Ever since BBC Three rocked up, Glastonbury has been the perfect opportunity for the BBC to get excited the way ITV never did about its cultural output, and send four hundred cameramen to broadcast the fest on up to three channels at once (and Radio 4 this year for some poetry!) With their prospective audience in mind, the BBC’s coverage usually means that whatever "moments" they select from Glastonbury's seismic musical rainbow aren't up to much when it comes to covering new artists, but for the odd exception.
Their time with The XX’s set was to be expected – one song- however, even after hearing it a couple of times previously, this nugget of a choice took me by surprise. Bulbous bass punctuated the hollow sound of Romy’s dead pan vocals. Pauses for lots of crowd noise. Then Florence Welch appeared for her second, but really first unexpected duet of the weekend. What made this performance of ‘You Got the Love’ such a spine tingling moment, was that the XX remix of the song was an internet sensation in late 2009 for anyone after the combination of track and artist to characterise the year in alternative pop artists hitting popularity. And of course the song reached ubiquity on its supreme quality as well as being a pinpoint reflection of the zeitgeist. As she mashed up her vocal lines, Florence's enthusiasm reverberated through to the farthest BBC helicopter.
The XX w/ Florence & the Machine - You Got The Love (Live@Glastonbury 2010)
No comments:
Post a Comment