So this year, I was getting pretty darn excited at the prospect of my favourite festival. I made the bad decision of only allowing myself one expensive music gig last year, which I spent on Michael Jackson, and we all know how that turned out, 2 weeks before the day I was meant to see him. It was a long quiet summer last year.
So Monday night, I'm back home, decide to meet up with my good old friend Natalie who I haven't seen for a good few years. She's recently graduated, so I did my best to cheer her up from the graduate year blues! What happened next took her mind off it i'm sure.
We thought it'd be nice to take a stroll to the moat, as it was a nice evening, we sat on the benches for a bit, and then thought we'd go have a play on the swings in the park, not realising it was 9:30 on a monday night, evidently the new saturday night in wells.
So we were swinging away, talking about politics and Nick Clegg going to street, when a beefy brunette girl wanders past. shouting her head off at us, in the wonderfully cliché manner 'Are you looking at me? Why are you looking at me?' She comes right into the park, right infront of us on the swings, and continually asks us backing it up with 'you're effing lesbians/emos/etc etc' and that she'd 'get my mate to come back and sort you out'Of which we naively didn't realise still actually happened. So after lots of staring at disbelief at her, she got bored with our non retaliation and walked of in a very un lady like fashion, continually shouting with a timid looking boy following her like a sheep.
We chuckled at this little incident and continued to swing. Much to our shock, 5 minutes later she brings back 5/6 more girls, one of which is very very lary, aggressive and vicious. Storm right up to us yet again, shouting in our faces what is wrong with us. Obviously we thought its about time to attempt to move on outta there, but they weren't having any of it, they wanted a couple of punchbags to release their anger over a situation that appeared out of thin air.
So we moved a little up the park, coincidentally right under a cctv camera, where they proceeded to pull natalies hair and smack her about, and then swing her into the hedge, still clinging to her scalp. At this point my natural instinct was to step in and pull this chunk of a girl off of her, in doing so, unseen to me, was a perfectly choreographed set-up for her to give me a strong left hook, punch right on the side of my left eye. Which instantly swelled, and due to her ring cutting the skin, began to leak blood down my chest and onto my hand. I freaked out, begged them to stop now, and briskly walked away back towards the moat.
I pulled out my phone to call the police when i neared the gate, not realising they were still following us. When they saw this obviously they started chasing us, and unfortunately caught up with Nat, just as I legged it through an open door of one of the poshest restaurant in wells, where lots of people were eating dinner.
Luckilly there was an off duty nurse and policeman around, who took good care of us and called the police and ambulance, who then took us home. I did actually look like igor the first night! Thom Yorke the second day, and it then faded into a lovely deep colour of purple for the duration of Glastonbury festival.
We got there on weds morning, after a very easy/stress free bus trip from castle-cary station, into gate A, walked straight through the gates with no queues, wonderful.
Then we first felt the heat, and the weight of our bags packed with thick socks, wellies and other unnecessary items for the beautiful weather we were about to endure for 5 days!
Alex's lovely group of friends set up our tent for us, so we got to the top of the pyramid field and crashed out.The day was pretty relaxed, we went shopping for a while, I found an amazing green french military jacket, £20! bargain! and a nice floaty top that looks like a scarf, which went very well together. We then met our good friend Luke for drinks in the now called 'West Holts' (formerly jazz world) field, brothers cider in Glastonbury must be at least 10% !! Three pints and I was gone. I insisted we go to the stone circle, where I met my friend matt, and the new little gay group from strode, all very lovely. We then headed to the Silent Disco, however on the way back, I managed to drop my camera on the way back to the tent, and didn't realise it was gone till the next day. Absolutely gutted, considering Id just spent £20 on a super case for it.
I decided not to let my materialistic side get me down, There were far more important things to enjoy, and I still had a disposable camera :)
Thursday was an exploring day, We went to the healing fields, played some drums, saw a naked woman, climbed the hill on the far side of the festival, used the flush toilets, got my face painted to cover up my black eye...
and at the end of the day I went to see Beardyman, making two new friends on the way, however being the only band on that day, the majority of the festival went to that tent, which took about 30 mins to walk out of! The sound was a bit too ear-piercing as well, very good as usual though.
Friday was exciting, the first day of real Glastonbury. Starting off with a baking hot session with Rolf Harris, so physically fit for his age, very good! I wish he was my grandparent.
I then watched Femi Kuti, who I presumed would be on west holts, alas they bagged the big stage! Those ladies would give shakira a run for her money, they can SHAKE their booties non stop! Awesome band. Beng Beng Beng! :D
Then we searched for shade, and watched a little bit of Corinne Bailey-Rae, who is absolutely stunning and has such a beautiful voice, who vowed she would never sing again after the tragic death of her boyfriend 3 years ago, So so glad she found the strength to return, she was sorely missed.
Then we had a bit of a gap, so decided to check out the John Peeln tent to get there early for Kele, managed to find a tiny square foot of shade to hide in just outside the tent, and I had a great nap listening to the Bombay Bicycle Club. Kele was absolutely great, full of energy and modesty. Really like his new stuff, and was even brave enough to play a medley of bloc party songs.
We then headed over to the other stage, got some food and watched Florence and The Machine, what a voice! And such a crazy lady! Manically giggling when the crowed obeyed her order to jump on cue. We left a little early, to check out the strong rumour of Thom Yorke on the Park stage. Becky (alex's friend) was stewarding on the park gates, and updated alex everytime a celebrity passed through, completely unknown to who Thom Yorke was, I couldnt quite believe she'd chatted to him. The special Guest slot was look extremely exciting. Alex was lovely enough to keep me company, and we got a good spot in the middle of the field infront of the stage, and sure enough, Thom Yorke entered the stage after being introduced by Eavis, played a few of his solo tracks on the piano, and was then joined by Johnny Greenwood to play some radiohead classics. The feeling of everyone surrounding you singing their hearts out with 'For a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself' was enough to make me weep. 7 years id waited for this. Mind-Blowing.
So then we had to power walk it back to the pyramid ready for Gorillaz, who we made in the nick of time. Managed to pick up Lauren on the way, which was excellent, and boy they did not dissapoint the rumours of their guests! Snoop Dogg (however not on Welcome to Plastic Beach!) Lou Reed for Some Kind of Nature, Mark E. Smith (AMAZING) for Glitter Freeze from their new album, and they played older tracks like kids with guns, last living souls, dirty harry, and Dare.
They had Snoop rap on Clint Eastwood as their encore track, which was very entertaining, as he shizzle dizzled all over those lyrics :P!! Very wicked show. Visuals slightly dissapointing as everyone was expecting the previous hologram set up, which must take hours to manufacture, hence the reason it was dropped i'm guessing. The animation videos for every song were cool though!
Saturday! The big day! Started off with meeting my good old friend Josh, who I went to college with 3 years ago. What a lovely boy he is still, we watched the circus acts in the big top till lunch time, then I went for lunch with Luke and tried Kangaroo and Ostrich burgers! Very tasty! then I headed to Seasick Steve on the pyramid, always a great show. Had to leave early for Devendra Banhart, my dream man. Who has sadly chopped all his lovely locks off, and has now taken a more upbeat alt.hipster direction, over his super freak-folk beginning. Both very enjoyable genres, especially when such a yummy man is at the centre of it.
I managed to bump into my good friend Alaric for this gig, who was also alone for the same reasons I was, everyone I knew was unaware of the bliss of the banhart!
After that very enjoyable hour, I headed back to the pyramid to catch the Dead Weather, I am sadly not a fan, but I couldn't not see My beloved and worshipped Jack White when he was only a few fields away! He was looking very lovely and carried the show, even though he is the drummer of this band. Alison Mosshart has apparently taken on a new name, something to add to the list of annoying traits she's picked up while in this band. Ugh, can't stand her. My heart sank when Jack announced a song from their upcoming second album, dear Jack, stop wasting your time, Meg is over her anxieties now, make use of her and return to your roots!
Shakira certainly got me into a better mood again, who had an amazing entrance and played whenever wherever and underneath your clothes first! I lay on the ground looking at the clear blue sky dotted with flags and happily sang along.
I then headed to the Queens head tent to meet my sister and her lovely friends, to get a brilliant spot for Band Of Skulls, Of which was the start of losing my voice. Screaming out their pounding anthems was fantastic fun.
We headed back to the pyramid field then to catch the latter half of Scissor Sisters, who were very good, and had Kylie as a guest, who was great!
And then came Muse. A band I had to sadly sacrifice in 2004 for Orbital (a fair choice I feel.) This time, I had many years of adoration behind me, a lot of unconscious lyric memory to re surface, and 6 years of anticipation to fuel my jumping! They did not dissapoint in any regard. They are stupendous showmen, and ridiculously good musicians. They played so many classic songs, including stockholm syndrome which I used so LOVE back in my adolescence. And then came a great surprize, They played 'the Streets Have No Name' in homage to U2, accompanied by The Edge, who were supposed to headline the night before, before Bono's spinal problems meant they had to pull out. Fantastic version, and a very pleasant surprize. they finished with Knights of Cydonia, and pounded out the last riff before vanishing behind a huge amount of smoke pumped onto the stage. Bloody amazing. Top 5 gigs easily in my book.
On a great high, we decided to attempt to get into Shangri-La and the other little attractions on the outskirts of the site. However were led into a 50 deep gridlocked queue that was part of a one way system that directed you back to where you began on The Common. What a waste of an hour. So we went back to the tent, on the way we had cheese and sweetcorn crepes, which was worth the walk :).
Sunday, last day of musical enjoyment for this year. To begin with, my favourite Paloma Faith was second on the pyramid, who walked out attached to two large white balloons on her shoulders, luckilly the weather was calm, or in her words, she would have been ' somewhere in the air over there' pointing forward!
They even played the widower remix of Do You Want The Truth at the end to inject some energy back into the overheated midday crowd. Very good show.
Then I headed to the lazy old West Holts field with Luke for Tunng, They played bullets as a sound check test on the pyramid on thursday, and luke took a liking to it so i insisted he should accompany me to see them. Awesome band, so summery. And very humble, taking a picture of the crowd to show their mum :) as apparently she had had a long night in shangri-la the previous evening. (a-listers can get in it seems!)
After that, I headed back to rock out on my own to Slash on the pyramid. Very very cool. The singer was great, and then they played sweet child o' mine! What a moment, or ten! And followed by Paradise City! I was feeling very rock and roll stood in the shade of the urinals! Haha!
Then I met lauren again, and suggested we watch Ray Davis, the legendary member of The Kinks. Who played lots of great kinks songs, includnig my favourites You really got me and All of the day and All of the night! Brilliant! Had a full choir to back him up as well which added such power! And also sang Sunny Afternoon very aptly! <3>
So Monday night, I'm back home, decide to meet up with my good old friend Natalie who I haven't seen for a good few years. She's recently graduated, so I did my best to cheer her up from the graduate year blues! What happened next took her mind off it i'm sure.
We thought it'd be nice to take a stroll to the moat, as it was a nice evening, we sat on the benches for a bit, and then thought we'd go have a play on the swings in the park, not realising it was 9:30 on a monday night, evidently the new saturday night in wells.
So we were swinging away, talking about politics and Nick Clegg going to street, when a beefy brunette girl wanders past. shouting her head off at us, in the wonderfully cliché manner 'Are you looking at me? Why are you looking at me?' She comes right into the park, right infront of us on the swings, and continually asks us backing it up with 'you're effing lesbians/emos/etc etc' and that she'd 'get my mate to come back and sort you out'Of which we naively didn't realise still actually happened. So after lots of staring at disbelief at her, she got bored with our non retaliation and walked of in a very un lady like fashion, continually shouting with a timid looking boy following her like a sheep.
We chuckled at this little incident and continued to swing. Much to our shock, 5 minutes later she brings back 5/6 more girls, one of which is very very lary, aggressive and vicious. Storm right up to us yet again, shouting in our faces what is wrong with us. Obviously we thought its about time to attempt to move on outta there, but they weren't having any of it, they wanted a couple of punchbags to release their anger over a situation that appeared out of thin air.
So we moved a little up the park, coincidentally right under a cctv camera, where they proceeded to pull natalies hair and smack her about, and then swing her into the hedge, still clinging to her scalp. At this point my natural instinct was to step in and pull this chunk of a girl off of her, in doing so, unseen to me, was a perfectly choreographed set-up for her to give me a strong left hook, punch right on the side of my left eye. Which instantly swelled, and due to her ring cutting the skin, began to leak blood down my chest and onto my hand. I freaked out, begged them to stop now, and briskly walked away back towards the moat.
I pulled out my phone to call the police when i neared the gate, not realising they were still following us. When they saw this obviously they started chasing us, and unfortunately caught up with Nat, just as I legged it through an open door of one of the poshest restaurant in wells, where lots of people were eating dinner.
Luckilly there was an off duty nurse and policeman around, who took good care of us and called the police and ambulance, who then took us home. I did actually look like igor the first night! Thom Yorke the second day, and it then faded into a lovely deep colour of purple for the duration of Glastonbury festival.
WHICH LEADS ME ON TO THE MAIN ARTICLE! GLASTONBURY!
We got there on weds morning, after a very easy/stress free bus trip from castle-cary station, into gate A, walked straight through the gates with no queues, wonderful.
Then we first felt the heat, and the weight of our bags packed with thick socks, wellies and other unnecessary items for the beautiful weather we were about to endure for 5 days!
Alex's lovely group of friends set up our tent for us, so we got to the top of the pyramid field and crashed out.The day was pretty relaxed, we went shopping for a while, I found an amazing green french military jacket, £20! bargain! and a nice floaty top that looks like a scarf, which went very well together. We then met our good friend Luke for drinks in the now called 'West Holts' (formerly jazz world) field, brothers cider in Glastonbury must be at least 10% !! Three pints and I was gone. I insisted we go to the stone circle, where I met my friend matt, and the new little gay group from strode, all very lovely. We then headed to the Silent Disco, however on the way back, I managed to drop my camera on the way back to the tent, and didn't realise it was gone till the next day. Absolutely gutted, considering Id just spent £20 on a super case for it.
I decided not to let my materialistic side get me down, There were far more important things to enjoy, and I still had a disposable camera :)
Thursday was an exploring day, We went to the healing fields, played some drums, saw a naked woman, climbed the hill on the far side of the festival, used the flush toilets, got my face painted to cover up my black eye...
and at the end of the day I went to see Beardyman, making two new friends on the way, however being the only band on that day, the majority of the festival went to that tent, which took about 30 mins to walk out of! The sound was a bit too ear-piercing as well, very good as usual though.
Friday was exciting, the first day of real Glastonbury. Starting off with a baking hot session with Rolf Harris, so physically fit for his age, very good! I wish he was my grandparent.
I then watched Femi Kuti, who I presumed would be on west holts, alas they bagged the big stage! Those ladies would give shakira a run for her money, they can SHAKE their booties non stop! Awesome band. Beng Beng Beng! :D
Then we searched for shade, and watched a little bit of Corinne Bailey-Rae, who is absolutely stunning and has such a beautiful voice, who vowed she would never sing again after the tragic death of her boyfriend 3 years ago, So so glad she found the strength to return, she was sorely missed.
Then we had a bit of a gap, so decided to check out the John Peeln tent to get there early for Kele, managed to find a tiny square foot of shade to hide in just outside the tent, and I had a great nap listening to the Bombay Bicycle Club. Kele was absolutely great, full of energy and modesty. Really like his new stuff, and was even brave enough to play a medley of bloc party songs.
We then headed over to the other stage, got some food and watched Florence and The Machine, what a voice! And such a crazy lady! Manically giggling when the crowed obeyed her order to jump on cue. We left a little early, to check out the strong rumour of Thom Yorke on the Park stage. Becky (alex's friend) was stewarding on the park gates, and updated alex everytime a celebrity passed through, completely unknown to who Thom Yorke was, I couldnt quite believe she'd chatted to him. The special Guest slot was look extremely exciting. Alex was lovely enough to keep me company, and we got a good spot in the middle of the field infront of the stage, and sure enough, Thom Yorke entered the stage after being introduced by Eavis, played a few of his solo tracks on the piano, and was then joined by Johnny Greenwood to play some radiohead classics. The feeling of everyone surrounding you singing their hearts out with 'For a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself' was enough to make me weep. 7 years id waited for this. Mind-Blowing.
So then we had to power walk it back to the pyramid ready for Gorillaz, who we made in the nick of time. Managed to pick up Lauren on the way, which was excellent, and boy they did not dissapoint the rumours of their guests! Snoop Dogg (however not on Welcome to Plastic Beach!) Lou Reed for Some Kind of Nature, Mark E. Smith (AMAZING) for Glitter Freeze from their new album, and they played older tracks like kids with guns, last living souls, dirty harry, and Dare.
They had Snoop rap on Clint Eastwood as their encore track, which was very entertaining, as he shizzle dizzled all over those lyrics :P!! Very wicked show. Visuals slightly dissapointing as everyone was expecting the previous hologram set up, which must take hours to manufacture, hence the reason it was dropped i'm guessing. The animation videos for every song were cool though!
Saturday! The big day! Started off with meeting my good old friend Josh, who I went to college with 3 years ago. What a lovely boy he is still, we watched the circus acts in the big top till lunch time, then I went for lunch with Luke and tried Kangaroo and Ostrich burgers! Very tasty! then I headed to Seasick Steve on the pyramid, always a great show. Had to leave early for Devendra Banhart, my dream man. Who has sadly chopped all his lovely locks off, and has now taken a more upbeat alt.hipster direction, over his super freak-folk beginning. Both very enjoyable genres, especially when such a yummy man is at the centre of it.
I managed to bump into my good friend Alaric for this gig, who was also alone for the same reasons I was, everyone I knew was unaware of the bliss of the banhart!
After that very enjoyable hour, I headed back to the pyramid to catch the Dead Weather, I am sadly not a fan, but I couldn't not see My beloved and worshipped Jack White when he was only a few fields away! He was looking very lovely and carried the show, even though he is the drummer of this band. Alison Mosshart has apparently taken on a new name, something to add to the list of annoying traits she's picked up while in this band. Ugh, can't stand her. My heart sank when Jack announced a song from their upcoming second album, dear Jack, stop wasting your time, Meg is over her anxieties now, make use of her and return to your roots!
Shakira certainly got me into a better mood again, who had an amazing entrance and played whenever wherever and underneath your clothes first! I lay on the ground looking at the clear blue sky dotted with flags and happily sang along.
I then headed to the Queens head tent to meet my sister and her lovely friends, to get a brilliant spot for Band Of Skulls, Of which was the start of losing my voice. Screaming out their pounding anthems was fantastic fun.
We headed back to the pyramid field then to catch the latter half of Scissor Sisters, who were very good, and had Kylie as a guest, who was great!
And then came Muse. A band I had to sadly sacrifice in 2004 for Orbital (a fair choice I feel.) This time, I had many years of adoration behind me, a lot of unconscious lyric memory to re surface, and 6 years of anticipation to fuel my jumping! They did not dissapoint in any regard. They are stupendous showmen, and ridiculously good musicians. They played so many classic songs, including stockholm syndrome which I used so LOVE back in my adolescence. And then came a great surprize, They played 'the Streets Have No Name' in homage to U2, accompanied by The Edge, who were supposed to headline the night before, before Bono's spinal problems meant they had to pull out. Fantastic version, and a very pleasant surprize. they finished with Knights of Cydonia, and pounded out the last riff before vanishing behind a huge amount of smoke pumped onto the stage. Bloody amazing. Top 5 gigs easily in my book.
On a great high, we decided to attempt to get into Shangri-La and the other little attractions on the outskirts of the site. However were led into a 50 deep gridlocked queue that was part of a one way system that directed you back to where you began on The Common. What a waste of an hour. So we went back to the tent, on the way we had cheese and sweetcorn crepes, which was worth the walk :).
Sunday, last day of musical enjoyment for this year. To begin with, my favourite Paloma Faith was second on the pyramid, who walked out attached to two large white balloons on her shoulders, luckilly the weather was calm, or in her words, she would have been ' somewhere in the air over there' pointing forward!
They even played the widower remix of Do You Want The Truth at the end to inject some energy back into the overheated midday crowd. Very good show.
Then I headed to the lazy old West Holts field with Luke for Tunng, They played bullets as a sound check test on the pyramid on thursday, and luke took a liking to it so i insisted he should accompany me to see them. Awesome band, so summery. And very humble, taking a picture of the crowd to show their mum :) as apparently she had had a long night in shangri-la the previous evening. (a-listers can get in it seems!)
After that, I headed back to rock out on my own to Slash on the pyramid. Very very cool. The singer was great, and then they played sweet child o' mine! What a moment, or ten! And followed by Paradise City! I was feeling very rock and roll stood in the shade of the urinals! Haha!
Then I met lauren again, and suggested we watch Ray Davis, the legendary member of The Kinks. Who played lots of great kinks songs, includnig my favourites You really got me and All of the day and All of the night! Brilliant! Had a full choir to back him up as well which added such power! And also sang Sunny Afternoon very aptly! <3>
Here's some pics I took (before I lost my digital cam, and on my phone, and disposable cam!) and some from Alex Sinclair :
