member Tony Mortimer, drew a huge crowd in the Dance Village as they ran through track like ‘It’s Alright’ and ‘Steam’. Despite the huge crowd and the band claiming it was, “the best night of [their] career,” it was certainly far from their best gig with the London group sounded out of tune in places and ended up the first bottling victims of the weekend.

The first big name band of the weekend could have hardly failed to draw a big crowd and whilst punters reactions were loud, perhaps their enthusiasm was driven more by irony, than the appreciation of the band.

The weather, which consisted of rain showers and patchy sunshine all Thursday (25 June), is set to be the pattern for the weekend, with more thunder storms to follow.

Neil Young headliners Glastonbury Festival 2009 tonight with The Specials, Bloc Party and Lady GaGa among the acts set to perform today (Friday).

Click here to watch BBC Glastonbury Festival highlights on Virtual Festivals.

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