Beyoncé at Glastonbury 2011 – review

Beyoncé's headline slot has attracted none of the this-doesn't-belong-at-Glastonbury controversy of her husband Jay-Z's headline performance a few years ago, but there's a definite sense of curiosity in the air before she takes the stage: what is the biggest R&B star in the world going to do? The immediate answer appears to be everything at once: let off fireworks, rise out of the stage on a hydraulic platform doing a choreographed dance routine while singing her biggest hit Crazy in Love.

It's a pretty gobsmacking opening that leaves you wondering what she's going to do next, but more gobsmacking still is that the show doesn't sag afterwards. She hurtles into Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It). More fireworks. More dancing. Aside from a faintly baffling guest appearance by Tricky – who seems as confused by his arrival onstage as the audience – she never puts a foot wrong, rattling through Destiny's Child hits and covers of Alanis Morisette's You Oughta Know, Kings of Leon's Sex on Fire and Etta James's At Last, the latter over footage of the civil rights movement and president Obama, the sheer visceral power of her voice chafing thrillingly against the slickness of the show.

Moreover, she engages with the festival itself – Halo is accompanied by footage of Glastonbury goers in the mud, which doesn't make an enormous amount of sense but is at least a nice thought – and looks genuinely taken aback by the reception: "You are witnessing a dream! I always wanted to be a rock star!" she shouts, clearly utterly delighted. The noise the audience make in response suggests the feeling is entirely mutual.

Whether or not you agree with Michael Eavis's assessment that it was a "mistake" to book the Wombles for Glastonbury, it's hard not to feel at least a little impressed by them before they even play a note of music. On its final day, Glastonbury is being blasted by pitiless sun: it's a brave person who chooses to take to the stage dressed in a giant furry costume. Equally it's hard not to be a little puzzled by their decision to open their set with their best-known hit, Remember You're A Womble: when it finishes, alas, quite a lot of their audience chose to Womble off elsewhere.

Over on the Pyramid stage, Paul Simon plays a set studded with tracks from his sparkling, African-influenced 1986 album Graceland, which sounds oddly contemporary: there isn't that much distance between it and Vampire Weekend. And it fits the atmosphere of a sunny afternoon on Pilton Farm.

He's followed by Plan B, whose ascendency to pop fame is confirmed by the size of the crowd he draws. It's hard to work out what's more striking: the way he manages to project emotional fragility to such a huge audience, or the sight of said vast crowd cheerily singing along to Prayin', a song about a prison murder. Either way, the sense that he's a unique artist is heavily underlined.





source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Tweet

Subscribe to receive free email updates: