Glastonbury 2010: Friday - Other Stage Roundup
When The Magic Numbers played The Queen's Head last year, a fan proposed on stage mid-set. The good vibes were ever present as they opened this year's Other Stage, setting a woozy summer mood with an early blast of Forever Young. Future single Why Did You Call? hinted at a slinky, Fleetwood Mac-inspired new direction - not a bad thing.
If Joshua Radin faced a crowd thinking "Joshua who?", the Ohioan singer-songwriter won over many with his polished albeit forgettable MOR. Though we were treated to the inevitable solo spot, the best moments came early on, when his band did a fine impression of U2. Well, someone had to.
It wasn't quite the weather for a band clad in black, but The Stranglers made an unbeatable Glastonbury debut with a punchy singles set. No More Heroes thrilled from the first stutter of Jean-Jacques Burnel's snarling bass, but Always The Sun and Peaches provided the real moments of synergy, singer Baz Warne changing the lyrics of the latter to include references to wellies and fields.
Faced with a crowd big enough to match his towering ambition, the bearded and beshaded Liam Fray clearly expects to fly. Sadly, for much of their set, The Courteeners remain earthbound, their chugging landfill indie failing to achieve lift-off. Not until the all-too-apt You Overdid It Doll and Not Nineteen Forever do the assembled respond with lusty singalong.
Phoenix hit the ground running, piling into Lisztomania, as surprisingly determined frontman Thomas Mars windmills and flings his microphone like a Gallic Roger Daltrey. A huge cheer greets a 10-minute take on 1901, building to a finale that finds Mars repeatedly battering his poor mike on the stage floor.
A rib-rattling electro bass-drum pulse greets the arrival of La Roux, sporting gargantuan shoulder pads that might have shamed even the Dynasty-era Joan Collins. The comedy jacket is abandoned after opener Tigerlily, but the vibes remain poptastic, Elly Jackson introducing Heaven 17's Glenn Gregory as "my second uncle" for a rousing Temptation, followed by the can't-fail double whammy of In For The Kill and Bulletproof.
It's Florence! She's bonkers! And to reiterate the point she bounds onto a stage featuring birdcages and a harp, looking like a fight in a bridal department. Florence & The Machine's plumy theatrical pop has elevated Ms Welsh to the status of a bona fide pop star in little over a year and, if the onstage histrionics occasionally fly around with no particular place to go, her enthusiasm spreads through the crowd like a depth charge. Alas, she decides to bludgeon Fleetwood Mac's The Chain (you know, the one off of the Grand Prix), but we're also treated to a couple of new songs. One, Strangeness and Charm, is apparently "about atoms", or possibly apples.
Most of the Florence-ites flock away soon after (probably to catch her on stage with Dizzee next door). But, what Hot Chip lack in fancy dress, they more than make up for in deadpan yet thumping dance pop. They just lack a bit of charisma - perhaps hang around to take notes during the Pet Shop Boys tomorrow.
The Other stage: Phoenix, La Roux, Florence and the Machine, Hot Chip,
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3:18 PM | 26/06/2010
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