At some point on Sunday night, it seems as if quite a few restless people watching the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage started Googling “threw”, “bottle” and “Mumford & Sons”. For the past 36 hours, the most popular page on www.uncut.co.uk has been an old news story from 2010, in which The Fall’s Mark E Smith articulated his dislike for Mumford & Sons, mistook them for “a load of retarded Irish folk singers," and claimed he threw a bottle at them during a festival in Ireland. Judging by a bunch of comments that have been tagged to this story on social media, you’d be forgiven for reinventing Mark E Smith, possibly unsteady curmudgeon and long-rehearsed provocateur, as some noble embodiment of public dissent: the man who flung a bottle on behalf of the seething millions. Mumford & Sons are currently one of the most popular rock bands in the world, but the most striking thing about their success, at least in the UK, has been the energy expended by those who hate them. What, exactly, is their problem? For my part, a dislike of Mumford & Sons’ music is relatively straightforward. They seem to be another band in the anthemic strain of Coldplay, Snow Patrol et al, whose music evidently provides a sort of consolatory hug on an epic scale. It’s hard to hear much folk in what they do; rather, they toy with what many grasp as signifiers of folk – banjos and waistcoats chiefly, as far as I can tell – and give themselves a vague bucolic air. It’s a set dressing, a point of difference, no more critical to their sound than the daft paint-spattered outfits or ragged vintage uniforms that Coldplay wore so assiduously for their last two campaigns. This set dressing, though, seems to be what so many of Mumford & Sons’ detractors focus upon. They are not, as a consequence, just one more stadium indie band with a slight twist on the tearful mass dynamics patented by U2. They are, instead, portrayed as the shock troops for twee rusticity, flagbearers for the complacency and traditions of the Tory shires; part of an apparent axis of evil alongside Boden clothing, Country File and Kirstie Allsopp. At the heart of this contempt, perhaps, is a residual belief shared by many British people of a certain age that, if a rock band are middle-class, they should have the good grace to pretend otherwise (though we’ll then ridicule say, Damon Albarn, for his studied estuary vowels), or at least to behave so appallingly that they implicitly renounce their ‘nice’ upbringing. I’m not sure whether Marcus Mumford has ever made any clear political statement, but it’s interesting that one middle-class Glastonbury headliner – Sir Mick Jagger – has spent decades consorting with British gentry, and recently admitted to some degree of Conservatism and to meetings with Margaret Thatcher. Yet Jagger and The Rolling Stones are still cartoonified as anti-establishment, and their quintessentially Conservative insolence and greed are contextualised, with tacit approval, as a decadence and a glamorous, countercultural immorality. If Mumford & Sons are characterised as Tories, it seems to be, weirdly, down to what people perceive as an invidious politeness and gentility; neither attributes that more nuanced opponents of the Conservative Party would recognise in David Cameron’s ideological dismantling of the Welfare State. The strange thing, of course, is that plenty of people seem to think it’s more satisfying and productive to attack Cameron, George Osborne et al for their social backgrounds rather than their policies; that to ridicule them for going to Eton or for the provenance of their burgers is more politically useful than to indict them for the glaringly evident inequalities caused by their decisions. It’d be naïve to imagine that their privileged backgrounds haven’t influenced their political outlook in some way, but it’s also reductive to bind the two inexorably together: not all hardline Tory ideologues – David Davis springs easily to mind - come from the upper echelons of English society; not quite all of those born to land and title – Tony Benn, of course – follow a path of Conservatism. It’s a pretty facile point to make, but it seems salient, not least because I’m not convinced that creating elite stereotypes is the best way of criticising either a government or, somewhat less importantly, a rock band. Maybe so many people hate Mumford & Sons because it’s easier to take offence at their aesthetic coding, rather than try and articulate exactly why they don’t like what is, when all’s said and done, the kind of bland and nebulous music that is often quite hard to critically spear. Maybe we can’t be bothered to engage with deeper issues because they’re not as much fun. Maybe it’s a sport to lambast caricatures of poshness, and to fetishise equally shallow ideas of rebellion. Or maybe we should have switched off the Glastonbury coverage, and put on a record we actually enjoyed. Got any Frank Turner? Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey Picture credit: Rebecca Miller

In case we need reminding, the last time Bruce Springsteen played Hard Rock Calling – at Hyde Park, last July – a curfew was broken, the PA switched off, and Springsteen and a guesting Paul McCartney were silenced mid-song. It seems unlikely there would be a repeat of such shenanigans this year. For starters, Hard Rock Calling have left leafy Hyde Park and relocated a site that resembles a car park some yomping distance from the Olympic stadium. The only signs of habitation are rows and rows of empty, new-build apartment blocks stacked up along one side of the festival perimeter. With no nearby residents to grumble about noise levels the sound, at least, is loud and clear. The main arena is concreted, with a covering of Astroturf in the middle. A short distance away, in a grassy, landscaped area of gently rolling hills and dips that recalls Teletubbyland, you might catch The Flaming Groovies tearing through a ferocious version of “Shake Some Action” in the dusty afternoon heat. Meanwhile, across on the main stage, Alabama Shakes are in full throttle, delivering among many terrific moments an amazing version of “Hold On” that, even at 3pm in a half-empty area, carries a formidable punch. They’re followed by The Black Crowes, who conjure up an hour’s worth of loose, digressive jams culminating in a terrific take on “Hard To Handle” which spins off into “Hush” half way through. Highlights? Plenty, but Adam MacDougall enveloped in a cloud of smoke essaying some rambling keyboard choogle, the overheard camera shots of the Persian rugs the band play on, or a glimpse of Rich Robinson’s guitar pedals, emblazoned with the words “Hippy Machine”, all figure highly. Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band arrive just after 7pm, and play for a little over 3 hours. In many ways, it’s a curious set – although I admit I’m struggling to work out what this current European leg of the Wrecking Ball tour is about. This tour has been on the road for 15 months now – twice the length of the previous Working On A Dream tour, which ran from April to November 2009. It’s a stretch to think that he’s still in a promotion cycle for the album – out of tonight’s 29 songs, only four are from Wrecking Ball itself. Certainly, the rump of material from the early part of the set comes from Nebraska – including a terrific “Reasons To Believe” recast as Canned Heat-style boogie, and a fiery take on “Atlantic City”. So what is he doing? He starts taking audience requests conspicuously early on in the show – the fourth and fifth songs played, “Johnny 99” and “Reasons To Believe”, come from placards held up by the audience. You might wonder if there’s actually any shape to these shows, or if Springsteen and the band are simply turning up, walking on stage and seeing what happens. But the thing about this run of dates so far has been full album performances – which Springsteen has been doing since the closing stages of the Working For A Dream tour in America, but not elsewhere. In fact, out of the 21 shows he’s played so far in this run, nine have included full album performances of either Born To Run (twice), Darkness On The Edge Of Town (three times) or Born In The USA (four times). Tonight, we get Born In The USA – which he also played the previous night in Paris. Arguably, Born In The USA feels as resonant today as it did when it was released in 1984 – the hardships endured by servicemen returning from war, a bleak recessionary landscape, government mismanagement, corporate greed. It also affords a number of rousing sing-along moments – the title track, “No Surrender”, “Glory Days” – which work tremendously well in the convivial atmosphere of a Springsteen show. Even the unsettling, predatory “I’m On Fire” assumes an unexpected celebratory tone tonight. I guess this batch of dates has an element of “this one’s for the fans”. We are used to seeing Springsteen in a number of different guises – the preacher, the polemicist, or increasingly playing up to the band’s advancing age. But tonight the vibe seems very much about playing for the simple pleasure of it. During The Rising’s “Waitin’ On A Sunny Day”, Springsteen raised onto his shoulders a young crowd member to sing onstage. The audience cheers whenever Jake Clemons plays a solo. A number of Nils Lofgren-style black pork pie hats are in evidence. This is Bruce conducting what amounts to a backyard sing-along round the barbecue, but on a far grander scale. We are in his extended family, everyone's invited. He closes the show with an acoustic "My Lucky Day" from Working On A Dream. An unusual choice – no “Thunder Road”, or “Twist And Shout”, which have been the most frequent closing songs played on this leg of the tour. Apparently, he decided to play it on a whim, after seeing an audience member with a tattoo. "That's a nice tattoo you've got there," he says. "That's worth a spontaneous song on its own. I run into people all over the place with tattoos. I don't have one myself but I appreciate them on other people. Anyway, this one's for you, kid." As good a reason as any, presumably. Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band played: Shackled And Drawn Badlands Prove It All Night Johnny 99 Reason to Believe Atlantic City Wrecking Ball Death To My Hometown Born In The USA Cover Me Darlington County Working On The Highway Downbound Train I’m On Fire No Surrender Bobby Jean I’m Goin’ Down Glory Days Dancing In The Dark My Hometown Waiting On A Sunny Day Lonesome Day The Rising Light Of Day Encore: Jungleland Born to Run Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out American Land My Lucky Day Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner. pic credit: Andy Willsher

For the past few days, Uncut’s Tom Pinnock took a relatively idiosyncratic path around Glastonbury Festival 2013. Here are the reviews he filed over the weekend, featuring Elvis Costello, Portishead, Goat, Robyn Hitchcock, Matthew E White, Melody’s Echo Chamber and, of course, The Rolling Stones… The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury 2013 - review Portishead at Glastonbury 2013 - review Goat at Glastonbury 2013 - review Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 at Glastonbury 2013 - review Melody's Echo Chamber at Glastonbury 2013 - review Elvis Costello at Glastonbury 2013 – review Matthew E White at Glastonbury 2013 – review Sadly, Tom didn’t get to see Mumford & Sons. For some reason, though, this news story from our archives has been very popular over the past 12 hours or so… Mark E Smith: “I threw a bottle at Mumford & Sons”

Glastonbury's final day starts with blazing sun, but cloud thankfully emerges along with a cooling breeze - good conditions in which to see Matthew E White on the West Holts stage. The Virginian is here with an eight-piece band, including a three-person horn section, and he's clearly having a great time. "We're all from Richmond, Virginia," he tells the crowd. "It's a beautiful place. If you should find yourself there, I'll take you out to dinner or something. Just don't all come at once." The crowd obey the singer's request to move around on songs such as "One Of These Days", while the cascading Rhodes and spacey pedal steel could sooth any hangover on the slower, more soul-influenced numbers like "Gone Away". The weirder side of White's music also emerges live - the band take one song into an extended psych-funk outro, complete with four members playing percussion and the brass contributing sharp stabs. During the set, the group cover Randy Newman's "Sail Away" and Neil Young's "Are You Ready For The Country?", the latter with an arrangement that sounds like a Southern Arcade Fire - all wailing pedal steel and hustling tambourine. "This is my first time playing a festival like this," he says. "Everyone told me it would be really stressful but I'm having a great time." Tom Pinnock The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury 2013 - review Portishead at Glastonbury 2013 - review Goat at Glastonbury 2013 - review Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 at Glastonbury 2013 - review Melody's Echo Chamber at Glastonbury 2013 - review Elvis Costello at Glastonbury 2013 – review Follow Tom on Twitter for more Glastonbury coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock

What with the sun blazing dangerously down on Worthy Farm, everyone seems to be in a blissful mood at Glastonbury this afternoon. Extraneous, and in some cases, all clothing layers have been shed, and the Southwest's supply of UV facepaints has been decimated. In the midst of such good vibes then, Elvis Costello & The Imposters could probably come out in front of the Pyramid Stage crowd and play a selection of B-sides without dampening anyone's mood. Thankfully, there's plenty of room for "Oliver's Army" and company in his set. A mid-show acoustic section is perhaps a little indulgent, especially on the stately swing-time ballad, "Jimmie Standing In The Rain", but the set picks up with a rendition of Costello's peerless anti-Thatcher song, "Tramp The Dirt Down". "I would never wish anyone dead..." he says. "This isn't about burying a person, it's about burying an idea." It's a moving performance, though a little out of place performed to people eating ice creams and falafel wraps. Costello closes the set with a marathon run of classic songs, including "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea", "Pump It Up" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding". A solid ending - and a little more suitable for serving with warm pear cider. Tom Pinnock The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury 2013 - review Portishead at Glastonbury 2013 - review Goat at Glastonbury 2013 - review Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 at Glastonbury 2013 - review Melody's Echo Chamber at Glastonbury 2013 - review Matthew E White at Glastonbury 2013 - review Follow Tom on Twitter for more Glastonbury coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock

Stunning weather today (Saturday) at Glastonbury - though due to the lack of shade there are now thousands of people walking round with horrific sunburn, dazed from a combination of heat and cheap cider. We can't really complain, though, especially when a short walk from our tent takes us to the Park Stage, where Melody's Echo Chamber are providing a woozy, kaleidoscopic pop sound to match the crowd's woozy, sunblinded mood. It's a vision in sound: the phased guitars and sugary keys, along with Melody Prochet's cooing vocals and the literally windswept mix, drift up the hillside at the edge of Worthy Farm to the thousands of festivalgoers sunbathing along the edge of the metal fence - we'd guess that only at Glastonbury could you experience such a sublime moment. "Some Time Alone, Alone" is particularly blown around by the wind, but actually ebbs and throbs beautifully as if Kevin Shields had a hand in it. Might we suggest that every festival begins sunny days with shoegazey psych-pop? The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury 2013 - review Portishead at Glastonbury 2013 - review Elvis Costello at Glastonbury 2013 – review Goat at Glastonbury 2013 - review Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 at Glastonbury 2013 - review Matthew E White at Glastonbury 2013 - review Tom Pinnock Follow Tom on Twitter for more Glastonbury coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock

Compared to the number of people packed in to see The Lumineers and Foals on the Other Stage earlier today, headliners Portishead had a much smaller crowd - after all, they're up against Arctic Monkeys on the Pyramid Stage, and Geoff Barrow and co are hardly feelgood fodder for festivals. Despite Beth Gibbons' often heartbreaking lyrics, though, and the band's increasing Krautier influences, it seems Portishead have more than enough anthems for Glastonbury. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen so many people dancing wildly to such an apocalyptic song as "Cowboys"... or "We Carry On"... or "Glory Box". Their set was a perfect tightrope between the 'hits', like "Sour Times", and deeper cuts, such as Third closer, "Threads"; and unlike many other festival shows, the sound was clear and powerful, Adrian Utley's Jazzmaster especially cutting through the murky synths and bass. The highlight might have been "Machine Gun" - containing some of Beth's most ravished, wracked vocals - if only for the CND video during its second half, which juxtaposed images of anti-Trident demos and atomic explosions with a shot of David Cameron complete with glowing red eyes. The cheer that met the latter was almost as loud as the one for "Roads". The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury 2013 - review Goat at Glastonbury 2013 - review Elvis Costello at Glastonbury 2013 – review Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 at Glastonbury 2013 - review Melody's Echo Chamber at Glastonbury 2013 - review Matthew E White at Glastonbury 2013 - review Portishead played: Silence Mysterons The Rip Sour Times Magic Doors Wandering Star Machine Gun Over Glory Box Chase The Tear Cowboys Threads Roads We Carry On Tom Pinnock Photo: Eva Vermandel Follow Tom on Twitter for more Glastonbury coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock

At 2011's Glastonbury, Robyn Hitchcock performed all of Captain Beefheart's Clear Spot record - this year the former Soft Boy is toeing the line a little more, and appearing with his American supergroup of a backing band, The Venus 3. Strangely, though, Peter Buck isn't present, though Paul Noble makes a fine job of filling in on guitar. Joining Hitchcock are the usual Venus 3 rhythm section, Scott McCaughey and Bill Reiflin - the latter in particular is a stunning musician, all perfect feel and adroitly judged fills, while always serving the song. Robyn begins with a short acoustic segment, kicking off with the old Soft Boys track "Only The Stones Remain", which, not surprisingly considering tomorrow night's headliners, goes down well with the crowd at the Spirit Of '71 stage. After "The Wreck Of The Arthur Lee", the group and assorted other musicians take the stage for Venus 3 songs including "Museum Of Sex" and the relentless "Adventure Rocket Ship", along with some earlier solo Hitchcock tracks such as "Airscape" and "Oceanside". There's no way enough vocals in the mix, but luckily you can still hear Robyn's unique stage banter, this time with topics ranging from baby spiders inside your heart, wardrobes the Russians sent into space and the difference between capitalist and socialist guitar strings ("capitalist strings are in tune with themselves, socialist strings are in tune with each other", if you were wondering...). The Soft Boys' "Kingdom Of Love" and The Venus 3's "Ole! Tarantula" end the set, before Robyn bids everyone goodbye: "We haven't got any shows lined up, you can't buy any records, in fact you'll probably never see us again..." He's joking, of course, but hey, don't scare us, Robyn. The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury 2013 - review Portishead at Glastonbury 2013 - review Elvis Costello at Glastonbury 2013 – review Goat at Glastonbury 2013 - review Melody's Echo Chamber at Glastonbury 2013 - review Matthew E White at Glastonbury 2013 - review Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 played: Only The Stones Remain I Got The Hots The Wreck Of The Arthur Lee Museum Of Sex Light Blue Afternoon Queen Of Eyes Adventure Rocket Ship NY Doll Oceanside Be Still I Love You Airscape Up To Our Nex Kingdom Of Love Ole! Tarantula Tom Pinnock Photo: Tom Oldham Follow Tom on Twitter for more Glastonbury coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock

So music at Glastonbury begins today, after Thursday's rain-soaked warm-up. Thankfully the sun is out, the mud is mostly gone, and the relieved party atmosphere is perfect for Goat at the West Holts Stage. While most of the bands on Glastonbury 2013's main stages are chart-friendly rock or pop, Goat are more like an echo of the festival's feral, druggy past. The Swedes, numbering seven members, are variously cloaked in carnival masks, voodoo headdresses, threatening balaclavas and flowing white and black robes - not disimilar from some of the more decadently dressed punters floating around Glastonbury's temporary lanes, in fact. As on their album, World Music, Goat today specialise in longform psychedelic jams, topped with Amon Duul guitar solos, chanted vocals and jittery drumming of the kind found on Love's Four Sail. Starting off with an extended version of their debut's opener, "Diariabi", the band also take in Afropop on "Let It Bleed" and swampy, heavier sounds on set-closer "The Sun The Moon". Trippy visuals swim behind the band throughout, as their dual, masked frontwomen prowl the stage bashing tambourines and shaking maracas. The only downsides to the group's set are the murky sound, which leaves just bass and drums audible at times, and the slightly interchangable nature of some of their grooves - 40 minutes, rather than an hour, would have been perfect. For all that's great about the collective's musicianship and performance, though, the best thing about Goat at Glastonbury is that their hypnotic, ritualistic music is the perfect soundtrack to drunken dancing, a great deal of which is unsurprisingly displayed this afternoon. Tom Pinnock The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury 2013 - review Portishead at Glastonbury 2013 - review Elvis Costello at Glastonbury 2013 – review Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 at Glastonbury 2013 - review Melody's Echo Chamber at Glastonbury 2013 - review Matthew E White at Glastonbury 2013 - review Follow Tom on Twitter for more Glastonbury coverage: www.twitter.com/thomaspinnock