Glastonbury Festival 2005
Friday 24th to Sunday 26th June 2005Worthy Farm, Pilton, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 4AZ, England MAP
£125 - SOLD OUT
Daily capacity: 150,000
Blackbud John Peel Stage, Sunday
My how things are beginning to change for Blackbud, there are Blackbud stickers all over the site promoting their appearances here at Glastonbury and half the audience have stickers on their bags or backs. Before Jo and Co. take to the stage some girls are handing out Blackbud badges and the stickers and the crowd is gathering, though a few are wearing Hard Fi T-shirts expecting them and not Blackbud to be playing.
Blackbud have already had a Glastonbury of changing fortunes, their first Other Stage performance was cancelled due to the horrendous weather on the opening morning of the festival. Their fantastic acoustic session at the Glastonbury Inter@ctive geodesic dome in the Dance Village was streamed straight out over the net. Then they played a glorious jam session in the Late n Live lounge to their adoring fans and now they have an extended set due to Hard Fi cancelling, but mix ups in the Press Office and the fact the Q Daily line-up is so old its showing signs of fossilisation means that some of their fans have no idea they are playing the John Peel Stage.
At least the weather has dried the access to the tent enough for people to get into it to watch them and there are also hastily erected signposts leading the way with stickers and marker pen arrows. The band are made welcome by the John Peel stage MC who he says is fed up of introducing them on this stage and hopes that from now on theyll be appearing on bigger stages at future festivals.
Blackbud start well with Jo playing on a big shiny Gibson and those in the crowd that havent heard them appear very impressed. Even most of the Hard Fi fans on realising their band isnt playing stay to enjoy Blackbud. With tracks from The Livewire Ep - Forever, Lost in Time and 158 showcased and the band all enjoying being on stage and the usual chemistry working between all three their playing gets more confident rapidly and theres always a big build up for that last chord of each song.
Jo changes guitar for his more trademark Fender and there are none of the usual sound problems, in fact the man on the sound desk does a fantastic job of bringing us a well balanced sound. As the band meander through some new tracks Days Passing Away and Barefoot Dancing are fantastic new tracks and show how much theyve developed as a band. Heartbeat and Sitting By The River have the crowd again aware that they are watching someone great who could have the whole Pyramid swaying along to these tracks.
The set is over all too soon despite its extended length and my only slight criticism is that the band still arent willing to talk to the audience much, to engage us more they are still happy to let the music do the talking. Wow, and what talking it was, the crowd may have been slightly more subdued than they were in 2004 but I put that down to the fact its Sunday and the festival has taken its toll a bit. There was still a larger crowd and as I made my way to the Tolpuddle Bar for a beer I was surprised at how many were outside the tent listening to them in the sunshine.
Lets hope in 2007 we are all in the sunshine to enjoy Blackbuds music and I personally cant wait for another EP of the new music showcased here this afternoon.
review by: Scott Williams
Latest Updates
Glastonbury Festival 2025
festival details
festival details
last updated: Fri 18th Oct 2024
Glastonbury Festival 2025
line-ups & rumours
line-ups & rumours
last updated: Fri 18th Oct 2024
Glastonbury Festival
festival home page
festival home page
last updated: Fri 11th Oct 2024
Glastonbury Announces Ticket Sale Dates For 2025 Festival
Tickets will go on sale mid-November, with small price increase
Tickets will go on sale mid-November, with small price increase
last updated: Fri 11th Oct 2024
Glastonbury Festival 2024 small stages Review
Glastonbury - the Other Side of the Tracks
Glastonbury - the Other Side of the Tracks
last updated: Wed 10th Jul 2024