Beta Band indulge in a little four play
This year, the Other Stage saw the self-confessed "ugly spuds" of pop, Beta Band's second successive appearance at the festival. Since their appearance on the same stage two years ago, the band have released an album "Hot Shots II" to major critical acclaim, the songs from which formed the basis for the majority of the show. The stage was decked out in the sort of tacky rope lighting you see wrapped around the karaoke machine down your local at Christmas. These were flashing in time to mad keyboard player John Macleans' scratching and sample overlays. At the rear of the stage a large projector screen showed stills and short films of the band. The best of these featured a skateboarding, joint-smoking policeman. You get the picture. The Beta Band are no strangers to each other's instruments and their performance at Glastonbury was to be no exception. Lead vocalist Steve Mason regularly switched from rapping his mike to pounding the obligatory second drum kit during the breakdown. After a few tracks, singer (and guitarist and drummer and…) Steve threw open the gig to requests from the audience. Luckily his offer came with a couple of conditions: "No Oasis, no Travis." The final song saw the band put their four man drumming team to best use. "The House Song", taken from the 1998 EP "The Patty Patty Sound" is an epic mix of samples, rap and most importantly drumming. The sight of two drum kits played from both sides by all four band members seemed a little unnatural. Yes, they were showing off, but it sounded so good that the crowd loved every moment of it.
Words/Photograph: Lovell Fuller