U2 Hits Glastonbury 2011 - All Discussions and Downloads

Originally posted by Biggs31:I think there are four factors to a legendary Glasto performance:

1) The artist must be the biggest, or one of the biggest acts, in Britain at the time of the performance.
2) They must be at their peak.
3) They must be able to sustain a good live show for two hours.
4) They must be able to deal with the small stage being so far away from a huge crowd.

It's a tall order, which is why only a few performances from the Pyramid Stage are really remembered. The obvious example is Radiohead in 1997. They had just released OK Computer. The British public had grown tired of Britpop and everyone loved Radiohead's stripped-down approach which focussed on the songs.

In recent years there has been a trend of 'marquee' acts, i.e. Paul McCartney, and 'novelty' acts who are different for Glastonbury, i.e. Jay-Z, or indie darlings, i.e. The Killers, Arcade Fire, who can't sustain a full set to that size of crowd.

U2 are definitely a marquee act and have passed their peak. There was no way they could produce an all-time classic performance. But they hardly put a foot wrong.

Originally posted by Remy:[image]

Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]

Very well said. You named some of the legendary performances I mentioned before. Good example, Radiohead '97 was legendary (and probably the most remembered Glasto performance ever), and it was that legendary exactly because of that 4 factors you wrote.

The other day, U2 mostly lacked factors 1 and 2 (because 4 wasnt that much of a problem and 3 obviously isn't a concern for U2). They could have gone over factor 1 if NLOTH had been more of a success, but they can't go over the fact that they're not at their peak anymore.

Originally posted by I_LIKE_U2:[..]

arcade fire are great at festivals?

Originally posted by Biggs31:Agreed. Any criticisms on that basis are out of their hands.
[..]
I agree they're a great festival band but I don't think they have the songs to headline the biggest festival in the world. As it turns out, they headlined Reading not Glastonbury. I got mixed up!

Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]
I agree about your Arcade Fire and Killers criticism (not that much of a critic but anyway, we get each other)...

I'm a BIG The Killers fan (I myself uploaded 6 or 7 Killers bootlegs some weeks ago, including their 2007-06-23 - Glastonbury show), but I agree that they lack the impressive backup collection that headlining this festival requires. Sure they have some songs that were true landmarks of the decade like Mr. Brightside, When You Were Young, Human or Somebody Told Me... But nowhere near the trascendental hymns that U2, Radiohead, Muse, Bruce Springsteen or even Coldplay have pulled out throughout their widespan career.

Arcade Fire has a similar problem, they have an extensive catalogue but they only became very very popular -to the mainstream public at least- with their 2007 album Neon Bible, and they have only 3 albums out... I can't deny they might be an excellent excellent band (they're high up on my to-attend bands list), but my uncles's group are also excellent musicians and performers, and they can't headline Glastonbury or Reading... Ya know wh'ta mean? (And no, I'm not comparing the almighty Arcade Fire with my uncle's band)

Originally posted by Yogi:Yeah, I can agree with that. AF is my TOP 5 band, this year they have the best album in the world, undenyable, and with another great album (all of their albums are true master pieces, but not for mainstream public) they will be able to headline Glastonbury. As much as I love Coldplay for example, they have no chance against AF, both musically and lyrically.

Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]


I'm a BIG The Killers fan (I myself uploaded 6 or 7 Killers bootlegs some weeks ago, including their 2007-06-23 - Glastonbury show), but I agree that they lack the impressive backup collection that headlining this festival requires. Sure they have some songs that were true landmarks of the decade like Mr. Brightside, When You Were Young, Human or Somebody Told Me... But nowhere near the trascendental hymns that U2, Radiohead, Muse, Bruce Springsteen or even Coldplay have pulled out throughout their widespan career.