LMHR @ GLASTONBURY A BIG SUCCESS
Our show at the Left Field stage on Saturday night at Glastonbury was a fantastic night. Here we’ll bring together reports, pics and video from the night… overall at the festival, 1000s signed up with LMHR and UAF to join the fight against racism and the fascist BNP, and there was plenty of serious media coverage of our message too, from the NME to BBC2, Radio 4’s Today programme to the Guardian’s Glastonbury review. Thanks must go to all the acts who supported the cause, and to those many selfless souls who make the Left Field tick and doing a LMHR show there a doddle! Big up!
The night began with an excellent debate on fighting racism and fascism, featuring artists Natty, Akala, and Kim from the Mentalists, along with Derek Simpson, leader of Amicus and joint secretary of new union Unite, Martin Smith of LMHR, Weyman Bennett of UAF, and best of all we were delighted to have 100-year-old Howard ‘Andy’ Andrews, veteran of the Spanish Civil War and of fighting Mosley’s blackshirts, who brought an inspiring message of determination to continue resisting today’s fascists in Britain, the BNP.
Headliners Hard-Fi filled the huge Left Field tent and delivered a stunning performance, mixing old faves with an exclusive preview of three tracks from new album “Once Upon a Time in the West” - the first time they’d been played live to an audience.
See the youtube video below of “Living for the Weekend” (courtesy of Alan Miles and the Left Field video team):
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Hard-Fi’s presence along with the rest of a very special line-up and the LMHR message, attracted lots of positive media attention:-
** Lethal Bizzle and LMHR/UAF’s Weyman Bennett interviewed on Saturday morning’s BBC Radio 4 Today Programme (begins around 16′30″ for about 6 minutes)
** Hard-Fi’s Richard Archer speaking to the Guardian about the LMHR show
** Review of Hard-Fi’s LMHR show in this week’s NME
** Richard Archer’s NME video blog:
** LMHR and UAF campaigners and Unite the union Joint Secretary Derek Simpson interviewed, plus video highlights of the LMHR show in the Unite - the union podcast (click on the play button for ‘Saturday’s Glastonbury podcast’ on the front page)
** The Bizzle reviewing the show in the Guardian (last paragraph, near the bottom)
** Richard Archer again, this time in The Sun
** For more from the Left Field including Tony Benn, Mark Thomas, The Beat and much more, check out the Left Field website
- The Show - LMHR review by Lee Billingham
In a nutshell, the show rocked with every act pulling out all the stops, and the crowd lapped LMHR and UAF’s message of unity against the BNP, with loads of t-shirts and badges sold and more than 1000 people signing up to get actively involved in the anti-fascist campaigns.
The night kicked off in spectacular style with a remarkable and surprising set from Get Cape Wear Cape Fly - And Friends. The friends consisting of beatbox maestro Killa Kela, TheStreets guitarist, wonderful rapper/singer Miss Cock and Bull Kid, rising star Natty, and many more, as Sam Get Cape revealed an incredibly catholic musical taste and a talent for confidently leading such a hastily-assembled and diverse group of musicians. The set comprised some of Sam’s solo ouvre along with inspired covers like Hot Chip’s “Over and Over” and the only pity was that this set had to be placed earlier than originally programmed due to the BBC requesting a Get Cape performance at 10pm on the John Peel Stage. One of the highlights was Sam telling the crowd about how he’d joined LMHR two years ago to the day in this very tent (after talking to our own Donna G on our stall) - the rest is history!
That was quite an act to follow, but The Mentalists managed it with aplomb, their trademark riot-grrl punk impact now being joined with a slinky new post-punk rhythmic feel, and the stage presence to carry it all off.
The audience suitably warmed, the man like Natty was up next and was also a big hit with the Left Field crowd. Soon to be far better known, having signed to Atlantic Records along with fellow LMHR stalwarts Hard-Fi and Get Cape, Natty easily overcame much of the crowd’s unfamiliarity with the material, reggae-pop-soul gems like “July” hitting home like songs you’ve known for years.
Technical problems cut No-Lay’s set time, but for the brief time she was on stage the west London grime star lit up the Leftfield crowd - going a capella with style when the CD decks wouldnt play ball. Watch for her new album dropping soon.
Throughout proceedings, the LMHR comperes kept the crowd going and urged people to get involved and put on a gig or do something to stop the BNP wherever they live and work.
The incomparable DJ Statik was on hand by now to drop tune after tune of grime and indie anthems inbetween the live acts - with sterling support from first-time Left Field and LMHR DJ Aretha, who was meant to be doing a 10-minute warm-up slot but ended up playing half the night, watched proudly by Dad and Left Field/LMHR production and visuals man Simon.
Another change of pace next, with the wonderful Noisettes hitting the stage. Fresh from a fantastic show for us in Stoke, unmissable frontwoman Shingai and her band’s dazzlingly original blues-punk energy got the place jumping, racing through to a rock-out finale of my personal fave “Sister Rosetta (Capture the Spirit)”.
With Lethal Bizzle quickly next on stage, there could be no let up for the crowd. From the get-go, with single “Uh-Oh”, the Bizzle - ably assisted by MC partner Fire Camp’s 2Face - got hands up the air and bodies bouncing. Rattling through hits like “Pow!”, old More Fire classic “Oi!” and newie “What’s My Name (Bizzle Bizzle), Lethal’s grime-pop genius shone through, and following his slewing of David Cameron in last year’s “Donut” war of words, a new social commentary is emerging alongside the hooks, as seen in set highlight “Babylon’s Burning” - a clever reworking of The Ruts’ original punk call-to-arms that accuses modern-day politicians of all shades of neglecting the ordinary people who keep them in power. Another clever sample steal helped close the set with a bang -Lethal’s updating of House of Pain classic “Jump Around”.
Akala came next, his thoughful conscious hip-hop - again with a killer pop sensibility - being perfect for the Left Field. “Bullsh*t” - which smashed it at last year’s LMHR Trafalgar Square carnival - was again a standout, but set closer “Shakespeare” stole the show, a brilliant 4-minute riposte to every ridiculous two-bit politican and racist who paint hip-hop and black music in general as a crude violent and mysogynist evil influence on young people.
There remained only our late-announced headliner. With this being their first live show for seven months, a long stage turnaround was necessary to get the sounds and lights exactly right. Hard-Fi’s people, our unflappable stage manager Tony, and the Left Field production folks worked feversihly to make sure everything was a slick as could be. When the band hit the stage and the lights came up, the effect was stunning, bringing huge grins to 5,000 faces at once. I’ve talked about Hard-Fi’s set above, and you can also check out the video and interviews too. Suffice to say, it sounds like the new album’s gonna be mega, and props to Richard Archer and the boys for unceasingly plugging LMHR at every opportunity. Compere Martin Smith related a story in his intro that Hard-Fi’s continuing support for the anti-fascist campaign is upsetting some of their more unreconstructed fans, with one “fan” spotted on a Nazi message board claiming he would wipe his backside with one of their CDs. As Martin said to huge cheers - “if you see a bloke outside with a Hard-Fi CD up his arse … shove him over in the mud”. With the support of acts like tonight’s, the BNP’s days are nunbered.
