Ten Bands You Should See at Glastonbury 2011 Part One

It's less than a week until Glastonbury 2011, like everyone else who writes a blog and is going to Somerset next week, here's a list of ten bands I think you should see... I'm not going to give a survival tips post, basically ignore everything it says in this Telegraph article and you'll do alright. Fingers crossed that this weather forecast is accurate too, after the horrendous weather of the past week I'll certainly take it.

Saying that, here are a few of my places to go tips. Firstly, the Crows Nest (up the hill at the back of The Park). I saw Mountain Man at the Crows Nest last year and it was amongst the highlights of my entire weekend, their schedule isn't announced yet but so far confirmed acts include Summer Camp and Guillemots.
Secondly, Strummerville, this isn't so secret anymore after some quite big bands took to stage around the late night campfire to play short sets. I saw Lissie and a few others here last year, the atmosphere was great and we may need the fire to keep us warm. I'll certainly be aiming to get myself in place for some bands rather than enduring the madness of late night Shangri-La.

I don't particularly think it's the best line-up ever this year (of course it's my opinion only), The John Peel stage bears only passing resemblance to the sort of music that its namesake would play, The Other Stage seemed to have been curated by someone who's done nothing but listen to Radio One this past year and The Pyramid, well the less said about it the better.

Thankfully with it being Glastonbury there are plenty of other stages to pick from and plenty of acts worth checking out, the smaller stages (especially The Park) have picked some pretty good acts to play, I've highlighted my first five picks below (with five more to follow tomorrow):

Caitlin Rose
     The Park, Friday 24th, 14.15 - 15.00
     Acoustic Stage, Sunday 26th, 14.00 - 14.45

Caitlin is back in our shores for quite a few festivals this summer starting with two sets at Glastonbury (though I'm hopefully she'll play one of the places I mentioned above too) and I cannot bloody wait to see her again, I've seen her ten times in the past twelve months and I'm yet to be disappointed, I know that's one word I won't be using to describe her show at Glastonbury.

The scheduling God's have not been kind to me and it's doubtful I'll make the Acoustic Stage show, but The Park on Friday afternoon, cannot wait. According to my last.fm geekery I've listened to her two and a half times more than the second most played act over the last twelve months, it's fair to say that 'Own Side' is firmly up there with my favourite ever albums.

Caitlin Rose - Shanghai Cigarettes

Esben and the Witch

     Oxlyers in West, Sunday 26th, 12:00 - 12:40

I shall finally be catching up with Esben and the Witch next week after being unable to make their last couple of London shows and I'm really looking forward to it. I've been obsessed with a recording of theirs from a recent Amsterdam show. The bass sounds like it killed the tapers headphones it was so heavy and in one of the renamed dance tents Esben will sound perfectly at home, if only the show was at twelve midnight instead of midday, nevertheless this show is un-missable.

One of my favourite albums of the year, expect to see it feature highly in my end of year lists. I meant to post about their incredible record store day release previously, if you haven't got the Chorea EP then rectify that as soon as possible, the b-side "Corridors Installation" (a reworking of one of the highlights of their debut EP) is 18 minutes in length and by far the best thing the band have ever done.

Esben and the Witch - Argyria

Warpaint

    The Park, Friday 24th, 16.45 - 17.45
    John Peel Tent, Saturday 25th, 16.50 - 17.40

Surprise! I think Warpaint have been at every festival I've attended so far this year and have made by 'bands to watch' list in every one as well, if you've seen the girls yourself then you'll know why I love them as much as I do.

On stage they always look to be having such fun, beautiful vocal interplays, extraordinary guitar play and have I mentioned Stella's drumming before? Yes, yes I think I have - it's incredible. Two shows equals twice the fund. One the highlights of the weekend is written right through Warpaint's sets.

Baby by warpaintwarpaint

Oh Land

     Club Henge, Friday 24th, 16.30 - 17.30   
     Rabbit Hole, Friday 24th, 22.30 - 00.00

I'll be giving Bono and co a wide-berth and although I can't see the Danish pop starlet performing for the allotted time of 90 minutes I'll be taking a trip to the bizarre underground club of The Rabbit Hole (well that's if I get the riddle right and then can fit through the tunnels!) to see Oh Land.

Her self-titled album is one of the pop albums of the year, the beautiful opener "Perfection" is delicate, graceful wonderful and then there are her hits "Sun of a Gun" and "Wolf & I" which will surely sound like real dance anthems in a little makeshift club in Glastonbury's Park area, I'm not sure some of the fans nearby watching Crystal Castles will agree, but sod them!

Oh Land - Sun of a Gun

Spotlight Kid

     BBC Introducing Stage, Friday 24th June, 18:00 - 18:25

A band I've had a post half written for about three months (I'll get it done soon I promise!), Spotlight Kid blasted their way onto my agenda after being hand-picked for a support slot with The Joy Formidable at Koko in early May (and Leeds).

Their new tracks are the best work I've heard from them to date, "Plan Comes Apart" will literally blow your socks off, frenetic pacing, a driving beat, loud and noisy guitar melodies, it's bloody brilliant. As is "Haunting Me", check that track out below and then see the band at the BBC Introducing stage on Friday evening before every magazine gets hold of them and calls them the 'saviour of the shoegaze genre', or something:

Haunting Me (Album version) - Spotlight Kid