Leftfield

Glastonbury Festival 2000 reviews

Leftfield
Other Stage
22:50 Saturday 24th June 2000

Having flexed their muscles at the Homelands festivals Leftfield now came to Glastonbury with a show that was polished. Unlike the Chemical Brothers who played the night before, Leftfield did not go straight in with a major track. They began with a gentle mystic sound and there was great anticipation as they built up slowly, very slowly bringing in that deep thumping base. When the crowd did start moshing they warned us ' We'll take you higher, but first lower still' and came in with 'Chant of a Poor Man', but not just a copy of the album - this had a different angle and was played specially for us. Then everyone reacted when they heard 'Song For Life' and 'Storm 3000' from the first album, Leftism, which are mixed about and joined seamlessly together, the music flowed beautifully.

Then they announced 'Right, now this is the higher' and 'Inspection (Check One)' begins to huge roars from the crowd. However, everyone is expecting loud and unfortunately this didn't come off on the outside Other Stage as well as it does inside an arena. Inside you get the vibration through the floor and can feel it through your body but at Glastonbury the volume just isn't there and you're standing on solid earth. MC Cheshire Cat pleads for the sound to be turned up but it doesn't happen which I'm sure Leftfield will be disappointed about. The deep sounds of 'Afika Shox' belt out and the crowd is stomping though.

They finish their set with, of course, 'Phat Planet' and some timely fireworks appear in the sky behind the stage. Overall, a good performance with some unusual twists to the music which always makes a gig special, but Leftfield need that volume and Glastonbury wouldn't let them have it.