It’s 3pm. The show starts at 6. Emily Eavis has given us free reign of the Park Stage for two hours.
I’ve got the Vocal Orchestra and a heap of guest collaborators and I need to rehearse. We find a bar backstage with a decent soundsystem and get to it. Before I know it we are ready to go on, Park Stage is totally rammed!
The sun has come out and the people are smiling. Pavan from Foreign Beggars is helping me host the stage. I hear him saying my name followed by a cheer and next thing I know I am beatboxing to about 10,000 Glastonbury punters.
I kick it off with a short solo set to introduce the crowd to what I do. As I power up my looping setup, there is a loud popping noise followed by silence. I’m told that I have blown the generator for the entire Park Area. Oops. Now I am freaking out – so much work has gone into this show. This can’t be the end of it! The audience aren’t having any of it… they remain enthusiastic, singing and cheering until the power eventually comes back on. Phew!
No time to lose now, I skip straight to my drum n bass looping song to get everyone moving again, and then bring out the Vocal Orchestra. They are on fire today.
The Vocal Orchestra
What follows is a unique mish-mash of guest stars performing spontaneously. The music ranges from folk to jazz to hip hop to tabla to scratch battles to raucous sing-a-longs. If you would like to hear some of the music you will have to wait for the podcast – we did an audio diary of the whole weekend which will be out soon. There are some pics below, mostly taken by RJ Fernandez, more to come.
Martha Wainwright sang a version of ‘In the Middle of the Night’ with me on beats
Martina Topley-Bird sang ‘Police and Thieves’ by Junior Mervin with the Vocal Orchestra as backing band
Ed Harcourt presented me with a fake diamond encrusted golden microphone onstage… I think he wanted me to look as bling as Jay-Z! Then he sang ‘50 ways to leave your lover’
It was a moving experience, I came off stage exhausted but happy – I felt like all the collaborations and musical experiences from the past year as resident at Southbank have armed me with all the tools I needed to rock a two hour improvised show. It was probably the best show I’ve ever done, certainly the most fun show I have been a part of. I can’t wait to do it again. Watch this space!
Was starving after playing Pyramid stage on Friday, so I had a ‘Glastonbury Garlic Guzzler’ (amazing burger). Wandered down to the Park Stage to see Dizzee Rascal. The highlight was Calvin Harris coming on to sing ‘Dance wiv Me’… it’s now at number 1!
Then came on Pete Doherty. He was sort of stable and seemed to be able to remember his chords and lyrics. It is a bit like listening to an old drunk in the pub way after closing time singing songs about the past.
On Saturday morning I woke up early to try out the solar-powered showers (first wash since Wednesday. Nice). Then it was over to Pyramid stage for my appearance with Martha Wainwright. Pyramid felt a bit more normal second time around.
Martha’s music is a blend of folk and country rock and pretty much the last thing the crowd was expecting was a duet with a human beatboxer.
But playing to a crowd of 40,000 people in the afternoon can’t be bad promotion for the gig that evening!
As soon as we came off stage we were ushered into a Land Rover to take us back to the Park Stage to start rehearsing for the show that evening.
We got to the festival on Thursday evening and set up camp in the Park area. In the past I have camped in the ‘public’ camping areas to be with my friends, but last year I had such a crazy time (my tour manager was taken ill the night before so I was dragging my gear through the mud in a complete daze) so this year I opted for the artist campsite!
SO day one, Friday, and I woke up knowing that today I was going to achieve one of my personal ambitions - to play the Pyramid Stage. I vowed I would do this when I first came to the festival in 2005. I had been invited to do a guest spot with singer songwriter Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. I had no idea what we were going to do.
The crowd that had gathered to watch the set was massive. I’m talking make your whole body tingle every time they cheer massive.
The view from onstage as I watched the first half of the show was incredible. I start to feel a massive release of adrenaline…
In a flash it is all over. I have played the Pyramid!
OK. I’m all packed. Got my boots and wet wipes. I’m not sure what to expect weather-wise but I’m prepared for the worst! I’ve camped at Glastonbury for the last two festivals, got drenched, but still loved it.
Me at Glasto last year
Been rehearsing all day at Southbank with a whole selection of artists who will be joining me on Park Stage on Saturday evening. I had Nitin Sawhney down today jamming with Pete Lockett on tabla and Orifice from Foreign Beggars rapping. Also had Ed Harcourt down as well as Portico Quartet. Those guys and MANY MORE will all be collaborating and performing on our stage at Glasto!
I’m also playing two guest slots on the Pyramid Stage this year.. on Friday with Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly and on Saturday with Martha Wainwright.
Hi, Shlo here. So you might know we are hosting our own stage for the Saturday evening at the Glastonbury Park Stage this year. The idea is that my beatbox choir (Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra) will be the backing band for a series of guest-star collaborations.
Emily Eavis is curating the Park Stage and she has invited several of the festival’s key artists to collaborate with us.
The lineup is a secret but you can probably guess some of the names by looking at previous Unconventional Means lineups, then throw in a few of this year’s headline artists and you have yourself a show!
If you can guess the artists referred to in the following clues, email your name, phone number and answers to competition@shlo.co.uk by 5pm on Friday 20th June and you will be in with a chance of winning two free tickets to the festival.
1. Locating superhero attire
2. Preacher with creators
3. Two offspring of folk-rock dynasties
