Glastonbury Festival - From Zeros To Heroes

Zero 7

From Zeros To Heroes

New Tent - Saturday

It's difficult to be cool and objective when you're reviewing a band you really like, and I missed Zero 7's performance in the Dance Tent in 2002, so when I found myself in the press pit of the New Bands tent to photograph and review their Saturday night headline set it would be fair to say I was a bit more than mildly excited.

Zero 7 are not a new band, so it seems a bit strange to see them listed as such. Their debut album, Simple Things, has for the past two and a half years been the soundtrack for blissed out Sunday afternoons and post club chills from here to Timbuktu and tracks like 'I Have Seen' have been used to accompany so many idylic holiday locations on so many travel programs that whenever I play their music the sun comes out. How on earth? They’re friends with Nigel Godrich and through him have remixed Radiohead which when you think about it should be a disaster, however when you listen to it you realise that it does actually stand up really well. The new album When It Falls has quickly been accepted as living up to the incredibly tough act it had to follow which is always a tall order and has already by now become so familiar I sometimes forget which album I’m listening to. It truly is destined to set the world on fire. Or chill it out, rather.

Onstage, the live band are unbelievably slick and glide through their trademark silken soundscapes, promptly casting a spell over a muddy yet mesmerized audience from the word go. Me included. It's rammed and it's bucketting down outside yet inside the tent we might as well all be in the Maldives. As far as the vocal talent goes, I can only describe Mozez as having a voice that will sing you to heaven. This is a man that I will be forever indebted to for managing to de-stress me by the time he’s finished singing the third line as I sit in gridlock traffic on the M6, I don’t know how but he does it every time. New girl Tina Dico has the most stunning voice which sounds so typically Zero 7 that even now I check the credits of Simple Things to see if she’s listed there. Established member Sophie Barker sounds as amazing live as you hoped she would and Sia Furler's warm delivery and on-stage persona is like wrapping yourself in a gert big fluffy warm blanket. Indeed, when during 'Somersault' Sia and Tina start recreating the line-dancing promo of the two (there’s two videos, in case you didn’t know) it's nigh impossible to not fall immediately in love with them it's so cheesy and sweet.

"Thank you very much for coming out to see us in all this mud," drawls Sia, "I'm sure some of you lost shoes on the way". A touching sentiment, although I'm sure that if you had to wade through the slurry lagoon to get here the tent wouldn't be any less full than it is now. We are rewarded for our perseverance in the monsoon conditions by a truly sublime collection of old, new and newer material that by the end leaves practically everybody hugging each other. My wife isn’t stood nearby at the time so I hug a member of security. He doesn’t seem to mind much.

In the backstage bar after the performance I run into various band members, all of them striking me with how grounded and, well.. just how really bloody nice they are. Mozez is happy to stop and chat, Henry Binns is genuine charm personified and Sia is just the fluffiest, cheesiest person on site, chatting away to my 3 year old son and putting him under her spell too. It's always a total joy to meet your heroes and find out they're not complete wankers but quite the opposite.

I make my exit, thanking Henry on the way for making some of my favourite music, at which he launches into Abba's "Thank You For The Music". Walked straight into that one, eh? Sia also throws a big cheesy wave on our way out. Bless. I stagger out, awe-struck, and glance at my wife who rolls her eyes.

I said I'd try to be cool and objective, didn't I? Didn’t do very well either, did I? Well Zero 7 – don’t make such bloody amazing music and stop being so nice as well, then and only then I might be able to write a more impartial review. You gits.

>Stalker's collection of court imposed restraining orders grows by the day...

Reviews

Related Areas

News Stories

General Links

PlayLouder