Peter, Bjorn and John delight in the sunshine

Glastonbury 2009 review

By Anthony Hetherington | Published: Tue 7th Jul 2009

Glastonbury Festival 2009

Wednesday 24th to Sunday 28th June 2009
Worthy Farm, Pilton, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, BA4 4AZ, England MAP
£175 - SOLD OUT
Daily capacity: 150,000

Having been a fan of Swedish three piece Peter, Bjorn and John for the past few years, I was excited at the prospect seeing them perform in flesh at their 12 noon set on the Other Stage.

Playing in a slot that I personally felt was criminally early for the band, who in my opinion would've been much more suited to a sunset slot rather than the sunsoaked time that the band actually played. But my fears were allayed early, with the band proving that they were very much suited to the early afternoon sun that shone down over the Glastonbury fields.

Peter, Bjorn & John, now with a back catalogue of five albums, with the first self titled album being released in 2002, saw fame come to them after the release of 2006 album, 'Writer's Block', their most successful album to date.

Touring in support of the release of their new album, 'Living Thing', released in March this year, the band played a short 40-minute set, having to be selective with their setlist, with the band choosing to perform the majority of their latest release.

Songs from the new album, including the up-beat 'It Moves Me', one of the best songs in the set 'Lay It Down', and the Kanye West endorsed 'Nothing to Worry About', were all recieved warmly by the audience, who had taken the band's set as an opportunity to relax in the sun with an ice cream.

Lead singer Peter Moren struted his stuff around the stage for most of the set, and it quickly became clear that he relished the band's appearance at the festival, and the audience fed of this singing along and dancing away, despite the sunburn the many carried after the previous day.

The band's brand of indie guitar music seemed almost perfect, with Moren's half Scandanavian, half English accent sounding aboslutley fantastic on a poor soundsystem.

The best song of the performance was whistling, festival anthem 'Young Folks', taken from the 'Writer's Block' album. Almost every audience member, and anyone within the vicinity of the Other Stage, whistled along to the famous tune, singing back almost every word. Including two lucky audience members at the very front of the stage who asked by Moren to sing in his place, doing a sterling job, not missing a beat, earning themselves raptorous applause.

When I thought about it, I struggled to think of an argument to dispute a claim made by myself that 'Young Folks' was the perfect pop record, and I think that much of the audience would tend to agree with me, especially when it's performed live at a festival.

This was the band's only UK festival appearance this year, which is very dissapointing, especially with only a handful of UK dates since they came back onto the live circuit following the release of their latest album, but their lack of appearances is understandable, with the band instead touring across America with Depeche Mode.

The band return to the UK in October for a more extensive tour, and judging by what I witnessed at the first of their two appearances at this year's Glastonbury, the other coming at the Guardian Lounge later that evening, I'd say it'd be a very wise move to get a ticket.

They haven't really broken into the mainstream, but with this talent, and a fantastic live show, it can only be a matter of time.
review by: Anthony Hetherington


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