samedi 16 Sep 2006, 9h22m

…And so we arrive at the third thrilling installment of this writer's adventures in gig-land. Unfortunately I somehow conspired to not bother seeing any bands at all between the end of Glastonbury 1998 and the beginning of the following year's festival.

Once again, I'm sure I will have missed some of the bands I saw at Glasto 99. Them's the breaks.

Glastonbury 1999

Sharon Shannon
Having seen her brilliant performance on the main stage in 1998, I went along to the Acoustic Tent to catch her 1999 show. This was easily as good as the previous year. I wasn't into folk as much then, at least not as much as I am now, but this was definitely one of my favourite Glastonbury gigs.

Texas
Only caught a bit of their show, on the way past to see someone better. They were fucking boring. There's not much else to say really, except I'm glad they now appear to have fucked off into the obscurity they so richly deserve. In the nicest possible way…

Ultrasound
I made a special trip to the New Bands Stage to see this lot, off the back of the Floodlit World single which I had bought (and still occasionally play to this day). I loved Floodlit World so much there was no way I was going to miss this lot. It was an ace gig as well. Tiny Wood wore a dress, which was a rather disturbing sight. I also caught the end of the Death In Vegas gig just before Ultrasound, so that was a bonus. Sadly, Ultrasound are no more.

Manic Street Preachers
The first time I'd ever gone to see a Main Stage headliner, oddly. What a way to break the duck. The Manics rocked - brilliant from start to finish. They even played some older stuff. Great gig.

Hole
I am, on the sly, quite a big fan of Hole. It's easy to forget how good their music was, drowned out as it so often is/was by Courtney Love's various extracurricular antics. She may be little more than an annoyance to some, but take it from me, she is also an accomplished musician and an outstanding performer. She doesn't look too bad in a bikini either…
A raucous gig, heavy as hell, and with Ms Love pissing off the security by inviting various audience members onto the stage. Excellent, every minute of it.

Dogstar
Ha ha ha. This was the band which featured a certain Mr Keanu Reeves in the line up. This was also one of the worst bands I have ever, ever had the misfortune to see or hear. We went along out of curiosity really - their appearance was something of a talking point at the festival that year. Ended up having conversations with various people watching the band, most of whom were saying things like "God… they're SHIT, aren't they!"
And make no mistake, to say they were shit, would be to insult shit in a deep, grave and nasty way. They were much, much worse than that. Proof indeed that Keanu is as bad at music as he is at acting.

Baka Beyond
From the ridiculous to the sublime! Let me say this - should you ever get the opportunity to see Baka Beyond play live, do it. This was a superb gig - me and the gang were all boogeying away at the side of the field and we could have carried on all day, I reckon. The band even invited the entire audience to a party they were having with Rinky Dink Sound System later on. That could have been a tight squeeze…

REM
I do firmly believe that REM are quite simply one of the greatest bands in the history of the universe. Especially live - they make it look piss easy, and really, it can't be easy to sound that good. I've seen them again since but nothing will beat this one. One of the best gigs I've seen, anywhere.

That about wraps up part 3 of the journey through my gig-going history… part 4 in due course…