Overhyped washout fails to deliver

Over the weekend BBC 2 offered some relatively fitful coverage of a Glastonbury Festival blighted by wet weather and sound problems.

Setting these considerations aside, it was hard toconclude from the coverage that the music was particularly exciting or of especially high quality.

On Friday night I watched a pedestrian, self-congratulatory set from the Arctic Monkeys. The music continued in that vein for the rest of the weekend, with a mixture of contemporary mediocrity and rock veterans casting elusive shadow puppets at past glories.

It is tempting to draw the conclusion that both the festival and some of the acts are over-hyped, over-blown and/or over the hill. Perhaps if the vitality of Gogol Bordello had been afforded more coverage …..

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