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Published: June 25th 2007
Well, technically its the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world, but close enough!! Oh, and Dad I promise you will know some of the bands that played!
I don't know how you did it, but congratulations Sophie on correctly guessing where I was going! I had to register for tickets and provide a photo which appeared on my ticket by Feb 28th. Then tickets went on sale on the 1st of April, at 9am and I sat at the computer with about 20 different windows open trying to get into the site, whilst mum tried on the phone. The official site had crashed 30 minutes before tickets went on sale. In the end tickets sold out in 1 hour and 45 minutes, and hundreds of thousands of people missed out.
The festival (and accompanying tent) were part of my birthday present from Mum.
However the thing that Glastonbury is most famous for isn't the big name bands, or hundreds of thousands of people going or even for being around for so long, Glastonbury is most famous for the rain, and in particular ... the mud! So the forecast predicted that this year would be no exception
and me and Barbara went off to buy me some Wellies and a waterproof jacket. However due to the festival there was a shortage of wellies and the ones we ended up buying were slightly too big, but we went for them anyway.
So on Thursday the 21st of June I got up, and caught the train to Victoria Street station in London where I got on my bus to Glastonbury. About halfway through the 4 hour drive it started to rain, which got a groan from the entire bus. However when we arrived the rain had stopped, and I was able to get a fairly nice camping spot not far from where the entrance was which I meant I didn't have to carry my stuff far. So I along with 177,000 other people was at Glastonbury festival!
I spent the first night exploring the festival and all the weird, wonderful and distrubing sights. I'll put up some cool pictures soon! I then relaxed for a little bit in the indoor cinema by watching the end (and best part) of "Serenity". I then headed to the silent disco and met some people in the queue who were nice and who
I spent some time with whilst in there. The silent disco was the place where they had no music playing but gave everyone a pair of headphones that played music so you danced to that music but if you didn't have the headphones it just looked like everyone was dancing in silence. At this point it hadn't rained whilst I was there so I was just wearing my normal shoes and there was very little mud so I sat on my jacket and watched the end of "Ghostbusters" on the outdoor cinema screen. I considered watching "Blues Brothers" but got too tired and headed to bed.
I guess I'll start like I did with the last post and list those really good bands I had to miss because of clashes. Because there are so many stages a lot of bands clash and so this list is very long but here are the notable misses. The ones I wasn't too bothered about missing but would've seen had I the chance were; Gogol Bordello (the crazy band I saw at RAR), The Magic Numbers, Bloc Party, Kasabian, The Arctic Monkeys (headliners on the first day), The Automatic (they would've been a lot
of fun to see live), Bright Eyes, Damian Marley, Hot Chip, Sandi Thom ("I wish I was a punk rocker" with historical inaccuracies in my songs!), Aliens, Klaxons (would've been good!), Fatboy Slim, Chumbawamba (I actually could've seen them but couldn't justify it for only one song!), The Cat Empire, CSS, Babyshambles (but who would go except to see if Kate Moss was there - she was), Maximo Park, Editors, Iggy and the Stooges (they got half the crowd up on the stage during their final song much to the anger of the security!), The Bees, Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly (Barbara has taken a sudden and unexpected attachment to this band!), Josh Pyke (wonder if hes been here all this time since I saw him at Heathrow airport?), Mika (I was sooooo happy to miss this one), The Go! Team, The Chemical Brothers (apparently it was an amazing light show), Corinne Bailey Rae (she has such a beautiful voice), Just Jack, Jamie T and The Gossip (would've been a good show). But the only band I was really annoyed about missing was The Fratellis.
So anyway I got a good nights sleep and got up the next morning raring
to go! Because there hadn't been any mud the night before I got up and put on my normal shoes and wondered whether I needed to take my waterproof jacket with me, I like to think a higher power said "You idiot, what are you doing?!?", so in the end I took them with me. It had rained all night so most of the pedestrian areas now had mud and some even had quite deep mud lakes (the lakes characterised the Friday mud - as you will see the mud changed each day in exciting and dramatic ways!). I arrived at the Pyramid stage and watched a little bit of The View. I only know the song "Same Jeans" which is a pretty good song, but I got really bored watching them so gave up and decided to head to the Other stage earlier than I'd planned. A band called Reverend and the Makers was finishing up who seemed quite good. And then a band called The Cribs who seemed like total idiots and their music was so similar to everything else and all their stage moves were so mechanical and not exciting in the slightest, but other people seemed
to enjoy them. It rained a little bit in the intermission but then eased by the time the next band, the one I was waiting for started. I managed to get a front row spot in time for Modest Mouse. Its funny that they were the headline band at Falls Festival earlier this year but nobody knew who they were here. They played a really good set, with a bit of material from their new album which I've only listened to a couple of times, as well as classics like "Float On", "Ocean Breathes Salty" and "Bury Me With It". So as soon as Modest Mouse finished I headed back to the Pyramid Stage in time for the act that I guess I was probably most looking forward to, Amy Winehouse. I was a bit nervous that she wouldn't turn up because she has a really bad reputation as she has a bit of a drinking problem and got drunk once and cancelled her concert that night. That concert also happened to be the one that Elton John turned up for, but he forgave her and went to see her again and said that she was one of the best
concerts he'd ever seen. So after she cancelled the German festival I was nervous she wouldn't show and I really love her music. But she turned up, and she was (fairly) sober. It was an amazing performance (although she seemed a little bit nervous). She played all her best songs, "Rehab", "You Know I'm No Good", "Back to Black" (her best song by far, and an absolute classic), "Me and Mr. Jones", "Tears Dry on their Own", "Addicted", "Just Friends", "He Can Only Hold Her", "Wake Up Alone", "Love Is A Losing Game", "F**k Me Pumps", "Monkey Man" (a cover) and finished with a cover of the Zutons song "Valerie". It was a really good performance, although because there is a big gap between the stage and the crowd it often means you can feel a bit of a distance if you aren't on the front row - and although I wasn't far I still would've liked to be closer. So I decided to sacrifice the Fratellis in order to go see Amy again when she played on the much smaller Jazz Stage later that night. I had a bit of a break then so I walked around and looked
at some of the other areas, and acts (like the Strong woman who challenged two women to pull her folded arms open - hmmmm, not the most original act!!). I saw a little bit of Gus Gus on the Jazz Stage who had cool outfits but really annoying music. I then watched AIM on the Jazz Stage (by this time I had a front row spot and decided to hang onto it) who was really good but at times it seemed like too many instruments were playing at once and it wasn't as good as I think it could've been. By the way, I would never classify either Gus Gus or AIM as Jazz but there they were. Amy is Jazz, but she was the only performer I saw on that stage that even came close. After AIM finished I managed to score myself a copy a CD they handed out. The next band came out in full traditional African dress and played a blistering set. They were called Toumani Diabaté and Symmetric Orchestra. The Symmeric Orchestra were amazing and as they explained each member of the orchestra (about 9 or 10 in total) were from a different region of
Africa, and they had formed the band to show that Africa could be unified and each played instruments from a different era of time - some very traditional up to an electric guitar. Toumani Diabaté and the other two singers were also exceptional and the whole performance was brilliant.
After they finished it was finally time for Amy again, and again I was nervous she would've gotten drunk and not turn up especially when she was 7 minutes late onto the stage but sure enough one of the band members introduced "Mrs. Amy Winehouse" (I think she probably cancelled the Germany gig as it was so close to her wedding) and there she was again. In fact she drank water (or straight vodka) for the first couple of songs, as I think she was settling her nerves but then her new husband came and gave her a couple of drinks whilst she performed. In fact it was a very personal gig with much of the more emotional songs sang in the direction of her husband just off stage. It was an amazing performance and I was so much closer as you'll see in the photos. But because she was so
late coming on she had to cut a couple of songs from the end, but she loves the Zutons cover "Valerie" so much that she cut one of her most recent singles, "You Know I'm No Good" instead which was kind of wierd. I'm also not sure if "Monkey Man" is one of her songs (it isn't on the album) but I don't think it is, but it is definately one of the songs that she has lots of fun singing on stage. Overall I enjoyed it much better than the Pyramid Stage performance and didn't think that any other band would top it (I was wrong!).
The second that Amy finished I rushed from the Jazz stage, waded through the pools of mud that were dangerously close to the top of my wellies, and finally reached the Other stage. Arcade Fire were still going for some reason despite having supposed to have finished at the same time as Amy, but they seemed like a really good band and I wished I could have seen them as well. It was good news that they hadn't finished because it meant that when the Arcade Fire fans left I was able to
get a much better spot than if the fans for the next gig had already settled in. So the next performance was one I was curious to see. I had seen her live on TV a couple of weeks earlier and really disliked her new music but had decided she was an artist that I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to see, especially as she was such an icon of the 90s. So when Bjork came running out singing "Earth Intruders" one of her new songs I actually really enjoyed it this time and she was so full of life that it meant that any irritation I previously felt was gone. The only other songs I remember recognising were; "Pagan Poetry", "All is full of love" and "Bachelorette". Overall it was a great performance and an amazing lazer show. The costumes were crazy, and I kinda felt sorry for the band who had to wear shapeless, almost penguin costumes - in bright unflattering colours! And they had some weird guy moving squares around on a stage that was projected onto the big screen occasionally. But she clearly loves performing so the entire performance was really enjoyable.
After Bjork
finished I was really tired, and especially after it took over an hour to get back to my tent due to the amount of people moving at once (the Arctic Monkeys had just finished on the Pyramid stage), so I decided to head to bed. Crossing my fingers and praying that my tent wouldn't have collapsed I headed back and found that it was doing okay. As I was making sure that no mud made it into my tent, and as I had been wearing shorts that day and thus had lots of mud on my legs I had to scrub my legs with wet wipes - not recommended as it hurts! I decided then that I wasn't going to be wearing shorts again during Glasto! And then I went to bed and had a pretty good nights sleep in "The Coffin" (the name I have given my tent).
"The Coffin" really heats up in the morning and I woke up and burst out of my tent gasping for air. I spent a little bit of time in the morning exploring and soaking up the atmosphere of the festival. The mud today had the consistency of peanut butter and it
was not unusual for you to take a step and find that your wellie disagreed and wanted to remain behind. So as my wellies were loose it meant I had to be careful and everything took twice as long to move as it did previously. At about 12pm I headed across to chat to Holly (see previous post) and her boyfriend who were working at one of the bars near the Pyramid Stage. They actually had quite a good view of the stage and we chatted whilst watching The Pipettes who were, well, terrible. They reminded me of a cross between Avril Lavigne style rock and S Club 7 type dance moves - not a good combination!! When they, finally, finished I headed down to watch the Guillemots on the Pyramid Stage. They were very good and enjoyable to watch, especially as they had some dancers come out on stilts who were really fun. To be perfectly honest I can't really remember the music, but I remember enjoying it at the time. The only song I knew was "Trains to Brazil" which is an okay song when on CD, but is actually a really good song when you see it
live. I would love to see the band again sometime.
After the Guillemots finished it was time for Dirty Pretty Things who I was actually looking forward to as I like their song "Bang Bang, You're Dead" but unfortunately that is by far their best song and the rest of their songs were very standard rock. So I was fairly happy to have them finish. And happily the rain finished for the day shortly after they finished.
I mentioned after seeing Amy on the Jazz stage that she wasn't the best performance in the end. I'm sure that she wouldn't be happy to find out that she was beaten by her arch-rival Lily Allen. Lily was brilliant. She completely lifted to the occasion and was obviously really excited to be there. The first time she had been to Glastonbury was 22 years ago when she was 5 months old, and it seemed to mean a lot to her to be playing on the Pyramid Stage. So she stuffed up a couple of lines, and laughed in a few songs, but that made it all the better because she was obviously loving every second on the stage. Of course lots of
kids turned up to watch her gig and I have to say I snuck a few glances at the parents to see their expressions when they heard Lily talk. I don't remember hearing any other performer swear (I'm sure they did, I just don't remember) but Lily was on fire. She told America to f**k off. She did a long and graffic introduction to the song "Not Big". She didn't censor "Friday Night" which is the only censored song on the CD for the lines - "Its quarter to and we get to the front, girl on the dress list dressed like a ___". In fact the best thing was watching all the kids sing along with "Friday Night" and the parents reactions as they sang along!! She also drank a beer on stage and went through a least 4 cigarettes!! Lily was also the funniest performer of the whole festival and the performer who most adapted their performance to specifically fit Glasto. She changed the line "walkin round London town" in the song LDN to "walkin around Glastonbury town". And she also performed a couple of songs with the two members of the Specials who hadn't been on stage
together in decades. The songs were amazing, and then when they left she got handed an electric guitar and sang the next song playing the same chord occasionally (she said she knows more but thats all the song required). So in the end she did a lot of covers also doing Blondie's "Heart of Glass" which is my favourite of the songs she sings live because she sounds amazing singing the song. She also sang most of her CD including "Smile" (what a sing-a-long), "Knock 'Em Out", "Everything's Just Wonderful", "Shame For You", "Littlest Things" and "Alfie". For "Alfie" she brought her brother Alfie Allen out on stage to meet the crowd and he came out smoking, drinking and wearing a hoodie. She also sang her song that bitches about Cheryl Tweedy (who is the other person to Winehouse that Lily fights with - I think Cheryl is in one of those annoying girl bands -Sugababes or Girls Aloud or one of those). I think the reason they fight is because Lily always goes about on about how happy she is with her weight but Cheryl Tweedy is like a twig. She also sang the song "Nan, you're a window
shopper" which I think is a new song - but I don't really like it very much. So she finished and was amazing and I was pretty sure that nobody was going to top her (I was wrong!!). By the way shes heading to Melbourne again soon, I heartily recommend going and seeing her (but be warned I would expect lots of teenage girls and perhaps younger!!).
For Lily I had a front-row and very center spot and decided that as it took so long to move anywhere I might as well hang onto the spot and just stay there for the rest of the day. Next was Paolo Nutini who is an amazing singer but I kinda tuned out a little bit. His best song (by far) was his cover of the Jungle Book song "I wanna be like you" (especially cause he looks like a monkey - especially when he sings!!). Overall a good performance but I don't really have much else to add.
After Paolo was Paul Weller (I'm still not sure if this refers to a member of the band or the entire band) who were fine but I got pretty bored during. The problem was
that they were playing between Paolo and The Kooks both of which are popular with teenagers, and Paul Weller have been around forever! So the crowd really didn't get into it, and very few knew any of their songs (which to be honest weren't particularly exciting). So overall they played very well but I was glad when they finished.
Next as I mentioned was The Kooks, who I like and own the album of but, who I am a bit sick of at the moment. They do play quite sugary rock and it can grate at times. But in the end they played a really good set, but a really standard set. On my MP3 player I have a cover of Lily Allen singing their big hit "Naive" which is a really good version, and I was hoping that she might come out and sing a duet with them but they just sang all their songs very straight. So they sang pretty much their whole album and did a good, but not exceptional (or particularly Glasto) set. At one point the lead singer jumped off the stage and ran towards the crowd (ie. me!) and stopped within about 10 centremetres
just in front of me. I was happy to go on dancing and singing, but all the people around me suddenly threw themselves forward trying to grab/touch him. The girl next to me managed it and squealed about it for the rest of the performance.
So the final band of the day was the next one I was waiting for and were the headliners for that day. Whilst they played a technically brilliant set it was a little bit cold and didn't make any concessions for their performing at Glasto (which encourages the bands to experiment a little bit). So whilst waiting we all chanted "I got soul, but I'm not a soldier" until The Killers finally ran on to do their set. The visuals were great and the atmosphere in the crowd was amazing but they sang nearly all the songs I know well in the first five songs. They started with "Sam's Town" and then "Enterlude", next was "When You Were Young", "Bones", and then "Somebody Told Me". "Read My Mind" came about halfway through their set and then "Mr. Brightside" was their "final" song. So the crowd went back to chanting "I got soul, but I'm not
a soldier" until they came back and played a couple more songs before finally getting around to "All These Things I've Done" which was probably their best and most fun song. It was also probably the only song where they acknowledged that there was a crowd, and got us to join in and sing most of the song.
I'd considered exploring the festival more that night but its hard by yourself and when you are completely sober and everyone else is drunk. When I realised how thick the mud had become I decided that it was probably not the best idea to try and explore that night. By this time the mud was about 10 centermetres deep and my foot got stuck on nearly every step. So I bought myself a hot chocolate and tried to walk back, when the inevitable happened. My wellie got wedged, my foot started to come out, and I began to fall. But unlike other people who fell and were drunk so fell on their back or completely on their stomach, I managed to fall so that I only put one hand and my knee in the mud and only spilt a small amount of
hot chocolate. So after washing my hand I wasn't too much the worse for wear after my fall. Again I was careful not to let mud into my tent and at least this time I wasn't cleaning dried mud off skin. And again I got a pretty decent nights sleep (despite the sound of Borat being carried over to my tent from the nearby outdoor cinema).
The next morning wasn't quite so hot so I didn't have to leap out of "The Coffin". I headed over to the theatre area and watched some street theatre. There was a woman on a unicycle who was juggling and seemed to really dislike a couple of children sitting at the front. The I saw the (i think they were called) the Benini twins who were two female perfomers in La Belle Epoque tent. They were terrible, and one of those acts were people try so hard to be funny that even the children start to squirm in embarrasment. After that I trekked across the Pyramid Stage whilst the Marley Brothers were singing a tribute to the 30th Anniversary of Bob Marley's record "Exodus". That walk was so painful it hurts to remember it.
By this point the mud was so thick and so sticky that every step your foot got stuck and you had to pull it out (which was hard). Amazingly I made it to the other side and chatted to Holly at the bar for a while. Then when the Marley Brothers finished I decided there was no way I was walking anywhere that day and decided to watch James Morrison on the Pyramid Stage. He probably has the best voice of any of the male performers and I think his songs are actually quite well written. But like James Blunt he is primarily popular with young girls and most of his fans seemed to be quite young. When I turned up I somehow ended up on the second row so I had quite a good view. He was very good, but I would've liked him to change up his act a little bit and maybe even do a duet!
The James Morrison fans cleared out at the end of his performance and I scored a front row and dead centre spot again. The next performer was the suprise package and I went to watch her as a little bit of
a joke - but in the end she was the best perfomer of the entire festival! 48 years older than Lily Allen but almost as energetic she blew everyone away - (thats right Trent) - it was Dame Shirley "Diamonds are Forever, ForEVER, FOREVER!!!" Bassey. She was obviously so happy to be there, and her voice was amazingly powerful, and the whole thing just worked so well. The orchestra she played with were brilliant. She came out in a pink dress and a massive pink coat which she paraded around the stage. Then she sang the Pink song (I hope it wasn't hers originally or this comment will be stupid!!) "Get this party started" - I think thats the correct name. The song was lots of fun. She did a medley of her three Bond tunes which was just ... awesome. Then she sang "Big Spender" and went running and dancing around the stage whilst she belted it out. At one point she did the twist and went so low that she flashed everybody her underwear!!! When she finished "Big Spender", she asked if we liked it - to which she received a cheer - and then asked it we
wanted it again - to which she received another cheer - and so she proceeded to sing the whole song again. But this time she exaggerated how tired she was from the previous dancing and it was a really funny performance. She also sang "Cabaret" and a couple of other songs I'm not sure of the name of. She also sang her new single "The Living Tree" which was good. So she was the surpisingly best performance of the festival (although she was almost beaten a couple of hours later).
Next it was time for Manic Street Preachers who were okay, but the only song I really enjoyed was one that they sang in duet with a singer from the Cardigans. Otherwise I got a bit bored, and didn't really feel like they were bothered about being there - it was just another gig for them.
Next was the band that I think is probably the best live band I've ever seen (knocking the Scissor Sisters off their post). Their songs are so easy to sing-a-long to and the lead singer, Ricky Wilson is the most energetic perfomer I've ever seen. So just before The Kaiser Chiefs came out to
perfom the security guards threw out about 100 rain jackets - one of which I managed to get and which is really cool (I'll put a photo up soon). They sang all their big hits all of which were so much fun to sing-a-long with "Oh My God" (probably the loudest singing by the crowd -especially as Ricky just turned the mike around and let us take over), "Ruby", "Everything is Average Nowadays", "Na Na Na Na Naa" (he took us through lessons on how to sing this one!), "Everyday I love you less and less", "Modern Way", "I Predict a Riot" (everyone went a little crazy during this one), and many more. Overall an amazing performance and I would love to be seeing them again!!
Finally was the band that was probably the biggest band at the festival (even though technically The Arctic Monkeys got that spot), The Who. They had a really good series of movie clips from throughout their career going on behind them and lots of light effects. The songs I enjoyed most were the ones I knew - "My Generation" and "Who is It?". Overall they did a really great gig and the crowd really
got behind them. It rained through most of their gig but they were still brilliant .At the end I was so tired, and it took so long to get back to my tent where I passed out.
It rained ALL night and ALL the next day. I had done so well keeping my muddy clothes seperate from everything else and then I had to pack my stuff up in the mud. NOT FUN! My tent became a soggy mess (most people just left their tents behind!) and everything became coated in mud! I then queued for my 10:30 bus in the torrential rain and mud, which was made bareable as everyone was laughing and having fun in the queue and managed to get on a bus at 1pm. Despite the massive queue waiting my bus left with empty seats!! I made it to London a little bit after 5, caught the underground from Victoria to Liverpool Street covered in mud and surrounded by fashionable Londoners. And then the train to Colchester, where I chatted to a fellow Glasto survivor on the train. Barbara picked me up from the station and when I got back I had a shower!!!!!!!!!!!! A lot
of Glasto is shown on TV and Barbara had recorded 7 videos worth for me so we rewatched Shirley that night. Barbara spotted me on TV in the Lily crowd, so because I was often front row and dead center I'll probably on quite a bit.
I now have about a week off which is such good news!! Sorry Andrew, I didn't get your facebook post about Nizlopi until I got back.
Anyway hope that didn't eat up too much of your day. Talk to you all soon!
PS. Ali - I loved talking to you on facebook on my birthday and didn't mind how late it was!!
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Sophie
non-member comment
yay!
you whore!