12th June 2014
Glastonbudget 2014 Sunday
The Glastonbudget Music Festival took place on 23rd to 25th May 2014.
See the home page of 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:
Saturday 24th May 2014
My Saturday at Glastonbudget
by Jamie Borland
Fillers – Saturday afternoon on main stage the tribute to The Killers played on main stage to a really healthy, mental crowd. The band played the biggest hits from The Killers including – Human, Smile Like You Mean It, All These Things That I’ve Done, Read My Mind,Spaceman, When You Was Young. The biggest singalongs from the band’s set was the opening track Some Body Told Me and the closing track Mr Brightside. I have been a fan of The Killers for some time and I have to say how impressed with the Fillers I was.
Oasish – The tribute to Oasis followed up, after The Fillers, on the main stage, playing some of the best Oasis songs including Don’t Look Back In Anger, Champagne Supernova, Wonderwall. For those who are fans of Oasis at the moment, until they reform, this is the closest you will get to seeing Oasis and the legacy they have created.
The Bobcats – The Bobcats played on Loco stage to a fair-sized crowd. They played a really good set which is expected from The Bobcats who are a really tight three-piece band, with Stu Crown on vocals, Dan Fraser-Betts on bass and Boppa on drums.
I Surrender – These guys played on the IcOn stage before Jonezy and Alexandru. Because an act didn’t turn up, I Surrender played for an hour and a half, manly doing covers and a few of their own songs. I have to say how impressed I was with the fact they carried on playing to keep the crowd happy and for a band aged 10 to 17 this was amazing.
Jonezy and Alexandru – the set I had been waiting for all day. It’s no secret that many people know Jonezy is like a brother to me; having seen him play so many times before, improving and getting better and better at it. Jonezy opened with his song Mental, Alexandru joined him and did I Got A Feeling. Because their set was pulled forward by five minutes they finished early, requiring them to do an encore, slightly difficult for an artist who has a pre-prepared backing track. The audience knew One Nation so they all joined in. Jonezy, being Jonezy, pulled up singer Aaron Stretton from the crowd on to the stage, to join in with this song.
Saturday at Glastonbudget.
By Trevor Locke
Saturday was my day to attend the festival. Now in the infirmity of later life, my attendance at festivals has gone down to only one day. For someone who spends 364 days surrounded by bricks and tarmac, the sight of vast expanses of green was strangely unsettling. My presence there on Saturday fulfilled two purposes: one was to accompany my act, due on stage in the early evening and the other was to write as much as I could cover for our report, alongside the team we had present there for all three days of the event.
Hence, Jonezy, Alexandru (with the rest of the Norwegian party) and me arrived at the artists gate at 3 pm and checked in. As soon as we had done this the two singers were interviewed by a reporter from the BBC. I set off to reconnoitre the site and Jonezy set off to see if he could get himself and additional performance slot (not being satisfied with doing just one he was determined to see if he could get two appearances today.)
It was approaching 4 pm and the sun was shining although some dark and ominous clouds were hanging in the sky. I decided to have a beer and settle down to do some writing. It was good to wander round the fields and meet and greet many of the musicians, people I knew who were there either to play or to enjoy the other bands.
Formal Warning on the Big Top stage
One of Leicester’s longest-standing bands were in full swing when I arrived in the Big Top. Formal Warning were on stage in front of a large army of their fans and other festival-goers. Lead singer Ash Wright is the Freddy Mercury of the Leicester rock bands scene and was on stage delivering his now famous and iconic act. Time has not dimmed the energy of this amazing band; their performance today was as fresh as when they started out over seven years ago.
In the Loco marquee, The Bobcats put on one of their sensational blues shows. It was a superb performance that had some people dancing and others standing still, mesmerised by the quality of their musical abilities. Many people commented to me after the set how good this band was.
Leicester singer Dan Wright delivered a set of his songs in the Loco tent. A strong voice and a listenable set of songs.
Flying Kangaroo Alliance were there with their much-acclaimed lead singer and personality Merri Everitt. A set with plenty of vigor and attitude.
In the Big Top Foo Fighters drew a substantial crowd.
I-Surrender must have been one of the most memorable sets of the new bands side of the festival. They were on the Icon stage for nearly an hour but what stood out for many who saw them was the fact that these musicians were younger than most and they performed continuously and with a quality that would make many older bands envious. Due to the non-arrival of a band, they got a much longer set than had been planned but it did not stop them playing song after song and, for a band of their tender years, this was phenomenal. They achieved what few other bands of their kind could have achieved and the crowd absolutely loved them.
Artists Jonezy and Alexandru took to the Icon stage and attracted one of the largest crowds seen, so far, in that area. When they started their set relatively few people were standing in front of the stage. By the end of the set, a large crowd had gathered and you could tell from their reaction, to what they were hearing, that this was an exceptionally enjoyable experience. Jonezy, who lives in Loughborough, was playing on his home turf, whilst Alexandru had flown in from the north of Norway to make his debut appearance at a British festival. Jonezy was in fine form, injecting megawatts of energy into his stage performance while Alexandru plied the songs with his fine clear vocals. What made their set stand out was the music – it threw out stomping beats, compelling rhythms and engaging melodies. Many people, who had not seen them before, stopped to enjoy their music and watch the throng of established fans at the front go mad for their music.
Earlier today, the pair performed an unscheduled set in the Loco tent. Jonezy is irrepressible – put him near any stage and he get up on it and do his stuff.
Apart from listening to bands, I spent some time writing notes and talking to a variety of musicians and people from the music industry. My thanks to Jamie Borland for being at the festival all weekend to write up bands and to his dad Mat for taking an excellent set of photos.
More about the bands
The Bobcats
The Bobcats supported American singer Joe Buck at The Musician in May this year [Music in Leicester] and we reviewed the band’s performance at Pi Bar in February [Music in Leicester]. The Bobcats became runners-up in the I Wanna Be A Rockstar competition on the same day that they played on the mainstage at The Riverside Festival.
Jonezy
During the past few years, Jonezy has become an increasingly popular music artist on the Leicester circuit. He has played support slots with The Vamps and Los Angeles band OPM. He has appeared at a number festivals and shows including Curve Theatre, Embrace Arts and O2 Academy Leicester. Many of his numerous singles, EPs and albums include collaborations with other artists, in particular Norway’s Alexandru, FourPointOh and Strike Up The Colours as well as other singers and rappers.
Alexandru
The young singer from the north of Norway has achieved a substantial following both in his home country and in many parts of Europe. Alexandru’s appearance at Glastonbudget was his début at a major UK festival but he has performed on several stages in European countries and has a number of competition successes under his belt. Last year he performed, with Jonezy, at Oxjam Leicester and has been broadcast by the BBC several times.
I Surrender
When I surrender played at the young bands showcase gig at The Shed in January we wrote
From Derbyshire the four-piece band I Surrender were back at the Shed to give us another amazing set with the vocals being delivered by the guitarists, they covered the Arctic Monkeys You Look Good on the Dance floor, with some of the their own songs from their album. I Predict a Riot by the Kaiser Chiefs and When The Sun goes Down by the Arctic Monkeys gave I Surrender plenty of opportunity to demonstrate their verve and energy presenting themselves as an accomplished young band with a cart-load of talent. Excellent. [Music in Leicester]
Formal Warning
One of Leicester’s longest-running bands (with the same line-up), Formal Warning headlined a major show at The O2 Academy in March this year [Music in Leicester] and are one of a select group of Leicester unsigned bands to have played abroad at European festivals. They played support slots with Kaiser Chiefs and Scouting for Girls and have played in several English stages.
Fillers
Originating from the Suffolk town of Bury St. Edmunds, this is a band with an impressive track record of appearances. As it says on the band’s Facebook page – Playing as far afield as the U.S.A, Europe, Dominican Republic and Mexico filling in for The Killers, the band have played to audiences of up to 30,000 people on stages the have frequented by the real band and continue to expand as The Killers establish themselves as one of the worlds biggest bands. [Fillers on Facebook]
Oasish
Formed in 2004, Oasish have become one of the most popular tribute bands in the UK. These days, “Liam” will be seen wearing the exact same Pretty Green Parka that Liam Gallagher wore on the bands final tour before they sadly split in August 2009. They are now the ONLY band ever to have played at the now World famous Glastonbudget Tribute Band Festival EVERY YEAR it has been running. The highlight of this was being asked to headline the whole weekend and close the Sunday night on the main stage in 2009. [Oasish website] In 2011 we wrote ‘Now here’s a band who look the part and sound the part, too, complete with bad boy attitude from the Liam look alike. I was blown away by them last year and this year was no different. The crowd was heaving and really getting into the old Oasis classics that we all know and love. Crowd surfing, too, made you feel were at an Oasis gig. Balls, these guys had aplenty, giving you a healthy slap round the face time after time.’ [Arts in Leicester magazine]
Dan Wright
Last year Dan Wright was selected to perform at one of the Singers of Distinction shows [Music in Leicester]
Other pages
Past Glastonbudget festivals – 2008 to 2012
The overview and home page for the 2014 Glastonbudget report.
Our report on Glastonbudget in 2013.
See also:
The home page of the festivals section.
