Glastonbury 2007

[deepvisual]

is it me, or are almost all the onstage visuals on the BBC coverage unbelievably bad?

[MoRpH]

If the beeb would bloody webstream I could tell you ;)

Mind you I know Red is doing some stuff there (and using some of my material no less) so I'm sure some of it will be EXCELLENT ;)

[Bokonon]

I'm pretty sure who ever did the chemical brothers set was a friend/fan of there's because it was the only one I saw that in any way translated to the TV well.

[deepvisual]

I'm pretty sure who ever did the chemical brothers set was a friend/fan of there's because it was the only one I saw that in any way translated to the TV well.

the CBs are using 90% of the same content they have used for the last ten years.

I saw The Who and the visuals hurt.

[cat]

I saw a bit of the Who, and Hurt I think is about right, it was shit for even generic media server footage!
TBH the lighting for all the bands I saw on TV was shite as well, even Bjork who usually has beautiful shows.
Best thing I saw, and only thing I would have lied to witness was the Gossip, they rock!

[Bokonon]

the CBs are using 90% of the same content they have used for the last ten years.

They've also been playing alot of the same tracks for about ten years, so that figures.

[ASMD]

Made it back to Sheffield after an epic all night journey in the wind and rain.

Pretty terrible conditions as it didn't seem to stop raining throughout the entire weekend which dampened the atmosphere somewhat. I would even go on to say it was overall worse than the Hurricane Katrina-esque floods of 2005, and members of my camp who attented in 97/98 agreed 2007 was more muddy then those mudbath years too.

Chemical Bros were ok, a bit tooo 90's primary colour rave stylee but the lasers were nice.

Great work to SteveG for running the West Dance stage for the entire weekend plus a silent disco, also to IUA and the Light Surgeons over in the Greenpeace fields. Did you guys do the Glade and the weird organic chillout cafe thing too? They rocked. Didn't manage to spot Dubassy although I did see a table backstage in the Roots tent piled high with V4s and laptops so he might have been hiding behind it all! Also popped into the leftfield to catch a bit of Mondo and BodyDataSpace who did a good job with projecting onto hanging three-sided screens.

Photos should follow once I scrape all the mud off my camera and pray it has survived.

[complexvisuals]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury/2007/watchandlisten/

[john01]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury/2007/watchandlisten/

Thanks for the link, I'll work my way through that at work tomorrow.

I'd have liked to have seen the Arctic Monkeys.

But in an odd way I think it's a shame old fogeys like me like them, when I was a kid my music really offended middle aged people, now we go, "Oh that's a nice tune". Auntie Beeb blessing Glastonbury, kind of takes the youth out of youth culture.

Mind you festivals are about the only thing I miss about the UK, especially
Cropredy (http://www.fairportconvention.com/cropredy.php), which is kind of the reverse of Glastonbury, it's a festival for wrinklies with the occasional youth.

Who knows where the time goes ?

[PCProject]

also to IUA Did you guys do the Glade and the weird organic chillout cafe thing too? They rocked

we did

friday night on the glade stage was pesh and myself (except for squarepusher)

saturday night on glade stage was ralph and roger and i did the ID spiral cafe - after 7 power outs i was finally able to get up and running

sunday night pesh and i did the ID spiral area - best night of the festival for me with "A man called Gerald" - "gaudi" - followed by a dj set from merv of eat static - i also got to play some tunes for an hour and a half after merv finished until the noise police arrived and i was turned off at 03.00 - oh and roger turned up at the same time as i started playing music so he ran the visuals forthe 1.5hrs

calve was area managing the greenpeace techno dome for the whole weekend with ralph and roger both performing stuff from the I-U-A HD AV set

another highlight was bruce and claires wedding in the chapel at lost vagueness - i still dribble a small drop of wee everytime i think of some the boxing ring antics

Steve - did dance west have the heated back stage jaquzzis and blow jobs from the room service girls that we had at glade?

[john01]

Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey rocks

Rodrigo y Gabriela, I wish I was there.

[SteveG]

Steve - did dance west have the heated back stage jaquzzis and blow jobs from the room service girls that we had at glade?

Yeh....it was a nice bonus :) Sorry I didn't make it round Dave...came round on Wed night but you were out and about...or perhaps in the jaquzzis :lol:

Weather and condition were pretty grim throughout and it ended up as a bit of a survival course. Just keeping good connections and kit in good working order out of the mud and water was a challenge at times.

Great work by the lads from Southampton Uni on cameras....they were of great help too with cabling when required:) A bad start to the festival in that we had problem with projectors and a V440 on loan from Phil at Edirol. for some reason the projector just would not accept the component feed....more investigation is required ;) We decided to switch with time running short to using 2 V4's which worked well, a 3rd was added at times. For the first day the lads from Southampton could not get the projectors colour sorted....certainly wont be buying a Barco:) We had one 10,000 and 2 x 2,000 lumen projectors which really weren't powerful enough until darkness started setting in, only the bright material was visable during daylight....cue CG8 :)

Can't comment on any of the big stage visuals as I ended up just too busy to get out during performance times. Myself, Alex from ML Visuals (assisted by Martin his partner in crime) ended up more as a visuals technical support team rather than VJ's. Personally I didn't do that much VJ'ing. What I did added a little more commercial work to Alex's camera work but it seemed to go down well enough. When called to VJ Sasha he wanted darker more generic material and the lighting guys almost had to turn off altogether. When VJ'ing for Steve Lawler I spent more time on stage helping Coldcut setting up with one of our V4's and monitors....they did appreciate it however.

Good to meet some more of the boards members Chris from the Light Surgeons and of course Red with his set up that resembles a flying machine or games console:) Good to meet Sleepytom who took the time to look in and ASMD.....you never did bring that coffee or beer tho Martin:( Tom & his wife from AV3, Antonio from Italy, and all the others that passed through the West marquee....saw some great work.

Allready invited back for next year so will consider this closer to the event and should realistic fees be offered ;)......all in all, I think it was an experience and thats about it.

[SteveG]

ps: I was first up on Thurs night doing the Silent Disco in East....anyone getting the chance to do this in future do so...it's a scream :biggrin:

[AV3]

AV3 were running the Dance Lounge with Acid Gfx. Went really well! Yep, there was mud, but hey its Glasto! My kit survived (well, cable runs are caked in clay).
Didnt manage to see much visuals though, saw Steve doing the Silent Disco. We were meant to be doing the saturday silent disco, but it got cancelled due to the mud. bummer. Next year maybe? I wasnt impressed by Chemical brothers though, think they could do a lot more with their images!
When we arrived, we found we had no projectors and no screens, luckily we had brought our 2 x 4000 lumens, and some screen material, so we made the screens on site!
Im up for doing it again next year, dont think I can drag my wife next time though, as the mud got to her in the end! We had to leave the tent there! ;)
Yep money really really poor, but made some great contacts, and have more work from it. Would have been great to have met more VJs, I think Steve and Alex were the only 2 I saw other than Bernie from Acid Gfx.
Cheers,
AV3

[ASMD]

Haha, sorry Steve, I'll make it up to you at Human Zoo!

[Rovastar]

Watched a bit on the telly but didn't see hardly any visuals at all.

Glad to see that some of you were there.

And looks like after all these years they still cannot even pay a fair days wage for a VJs work. Oh well they are only a small festival.

[2ciewan]

my pics - http://2cievents.com/GLASTONBURY/files/slideshow.swf

We were doing all the stuff inbetween acts on the main stage & the other stage, we also did the Carl Cox gig on the sunday night in the dance tent. Other than that i didn't really see anything impressive graphics wise from any of the artists on the main stage, or the other stage.

The guys from Southampton Uni were a good bunch, and it seems as if the worked their asses off all weekend.

[wellREDman]

i had a shit glastonbury
the fact that i was working in vagueness, but had a set in the dance tent west, and bruce had spread our kit between about 15 different stages meant that i spent the first two days walking the entire muddy length of the site repeatedly.
consequently when i finally got to my day off on sunday, i had such bad blisters i could hardly walk, so i spent sunday sitting in a chai tent :( apart from a brief hobble to dance west where i could watch dreadzone from a sitting down position.
Vagueness has been completely ruined by sheer crush of numbers thanks to radio 1
the only thing that made the whole thing all right was the 1hour i was mixing, my set with the bays all came together really well, and i enjoyed it more than any gig I've done with them so far. big thanks to the dance west video crew for being really helpful and welcoming to us. which one were you sjg707?
was nice to catch up with those vjfers that i did, but sorry to those i didnt get to.

[MoRpH]

That sux mate, I'll give you a buzz laters.

[hookturn]

Sounds like you guys had a great time at Glasto.:scream:
Shite there looks like a crapola load of mud again. :shrug:

Rather yall than me.

Hey Dubassy how was FFD?

[RayV]

glad you had a good gig, Red!
[sounds like you had a good hand!]

Could you [or dave] please expand a bit re Bruce's wedding?
Mazal tov :)

[jimmyogenic]

i went and had a mad 24hrs...

arrived sat am and was told that we could drive across site in out 4x4 camper..
big mistake as there was nowhere to park it, and by the time we'd unloaded etc the site was closed to vehicles... after 4hrs of wrangling, we managed to park it next to the cleanest toilets i've seen onsite..

once parked, we went on a wander round then headed back to LV where my crew was filming madness and fatboy slim.. utterly mental :) had a ball..

woke up sunday and chilled then headed home taking 8hrs before having to deliver this edit http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LkNwLM-GyKk

want to go again!

more clips to follow soon :)

[sleepytom]

I had great fun at glastonbury...

Once again I was reminded how rubbish festivals have become, but again was saved by the fantastic Groovy Movie who continue to run the best venue onsite with no budget, less crew than they need and solar power which has it's own issues in the current weather.

Also on the bright side was Trash City - the largest gathering of Mutoid Waste Company members ever (well for 15 years at least) - superb sculptures (pole dancing CCTV cameras were my fave) and the only 24 hour bar on site. Top marks :)

On the downside...
Greenpeace - why was your field full of brand new timber constructions which were never going to be used beyond the 3 days the festival lasts for? Sustainability begins at home! All the constructions in the greenpeace field could of been made from recycled timber. Also why don't you make your field look appealing at night? The total lack of atmosphere in there, combined with the really bad timing of the programming left coldcut and the light surgeons playing to less than ten people! (i'm really glad that i spent time and money setting up the tech in your dome - next year why don't we not bother and just make a dvd for the 15 odd people that made it into the venue)

Lost Vagueness - You lot should be ashamed of yourselves - ?1.50's worth of food a day for people that are working for you for no other wages. This is utterly indefensible, greedy selfish behavior that makes Mean Fiddler look generous. Your childish arguing did however provide a good couple of days worth of entertainment. Lets hope someone uploads the shouting argument between Roy, Melvin and Michael Evis that took place in front of a load of press, punters and crew.

[stealthsyst3ms]

I aggree with alot of the points raised here...and to you people who waded through the mud...well done!!

I was one of the people who really appreciated the effort! i saw some wicked visuals...and gained alot of inspiration!! thanks again!







Maybe its time to have a independent 'VJ Collective' that work to abolish this shit payed vibe!!! ?1.50 for a meal at vagueness tom?..... thats taking the piss big time!!

I spoke to Production/Micheal about these issues....and it boils down to this.....


we need to find a way of getting rid of the middle men/women!! and although they weren't giving too much away, they DID understand how important the Visuals are nowadays, lets hope things change fast!!







Who did the visuals at the 'Silent disco' on the thursday night? around 11pm - 1am?? some funny Animation was being played, which i found hilarious! ( it may have been the funny tea );)

[dubassy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkuusMUMRbI

a nice muddy video taken with my funky new fish eye lens....

Hey Dubassy how was FFD?

- i didnt end up playing in the roots tent on the sat, so i missed the chance to play with ffd. i was in there friday and sunday.

the screen setup in the tent left me a bit dissappointed in trying to play as they were so far to the sides of the stage i dont think anyone looked at them all wkd... so that was a bit crappy... but hey...

i wonder if the new dance area from this year and 2005 does not spread the budget a bit too much. i played in 2004 in the dance tent, when it was just one huge tent. obviously it allows the chance to host many more wide ranging acts, but the visuals setups surely suffer.

not that i saw too much but my highlights were an awesome japanesse jazz band on at the jazz world called "soil and pimp sessions", who blew me away and shirly bassey was fantastic...

[SteveG]

[I]Who did the visuals at the 'Silent disco' on the thursday night? around 11pm - 1am?? some funny Animation was being played, which i found hilarious! ( it may have been the funny tea );)

Guilty!...I was inspired by the funny DJ, (Steven G no less from Holland) and the funny tea :Smoking:

[stealthsyst3ms]

Guilty!...I was inspired by the funny DJ, (Steven G no less from Holland) and the funny tea :Smoking:


nice;) you made my thursday!!


I loved the list of starring characters ( or was it food? ), but cos of the tea, carn't quite remember the funny text!! could you enlighten me? (nothing to do with the buddah discussion on another thread;) lol)



nice one dude:D

[SteveG]

nice;) I loved the list of starring characters ( or was it food? ), but cos of the tea, carn't quite remember the funny text!!

Now you've lost me.....to much funny tea on your behalf I think :yep:

[visualchemy]

saturday night on glade stage was ralph and roger and i did the ID spiral cafe - after 7 power outs i was finally able to get up and running

Oh - cmon at least you didn't have to go up on the muddy ladders 7 times to repower projectors (damn panasonic2025 batteries) and you didn't get the off duty electrics guy to replace the dodgy multiway.

IDspiral was indeed looking good (well done to Dom from IDspiral for great space design), even with all the mud it looked like some alien space station on mars rather than festival chillout cafe. Shame I couldn't do more to fit projectors outputs to screens better - the cradles were done before I arrived. We even planned to tweak it on friday but after all this mud we were just happy with keeping it running.

Thursday was me and elestial.:.
On Friday night there was Tantric Billy, Mayra, elestial.:.
On Saturday it was Dave (IUA) and Matt Black
Sunday all belonged to IUA

Talking about other stuff - not having seen much of other works (missed the Friday HD set from IUA) I must say I liked CB visuals - especially the one with exploding arkanoid balls and the one with churches plans (looked splendid).

On the other hand person responsible for covering visual side of Bjork seemed to be some wannabe VJ. Odd nauseating transitions and basic onscreen graphics didn't really work, especially with such a colourful artist as Bjork. People came to see her not some 3rd grade visuals or someone playing on Lemur.

Overall - I found Glastonbury a great inspiration - many new people met and interesting stuff seen (like destruction of sand mandala by Tibethan buddhist monks) and much more not seen (didn't make it to silent disco, The Park stage and many other places).

It was a great experience, but it could've been sooo much better with good weather.

[RayV]

check this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfiiBbwcrGc

[visualchemy]

lol - looks like quite a weird experience. nice doc!

[itsthejayj]

Any thing about Addictive TV's slient Disco ?

[magiclantern]

I saw a bit of the Who, and Hurt I think is about right, it was shit for even generic media server footage!
TBH the lighting for all the bands I saw on TV was shite as well, even Bjork who usually has beautiful shows.
Best thing I saw, and only thing I would have lied to witness was the Gossip, they rock!

i spoke to someone who said the bjork show was the best thing she had seen in AGES (and she has pretty discerning taste)

[mondo]

knackering doing 4 days solid - leftfield tent started early on thursday !!

b>d>s team did 6no. 6m toblerone screens at high level, the vjing and video mixing for all the bands

here are some low res mobile phone clips from youtube with The Beat amongst others...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIROtzYLgdk&mode=related&search=

kit all survived though team all came down with a nasty virus!!
bring on the sun FFS

[evomedia]

though team all came down with a nasty virus!!

Mondo, were they sick with splats for about 4 days? Most of my mates had same thing, in the end was diagnosed with samonella. Only because one of my mates is diabetic and couldn't keep food down so got quiet serious for her she had to see the doctor rather than suffer in silence.

Most are paramedics, and all used a bucket load of antibactrial hand wash, all camped in different places and none ate together, so suggests to me was in the soil.

Diary cow manure is apparently full on the stuff and transmits very easily to humans when mixed with water, been cases where hundreds of thousands of people have gone down with it in the states and elsewhere when it sentered the water supply, but reckon that with the new resurfacing the top layer must be must more concentrated in the bugs this year as it lasts in the soil for up to 30 days.

It developes within 48 hours of infection and lasts between 4 and 7 days with extreme diarehea and vomitting, very bad stomach cramps and dizziness .

A few posts on glasto forums, with people saying they went to the doctor and the doctor said they had seen several people with same thing. I reckon was a bit of an epidemic this year.

[hookturn]

This (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlvw0B0wuzI) is why people get ill at Glasto.

Just dont understand the amount of shit in that mud

[cat]

spoke to someone who said the bjork show was the best thing she had seen in AGES (and she has pretty discerning taste)

I've seen her about 4 times, and usually its much more impressive, amazing sets and /or video and/or fireworks. On a good day she's a lot more than that, although obviously watching on TV isnt the same as being present!

[mondo]

yep evo - that was the bug!!

next time we will add warnings in the vidmix!!

[ASMD]

A selection of random photos:

1. BodyDataSpace screens in the Leftfield tent
2. Video rig at Dance West, including a V440 (not shown - other DVJ, CG8, laptops, Oxy keyboard etc, etc)
3. A Dragon, yesterday.
4. Inside rig at the Greenpeace Techno-Drome.
5. 4x4 with pointy things.

[Programpete]

On the downside...
Greenpeace - why was your field full of brand new timber constructions which were never going to be used beyond the 3 days the festival lasts for? Sustainability begins at home! All the constructions in the greenpeace field could of been made from recycled timber. Also why don't you make your field look appealing at night? The total lack of atmosphere in there, combined with the really bad timing of the programming left coldcut and the light surgeons playing to less than ten people! (i'm really glad that i spent time and money setting up the tech in your dome - next year why don't we not bother and just make a dvd for the 15 odd people that made it into the venue)

Hello Sleepytom,

just thought I'd answer you on this point as I programmed the acts. The Greenpeace techno dome was the only tent that I know of in Glastonbury that was so heavily biased toward AV acts. We supported the scene by programming Addictive TV, The Light Surgeons, Matt Black, Inside Us All Exceeda and D Fuse. We used no "big name DJs" just resident DJs and VJs to cover in between the acts.

AV needs darkness and in the height of summer the sun doesnt go down until after 9PM. Every soundsystem in Glastonbury has be be liscened by both the Festival itself (Melvin Benn) and Mendip Council. There are specific conditions attched to this about close down times and rig sizes. We were allowed a close down of 1AM on Friday 2AM Saturday and 11PM on Sunday as this was the first year Greenpeace have done a party in that fields for soem years. Unfortunatey the main stages don't close until around 12.30 Pm and consequently you dont get anyone up there until that time - hence whilst Matt Black and Light Surgeons had about 15 people there Addictive TV who were able to play from 12.30 - 2AM on Saturday had a FULL HOUSE. Beleive me I would love to have put these acts on a later time like 3AM in the morning but it was not possible under the terms of our liscence. Next year we hope that due to our "good behaviour" we will get a much later extension.

So theres the reason for the programming times for you - maybe now you will look at it in a more positive light and realise that someone is pushing the AV scene - not DJ culture.

With regards to making the field look more appealing at night - sure certain things could have been better - but don't forget that the field this year suffered from some of the worst "claggy" and dangerous mud onsite. This also meant that acts like Matt and LS suffered because nobody was sat chilling in the field.

BTW - the skate ramps were made out of recycled wood - specially donated by a major DIY chain - who did so without getting any branding.

Sorry if you felt like we wasted your time Tom - you werent the only one who put a lot of time in. Shame you weren't there to see it on Saturday night - a packed out tent with near 360 degree AV show and a crowd who refused to leave. Made it worth the while in the end.

There will be a meeting shortly for next year and I will bring up your points.

Cheers.

[SteveG]

For 2008 perhaps a "Silent Disco" approach would work for a special AV theme or marquee and would get round your sound levels issues. The Silent Disco certainly works.