Glastonbury (2006) User Reviews

The closest thing to Glasto without needing wellies...

[robhastings1000 · 8/10 · 21 April 2006]

As the King of all music festivals takes a break in 2006, Temple's documentary is the closest thing you can get to the Glastonbury experience this year. It charts the history of the event, but is formed in a way that recreates the feeling of three days of fun rather than simply following chronology.

Two hours and twenty minutes might seem a long time for a documentary, but as you're kept smiling most of the way through, it's not in the least overbearing. We are treated to a number of musical highlights, but just as entertaining is meeting some of the weird and wonderful people that make the festival so unique. Particularly memorable are the three-man family team who run the tanker that sucks the, aherm, human waste out of the portaloos – such are the moronic faces of the two children, they really could be characters from Little Britain!

document of the joys of glasto

[come2whereimfrom · 7/10 · 27 April 2006]

35 years and still going strong this documentary from Julien temple tell the story of one of the worlds best festivals. From day one until the most recent the film is punctuated with memorable performances from acts like the prodigy, pulp, Joe Strummer, David Bowie, Bjork and Dr.John to name but a few. There are moments that gave me goose bumps, I suppose it helps that I was there, but none the less there are some amazing performances. As I started watching the film I began to feel it was very one-sided all great atmosphere and friendly smiles and I was pleasantly surprised when it told the side of Glastonbury we would all wish wasn't there, drugs, robberies (no mention of the shooting in 1996) and it even tells the story of the travellers that used to go to Stonehenge before they were stopped and it briefly touches on the battle of the bean field. Elsewhere it gives an overview of everything the festival has become apart from the music. Wild sculptures, musical jams, costumes and over the top performance art all is here along side the things you'd expect tie dye, silly hats and naked hippies. If you've ever been to Glastonbury then you will enjoy this loving take on all its mystical aspects, if you've never been you'll get to see just what you've missed. Music, mud and mayhem combine to make this an amazing inside glance at a world that only exists for five days once a year.

repetitious but enjoyable documentary

[Buddy-51 · 6/10 · 9 August 2007]

With well over a hundred thousand attendees per year, The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is a famed counterculture musical event held in the English countryside not far from where the mystical Neolithic monument, Stonehenge, is located. Comparisons to Woodstock are clearly inevitable, but whereas Woodstock was basically a one-time thing, The Glastonbury Festival has been an annual event dating all the way back to 1970. Some of the styles and attitudes may have changed over the years, but the spirit of free love, political consciousness-raising, New Age mysticism and sheer unadulterated rebellion for which the festival is famous still remains.

Julien Temple, the director of the documentary entitled simply, "Glastonbury," brings an almost patchwork quality to her film, indiscriminately splicing together grainy footage from the earlier festivals with far clearer images from the much more recent past. She doesn't identify which year any particular sequence is from, so one minute we'll be watching hippies and flower-children "doin' their thing" in the meadows and the mud, followed the next by spike-haired punk-rockers head-banging their way into mind-altered oblivion.

The glue holding this excessively long, frequently repetitious and somewhat unwieldy film together is Michael Eavis, the idealistic yet deeply pragmatic festival organizer whose running commentary illuminates the history behind Glastonbury that he himself lived through and indeed helped to create. He discusses the changes he's seen in the participants over the years, acknowledges some of the more crassly commercial aspects of the event, and recounts a few of the less savory moments that have come close to spelling the end for the festival itself. The latter include the occasional run-ins he and his fellow celebrants have had with both the law and some of the more disgruntled residents of the town nearby.

But, clearly, the main reason for checking out "Glastonbury" is for the music, and, indeed, the festival has played host to a surprisingly eclectic mixture of musical performers and styles in the four decades since it first came into existence. Heavy metal, reggae, acid rock, electro, blues - all these genres and then some have found a home at Glastonbury. Some of the more well-known performers in the movie include Bjork, David Bowie, Coldplay, The Velvet Underground, Radiohead and Tangerine Dream. It's a pity that we are treated to little more than snippets of each of their acts, but even in small doses they create quite a tasty little smorgasbord for die-hard music lovers to sample.

I have seen better Glastonbury documentaries but this is still pretty good

[Stevieboy666 · 7/10 · 3 July 2020]

Glastonbury Festival, probably the world's greatest music event, now in its 50th year, though sadly this year, 2020, it, along with pretty much everything else, found itself cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Personally I have never been, even though it is only a couple of hours drive away, but every year I sit at home and take in as much of it as I can on the TV. I like Julien Temple's work,a very talented film maker. Sadly I don't think that Glastonbury is one of his better works. It started off very promising, with the festival being set up and people arriving, inter-cutting footage from different decades. Pity he didn't maintain that throughout. This film is more focused on the festival goers rather than the history or musical acts, although there are many great performances of the latter. Most of these are from the 1990's/early 00's, I would like to have seen more older stuff (assuming footage exits). Too much time is given to the New Age Travellers period, and seeing Rolf Harris being adored on stage now feels rather sickening (he is now serving time in prison for historic sex offences). One of the last tracks played is Bowie's"Heroes", the heroes of this film were father Ray plus his sons Andrew and Mark, who each day empty the brimming toilets, taking great pleasure in their work.At just over 2 hours I chose to watch in instalments rather than one swoop.

A poor documentary with limit insight, interest or value

[bob the moo · 1 September 2006]

It was the 30th anniversary of the first ever Glastonbury festival recently but to be honest I probably couldn't have told you that before watching this film. Sure, I'll tune in to the television coverage when there are bands I am interested in playing but otherwise I'm not really a festival goer. It didn't take me long to twig that this isn't really a documentary about the festival in the way I expected because it is more about the spirit of the place. Now, in a way, this makes for a very good film because it just sits back and pretty much shows the festival for what it is. The problem is that it also means the film has very little structure, precious little insight and features far too many people just being tw*ts. Some of them are just having fun but the funniest ones are those filled with the "beauty" and "importance" of the event – God I would have loved to know how some of them turned out as they got older! Here and there the film produces moments of interest (eg it was interesting to hear the organisers talk about the riot, the security problems and the like) but mostly it doesn't have many good contributions and even when it does. It doesn't use them well at all. This leaves us with two other things to fill a 2 hour+ run time, performances and footage. The choice of performances is, to put it politely, inconsistent. What does it say for a music festival that has been going on for longer than I have been alive, if this film decides to include David Grey giving a typically bland performance, Pete Dougherty falling into the crowd and several other performances that could only represent "choice picks" if taken from a very limited catalogue. There are other choices that are better but they do tend to lean towards the very modern, I assume because the media coverage meant it was better and more of it. However if the available performances lacked sufficient kickers then it could have gone for more of a focus on the scene at the festival.

Like I said, it does do this reasonably well in how it just keeps churning out footage of the people and logistics of the event but even this is pretty average. By just showing the stuff that got caught on camera I did wonder why this was any different from the annual BBC coverage. Literally in the last 20 minutes, the film finally gets down to some thought and insight regarding the way the festival has drifting from being a sort of relaxed commune, to being fenced in and more controlled. However this is barely 4 minutes of discussion and it is approached to suggest that it is done because it has to be – strangely there is no discussion (beyond one scene of rich people) of how branded it has all become.

Overall then a fairly pointless documentary that achieves very little in 2 hours. It does kind of grab at the spirit of the event in the footage of people but generally it is lacking interest or insight while the choice of performers made me worry about the festival if some of them were in the "top picks" of 30 years! Might be of value to some but you're more likely to get just as much if not more from the annual coverage on the BBC.

How to make an interesting subject dull, with Julien Temple...

[The_Void · 6/10 · 16 July 2006]

Unfortunately, I've never been to Glastonbury myself; and it is for people like me that this documentary fails. The tone of the film is aimed far more towards people that can remember the event themselves, and there isn't a great deal to learn for people like myself that have never been. I saw this film with some people that had been to Glastonbury; and they informed me that the film doesn't even show the best bits of the festival, as while director Julien Temple is busy showing us, over and over again, that the festival suffers from gatecrashers; he completely forgets about many of the events other than the live bands, and the true festival atmosphere never really shines through. Going into this film, I was hoping to see some of the great acts that have performed at Glastonbury; and audiences get treated to performances from great acts such as Radiohead, The Prodigy, Massive Attack, David Bowie and an excellent rendition of 'Waterloo Sunset' by Ray Davies, while having to suffer through drivel such as Morrisey, Coldplay and Björk...it's a real mixed bag, which could suit a range of music fans - but the director cuts the performances with other pictures and sounds, and it completely spoils it. We barely get to hear a full song and it would seem that the more exciting the act, the less screen time it gets. Throw in a completely unneeded segment about the toilet facilities and what you have is a documentary about an interesting subject, made very dull. Most of my enjoyment from this film came from the hope that I'd hear a band that I like soon; and most of the time I didn't. Shame really.

It feels like the real thing

[liz-badgers · 9/10 · 17 February 2006]

Living near the Glastonbury Festival site gives me a rather different perspective from that of the visiting Festival fan. And this film offers both views - that of the "local" and that of the visitor to mid-Somerset.

Covering all 30 something years of the festival's life, Julien Temple's film distills many hundreds of hours of professional film, archive film and home movie into just over two hours and really makes you feel that you spent a whole weekend there. Just like the Festival, there are different experiences for different audiences and those who love the festival for rock music will have some considerable reward with lovely filming (and soundtrack) of the main stage acts. Others who spend their time in the more alternative areas of the festival are also rewarded with extraordinary performers. A few of the punters are great value too - look out for the young man who had been there far too long although he could just about remember that he arrived "last Sunday".

Most interesting for me was the piece of contemporary social history that the film delivers. The first years of love and peace, followed by the travellers' convoys, the gradual growth of the corporate influence and the era of the all-encompassing wall chart our own memories of the festival through more than three decades. Some of the earliest archive footage is wonderful with great characters drawn from Pilton, the village near Glastonbury that hosts the Festival. Television coverage from those years will show you how much life has changed - as indeed have the TV presenters themselves. And the journey that Michael Eavis has himself taken over this mighty era is nicely covered too.

The stars of the show are, for me, the family who have the unenvied responsibility of clearing the loos early each morning. Father and his two sons - not men to tamper with - note that it's not a bad job "early mornings and plenty of people to talk to" but the graphic footage of their work might make you think it's the worst job in Somerset!

Edited in a way that doesn't do the work for you - years mixed together, no names for interviewees or performers - means you have to keep focused but at the end of the film I was left with a clear and enjoyable image of the journey the festival and its people have taken.

Confused Self Indulgent and Dull

[nafps · 1/10 · 11 March 2022]

The festival is very much like the town. Ask any Englishman about Glastonbury and you'll get the same reaction as Americans have about Sedona. Eye rolls followed by, "Oh, that bunch of nuts."

Glastonbury was supposedly once home to King Arthur. This attracts every flake and every con artist looking to prey on them. Much like Sedona's silly vortex claims attract the nuts.

Well, the G festival apparently attracts every out there type with more pharmaceuticals in them than sense. And that's all this very poor doc does, give you plenty of quick shots or 3 second clips of live action cosplay types. People with boots on their heads or balloon animals on their genitals who delude themselves into thinking that makes them unique or interesting.

As for the music, you're out of luck. No full songs, not one.

30 second song clips only, and then intercut with those annoying hipsters, neo hippies, aging hippies, and most of all, faux hippies for the weekend.

You will find yourself constantly annoyed and fast forwarding.

Americans say, "What's Glastonbury?"

[a-papke · 10/10 · 12 March 2007]

Americans have never heard of Glastonbury. That may seem surprising to our British friends, but neither myself nor any fellow "Yank" I've ever spoken to had any idea of what it was. To all my fellow Americans out there, let me explain: It's the greatest kept secret in all of Britain. We don't know about it because there is no way for anyone to make any money telling Americans about it. The only way I can describe Glastonbury is "Woodstock, but cool...I mean really, really cool." I kept saying as I watched this film, I wish it were longer. First of all, as a rock film, it's better than any concert film you can name (even though we Americans only knew maybe 20% of the bands in the film). Better than Live Aid. Better than Live 8. Better than Knebworth. (Unfortunately, we can't see every performance in its entirety because there are so many of them.) And the fascination extends beyond the musical performances. It's a wonderful historical document, showing the evolution of British pop, from classic rock to punk to new wave to industrial to whatever they call today's music. Plus you get an look at the fashions and zeitgeist of each music. Hippy's to bikers to (what we Americans call) lot-scammers. Glostonbury shows nakedness, drugs, mud, music and chaos on a biblical scale, often times on the stage itself. It defies explanation. You can only see it to believe it. Woodstock happened only once. This goes on every summer, and the music doesn't suck. It's a crowning achievement for rock cinema and rock history. I've always wondered why the best rock comes from Britain. This film offers a clue. After the film was over, I walked out of the theater and wanted a hit of acid or a stiff drink. I wanted to smash a window and streak down the street. I wanted to light a fire, quit my job and join a rock band, renounce all my worldly possessions and grow out my hair. I wanted to stand up and cheer because this is a classic film. I didn't do any of those things, except the later, because I'm not a moron; but the film certainly conveys the liberating power of music and it's capacity to free the soul. I am so amazed that the Glastonbury festival even exists in this modern age of the puritanical War on Drugs. It couldn't exist in America. I'm glad it does exist, and I'm glad that this film exists because Bachanalia is no longer valued. It is seen as a threat, as a corruptive force rather than a liberating rite of passage. It is an experience everyone should have at least once in their life, and should the day come when the 'Forces that Be' close Glastonbury down, at least Temple's film will still be here to show future generations how wonderful life can be when lived with perfect unfettered collective freedom, (as Bowie says) "if just for one day."

A lot like a home wedding video: If you were there, watching it back will probably be a fantastic experience. If not, expect to struggle in places.

[timhowgego · 5/10 · 5 June 2006]

Glastonbury feels a lot like a home wedding video: If you were there, watching it back will probably be a fantastic experience. If not, expect to struggle in places.

The movie is a mix of music, background events and smiley faces in silly costumes. While the smiley faces are important if you intend to create a sense of the atmosphere, two hours of this starts to drag. As you might expect, there is a fair bit of music, although inevitably only a tiny proportion of all the acts that have appeared at the festival over the years. Some clever production techniques are used, such as mixing performances from different years together, and using specific songs to provide a narrative to other festival scenes.

But this subtle narrative is about all there is to guide the uninitiated through the movie. This might be acceptable for the music, but not the interviewees. The movie seems to revel in this to the point of arrogance: Early on, it includes a scene in which the organiser, Michael Eavis, is talking to festival goers who have no idea who he is - much like me at that point in the movie.

Background events and history are covered, but not very well explored. Genuinely interesting themes, such as the involvement of travellers and the growing commercialisation of the festival, are dealt with rather too quickly. There is a lot of social history here, which could have made this quite a challenging documentary. But perhaps if Glastonbury had covered these fully, I would be bemoaning the lack of music or complaining it didn't convey a festival atmosphere?

An accurate reflection of a classic festival

[tim-regester · 9/10 · 16 July 2006]

Glastonbury is special, a festival you can go to where the sum is greater than all the parts, where the lunacy of the some of the punters is as essential a part as the headline acts a festival you can lose yourself in.

As a Glasto veteran from 1981 until the present I was fascinated by what this film would show, would it reflect the nature, feel and fun of Glasto, would it portray the worst with the best, most of all would you get a feel for the magic of it and would a veteran be transported back there for a couple of hours.

This film succeeds on all counts. Beautifully edited with a soundtrack including as wide a range of the music as has been encountered in Michael Eavis' fields I did indeed feel transported.

It manages to reflect all the essential elements, the people and the lunacy, the beauty, the sounds, the sights and even the smells of Glastonbury.

It tells the history accurately with no punches pulled. It shows the terrible mud and floods as well as the beautiful in one scene of a trapeze artist suspended under a balloon.

It captures the spirit of Glastonbury Festival.

A magnificent achievement.

Not really about the music.

[phyrlp · 4/10 · 21 April 2006]

I was disappointed when I saw this film because I was expecting something similar to Woodstock. In Woodstock the concert footage is well shot, with the camera focusing on the band during the songs. However, in this film the songs are constantly interrupted, not only visually, but also with sound. The director seems more interested in what the audience is doing than what the band is doing. Not only this, but very few songs were shown in their entirety and only about thirty seconds of the velvet underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties" was shown. This film is okay if you want to get a feel about the atmosphere of the festival, and learn about the history. However, if you want to watch this movie to see the featured bands perform, then don't bother.

One of the best docs you'll get to see

[mikek-6 · 10/10 · 3 March 2007]

Living close to Glastonbury I've seen a great deal about the festival over the years and most of the programmes have been so so. This documentary could easily have been a mess because of the sheer archival volume but it's not and mainly because it's been so sympathetically edited. The nice thing about the way that it's been cut it that it hasn't followed an obvious structure. It could have been chronological but it isn't, or it could have followed themes which it hasn't either, so it makes for a constantly surprising trip, never allowing you to fall into predictable rut. The over riding feel that the doc presents is how truly eccentric some of us British are and that's nice cos over the years we've tended to become a little boring by mimicing too much of the US way of life (which isn't known for its eccentricity or originality). Having worked in TV for over thirty years I'm hard to please as far as film structure is concerned, so its always exciting when something like this comes along. Go to some lengths to watch this work of great love and tenderness and you may learn a little more about what separates inspired work from the average and mundane. I really loved this film and everyone who worked on it should be extremely proud of themselves.

Rambling In Glastonbury

[atyson · 3/10 · 23 May 2006]

A documentary (I suppose) about the Glastonbury Festival in England over its thirty years or so in existence.

Well I suppose it is, in a sense, in the spirit of attending the festival being a jumbled sprawling mess of a movie. The good thing is that there are only snippets of the performers and the movie instead concentrates on footage of festival-goers from diverse sources, particularly amateur video footage. And everyone is bound to find something in it of interest (I enjoyed the travellers' contributions, and the Joe Strummer sequence). But at three hours and with no particular perspective it just becomes monotonous. And if you have been to Glastonbury or are interested in it I doubt whether it is showing you anything you didn't know already or can be bothered to sit through. Anybody want to see my holiday snaps...no ? Oh well...

The definitive Glastonbury movie experience!

[n-forbeswarren · 10/10 · 14 April 2006]

Attended a film event at the Colston Hall in Bristol of Julien Temple's documentary about the well known UK festival, from its origins in 1970 as a free festival - clock the footage of folk singer Melanie really giving her all here, plus various archive footage reminiscent of Woodstock - right up to the massive corporate-sponsored event it is today. My wife works for a well-known phone company so we got tickets quite easily and at a reduced rate and she now wants to volunteer to work on the phone charging stand . . . but won't sleep in a tent! Anyway, this movie does not run in any chronological sequence but intersperses past footage with more recent festivals, with a very in-your-face approach. Watch as eager freeloaders try to scale the Superfence and get chased away by security gorillas. Be reminded of heavy-handed police tactics of the Battle of the Beanfield in 1985, which inspired segments of both books I wrote(and promote on appropriate websites.) and also discover why organiser Michael Eavis had to let travellers leave when anarchist types infiltrated them and ruined an otherwise peaceful community. Mud lovers will also revel in footage of last year's flooding shambles and various drunken antics! Clock the entertainers and garish, freakish but very funny and well designed costumes they wear! Go harmonise with nature . . . hee. Live music footage includes Coldplay, Scissor Sisters, Bob Marley, Billy Bragg, David Gray, Chemical Brothers, Velvet Underground(I loved these in my youth!), David Bowie . . . and ROLF HARRIS.

Like another reviewer stated, it almost feels like you are there in amongst the madness and noise. Having worked behind the scenes last year on site there with scaffolding for the TV tower situated in front of the main pyramid stage, walking atop the stage(half built!), asking lots of questions(research!), and clearing up afterwards, it was a fascinating and hugely entertaining piece of history brought to life. Whatever music you like, there's something for everyone here. I have to say that I would not like the job of the cleaners in a certain part of the event.

But not only did we get the movie, we also got a short acoustic set by The Levellers, which for me brought back so many memories of 1990-1992, I followed them when they toured with New Model Army, met them, got crammed into a small Leicester venue called the Princess Charlotte while those that couldn't get in listened in the streets in 1990, and had fun. This band still have all that energy, even seated playing acoustic! Highly recommended.

A Mess

[eric.hermans · 3/10 · 18 July 2006]

The annoying thing about this film is that it doesn't satisfy the lovers of the concert footage or a documentary about Britain's main music festival. Temple seems to be totally in awe of people dressed up in funny/silly costumes and these are repeated over and over again. The scene with the puppet player dressed as a hobo is for instance repeated twice. Why? Meanwhile we often hear interesting music in the background wondering who is playing and hoping to see some proper concert footage. No chance!

The final nail in this coffin of a "rockumentary" is seeing Kate Moss a number of times, what has she got to do with a film about Glastonbury.

only watch it if you've actually been before

[brianethomas2001 · 9/10 · 29 August 2007]

Having watched television coverage of Glastonbury 2005, I made it an ambition to go in 2007. When this DVD came out in the festivals year off in 2006 I was keen to watch it, ignoring the reviews saying it is not a "best of the festival", "confusing if you weren't there", "Not a documentary about the festivals history" I watched it anyway.

At first I was rather disappointed, but then did tell myself to watch it again after I had attended the festival the next year.

I fulfilled my ambition and dream and went to Glastonbury in 2007, and had an experience that I will never forget.

On my return I waited a week to recover from my hangover, comedown, exhaustion and trench-foot and watched the film again. On a second viewing I was filled with constant nostalgia. All of a sudden all of the festival goers, and organisers talking about the freedom, the no holds barred attitude, the music, the drugs, the mud, the A-class lineup and the feeling of being constantly at home all became too apparent.

The film itself is bloody well edited, and shows all the aspects of the festival in very true detail, however at a 2 and half hour time length I did feel it did drag on a bit. But even watching it a second time I felt I was still missing so much, I now feel that I should wait till I've been to at least 3 more Glastonbury's until I really can relate to it good and proper.

But even though this is a well constructed documentary and Julien Temples footage is good. People who haven't experienced the freedom of having no restraints that the Glastonbury festival has will only understand the film once they've been.

Don't be fooled again

[cardsandletters · 4/10 · 14 February 2007]

VU performance limited to a single pan across the screen. Most performances are short and incomplete. A lot of talking hippies and everyone is concerned about the toilets. There are a lot of advertised bands in this one but if you wait for the DVD you can bypass all the talking and see your faves. There are all sort of different textures of footage in this film and I enjoyed the film stuff and also the newer clear and sharp video of recent years. This film does have a great sound mix and takes advantage of the surrounds. This could have been thirty minutes.I was wondering if the naked bass player in some band I've totally forgotten got aroused during his performance seeing all of the people checking out his peeper.

Ironic

[qprmal · 8/10 · 23 May 2008]

Being a Glastonbury attender for many years. I thought Julian Temple captured the whole essence of Glastonbury (of old) and you just wish it could be sunny & beautiful every year watching great bands. It is quite an occasion ;o) But like all the news, features, pictures, etc in the media of Glastonbury. This documentary does tend to show more of the wacky, cosmic, religious, colourful, muddy, naked people than the usual normal festival goer who just gets p*ssed and stoned (Otherwise it would be boring documentary!)

Glastonbury has now reached a crossroad and it's a double edged sword. Michael Eavis states that he had to get rid of the travellers because of trouble and he also built a huge fence to keep out the riff-raff. In a way we can totally applaud that because who wants our possessions stolen or 400,000 people at an event that's meant to hold 150,000? But in doing that Glastonbury has become a very corporate, yuppy and trendy event. What's happened to the HEART & SOUL of Glastonbury? I've also heard that the fabulous Los Vagueness is now no longer there ;o(

So it's ironic that in this year (2008) Glastonbury has not sold out(yet).

So please watch "Glastonbury" again to bring back long lost happy memories ;o)

A Nutshell Review: Glastonbury

[DICK STEEL · 8/10 · 19 November 2006]

Glastonbury is seriously for fans only. One of Britain's best known music festival, if you don't dig the type of music played, or if you don't enjoy unleashing the party animal inside of you, then steer clear of this movie. Otherwise, you're in for one hell of a ride, presented in a very different way. The screening I was in obviously didn't have many fans. I think I'm the only one head bobbing and leg tapping throughout the movie, and I couldn't do more because of the restrictive overrated Picturehouse seats.

The usual documentary will embark you on a journey from beginning to end, through the eyes of a regular festival goer. Alternatively, it might take on the theme from a festival organizer's point of view, giving you the low downs on the happenings to bring the festival to life. The other strategy will be to showcase the incredible performers lined up for the festival year in year out, and speak of their experiences in igniting the crowd to a dance fervour.

But under the hands of director Julien Temple, Glastonbury becomes a mixed bag, a rojak of sorts combining the different narrative presentations possible, and it takes a while to get used to. You see plenty of festival goers, but the focus is on none. There are interviews galore, but in a rather haphazard manner. It's sex, drugs and rock and roll, and the movie neither glamourizes, nor condones vice. You have stoned people talking to the camera, and you have tired revellers sleeping and dancing naked. You don't get bombarded with facts and figures about the festival, but talks with the organizers become rather topical instead, especially the later part about the erection of a security fence.

However, it's more than just the people, it's also about the music. While the visuals are beautifully combined with the aural, you don't get to hear much of the pieces performed as a whole. What you get instead is like a sampling of tracks, teasing you with classics like David Bowie (Heroes) to contemporaries like Brett Anderson (Common People), from alternative punk group Prodigy (Firestarter), to electronica kings Chemical Brothers (Hey Boy Hey Girl). Hey, if it features Massive Attack (Karmacoma), I'm already sold!

It's a little less than conventional in its presentation by combining a series of clips from various festival years, in non chronological order. You can make out certain eras like the free loving 60s and the early years with the grainy quality of the picture, and distinguish the present day slicker shows in its trademarked pyramid stage. Just like the festival, you'll never know what you're gonna get at each turn, be it heavy downpour or mud baths, and that's how the narrative structure of Glastonbury takes.

With ZoukOut around the corner, watching Glastonbury has triggered the party animal inside me, and I'm seriously considering going for this year's beach party at Siloso Beach Sentosa. Any fellow party goers game to join me?

Glastonbury!

[siobhan-flynn · 10/10 · 14 June 2006]

If, like me you're aching for the start of the festival season, and mourning the fact that there isn't a Glastonbury this year; this DVD is a must to buy!!! Directed by Julien Temple, this film is one of the most absorbing and inspiring music films I've ever seen! I left the Cinema singing my favourite Morrissey songs, (Come on Mozza) missing the Mud, (did you loose your tent last year?) and looking forward to next year already.

Although some of the content left me yearning for times gone by, (John Peel ROCKS).... Some of the music is just CLASS.. such as Coldplay, The Scissor Sisters, Radiohead, Blur, Foo Fighters, Fun Lovin' Criminals, David Bowie, Goldfrapp, Kaiser Chiefs, The Killers, Nick Cave, REM, The White Stripes, Velvet Underground, Quintessence, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Terry Riley, Morrissey, Faithless, Melanie, Prodigy, Toots an the Maytals, Primal Scream, Richie Havens, Alabama 3, Billy Bragg, Ernest Ranglin, Black Uhuru, Cypress Hill, The Skatalites, Babyshambles, The Levellers, David Gray, Bjork, Stereo MCs, Chemical Brothers, Dr.John, Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros, , Pulp, Beck, Noel Gallagher, The Dandy Warhols, Moby, James Brown

Watch this Documentary / Film to bring the memories flooding back, its the second best thing after going to Glastonbury!!!!!!