Glastonbury Festival 2002
Broadcast by BBC Choice and BBC 2
Glastonbury, England
June 30, 2002

Reviewed by Bleech_

Tracks

Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5)
Wish You Were Here
Money
Comfortably Numb
Cheese Factor 1
Squirm Factor 2
The Peak Too short to really pick out a peak
The Abyss A few annoying and questionable editing choices
Fashion Crimes None....although Andy Fairweather-Low's resemblance to U2's The Edge is uncanny. As is the resemblance between Harry Waters and the Predator.
Overall Picture / Sound Quality A+ / A+

"Anyone who is familiar with my work and the comments I've made during the course of my career will know that I have antipathy towards football stadium rock shows." So go the liner notes of 'In the Flesh'. Odd then, that Waters' 2002 World Tour should encompass a few such venues and end here at the Glastonbury festival, where attendance peaked at 130,000. The implications of this are an exercise I'll leave to the reader; suffice to say though, that at least his performance at this festival guaranteed that at least a few songs of ol' misery-guts set would see broadcast via the BBC.

Starting in daylight on an odd-looking pyramid-styled stage under a....dare I say it ?...leaden sky, the band ran through a slightly abbreviated 2002 setlist in front of a large group of flag-waving hippie types. Unfortunately, only 4 songs were ever broadcast in the end, though rumor has it that the unedited BBC tape of the entire setlist is skittering about on DVD somewhere. But until that surfaces, here's what we have :

Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) : Unlike the version found on 'In the Flesh', the 2002 tour featured both halves of the song in it's entirety. In front of a smaller (yet brighter than usual) Mr. Sheet, the band rips through a pleasant-enough but not amazing rendition of the first half of the song. With the exception of a few audience shots (featuring the standard-issue stoned-looking fan singing along in a knit cap), it's shot almost entirely using those rolling-dolly shots we know and love/loathe from 'In the Flesh'. Minor snickers (or more likely a bemused "huh") are provided by the Welsh flag waving in front of the stage (which doesn't prompt Rog to put Billy on the line, sadly) and the intense looks of concentration from guitarist Chester Kamen. If you cropped the picture, he could just as easily be defusing a nuclear bomb as playing a guitar.

Wish You Were Here : Although this song was supposedly broadcast, it has yet to show up on the digital circuit. This annoys the completist in me, but my ears are thankful nonetheless.

Money : Oh look, another version of Money. What is there to say about this song at this point ? Not a whole lot, but I do have a few beefs with whoever taped this portion. First off, there is very very little of Mr. Sheet and the film playing on it. Second (and far more annoying in my opinion) is that when Andy Fairweather-Low takes his solo (easily the high point of any 2000/2002 rendition of this song), the camera never even so much as spares him a glance. He's either entirely unseen, or way off at the edge of the screen. A shame really, since we never get to see his bizzarre new mustache/beard/horn-rimmed glasses look up close. Thanks to this boneheaded editing, the only real joy to be found in this song is the soccer hooligan in the audience who is dancing the night away.

Comfortably Numb : Another standard-issue Waters solo rendition of the song, kicked off by Roger sucker-punching thin air. When we get to the chorus (sung competently enough by Kamen, but doesn't hold a candle to Doyle Bramhall II's 1999/2000 version if you ask me), stage lights illuminate the first 10-20 rows of festival goers, which is kind of a neat touch. Anyway, we get to the final solo in the song...only to find that the camera has problems finding Snowy White (see 'Money') and the woo-woo girls are, for some sick reason, shaking tambourines. All in all, it's not a bad version of the song, but nowhere near as good as the version to be found on 'In the Flesh'. Other notable observations : since there's no walkway, Chester and Snowy have to pull off their guitar 'duel' just kind of standing there. There are also no less than FOUR people playing guitar on stage at this point...Chester, Snowy, Roger, and his son/keyboardist Harry.

So long story short : nothing really special here, and too short to do a lot of legwork for. Sorry kids.


'Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)'

'Money'

'Comfortably Numb'

'Comfortably Numb'

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