Amampondo and Juno Reactor (1)

Glastonbury Festival 1998 reviews

Review by: Nick Leverton
Stage: Other(am) and Jazz World(pm)
Day: Saturday

Got back from Glastonbury at 9pm Sunday (no thanks to Great Western Trains), hosed the mud off the tent and out of my boots, took a looooong bath with a glass of sherry-matured malt, and relaxed ...

There was so much good music that it's hard to rank it, I know I missed a lot as it is. But for me, the act that stood head clear above the rest has to be the combination of Amanpondo with Juno Reactor.
Amanpondo were actually on the bill twice, I think they were the only group out of all the hundreds of artistes to get this honour, and they certainly justified it by demonstrating their power and flexibility of style. Their solo morning set, which was a traditional one, was long on the rhythm, song and dance for which they're justly famous. There was dancing in the aisles (or, at least, in the mud), the sounds flowed, the rains topped and the sun shone for the first time in 36 hours (obviously that special South African magic!) and together made a wonderful atmosphere, the perfect start to a Glastonbury day !

Juno Reactor have, I gather, something of a trancey reputation (you can tell I'm new at this techno thing, huh?) which doesn't find favour in some quarters. But there's obviously a lot more to them than that. In fact I think it was just the mix guy, whose name though they announced it escapes me now, at Glastonbury - I was right up by the right-hand speakers (by choice :-)) so could only see about ten feet of stage. It was though a very impressive performance by all parties. Amanpondo's bassy yet varying beat moved smoothly and easily through the soaring, swirling music, always fitting in perfectly, a thread of rhythm coming and going right on the line. The crowd were with them all the way, dancing, bouncing, kicking up a mud-storm: it was a perfect fusion of the two styles. Juno with Amanpondo was one of the few sets where I heard people calling for an encore (sadly not granted, the running schedule was very strict). I know they've appeared on the same bill before, but don't know if they actually played together then. I'm certainly going to see if there was a tape made - I want a share of that energy !