The star of two consecutive Glastonbury Festivals and the darling of London’s alternative cabaret scene, the grotesque, crude and deluded WILFREDO is the self described Spanish “pop God”.

We missed this show when it was supposed to be in Brighton due to Wilfredo being ill, we will nto be missing it again!

Known in his native Andalucia as El Nino de Granada, Wilfredo took the UK festival circuit by storm last year on the back of his multi-platinum, best-selling albums Solo Para Las Damas (Only For The Ladies) and Julio Ni Siquiera Pueden Cantar Como Yo (Not Even Julio Can Sing Like This). With his high trousers, buck teeth and tall-tale anecdotes of an illustrious life, all delivered in broken Spanglish, Wilfredo is once again on the road joined by his sister Maria, his mute accompanist and travelling companion.

Previewing a feature length solo show – to be toured this summer – in the intimate setting of Camden Town’s Etcetera Theatre, Wilfredo extends the sweaty palm of invitation to come and witness the spectacle of a performance which will no doubt leave you emotionally tattooed for a lifetime. The Wilfredo experience is an assault on the senses.

Singing classic covers, original song and parody, WILFREDO AT THE ETCETERA will be presented on Friday 9th April and Saturday 10th April at 9.30pm.

“Musical character comedy at its most disturbing… but compelling, hilarious stuff” LondonTown.com, 2009

“A nice mix of innocence and aggression, of the unexpected and the truly odd. Oh, and funny” Martin Freeman, 2009

“He’s a splendid piece of character comedy… a triumphant debut for a slice of wilted Manchego” Venue Magazine, 2009

Creator and comic performer MATT ROPER found himself touring the world of smoky clubs and theatres as a young teenager on the road with his father, a stand-up comic. At eighteen he made his own stand-up debut, before writing and performing a number of satirical sketch comedies on the London fringe. In addition to his work in comedy, Matt has also performed as a vocalist in a number of jazz collectives. He is currently immersed in the world of character comedy.

It looks like Glastonbury Festival, the world’s biggest green field arts and music event, is serious about banning national flags from its Pyramid Stage in 2010 and has set up a pole on their website. They have launched a survey on Thursday to see whether flags should be banned from the main stage at this year’s event.

Fans are being asked to take part in an online vote on the festival’s website here to decide whether to outlaw banners following complaints that they spoil the view for some of the crowd.

“The topic of whether flags should be banned from in front of the Pyramid Stage at the festival seems to have been cropping up a bit recently,” organisers said on the website. “Our gut feeling here at festival HQ is that they shouldn’t be banned, as we think they add to the magic of a big Pyramid stage performance.”

According to the latest votes, 60 percent of respondents backed keeping flags and 40 percent thought they should be banned. However, if multiple votes were recorded, then the vote was almost equal, with a tiny majority favouring a ban.  This year will be the 40th anniversary of the festival, which takes place on a farm in southwest England and attracts some 150,000 revellers, with Irish rock band U2 lined up to headline the event.

Some of the comments on the site have been varied with some expressing concern about the issue:

lucy__pettifor said: Definitely keep the flags! When you’re at a stage the size of the pyramid stage, the majority of people won’t have a decent view of the artist/band whether the flags are there or not, and the flags being backlit by the stage lights add to much to the atmosphere.

skylarking said: Can I call into question the right of a bunch of burley pissed people pushing past you in a really aggressive fashion to join their mates with a flag 20 feet from the stage 5 minutes before the headliner comes on? “‘scuse me – OOOF!” (NB – you are lucky to get the ‘scuse me’ bit first)

daggermouth said: ban the vendors selling the flags onsite that only fuels the “problem”. most of the flags i see tend to be generic nationality flags or yellow smiley faces which seem to be on sale all over the site.

abbiabbi said: I love the flags as much as the next person but there are just toooooo many now. Keep flags on site just not at the Pyramid. Being 5ft I can’t see the stage at the best of times and i have to rely on the screens which in turn the flags block. I pay to see a band, not your flag. If everyone wants to keep their flags how about letting all the short people to the front?! No I thought not

There seems to be no real reason why Glastonbury would bring this up since they are in support of keeping the flags, to ban something that they support would seem a little odd and somewhat against the whole principle of the Glastonbury ethos. This years festival is sold out and some of the headliners have been confirmed as U2, Muse, and Stevie Wonder has been in talks to headline Sunday Night.

It was bound to happen and it is not a suprise that it has but news is in that tickets for next year’s Glastonbury Festival have sold out having only been put on sale this Sunday morning (4th). This will be the festivals 40th Birthday and will be organiser Michael Eavies last festival as organiser before he hands it over to his daughter Emily.

However the tickets are £10 more expensive than they where in 2009 with a pass for the three days of the festival costing £185 with a £5 booking fee and £4.95 postage. This doesn’t seem quite fair that the tickets are nearly £200 and they are charging such high amounts for P&P.

Last year tickets took several weeks to sell out, and the year before there were tickets available right up until the festival. This was mainly due to Jay-Z being a headliner and a lot of wannabe hippies bemoaning the festival in 2008 for letting him come, however Jay-Z had the last laugh his set was awesome.

A statement on the Glastonbury website read:

“Tickets for Glastonbury 2010 went on sale at 9am this morning (Sunday 4 October) and the festival’s 40th anniversary is now sold out. Thank you to all those who bought tickets. Confirmation emails are still in the process of being sent out. For those who didn’t manage to reserve or buy tickets today (Sunday), there will be a small number of tickets on sale over the coming weeks when any failed transactions have been cancelled. For anyone who is not already registered, registration will reopen at 9am tomorrow (Monday 5 October) at www.glastonburyregistration.co.uk.”

Last year’s event was headlined by Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Blur.

Nothing on this earth will prepare you for seeing Bruce Springsteen live, nothing.  Now I know what your thinking, you saying to yourself ‘well I’ve been to hundreds of shows and seen countless acts and I could handle and anticipate what Mr Springsteen has to offer.’ I can tell you now as someone who has also seen hundreds of shows, some of them breathtaking and some of them mind blowing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band, Live, are the greatest show you are ever going to see.

Jay-Z headlined last year and it caused holy war between those who believe ‘that’ sort of music shouldn’t be at the world famous arts festival.  They where wrong.  Jay-Z’s show had class, brilliance, and showed a clear understanding of the organisers where music in the UK was going.  And they listened.  This year on the Pyramid stage we got to see Dizzie Rascal, VV Brown, Spinal Tap (to name just a few) and the crowd where I was loved every second of it.

I got to the front of the stage for about 10am and I was determined nothing was going to move me or stop me from being at the front for the boss.  I was surrounded by kids and usually I would mean that in a sly way but when I lifted Johnny onto my shoulders so he could see Bruce Springsteen and I could hear him singing along I knew that the Michael, Emily et al know more about the music scene in the UK than most.  No matter where you looked there was nothing but a sea of young people who screamed and shouted for Bruce to come on stage, he was late, but when he did appear a moment of true astonishment came over the 90,000+ people looking at a living icon.

On stage Bruce went straight to what he does best, perform.  His first song of his 2h 40min set was ‘Coma Girl’ by his old friend Joe Strummer.

Bruce played, and played, and played. He has no known understanding of taking a break and resting or letting the band rest. During rehearsals for his Seager Sessions album ‘We Shall Over Come’ (which went to number one in the UK without a lead single) it was his wife who had to intervene and tell him to take a break. And that worth ethic showed tonight and for the first time I really understood what I was he was all about and why his fans will follow him anywhere.

To see someone like this live was a real honour but more than that for the cost of the weekend ticket you got to see and experience more than you could ever have thought was true. Some of the tracks Springsteen played where well know and and some where new from his latest album ‘Working on a Dream’.

However there where two songs that he played that where simply the most beautiful songs anyone could ever sing, a reworking of his classic ‘Ghost of Tom Joad’ and from the new album ‘Out Law Pete’.  Seeing someone like Springsteen Live could have a damaging affect on you in the most negative way you could think of.  You build people up in your head, you expect them to be good and great, and you want them to.  Springsteen doesn’t just give you the show of his life he showed every talent show wannabe, every to-bit-has-been, and all those manufactured bands how it’s done and few people alive could do a show like his.

There was something about the way ‘Outlaw Pete’ was performed I guess you have to factor in the whole festival vibe, the tens of thousands of people screaming his name and the words of the song, and the over all perfection that this song is.  I was sold on Bruce when I hear The Ghost of Tom Joad album years ago and seeing him live was a real honour.

Set List

Review Originally published in June 2009.