elbows
1st July 2002, 09:44 PM
Just got back from Glasto and feel almost human again so heres a very short review. Theres always so much on at Glasto that its impossible to see it all and I know I missed loads, but anyways...
Orbital had much the same video content as last time, but had some strange "lego like" side screens that rotated and at one point the middle screen was removed to reveal a huge disco ball. I was more impressed by the lighting of their set, especially the while & red lights for Satan which reminded me of a Strawberry Cornetto :)
Roger Waters set had the trademark beautiful Pink Floyd imagery which was nice and slow and faded gracefully between each shot. No mega lightshow etc though as it was obviously not possible to set the stage up like they could if it were just their gig. He also used Quadrophonic sound which freaked out people repeatedly as they turned round to see where the strange noises were coming from :D
The Glade had 2 back projected screens each side of the stage and 2 round screens next to them which lazers/lights were projected onto. Side screens billowed in the wind quite a lot. A 3rd screen onstage was used by some of the performers there. I wish I had spent more time there as it was the hub of VJ activity, but I got a bit confused as to who was doing the visuals there sometimes. An Exceeda banner was present throughout but their scheduled half hour set didnt seem to materialise as originally advertised. Plaid visuals were nice with lots of live video and camera movement in time to the beat sometimes too.
Im not sure who it was, but someone used those Nikon Chemical Microscope clips at The Glade and sometimes the blue title parts of those videos would appear which made me go ugh! Oh well, accidents will happen but couldnt they have cropped the offending frames from the source clips?
There was a Groovie Movie tent in one of the Green fields which showed some indymedia.org and other activist clips and amusing stuff. I caught a bit of some Army video where they were given drugs and ended up feeding birds up trees and laughing at the radio equipment. Anyone know if its available on the net? I dunno if theres more than one of these films around but this one had a narrator with an English accent.
Anyway for me one act stole the show in terms of visuals, at the New Bands tent (where most acts are NOT new!)....
Cornelius
Blew me away. I personally love visuals that respond directly to every part of the music, and theirs sure did. Darn its hard to describe the show in any way to do it justice, but it was extremely well done, beatifully shot, great crisp high resolution, audience participation, great integrations between band on stage and the visuals, and the audience. Use of basic solid colours filling the whole screen worked great.
Anyway, they have a new Album out so I guess these visuals were brand new to go with that. I also suspect that there was no live generation of visuals but that it was eg a dvd playing and the band being really tightly in time with the visuals rather than the other way around, bit I couldnt be sure (saw a DVD logo appear briefly onscreen when they finished though)
They played a few older tracks with content like I saw at Reading festival in 98 (I think) - mostly looped video from tv eg some footy games
Well for an ultra-mini review that was a bit long. I'll try and dig up some pics and find more Cornelius info if I can, if theres a DVD for their new album then I want it :)
Would love to hear from others who attended to see what you thought and comment on moments I didnt see (of which there were loads so I probably missed some great stuff, and I didnt make it to the Dance tent at all)
Me sleep now in comfy bed :)
PS. Outdoor Cinema used a blow up screen which was huge & worked well, and the projector was inside a pyramid in the middle of the field.
PPS. The Glade looks promising indeed for much VJ stuff at future festivals - could be reworked a little to allow screens to work ok during the day and give lots of VJs the opportunity to perform.
Orbital had much the same video content as last time, but had some strange "lego like" side screens that rotated and at one point the middle screen was removed to reveal a huge disco ball. I was more impressed by the lighting of their set, especially the while & red lights for Satan which reminded me of a Strawberry Cornetto :)
Roger Waters set had the trademark beautiful Pink Floyd imagery which was nice and slow and faded gracefully between each shot. No mega lightshow etc though as it was obviously not possible to set the stage up like they could if it were just their gig. He also used Quadrophonic sound which freaked out people repeatedly as they turned round to see where the strange noises were coming from :D
The Glade had 2 back projected screens each side of the stage and 2 round screens next to them which lazers/lights were projected onto. Side screens billowed in the wind quite a lot. A 3rd screen onstage was used by some of the performers there. I wish I had spent more time there as it was the hub of VJ activity, but I got a bit confused as to who was doing the visuals there sometimes. An Exceeda banner was present throughout but their scheduled half hour set didnt seem to materialise as originally advertised. Plaid visuals were nice with lots of live video and camera movement in time to the beat sometimes too.
Im not sure who it was, but someone used those Nikon Chemical Microscope clips at The Glade and sometimes the blue title parts of those videos would appear which made me go ugh! Oh well, accidents will happen but couldnt they have cropped the offending frames from the source clips?
There was a Groovie Movie tent in one of the Green fields which showed some indymedia.org and other activist clips and amusing stuff. I caught a bit of some Army video where they were given drugs and ended up feeding birds up trees and laughing at the radio equipment. Anyone know if its available on the net? I dunno if theres more than one of these films around but this one had a narrator with an English accent.
Anyway for me one act stole the show in terms of visuals, at the New Bands tent (where most acts are NOT new!)....
Cornelius
Blew me away. I personally love visuals that respond directly to every part of the music, and theirs sure did. Darn its hard to describe the show in any way to do it justice, but it was extremely well done, beatifully shot, great crisp high resolution, audience participation, great integrations between band on stage and the visuals, and the audience. Use of basic solid colours filling the whole screen worked great.
Anyway, they have a new Album out so I guess these visuals were brand new to go with that. I also suspect that there was no live generation of visuals but that it was eg a dvd playing and the band being really tightly in time with the visuals rather than the other way around, bit I couldnt be sure (saw a DVD logo appear briefly onscreen when they finished though)
They played a few older tracks with content like I saw at Reading festival in 98 (I think) - mostly looped video from tv eg some footy games
Well for an ultra-mini review that was a bit long. I'll try and dig up some pics and find more Cornelius info if I can, if theres a DVD for their new album then I want it :)
Would love to hear from others who attended to see what you thought and comment on moments I didnt see (of which there were loads so I probably missed some great stuff, and I didnt make it to the Dance tent at all)
Me sleep now in comfy bed :)
PS. Outdoor Cinema used a blow up screen which was huge & worked well, and the projector was inside a pyramid in the middle of the field.
PPS. The Glade looks promising indeed for much VJ stuff at future festivals - could be reworked a little to allow screens to work ok during the day and give lots of VJs the opportunity to perform.