Friday Review

It seemed like the waiting had been eternal. We had struggled through the "will it, won't it" drama of the licence hearing. We'd speculated on the line up. We'd listened to the horror stories about Mean Fiddler commercialising our festival. We'd got tanked up on cider on Wednesday and chilled out in the Green Fields on Thursday. Finally, it was Friday and the music was upon us.

Whoever had the idea of getting The Darkness to open the Pyramid should be given freedom of Glastonbury. This was pomp rock at its most outrageous. A trip back to the early eighties epitomising what Glastonbury is all about. It was probably one of the most talked about sets of the whole weekend.

By the time I had moved across to the other stage to check out Nada Surf the rain had set in, but the wonderful Athlete made it stop. "It's getting hot in here" made them better predictors than the clairvoyant I saw later in Babylonia.

The best thing about Electric Six was that they sent me fleeing to the Pyramid to see one of the sets of the weekend from Suede. Suede are one of those bands that can move from the feelgood factor of Trash to the sublime beauty of The wild ones. Goosebumps all round I think.

Idlewild disappointed with the usually excellent Roddy Woomble appearing off key, however compared to the boring set of David Gray they were world class. Still I enjoyed the creamy waffle I had during his set.

I had been waiting forever to see REM and they didn't disappoint. They played an excellently varied set. The inclusion of Fall On Me from Lifes Rich Pageant proving an unexpected treat. Losing My Religion and Everybody Hurts were presented as the classitems they always have been. They ended on End Of The World As We Know It, and if the world had ended there and then I would have died in a state of ecstasy.

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