I watched the whole Glastonbury set last night via YouTube. Enjoyed it immensely. For the most part the band was on & the set list was spot on for the event. One thing bothered me though. I watched via internet TV hookup & ran the sound through my surround sound system. For some reason, the keyboards were way up in the mix. It became increasingly appearant that Chuck Leavell is way over playing. Almost every song had annoyingly noodly fills. There was no reason for it, as both Keith & Ronnie (& Mick Taylor) were playing great. I will admit it seems Ronnie is doing most of the heavy lifting on the show but Keith was fine. Chuck Leavell is obviously a great musician & seemingly a good guy with his environmental work, etc. but the jam band ethos of filling every space isn't optimum for the Stones. He needs to let the music breathe more. The Stones are a guitar band. I was lucky enough to see Ian Stewart play with them & he got that concept. So did Ian McLaglen. We don't need keyboard solos on every song. Leavell is a hired sideman & would do well to remember that. Save the Allman/Dead stuff for the solo shows. I'm sure they're fine in that setting. Just spouting off.

I think it depends on the sound system. I ran it plainly through my tiny laptop speakers. At some point I turned it off because Keith became inaudible and everytime Lisa opened her mouth my ears went. (Apart from her loudness through my speakers, I seriously started wondering if she was out of tune as well as out of breath, but that's a different matter).

Brings to mind when Blues Traveller opened on Bridges to Babylon (I think). The harp player wanted to play with the Stones really bad. They asked Mick & he said "too many notes". He should have that talk with Leavell too.

The piano player should be replaced.

too many notes , that sounds like somebody that i know who said the same thing !

Well, John Popper's style isn't very dissimilar from Sugar Blue's, so they could have him playing some song wwhiche featured Sugar Blue in Studio, for instance "Miss You" (in the extended fashion it's been played on that tour, there would have been room for a cracking harmoncia solo by John). That was definitely a missed opportunity for both The Stones and John.

I listened to it on my setup,Chuck is fairly restrained.Its probably the mix you were listening to.

Quote
crholmstrom
Brings to mind when Blues Traveller opened on Bridges to Babylon (I think). The harp player wanted to play with the Stones really bad. They asked Mick & he said "too many notes". He should have that talk with Leavell too.

I agree.....John Popper plays harp so well,(too well), it sounds like a clarinet or something.