Glastonbury 2010: Highlights in video

The BBC coverage largely stuck to the Pyramid stage this year, but that's hardly surprising given the quality of the acts on the bill.

Still, if you could be bothered to sit through the Editors for the eightieth year in a row, there were some gems to be found. Here are my totally subjective highlights.


And the highlights in video included:



Scissor Sisters and Kylie - Any Which Way


Mumford & Sons - The Cave


Florence & The Machine - Drumming Song


Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls


Muse and The Edge - Where The Streets Have No Name

Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered


Marina and the Diamonds - Mowgli's Road

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Glastonbury 2010: The view from the sofa

Another year, another weekend spent in front of the television going "why didn't I buy tickets for this?" Next year I will be tweeting up a storm from Worthy Farm. Mark my words.

Until then, here's a lazy person's view of what they saw on the television this weekend when they weren't treating picnic tables with Ronseal.

Gorillaz flopped. They just don't have the rousing, sing-along choruses of, say, Blur. Or U2.	When The Edge plucked out the opening riff to Where The Streets Have No Name, Muse's spine-tingling Glastonbury set reached its zenith.	Stevie Wonder brought mile-wide grins to everyone’s faces. Superstition, Uptight, Signed, Sealed Delivered. A masterful, remarkable end to the weekend.
In a massive breach of security, Kylie Minogue rushed onto the stage during the Scissor Sisters' set.	Thom Yorke gave us his best Bjorn Borg impression during Radiohead's "surprise" set.	Hot Chip must have built a nest under The Other Stage. How else do they get onto the bill every year?
Shakira presented her bottom to the world like a Baboon in heat.	Marina and the Diamonds did a very good Hammond organ version of Mowgli’s Road while dressed in a comfort blanket.	Phoenix looked very, very French and were very, very good.
Paloma Faith did something totally unpredictable and mad involving balloons.	At one point, the normally calm and measured Mrdiscopop exclaimed: “Kate Nash is as talented as a bucket of sick”.	Snoop Dogg looks like he’s wasting away. Someone should feed him a Bonio.

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Motor Town, Detroit

The sudden influx of new artists at this time of year can be confusing and unstabilising, so what better antidote than a great big syrupy spoonful of Motown?

Released towards the end of last year, Motown: The Definitive Performances, is a fascinating DVD, collecting together US TV performances from the likes of Diana Ross, The Four Tops and Stevie Wonder from 1965 - 1972.

It's from a time when music television was in its infancy, and broadcasters had to abide by much stricter moral codes. So we see the singers demurely lip-syncing to lyrics about frothing carnal lust, while the rest of the band try their best to dance like well-coordinated virgins. The audience respond by clapping arrhythmically or, in poor Brenda Holloway's case, by standing behind her, talking amongst themselves.

But while the performances seem clunky and dated, the music is still amazing - and the DVD allows you to flick between new surround sound mixes, remastered stereo, original mono versions, a capellas and instrumentals. There is also, for no apparent reason, bonus footage of a Motown picnic.

All in all, it is my favourite music DVD in years.

The best clip features Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, forced to perform Nowhere To Run while pretending to have the best day of their lives at the Ford Mustang production line in Detroit.

It's the sort of idea that would never get past a commissioning editor today - but I love it. Imagine if the producers at T4 insisted that, every time he played, Mika had to take his glittery baby-gro and ridiculous perm to the Honda plant in Swindon? That'd learn him.

Martha Reeves and the Vandellas - Nowhere To Run


The Motown DVD is a tenner on Amazon. Go on, you know you want to.

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Can You Tell Me How To Get To...

Why is it that you can't see Sesame Street on UK television any more? How will future generations cope with the real world if they haven't been taught how to count by a large yellow bird and a man who lives in a bin?

Also, Sesame Street introduces children to future life-skills such as sending back cold soup in a restaurant, sharing an apartment with a man shaped like a banana, and distracting vampires by encouraging them to count the number of flowers in a vase (works every time, that one).

Most importantly of all, Sesame Street features some of the funkiest goddamn music in the history of the planet. Witness below Stevie Wonder's appearance on the show from the mid-70s (episode 514, according to Youtube). You just wouldn't get this on Balamory.

Stevie Wonder - Superstition (Sesame Street live)


Stevie teaches Grover to sing


Stevie Wonder - Sesame Street jam

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Stevie Wonder plays the drums

Fuck, yeah!

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Isn't this disgraceful?

Brad and Angie play happy families for a US magazine photoshoot. Has no-one any dignity any more?

Radiohead won't be playing at Live 8
But there's no need to worry about the lack of angst-ridden avant-garde guitar music, as McFly have signed up for the Socttish gig. Yay!

Stevie Wonder has a new son. Celebrity procreation isn't all that interesting - but this is his seventh son. No wonder he's not been putting a great deal of effort into his music for the last 20 years.

Pitchfork has a great article on music in video games.

The government is to consider doubling the copyright period on pop music to 100 years. It's a ridiculous idea - no composer is going to live long enough to keep collecting royalties for that amount of time.

The record companies, of course, say the money will be invested in finding new bands. Translation: "Our business plans are fucked, we're losing money hand over fist, Elvis' recordings are about to become copyright free. Help, help help!"

And the government is bending over backwards to help extend the monopoly of the four multinationals who run the industry. Shame on them.

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