Glastonbury Festival

[*Bob*]

Poorly explained

I meant the insidious rise of lipsyncing (and thus 'are they' / 'aren't they' discussion that accompanies virtually TV performance we watch) is a real spoiler. The worst offenders (in my book) are the ones who are perfectly capable of doing it for real.

[MrBen]

Aw man...just watched that Dolly clip. I feel crushed and devalued. Empty actually.

I'm due to watch it with the missus tonight. Being a mid west girl she's a big fan. I won't be telling her.

[MrBen]

And she's come out today saying she WASN'T miming. Perhaps the music showbiz equivalent of Paul Daniels saying the saw and the box were real. A white lie for the greater good.

[StraferJack]

I didn't bite him. He was bitten tho

A lot of poor apologising around

[MrBen]

Well that aside I really enjoyed most of it. I even enjoyed Kasabians set, despite having always thought they were a bunch of knobs.

[intexasatthe moment]

Stephen Fry says it was all down to some technical thingy and that she wasn't miming .

So I'm believing that she didn't .

Though I did wonder how she could sing so effortlessly after seeming short of breath just before she started .But I assume that her lungs somehow spread into her bazooms and that her capacity differs from normal folk .

[Seabag]

So Dolly wasn't miming, really this is a day of revelations

Mind you her mouth does move strangely after all the upholstery alterations she's had, I swear she can say "gottle of geer y'all" without moving her lips

Rolf still done it tho, right ?

[*Bob*]

No, I think Rolf was definitely miming.

[Jah Lush]

From Popbitch.

>> Mime after mime <<

Playing live at Glastonbury

Everyone became so obsessed and outraged about whether or not Dolly Parton was miming at Glastonbury that they somehow failed to notice a number of other big names who phoned in large sections of their sets.

- Metallica had a ProTools playback rig with them.

- Lana Del Rey brought half her vocals with her on disk.

- Goldfrapp had two keyboards that weren't plugged in.

[Jeremy]

Well that's the thing, isn't it? So many bands use an element of programmed or recorded accompaniment live these days. If you listen to someone like Kasabian, their whole sound revolves around electronic/dance beats. And I can't even imagine what Coldplay would sound like without all the synths and strings. Even traditional guitar/bass/drum bands are often playing along to a click so they can get samples/loops/lights/video all synced up.

The very notion of a dance or electronic band playing "live" - whether it's Goldfrapp, The Pet Shop Boys, The Prodigy or whatever - has always been a joke, it's basically karaoke (at best).

Was Dolly Parton miming? Probably a bit of both. Large portions of live singing, but with pre-recorded backing vocals plus a few high notes and stuff. It's just the way things are these days. And as mainstream audiences have become accustomed to a polished product, it becomes self propogating.

[titch juicy]

there was no way Jack White had any sort of assistance at Hammersmith last night as he didn't even have a set list.

And it was outstanding.

[????]

MrBen Wrote:

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> Well that aside I really enjoyed most of it. I

> even enjoyed Kasabians set, despite having always

> thought they were a bunch of knobs.

If we put being a bunch of/being a knob(S) into our rock star evaluation of talent there'd almost be no-one left......

[Rolo Tomasi]

Jeremy Wrote:

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> The very notion of a dance or electronic band

> playing "live" - whether it's Goldfrapp, The Pet

> Shop Boys, The Prodigy or whatever - has always

> been a joke, it's basically karaoke (at best).

>

[Tim Thorogood]

Back from Glastonbury promoting my book, and still recovering slowly. Arcade Fire, Jack White, Kwabs, Kate Tempest and Mogwai were the undoubted highlights for me. Managed to get three radio interviews and three newspaper articles about the book, and spoke twice at the Green Fields Info Tent. I sold quite a few copies, despite the rain. Here's a link to an independent review: http://www.centralsomersetgazette.co.uk/Review-Facing-music-Life-loss-Glastonbury/story-21269923-detail/story.html . It wasn't all rain, of course: see attached picture of Sunday evening's sunset, taken from my phone.

[Jeremy]

Rolo Tomasi Wrote:

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>

Ah, turntablism is different... incredibly skillful stuff.

I just get annoyed with "live" music which is basically sequenced/pre-recorded, with only live vocals and maybe a bit of percussion or something.

[*Bob*]

Jeremy Wrote:

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> Ah, turntablism is different... incredibly

> skillful stuff.

I don't doubt 'the skill', but I do question 'the point'.

[Tim Thorogood]

In my experience, it's hard to tell how much or how little sequenced/pre-recorded music there is at festivals. I've always suspected there's a lot with the likes of Orbital or Massive Attack, but I accept that possibility, given their kind of electronica. What they might lose with pre-recording, they usually make up with a fantastic light show, so it's the overall experience that counts. There are hundreds of DJ sets at Glastonbury and I imagine they are much the same, but when you're raving you don't really care that much. On the smaller stages, where you get really close up to the artists and can see everything going on, there's hardly any pre-recording; just the vitality of live, unmediated music, as experienced by the main character in my Glastonbury novel "Facing the Music": http://bit.ly/1i8Dmyg