by the way Jay Z takes ALL the flack and James Blunt gets away scot-free!

Jay Z (most popular/successful rapper)
James Blunt (very popular singer songwriter)

Even Gilbert O'Sullivan (talented singer songwriter)

Where did Shaky come from though?

It's all too ironic really. I remember finishing with a girlfriend when she told me she was in the Shakin' Stevens fan club. Am mentally scared.

type can we all just agree that everyone who goes to glasto will have a good time as long as the rain holds off. The minutae of the bands on the main stages are as much as they have ever been, the eavis family have done far more good than bad, the solution is too have a huge range of events to cater for all tastes and wallets one festival can't do it all. Live music is great, having fun with you friends is a good thing let's not get overly bitter about it all.

There are three things I half-think I know about Shaky, which may or may not be true (and I'm happy to be corrected):
1) He's one of the many rock types who are fanatical golf enthusiasts and quite good players.
2) At the height of his fame he did actually live in an 'ol house with a green front door.
3) He's well-liked and well-respected by rockabilly devotees (if nor for his pop hits, for his earlier career).

I think a more fitting phrase is 'V Festival' or 'Q Magazine' with a quirky left of field choice chucked in

...on Saturday.

If the current negotiations conclude as expected, it's going to be Millican and Nesbitt. Remember where you heard it first.

Great to see John Mayer playing in the UK. And I could watch Seasick Steve all day and not get bored. And Jay Z would be entertaining. other than that - yawn.

I hope his manager's clever enough to dress him in black leather and call it the Shaky '08 Comeback. Opportunity missed if not.

Have heard that The Handsome Family (they of the fantastic Barenaked Ladies cruise feature in the last issue) are playing there. What Brett and Rennie will make of the cows is anyone's business.

Tis true, I'm past it. I wouldn't leave the house for many of them. Maybe Laughing Len will entice me to a show elsewhere, but I suspect a disappointment will ensue.

...but I agree that this is indeed more of a 'Q Festival'. There is a very evident indie bias there to my eyes, which makes me wonder whether the festival does indeed 'traditionally focus on indie bands' as The Independent recently claimed.

Which means it hardly qualifies as the "Glastonbury Line-Up", except perhaps to a Q or Daily Mail reader, I suppose.

Friends who are playing there again this year, for about the 5th or 6th time, are not on this list, and none of the stages on which they have played is ever in any lazy magazine article.

So what.

Anyone going to Glastonbury solely on the basis of the lineups on the 3 biggest stages is going to waste a fine opportunity to broaden their horizons and see and hear all kinds of stuff. More fool them.

I don't buy this argument: so what if the Glastonbury "experience" is all about elsewhere from the main stages, you still have to experience all the bloody rest, hauling thru' the corporate fields etc etc to get to them. And those outer field emanations are increasingly moving out and elsewhere anyway. Bin there, dun that, and in 94 I'd had enough of it.
And Gilbert O'Bloody Sullivan......
I think I'll wet my pants elsewhere.

There is a lot of shit on, but there's enough good stuff to keep me going. Leonard Cohen, Ben Folds, Elbow, British Sea Power, Levellers (Thursday night), Crowded House, Goldfrapp, Spiritualized. Overall it's a gone a bit too trendy in places but there should be enough for any one person I would have thought.