Remembrance Sunday begins at Glastonbury

Status Quo, Tony Christie among the old faces during final day

United Kingdom | 28 June 2009

Status Quo and Tony Christie are among the first artists to perform at what is being dubbed 'Remembrance Sunday' at Glastonbury Festival as a bill of old faces are set to play the Pyramid Stage.

Veteran crooner Christie turned on the charm as a packed crowd joined in the jollities mid afternoon. While ‘Walk Like A Panther’ had a bit of bite, ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You’ was pure cheese. Not that it mattered once he pulled out ‘Avenues And Alleyways’ and, of course, set closer ‘(Is This The Way) To Amarillo’, for which a conga line sprung up in the crowd as everybody pretended they were Peter Kay.

Enter Shikari transformed themselves into a jazz-fusion marching band on the Other Stage claiming, “There’s nothing lie a good bit of swing,” after turning ‘Antwerpen’ into a ska number. The band, who looked as if they’d just crawled out of bed, ran through new track ‘Hectic’ in basketball shorts. Their traditional high energy levels were sharp, getting fans to join in for ‘Fanfare Of The Conscious Man’ and busting out pure metal breakdowns that got the crowd moving as one.

Earlier on Status Quo rolled out the hits to a busy Pyramid Stage to ease the dads onsite out of their hangovers. ‘Rockin’ All Over The World’, ‘The Wanderer’ and ‘Sweet Caroline’ all lacked depth and all surprising sounded similar to one another.

Art Brut brought some harmless cynicism to the Other Stage singing about the pitfalls of BBC 6Music, the “meaningful” lyrics that are topping the charts at the minute (“are we human/or are we dancer” – The Killers) and claiming outrageously that their version of Iggy Pop’s ‘The Passenger’ is much better than the original. ‘Slapdash’ reminded fans of the holes in their pockets – “Isn’t it funny/coz there’s no money” – while ‘Emily Kane’ offered a softer, loving side of the post punk outfit, without being at all that fantastic.

Linda Lewis, who was first at Glastonbury in 1971, returned today on the Jazz World Stage with her own variation of jazz and soul. Backed by a four-piece band, the singer, who wore a multi-coloured jacket, roused the crowd early with ‘Take Me To The Love Platoon’. “I want to sing a song about my friend who died in January, John Martyn,” Lewis said, “He was always legless.” ‘Reach Out’ received the biggest cheer, which was preceded by a cover of ‘In His Kiss’.

Not old guard themselves, but Easy Star All Stars certainly have legends on their sides as they aired a complete reworking of The Beatles classic masterpiece ‘St Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’. Their laidback reggae vibe brought on a fresh take on the likes of ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’, while the group also recreated ‘A Day In The Life’, just as Neil Young had done on the very stage, two days earlier. It was however, the lesser-known ‘She’s Leaving Home’ that left the most intriguing impressions.

Brand New asked Lady GaGa if they could borrow her exploding boobs for their Sunday Other Stage set, unfortunately the singer denied them the chance to perk up their underwhelming set with a bit of fire. The band proved that they had energy in abundance, teething their guitars like Hendrix and screaming into their pickups to finish ‘Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t’. But the heavier side of Glastonbury failed to get the crowds going.

Glastonbury Festival 2009 continues today with sets from Blur, The Prodigy and Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds.