Morcheeba

Glastonbury Festival 1998

Friday 26th to Sunday 28th June 1998
Worthy Farm, Pilton, nr Glastonbury, Somerset, England
£80

Daily capacity: 80,000

Review by: Neil.

I'd seen Morcheeba earlier this year and was disappointed - not with their performance (they were superb), but by the crowds rudness by chatting through the set. I thought then 'I'd like to see them at a festival'.

So, Saturday 6:55pm, at the Jazz World Stage.
I had a backstage pass for this stage, and did plan to go and meet them, but the mud and my son conspired against me, and Morcheeba were just walking onto the stage as I arrived at the front.
And then the sun came out!
My memory is a little blurry, but I think they started with 'The Sea' from the 'Big Calm' album and also played 'Part of the Process' and 'Blindfold'. Then they reverted to the older songs from 'Who Can You Trust' - unfortunately they were played 'straight' - they really mix them up sometimes - but overall they sounded great (in tune, on the beat), apart from a couple of moments due (I think) to a slightly dodgy sound man rather than their playing. They had a minute where they lost the guitar, but carried on without blinking.
They didn't seem to expect to go down great, and were prepared to work at it, which is always a bonus.

The field was about 6 inches deep in mud for this set, which meant that I had to have my 21 month-old son on my back (the water would have gone over the top of his wellies). This meant that I had a wild-dancing 30lb lump on my back - a little distracting - but he loved it. People stood around us couldn't beleive that on so young could have such great music taste - that's my boy!

I give them 8/10 (they were played better when I saw them last in London) - but still a great performance.

review by: Neil Greenway