The Blues

But not the blues as in feeling low or even the music but that's the name of this set up at Glastonbury. It's actually a DJ stage, with what seems so be a considerable amount of speakers concealed in the mock shanty town. I do love this kind of installation, not just for the imagination and the work that's gone into realising the idea but just for the apparent unnecessariness of it. 

After a nice lie-in this morning, we made use of Honeybells' most splendid shower (and toilet) facilities before heading across to the festival, which was when I took this photo. We went to see the showing of Julien Temple's 'The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson', which tells the story of Johnson's extraordinary encounter with cancer. The film starts with him only having ten months to live and his reaction to this is surprising, to say the least. He appears invigorated by the news, suddenly living joyously in the moment, not just for a day or two but for weeks and months. And then, partway through the film, he is playing a gig and an oncologist, who also happens to be a keen photographer and who is there with his camera, thinks that Wilko should not be in such good shape for the  stage he's at with his cancer. There is a further diagnosis and Johnson is told that, actually, they can operate after all. It's an amazing film.

After that we headed back to Honeybells for a bit, before going to meet some friends for drinks and a bite to eat before the Minx took me for a look around Block 9. I must admit that I didn't even suspect this part of the festival existed. A grander and far, far darker installation than The Blues, this is a daunting, hard-edged part of the festival. Overtly political, crowded, and, in places, almost threatening, we wandered through, assailed continuously by hard beats and what I suspect is best described as techno. I actually found it quite unpleasant, mainly, I think, because of the crowds. I remember it took me a day or two to adapt to the sheer volume of people, last year.

It was almost a struggle to get out of Block 9, there were so many people coming in, but eventually we made it and set off across the site to a showing of the new Kurt Cobain documentary 'Montage of Heck', which was very well done. Interesting and exciting, and also very well animated in parts, it was engrossing to watch the band's rise to fame, although at that point we left - just before things got tragic - because we had other things to do.

It was nearly 2am by now and we were headed to The Pussy Parlure to see one of our favourite bands, Balthazar. This must be the fifth time we've seen them, and the second occasion this year but even in the last couple of months they've come on incredibly as a live band. There's something new about them on stage: tighter yet more playful, dancing more, performing more, but also they've acquired a tension, energy and dynamism that I associate with Talking Heads. 

All the new songs sounded great alongside their 'hits' although I must admit to being a tiny bit relieved when they announced the last song. It was way past my bedtime.