Glastonbudget 2022 review Friday
Glastonbudget 2022 review Saturday
Reviewed by Kevin Gaughan
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Having finally got the caravan sited and setup – I hot-footed it over to the Big Top just in time to see Daz Lynch and his wonderful indie band, Revival, I was hoping to see Jam Room and Sam Kola in the Big Top and Icon stages, but was too late.
Although Revival weren’t the very first band this year (as they were in 2019), they were the first band of my Glastonbudget 2022 experience – and always a great way to start the great festival off.
Unusually,they didn’t play any covers this year, only their own original songs which was a good call as some of the covers were getting repetitive by the end of the festival. I must have heard Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain at least four times by Saturday! – great track, though.
Daz’s lovely smooth vocals and Revival’s easy-listening, catchy tunes were a joy to listen to and attracted a fairly decent crowd in the huge marquee for an afternoon slot, even causing me to delay my first Glastonbudget beer!
Revival also caused me to miss Blurb on the mainstage who I was planning to see, but was enjoying Revival enough to prolong my Revival experience.
Next up, for me, having visited the very impressive real ale tent for my first pint, The Veez, also no strangers to the Glastonbudget line-up, were in full swing, also in the Big Top.
Glastonbudget always excel and impress with their full-on lighting across all the stages (maybe slightly less so with the Loco stage) from the very first band, no matter how early, to the very last.
The Veez were lit up impressively, they played a number of covers, namely Feels Good Inc. (Gorillaz), Hash Pipe (Weezer) and Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes) and the rest of their set were originals.
It was probably the covers that mostly bought people in, but they seemed to stay for the originals, which was really good to see and a good example of how a newish original bands can benefit from the varied audience at Glastonbudget.
Next up, for a tea-time slot (6:15) was the great Mr Chris Ostler on the Icon stage. No stranger to the Leicester scene, he used to play here a lot while studying at DeMontfort University a few years ago before moving back to his home town near Exeter in Devon.
I was looking forward to seeing him again, as he doesn’t play these parts very much these days, however, he did clash with Paul J Roberts AND Kazabian, both of whom I also wanted to see.
Disappointed, I was not, it was great to see Chris again and his voice was as silky smooth as ever, maybe even more so than in the old days. Chris’ music and general chitter chatter and crowd engagement between songs left the audience feeling entertained – he also did a great cover of Tennessee Whiskey.
To see a video of Chris Ostler performing Tennessee Whiskey at Glastonbudget 2022 click here
Unfortunately, as a major clashing situation was unfolding before me, halfway through Chris’ set, I had to hot-foot over to the Loco stage (only about 30 seconds away) to see local lad, Paul J Roberts.
Paul was keeping the audience in the Loco stage entertained with his lively, catchy and hip-swinging tunes – he was on top form today, the decent-sized crowd were loving the vibe, afterwards, he told me that he secured a booking to play at someone’s wedding based on his performance on the Loco stage which he was rather chuffed about.
Then it was time for the Mrs & I to let our hair down in the Big Top with Kazabian – a tribute to Leicester legends, Kasabian. To make a bad clash situation worse, of course, the Mrs wanted to take a detour past the main stage to see what Pure Paloma (Paloma Faith tribute) were like – as it happens, they were good, really good – even I thought so, and I’m not a fan!
Pure Paloma were so good and the atmosphere was amazing, we stayed as long as we dared, before reluctantly leaving the Main Stage antics for Kazabian in the Big Top, having managed to get lodged in the pit, we had no choice but to jump to the chant of ‘get loose, get loose…’ as they played Vlad the Impaler.
Having joined the Kazabian massive, the atmosphere was electric, hot and sweaty, and everyone in great spirits and almost in tune, as the crowd took over the singing in most of the songs. Not that the Kazabian frontman wasn’t any good – just that they played all the classics the crowd know and love, including Club Foot and Empire.
Feeling slightly bedraggled and a bit croaky, I made my way over to the Loco to find popoluar local legend, Steven Faulkner and his rather lively and enthusiastic drummer in full swing. Steve has recently recorded a lot of the songs he wrote over the last few years so I was looking forward to seeing him perform these.
Steve treated his audience to some of his originals, including the excellent Call Home as well as some iconic covers like Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun with Steve’s drummer giving his Cajon a proper beating – but was entertaining to watch!
It was great to see Steve, unfortunately, his performance clashed with the amazing Mercury, so Steve’s audience was a bit thin on the ground. I love Mercury, but it clashed with a few other local bands that I also wanted to see like Lambone Splinter and local punksters, The Verinos, so I decided to see the local bands – I’m sure I’ll be able to see Mercury next year.
Usually packing the Loco stage, next up were Lambone Splinter. Lambone Splinter do their own stripped-back arrangement of popular classics by Kylie Minogue, Soft Cell, Blancmange, The Cure and Girl’s Aloud. I always remember their version of Soft Cell’s Tainted Love which I absolutely love and was so looking forward to.
However, unless I missed it, it didn’t seem to be in the setlist this year, which was unfortunate, but they did have plenty of other covers to keep me happy like Pharrell Williams’ Happy.
Hot on the heels of Lambone Splinter were recently formed local all – (older) female punk band, The Verinos. Having heard a lot about them, I was keen to see them perform live, especially on the largish Loco stage, especially as some members of the band learned to play their instruments in only three months!
Taking a little while to get into their stride, as they started to look more confident, their songs were short, simple, snappy and laden with attitude as you would expect from a punk band.
The Verinos were formed as part Ruth Miller’s Unglamorous project whose mission is to get more women into making music.
It turned out to be a beautiful evening and what better way to spend it than to watch local favourites, The Mercians, who always put on a great and packed show and this was no different. Competing with The Bootleg Beatles on the main stage (who, I’d been told, were rather good), The Mercians succeeded in getting a plentiful crowd to the outdoor Icon stage.
Full of energy and putting on an impressive show for a group of such youngsters, it was as though they had their own mini main-stage thing going on! I wonder how many of their crowd had been on their way to The Beatles, stopped off at The Icon stage just to see what all the fuss was about and then decided to stay.
That’s the great thing about the layout of the stages – unless you’ve been camping at the Main Stage all day, on your way there, you’ll pass the other stages. Especially the open-air Icon stage, so if you like the sound you can stop off en route and hopefully become a fan of a new band.
To see a video of The Mercians’ performance of When The Silence Starts at Glastonbudget 2022 click here
After the Mercians, I would have loved to have stayed for the acoustic after-hours performances in the VIP marquee, but it had been a long but great day, so I decided to leave the VIP until tomorrow (Fri) and made my way back to the caravan for a well-earned visit to the land of nod!