I was, until a week ago, a Glastonbury virgin. As a 26 year old, who calls himself a music lover, I really cannot believe that it's taken me so long to go. The only festival I had been to previously was V2004, which was quite good fun and we saw some excellent performances, most memorably from The Strokes and Hope of the States. However, I always knew there would be better out there. It's just taken me 7 years to bother to find it.
You may have noticed that there was a lot of rain and a lot of mud at Glastonbury. Some people saws their spirits dampened somewhat by this. We barely noticed. We got through the half hour queue and long trek to camp site in torrential downpour by positive thinking - we knew we had a great time ahead of us. Only we didn't yet know just how good.
I spent most of the Wednesday and Thursday (before the festival proper started) just wandering round the site in open-mouthed wonder. In truth, I never completely stopped doing that. It had been said that you could enjoy an entire Glastonbury without ever seeing any music and barely even notice. It's completely true - with all the circus, theatre, comedy, cabaret, drinking establishments, night-life, farmers markets, works of art, village fêtes, healing fields and general weirdness along with countless other things I've forgotten. If you want to explore a fair amount of this, you won't get time to squeeze any live music in. Of course, none of this is news to anyone who's been before but I was completely amazed by the whole experience. I was, in particular, a big fan of the Greenfields field, where the Greenpeace area and Farmer's Markets were located. While in Greenfields, I ended up having my face painted as a tiger on the Friday after indulging in a big slice of Watermelon.
The above photograph are both from the Greenpeace area in the Greenfields. Both photographs belong to Laura Kemp.
On the Thursday night, we went to Ultimate Power, a club night focusing on the genre of power ballads. Far from my sort of music. In fact, most songs we heard in there would annoy me, usually. However, it was hard to be my usual cynical self when everybody in the tent was so happy. The smiles on every face around me made me very happy. And the fact that there were no queues for the bar in a full tent probably helped.
Come Friday, we were straining at the leash to finally see some live music. We started with a band I'd never heard of in Hobo Jones and the Junk Yard Dogs. They described their music as 'skunk' - skiffle punk. It was every bit as odd as it sounds but so much better. They pretty much played covers of well-known songs and it was a perfect way to start the weekend, they had the crowd in the Avalon tent jumping and singing along from the start. It was mostly fairly upbeat versions of songs such as The Clash's Should I Stay or Should I Go? and a Led Zeppelin tribute. However, they proved they were more than a one trick pony with a tender version of The Pogues classic Sally MacLennane in memory of a friend. All three members of the band impressed with their clearly well-rehearsed but still entertaining repartee. They apparently started life busking outside Woolworth's in Maidstone and are now festival regulars after impressing Michael Eavis himself.
From there, we had a slight change of pace with the Wu-Tang Clan. It was impossible to know what to expect - we didn't even know which members would turn up. I'd been looking forward to seeing them, although with some trepidation. In the end, our fears were needless, they were excellent and got the crowd interested and involved. They were a hit, and possibly a surprise one. I was with people who only knew Gravel Pit, as I suspect many of the crowd did, but they enjoyed the entire show.
My girlfriend and I then made our only trip to Billy Bragg's Leftfield to see comedian Andy Zaltzman. He is cricket and pun-obsessed, which to me is about all I ask from comedians, but disappointingly few manage to deliver. I urge you to check out The Bugle podcast and his excellent columns on Cricinfo. It didn't matter that I'd heard much of his set before - he was very funny, even when interrupted by the loud beeping of what appeared to be a truck reversing for about 5 minutes. A sample joke - "I'm a pessimist - like a German vegetarian, I fear the Wurst.".
It was then time for the act I'd really been waiting for since the line-up was announced. The Smiths are one of my absolute favourite bands of all-time. However, I was only born in 1985 so am obviously far too young to have seen them perform. For some reason, I had never before been to see Morrissey perform a solo gig either. He has a reputation for being hit and miss when performing live in recent years, so he was another act I went to with some apprehension. Again, I was not disappointed. Right from the start and his opening line of 'Well... Fancy seeing me here', he was right at his pouting best and made me very, very happy. He opened with a favourite Smiths song of mine; I Want The One I Can't Have, followed by First of The Gang To Die. He continued with more of my favourite Smiths and solo work, such as Shoplifters of the World, Everyday Is Like Sunday, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out and Irish Blood, English Heart. He then finished with what is many people's favourite Smiths song, and possibly their best known - This Charming Man. Apparently, he actually cut his set short by 15 minutes, which didn't matter to me. The Mozfather was excellent and it was a lifetime ambition fulfilled for me.
Obviously, I was not about to hang around for U2 so we moved over to Cubehenge from there, for an open air DJ set from Craig Charles. Any listener to 6music will know the joys of his Funk and Soul Show and the live version was tremendous. I cannot imagine that many DJs would inspire me to dance in torrential rain and mud whilst wearing just a t-shirt but he managed it, so he can't have been bad.
Me, with my face painted. Like a tiger.
We had time to squeeze one more act in from there, and that was the Lancashire Hotpots. By this point, my legs were starting to tire a little, but I was still entertained. Their brand of Lancashire-based novelty records is perhaps not for everyone and perhaps half of their songs are not actually that good, but I don't think anyone failed to enjoy Lancashire DJ, He's Turned Emo and Chippy Tea.
That will do for now, there's more to come later...
