Glastonbury - Friday

Super Furry Animals, Bloc Party, Kasabian, Amy Winehouse, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, and The Fratellis

Venue:
Festival, Glastonbury, Somerset »

Lineup: Björk, Super Furry Animals, Bloc Party, Kasabian, Amy Winehouse, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, The Fratellis

Date: 22/06/2007

Who was there? (10) / add your name

About the venue

About the artists

"There are lots of misconceptions about my music. People always want to classify what you do. I feel what I'm doing now is a natural continuation of what I've been doing in Iceland for the last 10 years. So I would rather everyone just think of this music as 'Björk music'.

"Björk music is very flexible, very intense and very rich, but also very whimsical and always changing. I get bored very easily, I think... Yes, I think that is the reason why I do what I do: I get bored very easily."

Bjork released her self-titled debut album in her native Iceland at the age of 12 in 1977. In her teens she formed the bands Exodus, Tappi Tikarrass and Kukl, before the latter morphed into the unholy pop ensemble known as Sugarcubes. They released three brilliantly quirky albums before their singer decided to go it solo.

Debut (1993) topped many critics' end-of-year polls and remains one of the most influential and highly regarded albums of all time. Post followed in 1995, with the icy Homogenic album appearing two years later. In 2000, Bjork starred in Lars Von Trier's exceptional film Dancer Of The Dark, also penning the soundtrack, entitled Selmasongs after the name of her character. While continually wowing critics and breaking ground musically, Bjork found herself at a creative turnstiles with Vespertine (2001), which seemed to tread water somewhat. Nevertheless, her Greatest Hits package of 2002 was near flawless.

Super Furry Animals

Super Furry Animals are...

Gruff Rhys - vocals, guitar
Huw Bunford - guitar
Cian Ciaran - keyboards
Guto Pryce - bass
Dafydd Ieuan - drums

When attempting to describe the Super Furries, people usually end up having to compare them to the Super Furries. “This latest record is not as good as their second one”; “this record is a bit like the fourth one, but heavily influenced by the first one”; “I‘m heavily into the seventh one, but then I‘ve always been first-core“. This is basically because even their most average output is approximately 12.5 times better than any other band. Since the early 90s, they have been beaming out techno-acid-socialist-prog-indie-calypso-pop from their private universe in Wales, effortlessly different, never knowingly without the sunshine-laden tunes. They will make you smile. They might even make you think.

The Super Furry Animals coalesced in 1993, when singer Gruff Rhys and his cohorts Dafydd Ieuan and Guto Pryce ganged up with keyboard whizz Cian Ciaran and disgraced school teacher Huw Bunford. Originally a techno outfit (check out early effort Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllantysiliogogogoch (In Space)), the group gradually moved towards the more guitar-orientated side of the market, bothering the charts in 1996 with a string of singles from their debut album, Fuzzy Logic. Originally pigeonholed as the Welsh arm of Britpop, SFA quickly outgrew this frankly unlovable title with 97’s Radiator and 99’s Guerrilla, positioning themselves as Britain‘s leading purveyors of wonky leftfield pop. Although the stripped back Mwng got them a mention in the Welsh parliament for being entirely sung in their mother tongue, it was 2001’s Rings Around The World which truly put them on the mainstream map, reaching number 3 in the album charts and recruiting as well as splitting a good many fans with its widescreen sound.

Since then, 2003’s Phantom Power and 2005’s Love Kraft suggest a band blissfully set adrift on their own sea of whimsy and weirdness. They remain as politically uncompromising as ever, mind; members of the armed forces do not get their usual discount buying SFA’s albums, and they allegedly turned down a seven figure amount of money to soundtrack a worldwide Coca Cola advert, something that a number of other “alternative” rock stars should take note of.

Their live shows are also really, really great.»

Bloc Party

Original DiS biog:

Bloc Party (they were formerly listed on these pages under the name Union) are a four piece from London who peddle a fine line of taut riffology, sounding not unlike that ever-popular New York five piece duelling with Fugazi in an art rock-shaped blender. With tunes to boot. Dynamic, wirey entertainment.

Think: Gang Of Four, The Cure, The Strokes and all that schtick. They are fab.

Bloc Party are:

Kele Okereke - vocals, guitar
Russell Lissack - guitar, floppy hair
Gordon Moakes - bass and backing vocals
Matt Tong - drums, ties

After much A&R battling, they signed to Wichita in the UK for their record deal, and EMI for their publishing. They are also signed to Vice in the USA.

NEW DiS biog:

We first stumbled across Bloc Party when they played under the name The Angel Range as the first-on at Camden’s Dublin Castle at the tail end of 2002. We don’t actually remember much of it back then. They weren’t all that.

In fact, when DiS properly ‘stumbled across’ Bloc Party they were, for some unfathomable but thankfully short-lived reason, called Diet. They’d emailed and asked if they could send a demo and where it should be sent to. An unusually on-form DiS journo said “I’ll have that”. By the time the demo (on a plain CDR without even a track-listing to its name) reached us they’d changed the name to Union. It was, to use a journalistic cliché, like someone had fed The Strokes some very good amphetamines and introduced them to The Cure. It made us go ping! and then some. The tracks were This Is Not A Competition and The Answer. It got reviewed, and there was some rejoicing. “We’ve been offered gigs and everything,” Kele later said. Come mid-2003 and there was a second demo. Union and their friends Redjetson sat their arses in DiS’ new Stoke Newington abode and set about posting their CDs in packages together to various ‘industry’ folk. “Right messy bastards, they were,” one witness was heard to comment.

In the meantime, Kele had read with interest about a new band called Franz Ferdinand. They sounded like they were into the same sort of things as Union, so he went to one of their gigs. Spotting Radio One/6 Music DJ Steve Lamacq in the crowd, he handed him a CD. One was also thrust into the hands of Franz. Lamacq played the track She’s Hearing Voices on his Radio 1 show, declaring the song “genius” and inviting them to record a live session. At this point, the music industry’s ears began to pick up. By September, the band had discovered another Union in east London, so changed their name to Bloc Party – based on housing block parties (minus the ‘k’, just for aesthetic reasons) rather than anything to do with the Eastern Bloc – and got invited to play Franz’s now-legendary ‘warehouse’ gig at the Electrowerkz in London’s Angel, as part of the Domino label’s anniversary celebrations. Around this time they were also whoring themselves out to any venue that would have them, sometimes playing several London gigs in a week. That year they were to play no less than five times for DiS and DiS promotions offshoot Last Band Standing, including a hastily arranged gig at Brixton Windmill with Twisted Charm which saw them play to 12 people and barely covering the £40 they needed for the taxi in which the drums were carried. In December that year they played the Barfly with Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies and Reagan (now called Fans Of Kate), where they were seen for the first time by Simon White, the one-time Menswe@r guitarist (ask your big brother) who is now Bloc Party’s manager, at which he rejoices.

2004 is when things really did go crazy. The A&R men pounced on them and deals were offered left, right and centre. Before anything was signed they put out She’s Hearing Voices on 7” on Trash Aesthetics, the label run by a couple of young chaps called Rob and Tim (the latter had promoted the first ever Angel Range gig at the Verge in Kentish Town). After that came another one-off single for Moshi Moshi, entitled Banquet, which some people had the nerve to compare to The Police. The accompanying video was a low-budget b&w affair in which Kele looked utterly paranoid. Shoved on the road to learn their craft, they played a few dates with Graham Coxon. There was rejoicing at this. After all, he is God.

The band signed their publishing to The Man (aka EMI) but their record deal came from the cool, creative indie label Wichita. And there was more rejoicing. The first fruit for Wichita was the single Little Thoughts, a live favourite, at which point the hype for the band was creeping up to fever pitch. It hit the Top 40. And there was more rejoicing. It was followed up the frantic guitar duelling of Helicopter - its name chosen purely because Kele liked the word and not because XTC had a song of the same name – which became their first Top 30 hit. And, you guessed it, we all did rejoice just that little bit harder. Their ‘proper’ TV debut came not long after on BBC2’s almost-legendary ‘Later…’, which saw them guest alongside Interpol and Elton John amongst others. A truly bizarre moment. They played Helicopter and another live fave, the equally frantic Like Eating Glass.

At time of writing, their Paul Epworth-produced debut album Silent Alarm was due for release – copies having already been leaked onto the internet. There’s no doubt that 2005 is the year Bloc Party become absolutely massive. Brixton Windmill to Brixton Academy in the space of a 18 months is pretty good going.

by adie nunn, january 2005»

Kasabian

Kasabian are a truly violent delight. Shushing like a more neatly trimmed Ian Brown, singer Tom Meighan has the demonic fervor of the frontman of the UK's next truly great band. To write them off as the melting pot of the Roses and the Primals is to do them a huge disservice. Beats, fantastic basslines and some actual tunes too.»

Amy Winehouse

Chart-topping and tabloid-courting soulstress.

MySpace

Photo: Andrew Future

Arcade Fire

Win Butler - vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards
Régine Chassane - vocals, synths, drums
Richard Reed Parry - organ
William Butler - percussion, synths
Timothy Kingsbury - bass
Howard Bilerman - drums, guitar

Members fled from Texas and Ontario at a young age and joined with local youth, making their home in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Somehow they survived the first terrible winters, and in August 2003 at the dusty Hotel2Tango they made some preliminary recordings for a new album.
Partially due to the intense heat, two of them married each other. The time in the sun was short lived however, and soon the terrible winter of 2004 was upon them. To keep warm they recorded the remaining nine tracks, at the Hotel and in Win and Régine's apartment, on 24 track 2" tape, 1/2" 16 track, 1/2" 8 track, optimus ctr-108 and God-forsaken computer.
When family members kept dying they realised they should call their record "Funeral", noting the irony of their first full length recording bearing a name with such closure.

(Taken from 'Funeral')»

Arctic Monkeys

Alex Turner: guitar/vocals
Jamie Cook: guitar
Andy Nicholson: bass (left 2006)
Matt Helders: drums
Nick O'Malley: bass

Formed back in 2002 and hailing from the High Green area of Sheffield, Arctic Monkeys were the success story of 2006. Their first two singles, 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' and 'When The Sun Goes Down' reached number one, and their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not also climbed to the top of the albums chart in its first week. It's the fastest-selling debut album in British history (as of February 2007). NME has named it the fifth-greatest UK album of all time.

The name? Says Helders: "Jamie just always wanted to be in a band called Arctic Monkeys. Which is a cool name." (Prefix Magazine).

The fame? They don't like it, still. Before they were signed, the band banned talent scouts from their shows. Like peers Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys have never seemed wholly at home in front of camera lenses and when a journalist comes a-snooping.

The band's MySpace site - "[When we went number one in England] we were on the news and radio about how MySpace has helped us. But that's just the perfect example of someone who doesn’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. We actually had no idea what it was" (Prefix Magazine)- is here. Tellingly (?), its headline reads 'Don't believe the hype'.