10th June 2014
Glastonbudget Festival 2014
The Glastonbudget Music Festival took place on 23rd to 25th May 2014.
See the home page for the report on Glastonbudget 2014 (for all links to Glastonbudget 2014 pages on this website)
Photos from the festival will be added soon, please come back later.
Other pages in this report:
Friday 23rd May 2014
My Friday at Glastonbudget
By Jamie Borland
Beneath The Lights, Kazabian and Casino Empire were awesome.
Stating The Obvious are good buddies of mine and having seen them grow at each gig they played. They were on the IcOn stage and had a pretty strong crowd. There was a good reaction to some of the covers they played, including Fall Out Boy’s I Don’t Care, and Muse’s Starlight, as well as two of the band’s original songs. The band members looked overjoyed to be at Glastonbudget, which was a huge achievement for them, an experience I am sure they’ll never forget.
Fell Out Boy – unfortunately Fell Out Boy turned up late due to being stuck in traffic but the turn out in the Big Top stage for them was outstanding. Their set was cut short but they got the best hits into it including Dance Dance and Sugar We’re Going Down.
Ben (a tribute to Michael Jackson) played on main stage. He performed some great smash hit classics such as Beat It. He had taken the whole tribute to a new level by having had plastic surgery to look exactly like Michael Jackson. Sadly he walked off after four songs; it was rumoured that he was tired and his dancers also looked tired.
Luzon Bleeding Heart – I hadn’t seen Luzon since one of The Shed basement shows a while back, so I was looking forward to seeing those guys with a lot more space and boy they didn’t disappoint. LBH played their usual electro metal set, finishing with their single Killer. They had a good crowd who came to see them on the IcOn stage.
Police Academy – the tribute to The Police – played on the Big Top stage. The tribute had a great turn out of people in the tent and they played a mass of 80s Police classics, including the well known Message In A Bottle.
Antarctic Monkeys – The Tribute to The Arctic Monkeys played in the Big Top stage. There was a massive turn out of people to hear them. They played all the top Arctic Monkeys hits with the notable I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor being the last track of the set.
Who’s Who – The Tribute to The Who – was Friday night’s head-liner, hitting the main stage to a big crowd of The Who fans, ranging from young to old. Their set featured all of The Who classics with the obvious My Generation, Behind Blue Eyes and many more.
More about the bands
By Trevor Locke
For us here at MIL the main attraction of the festival was the many local bands that were on offer across a variety of stages.
Beneath The Lights have become one of several local bands to have found themselves a place on this summer’s festival stages. Shortly after making their third appearance at Glastonbudget BTL went on to play the main stage at the Riverside Festival [link] where the four guys gave the crowd an enjoyable menu of songs. Read our feature article on Beneath The Lights
Kazabian, the only tribute band to Kasabian recognised by the original band, have played in Leicester many times before. The Hull-based group played at Glastonbudget in 2012:
No strangers to Leicester’s venues, the tribute band from Hull played on the main stage. Despite the fact that it was now chucking it down, the main stage area was packed with fans eager to hear the songs of the ever popular biggest band from Leicester. Looking a bit like the originals but definitely sounding like them, the crowd soon got into singing along with the tunes from the Velociraptor album. [Artsin Leicestershire magazine]
Also in 2012, the band performed at the Cosby Big Love festival:
Friday night came to a resounding close with a performance by Kazabian. Playing covers to you know who, the band from Hull has performed before in Leicestershire and is noted for its authentic interpretation of our biggest local band. I was there when they played with The Tennysons at the SoundHouse. [Arts in Leicestershire magazine]
Kazabian also played at the Soundhouse again with the Tennysons on 5th November 2011. Going back even further than that, one member of the current band was in Cherry Cobb Cartel, a band that also played in Leicester more than once. So, good to see them back again.
Kazabian will be appearing at leicester’s O2 Academy on 8th November 2014.
One of a cadre of young bands climbing the local ladder these days, Casino Empire followed up their Glastonbudget debut by winning the I Wanna Be A Rockstar competition held at The Shed on 8th June. They also played in the semi-finals (31st May) of the Play@LMF series of shows, winning themselves a place in the finals on 13th June.
Casino Empire has a style of music in plenty of popular appeal. Playing both their own songs and covers, fans like the swaggering stage presence of lead singer Tommy Cobley who gives the impression of being a Noel Gallagher tribute.
Luzon Bleeding Heart is Leicester band whose musical style is hard to pin down but I usually make do with ‘Hardcore.’ Having played many festivals since they started and numerous gigs in the city, LBH have a fanatical following.
Tribute band Antarctic Monkeys played at the Cosby Big Love festival in 2012 where they headlined the main stage:
Cosby Big Love came to a resounding finale when The Antarctic Monkeys took to the main stage at 10.45 p.m. The sky had cleared and the stars came out both in the heavens and on the stage. They played the songs that are so well known and loved of the band they are a tribute to and the songs sounded authentic to me (but then are do say they are the official tribute to the Arctic Monkeys.) Whether you like tribute bands or nay, this was an arena level set of musicians performing strongly appealing songs, tributing a band that is internationally known. This was not the first time that the Antarctic Monkeys had been to Cosby. During their set Bill’s daughter Tyra came on stage to play guitar with them, echoing a previous experience when the band played at Cosby.
They played out the last notes of a festival filled with bands and songs that appealed to a cross section of music lovers. It had been a smashing festival, despite showers of rain, there were periods of sunlight both in the field and on on the stage. A great small festival and one which I think people will definitely want to go to again next year. [Arts in Leicester magazine]
The Brandy Thieves played on the Icon stage tonight. One of Leicester’s most popular bands, their brand of infectious gypsy punk has gained them a sizeable following, not least because of the incredible stage presence and lead vocals of singer Andrea Kenny. The band supported By The Rivers at a big gig held at the Soundhouse in February this year
Tonight The Brandy Thieves opened with their hallmark song The Owl and the Pussycat, its memorable opening bars breaking into a vibrant foot-stomping beat and the band soon made the room sparkle with its music. Andrea Kenney, lead singer, is one of the finest band front-vocalists in the local area and whenever she is one stage – whether with the ‘Thieves or as a solo artist – it is a memorable occasion. [Music in Leicester]
One of the longest running bands in our local area, Skam, are Glastonbudget veterans. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen them play on the stages of this festival. I do however remember them from 2008, 2010, 2011 and in 2012:
Glastonbudget has come on so much. Skam’s musicians have played there every year except the first one. It has grown since the first time they played, which on the back of a trailer, they told me. “Now we are playing in a tent with a capacity of 2,500 and that’s one of the smaller tents.” Steve said. “It’s a lovely friendly atmosphere and we are really looking forward to seeing Mercury and The Rubber Plants”, Matt added. It just gets better and better. SKAM is incredible. A band maybe more suited to next weekends visit to Download Festival, although they obviously love Glastonbudget and seemed very happy to be returning, this time on Main Stage 2, which they filled with classic rock come metal tones. With only three members, SKAM created an enormous, stadium-filling sound. On stage they ooze confidence, engaging with the crowd and interacting together as a band with rock star swagger. Amazing! [Arts in Leicestershire magazine]
See also:
Our report on Glastonbudget 2013
