Glasto is fecking awesome; I can happily testify, having attended a total of zero Glastonbury Festivals. I can, however, extol on you the virtues of spending your 21st birthday alone with a crate of beer and Glastonbury’s live stage by stage from a BBC feed. Nothing says welcome to adulthood like drunkenly singing along to the Manic Street Preachers and Primal Scream while wondering why your in this situation.
The magic of BBC’s live feed is that you can zip from stage to stage without a long walk. Bored of Shaggy? Let’s see what Tove Lo is up to on the Park Stage!
So without further ado, here are 7 acts to check out at Glastonbury Festival that you might have missed.
1) Goldfrapp
We’ll forgive you for forgetting that this band existed outside of that beautiful summer where ‘Ooh La La’ seemed to soundtrack everything. We can however not forgive you for failing to check out their fantastic new single, ‘Anymore’.
With their upcoming album returning to the glam/disco dance of Supernature and Black Cherry, their set should be a must-see for anyone who likes their electronic music to have a sexy dark glam sheen.
2) Temples
Their debut album was a wonderful mesh of melodic-psych-rock and their recent second album is no different. For whatever reason, it seems people overlooked it. Hopefully, a set at one of the hippest festivals will prove to the mass of indie fans that Temples don’t deserve to be seen as one of the many victims of NME’s “ones to watch” curse.
3) Mark Lanegan
If your hip you might know him as a frontman of the Screaming Trees. Chances are however that your mind probably went blank upon seeing his name. Shame on you, Mark Lanegan has one of the best voices in not just rock but across all genres. Sounding more akin to Tom Waits and Nick Cave than Eddie Vedder nowadays, his whisky soaked baritone has to be heard to be believed.
4) HAIM
Just to see them back on a stage is a full miracle. It seems like forever since the sisters Haim wrapped up touring their debut album. With material slowly creeping out and the promise of an upcoming release of their long awaited second album, the only concern is just how much their adventures with T-Swift will rub away their rock roots. Also, BASS FACE!
5) Sleaford Mods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CjIgCOcsIY
Part of me feels like they may be an avant-garde prank creation by the editors of The Quietus to prove how we’ll accept any old trash as the next thing (“I’m going down like BHS”… such topical wit!). The other half of me is entranced by the sheer harshness of lyric and sound that comes from the pair. If nothing else they are most definitely attention grabbing and isn’t that half the draw of a live performance?
6) The Can Project
Another band that only hipsters seem to care about, but we should celebrate for the integral part they played in bringing Kraut-Rock and improvised music to the masses and inspiring bands like Sonic Youth, Pavement and Radiohead.
In a world where most artists perform a variation of the same setlist every tour date, this is perhaps your only chance to see a performance that will 100% be truly unique and never heard again.
7) Barry Gibb
OK, stay with us. Yes. The Bee Gees may have been responsible for all the worst that disco represented. Barry Gibb may have been the high-pitched toothy grin behind it all, but there’s no denying he knows his way around a tune. One of the biggest selling pop composers of all time, we should celebrate legends like him while they are still with us!
