I don’t know if the Arctic Monkeys set at Glastonbury was rubbish.
I do know that I switched onto it on Friday evening to find a band which didn’t match my expectations.
A lot of other people felt the same way, apparently.
To be fair , lots of others leapt to their defence. Including my nephew, whose musical views I respect greatly.
He told me that the set wasn’t rubbish... It’s just that people don’t expect bands to develop . They expect forty year olds to still be singing about nights out in Sheffield…
I can see that… up to a point. Everyone changes as they grow older.
Experience always moulds the creative urge ... but sometimes the mould is stronger than the urge.
It has always been a brave band which changes course.
We have to accept that , to some degree , successful rock bands have always been commodities.
Freewheeling , do as we please , anarchy has always been part of an overall brand strategy.
The Sex Pistols were a product. So were The Beatles and so are The Rolling Stones.
Supporters of an evolved Arctic Monkeys will see these bands, perhaps, as old hat , but they are key to a long term view.
The Sex Pistols had a brief but blustering career which exploded on their only US tour.
They didn’t develop . Maybe they couldn’t .
John Lydon found his way forward with a completely different kind of band in Public Image Ltd.
The Beatles did develop during their life cycle , and the fan base by 1970 was probably different to the crowds who saw them singing “Love Me Do” , but the creative differences that took them from there to The White Album and beyond eventually split them.
The individual members pursued their own directions, to greater or lesser degrees of success.
As commodities , though, The Beatles and The Sex Pistols live on… and I think this is how people increasingly view music. They select music to suit their particular mood.
I’m equally at home listening to classic Beatles as I am to Punk or any variation of Rock.
If the mood suits me I will listen to jazz or classical music.
The point is , I choose to listen to the songs as I like to hear them.
The title of this piece “ Old Men Of Rock And Roll” is not a criticism , but an observation.
It comes from a 10cc song called “ Old Wild Men” which says
“ Old men of rock and roll , can’t bury music. Where are they now ?”
The answer came last night. Elton John rocked the Pyramid Stage with a catalogue of hits spanning half a century…Did it live up to expectations ? Oh Yes !
