Best of Festivals 2008

[Darren]

Best of Festivals 2008
Bootleg Review

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2 Reviews by the Panel

“In an ever changing musical climate, the festival is one part of the British music scene that has not changed nor is set to ever shall.” By Fergal Kinney

The Courteeners, ever evolving live and gaining new fans notably over the last 6 months, have gone from strength to strength - and this strength is best documented by their numerous and vigorous festival appearances. The "Best of Festivals 2008" CD contains clips from the Oxygen festival, T in the Park, Glastonbury and more. As is expected from anyone who has been to see the band over the last year or perhaps even further back, the performances are typically excitable and, forgive the irritating journalist term, the reaction from both the crowd and the band is "electric". For me, the Glastonbury performance is the highlight of the CD, tracks such as "No You Didn't, No You Don't", "Kings of the New Road" and "What Took You So Long" don't fail to bring back a lot of memories from Courteeners gigs of the past, months on the road has in no way lessened the energy of the band. The Ibiza Rocks festival is responsible for a few other of the tracks, all very good performances, most notably "Aftershow", sadly missing its former siamese twin song "Kokaine Kim". 'Will be dearly missed! However, as good as the CD compilation is, the flow is disrupted by constant fading in and out of live tracks towards the end, occasional dodgy sound blips and shoddy quality recordings possibly from mobile phones. Though this is due to the lack of sources of footage, and only YouTube to turn to, it does diminish the effect of an otherwise flawless CD.

In spite of minor errors, this is a very enjoyable CD and anyone who's been to see the band or is due to see the band in the foreseeable future will thoroughly enjoy this compilation, quality work Darren Wells! 7/10

“The time and effort that has gone in spreading the word about the Courteeners has been nothing short of outstanding, so cheers Darren.” By FastFuse

The best of festivals kicks of with the lads playing Aftershow at the Ibiza rocks hotel, the performance sounds outstanding the participation from the crowd is evident, Holiday mood runs through every chord, played at 100 miles per hour as soon as it starts it seems to end. A great start. So fitting that crowd favourite Cavorting is next, the song that introduced the band to the British public over 12 months ago. Again played like the band will never play it again. The crowd sing along with what seems like every word, as big a party seems to be played out on the stage as down the front row. As the CD progresses to If It Wasn't For Me (back at Ibiza Rocks) the crowd chants of "Liam, Liam!!" serve to remind you how much this band mean to people already, a band only coming to the end of the promotion of there first album. Reminiscent of Oasis, The Libertines and The Arctic Monkeys. Then a quick return home or more specifically Glastonbury for performances of No You Didn't No You Don't & Kings Of The New Road were we find Liam thanking the crowd for being so "hospitable" but by the sound of the performance there was never going to a need for such concerns. Both tracks pass by played with feverish pace and show the band growing in musical tightness that only comes from hours and hours of gigs/practise, The crowd respond in kind. Not Nineteen Forever is one of the best songs the band have recorded to date and the Oxegen performance only adds to the song, encouraged along by a somewhat quiet but polite crowd the song is delivered with a workman like performance. A large sing a long follows with a rousing version of "Fallowfield Hillbilly" with Liam sounding in bullish form as he delivers his observation on fickle music fans.....I don't think there were any in that particular tent at Glastonbury a real belter of a number. A sign of a quality band are quality B-Sides which The Courteeners have in abundance, to be able to have a song like "Smiths Disco" waiting in the wings is a credit to Liam. This song in particular will become a live anthem and will only get better over time. The final song the lads played together at Glastonbury 2008 was "What Took You So Long" It sounds like a truly joyous moment for all concerned, with both band and fans joining in one almighty campfire sing along, Liam slips into Tomorrow by James at the end of the song, encouraging all Courteeners fans to delve into music and dig out other bands and learn there musical history. A musical education is just as important as any exam or test. This CD shows the Courteeners doing what they do best which is playing live. It easy in this day and age of protools and Two Hundred Thousand Pound mixing desks to sound good in a studio or on a CD the real test is taking the songs out on the road, cutting your teeth and playing them live and convincing people to believe the hype. The Courteeners for me are a far better live band than most bands working at the moment. There a better live band than they are recording band and there only going to get better the forthcoming shows in October i'm sure will be proof enough that the band have moved on again. A cracking selection of live songs from a summer that Liam ,Conan, Cuppello and Campbell will remember for a long time. Just like some of you!!

Good Bless The Band There Doing All They Can. 8.5/10

[antoine010891]

Got to agree, very well put together put maybe lacking in quality, still a great listen though despite quality.

[Darren]

I thought the sleeve quality was a bit s**tty

As for the quality, I'm afraid that's the way it's starting to get, 'not enough tapers in the world', however the American's seem to go about it the right way.

Just wish all the people on the soundboards were dodgy and we'd start to get decent boots again

Overall all thought it was a decent attempt but had to rely heavily on the glasto audio.

[antoine010891]

I think it was just the sound quality that wasn't the best, the sleeve was quite clever actually.

[cal]

it was only two tracks really that werent that good quality.

ive got that minidisc thing working now Daz with a Mic and that so ill have a go at taping summat over the next few gigs i go to

[fastfuse]

I didn't bother drawing attention to the poor sounding recordings. No point its not the NME!!

[antoine010891]

Sept 10, 2008 9:59:25 GMT fastfuse said:

I didn't bother drawing attention to the poor sounding recordings. No point its not the NME!!

Suppose not, it has a nice effect as a matter of fact when you get shite sound because it makes it have a much more live feel.

[cal]

generally when i go to watch bands, they sound good live?

[antoine010891]

Sept 10, 2008 10:59:35 GMT cal said:

generally when i go to watch bands, they sound good live?

No, what I meant was that you don't want perfected sound do you, you don't want it touched up for quality on a live CD, I didn't mean shit in a literal sense, I just meant imperfected.

[cal]

ahh ok.

[Deleted]

Sept 9, 2008 21:31:23 GMT Darren said:

I thought the sleeve quality was a bit s**tty

As for the quality, I'm afraid that's the way it's starting to get, 'not enough tapers in the world', however the American's seem to go about it the right way.

Just wish all the people on the soundboards were dodgy and we'd start to get decent boots again

Overall all thought it was a decent attempt but had to rely heavily on the glasto audio.

for me, the "shoddy" quality is what makes this CD. When you here them live, and here the oringinal demos from back before St Jude, the courteeners are very gritty and raw with so much energy that just typifies manchester. That's what I loved about them initially! So tbh, less than perfect recording quality enhances, rather than diminishes, the impact of this CD.

nice one darren

[Darren]

Ha nice one everyone.

I was just being self-critical over the sleeve - I always want it looking/feeling better but not overdoing production, if you know what I'm on about Love it really

Know what you mean matt - I like my live stuff but it can get irritating if there's too much going on!

So plugging in a minidisc to the soundboard (hint hint cal ) would still get that live feel but more professional, great sound levels, no crowd blasting out the band etc, well that's if I've got my facts right

In fact, I'll have another listen to the CD right now - cheers!

[Fergal]

Aye, its a mega CD like that minor blip aside. I'm gunna rip the Glastonbury performance to mp3, thoroughly enjoyed all of the Glasto gear.

[cal]

i think though, on live recordings its nice to get the crowd in. i mean, not so theyre screaming over the band but if you can get a bit in it really makes it

[Fergal]

Yeah I know, I don't like live albums where you can't hear the crowd or same with live DVD's where you cant really hear or see the crowd. Its half about the crowd and half about the band I believe