Glastonbury Festival - The Other Stage (26/6/99)
...Witness, often poor in the past, have suddenly sussed that they can be both The Verve and REM at once, and that's an excellent development.
FLIPSIDE
Other than REM, the first
spine-tingling moments of Glastonbury 1999 came courtesy of Wigan's Witness,
who had the unenviable task of opening Saturday's proceedings on the second stage at 11am. Lead singer Gerard Starkie looked
a little shell-shocked even to be up at that time, never mind performing in front of the biggest crowd of his life. But the
bleary-eyed. blue-shifted Starkie and his band were in terrific fettle and scorched through the magnificent 'Scars' (a kind of
folk-metal Radiohead) and the funky current single 'Audition'. However, it was 'Quarantine' that really saw them take flight.
Edged lazily along by Starkie's cracked bruise of a voice, the song's momentum built before the cascading guitars and monumental
chorus had even the most hungover audience whooping hoarsely.
THE
TIMES