Glastonbury Anthems: The Best of Glastonbury 1994-2004 (2005)

Good DVD

I agree it could have been better, but anything can be better. You just have to enjoy if you have it at hand. The DVD is well filmed, with very good sound, good closeups of the bands and audience. An eclectic selection of bands that is fun to play when you are with people with differing tastes. You just serve the drinks when Robbie Williams is in the screen. May 17, 2007

I watch it often

more than half of the performances are quite good...a few are excellent and a few are junk. I'm not sure what's up with those who seem to hate this collection...along with the "Later" Jools Holland series of DVD's this one is a standard in my collection when I'm in the mood for a bit of a Brit Rock/Pop experience. December 11, 2006

Where is Oasis?

This DVD does not hold up with nothing from Oasis on here. The best British band left off the biggest British Festival DVD. Does not make any sense to me. Who cares about Robbie Williams and Blur. August 17, 2005

Glasonbury Snoozefestival a.k.a BORING!

I am disappointed with this collection not just because it's just a marginal collection of artists (Fun Lovin' Criminals?...come on! Who picked these?) but because of how great it could have been if some thought and effort was put behind it. Though I have never been to a Glastonbury festival, I have been reading about them for years and have heard many radio broadcasts. So many lengendary performances. It seemed that this was the place for bands to really shine. Unfortunately this collection dosen't capture any of that magic. The majority of the artists performances shown are from the 2000-2004 range with only a couple from the 1994-1999 area. Not only did they do a bad job choosing the artists, they also did a poor job of selecting the songs. Maybe they only had rights to certain songs, but the songs they chose where NOT the artists best. This Is A Low by Blur was hardly considerd an anthem ... especially since they all looked either bored or sleepy. It was a good thing that this was placed at the end of the running order as it was making me bored and sleepy too. They could have called this Glasonbury Snoozefestival. Where is Pulp? Where are the Charlatains (UK) Where is Oasis?

The extras are OK, but I would have loved to have seen more artist bios and performance information (Set lists, other artists that performed that year, etc.) There wasn't even a booklet included with this DVD.

Franz Ferdidnand - Matinee (2004) A good choice to start it off as they are one of the "buzz bands" right now and do put on a pretty good show. This was one of the better performances.

Travis - Driftwood (2000) Pick up either Travis: Live At The Palace or Travis: More Than Us (Live at Glasto) from their 2001 appearance. Both of these have far superior performances with the 2001 Glasto show as their top of the world moment.

Faithless - We Come 1 (2002) A mostly slow performance of a powerful song. I did like this song and it was fun to see the audience participation.

Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life (1999) Mostly unknown in the U.S. This performance was pretty stellar. As there are no other DVDs available for the Manics this was a pretty good introduction to their live output.

Moby - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad (2000) There are so many great songs from Moby's 1999 Play album. It would have been nice to have seen something with a little more energy.

Robbie Williams - Angels (1998) I am not a fan. I have seen some better performances where he looks a little more lively. Here he just punches in, punches out a performance with minimal exertion and maximum reliance on audience participation and back up band.

Supergrass - Pumping On Your Stereo (2003) This was one of the few tracks that was really pretty good. The crowd was in to it, the band was in to it... it's a great song. Good choice. I'd love to see more.

Ash - Shining Light (2002) Good song and a good choice for this collection.

Levelers - One Way (1994) An interesting choice for this collection but I don't think it fits it well. It's sort of odd to go from Ash to this to Primal Scream. Not very good placement in the running order. It wouldn't have been in my top 50 songs or artists to include.

Primal Scream - Rocks (2003) A beyond their prime performance. Boring and painful to watch.

The Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl (2000) A great dance song... a boring performance. This is essentially a 7+ minute clip of flashing lights and camera close ups of the video that was running behind the performance... repeated over and over and over...

Basement Jaxx - Good Luck (2004) Again, not the song or performance I would have picked. They have much better songs form that set they could have chosen... Where's Your Head At... Romeo.. etc.

Coldplay - Yellow (2002) If any song could fall into the "anthem" category this one would be it. It has everything: the audience that sings along, the energy in the band and a pretty decent song. We've all heard it a million times, but this performance it still seems fresh. Fun to watch.

Fun Lovin' Criminals - Scooby Snacks (1999) Awful!

The Prodigy - Breathe (1997) Their "act" becomes transparent in this performance. A good selection to represent the band, but not one of my personal favorites.

Blur - This Is A Low (1994) Boring! THis band had some stellar performances and some really GREAT songs... this is not one of them.

Placebo - The Crawl (1998) Another lackluster performance.

Radiohead - Karma Police (1997) This is another pretty good selection. I would have thought something with a little more energy would have been more approperate, but it's not a bad choice.

Paul McCartney - Hey Jude (2004) You can't go wrong with an ex-Beatle. Paul's tradional show closer seems to be nearing the "ok, we've seen it" stage, but still comes off as pretty powerful. Paul change up your set list for your next tour.

All in all a pretty poor collection. Save your money and search out better performances by your favorite artists. July 9, 2005

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