Glastonbury Review – a short sojourn into real life.
Posted on | June 28, 2007 | 10 Comments |
| Love, mud, Glastonbury, Gao.
Hi all,
Love and I are (finally) back from Glasto (actually, we got back on Monday, but we’ve been busy/lazy yesterday to write anything, )but since I’ve got a spare two hours here between practical and lecture, I thought I’d give it a go. I know it’s not relevant to this blog’s interests, but I have it on great authority that love is working on a sola post, so hopefully we’ll be back on schedule after that.
For those of you that don’t know about Glastonbury (shame on you!) it’s a music and contemporary arts festival in the west of England famous for hippies, cannabis and extensive rain and mud. And this year was definitely no exception. Although the festival has gotten rather commercial in recent years, the site is so large that there are places to go to escape all the indie rock teenagers and the emo kids and just relax with some great music and acts.
We got to the site on Thursday with huge bulging bags (containing just clothes, pillow, sleeping bags and tents – it’s amazing how much space that takes up!) and despite the weather forecast, managed to get set up without even a real threat of a rainshower. Then we took a wander around the site and found the Bimble Inn (which is new this year, I think) and saw some early acts (the main music doesn’t start til Friday). Saw the 3 Daft Monkeys who were great (sort of folk ceilidh ska type music) then went to bed.
| From left: Cunt, Bird, Stavros, Mal. We camped with them but we probably saw more of Phill Jupitus.
Then the rain came down. By Friday morning, the whole site was a rather different picture, and it was to get worse throughout the weekend. I think a lot of stuff gets thrown around about Glasto and ‘how can people enjoy themselves in that rain and mud’ and all that. Even the main rock station in the country – Kerrang radio – has DJs slating it and wondering why bother when the line ups aren’t perhaps as good as say Reading or Leeds festivals.
There’s just something about Glastonbury that puts it apart from other music festivals and makes it so that people will go round with their improvised macs made out of binbags, muddy thighs and damp tangled hair in the pouring rain and still have a smile on their face. There’s always something to do and always something you’re missing because you’re somewhere else watching something equally awesome. The food is fantastic if you know where to look, and even quite reasonable in price. I even managed to escape getting food poisoning ^_^. The toilet facilities are fairly rubbish, though perhaps the same as any other festival really.
With the music, I am a firm believer in avoidance of the two main stages and their popular indie/emo inhabitants. It helps I guess, that I’m not really a huge fan of bands such as Arcade Fire or Kaiser Chiefs, but love and I would much rather spend our time on the smaller stages not getting squashed and getting a good view of some awesome other smaller bands rather than fighting to get a glimpse of Beth Ditto’s right foot.
| Spot what we made out of Glastonbury clay!
On Friday we braved the rain and went to see “Fear of Music” (billed as “”"”the next Muse”"”" – yeah right), who looked about 15 and played rather well actually. Then traipsed over to the Green Fields and saw October (who seems to be general festival filler music girl). Next over to the main Pyramid stage to see Gogol Bordello who were insane (and in the rain)and possibly from Roman…ia. In the Avalon Cafe we saw Rod Thomas who did some live sampling music which was awesome, then a ukelele/kazoo player by the name of Lana and Big Strides who are apparently slightly famous, but were rather good. Over in Avalon main tent we found Ben Waters – Jool’s Holland with a beergut who played some rather fantasmic and dancable jazz followed by an acoustic set by the more-folky-than-expected-and-where-are-they-now Chumbawumba. Then we headed to the Park for a set by Charlotte Hatherly (of Ash fame) which was unimpressive.
Arcade fire were really rather poor. I think I was perhaps hoping for more, but their form of new prog rockishness failed to impress and we walked away from the gig early. which was a shame really, cause otherwise we would have stayed for Bjork.
On Saturday we woke up freakishly early and managed to catch the end of the first set on the New Bands stage from Blue Bullet who had mad solo guitars and showmanship worthy of Guitar Hero. Somehow we ended up in Leftfield next listening to a great set from the Deadbeats. Thankfully missing the Guillemots on the Jazzworld stage on the way past. After a trip up to the Green fields to make some Raku, we saw some comedy courtesy of Jeremy Hardy and Stephen Frost’s impro allstars. Highlight of the festival probably was Rodriguo y Gabriela, a lightning fast flamenco duo and their cover of ‘Master of Puppets’ by Metallica.
| Avast ye mateys! Land ahoy!
Sunday was rain all day but highlights included seeing a man in a boiler suit act out the whole of Star wars episode 4-6, seeing the Manic Street Preachers live, catching KT Tunstall in the acoustic tent and a really random solo guitarist in Leftfield by the name Newton Faulkner who taught us the UFO/hello dance. You really have to see it O_o.
Anyway…that’s my minirant over with. I’m really just blogging to boast what a great time I had at Glastonbury and to recommend the festival to anyone who is remotely able to access it. If you’re thinking about going next year give us a bell and we’ll try to meet up! (Though it’s very nearly impossible ^_^)
Mata ne
Yuribou and love
PS – Yuribou will be suffering on hiatus again from Friday since I will be kicked out of my current house (and its internet connection) and my new residence is currently in the process of being built and therefore has no phone line to speak of as such… I shall say hello from time to time from the hospital wireless, but probably no proper posts til I get new internet set up I’m afraid, then it’ll hopefully get back to business as usual.
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June 29th, 2007 @ 12:02 am
Wooo photos of real life! XD Looks like you guys had loads of fun ^_^
You seem to have left an I tag open ^^;;
Have a good summer, hope to see you soon-ish ^_^
June 29th, 2007 @ 3:03 am
Ugh. Mud. This is why I hate going outside.
Heh.
June 29th, 2007 @ 9:19 am
Waa! Looks like you guys had plenty of fun ^_^ AWESOME!!! i wish i could go out and hav fun with my friends xD *traped inside the house*
June 29th, 2007 @ 9:47 am
Looks like great fun! When the rain started coming down on Friday I wondered how you guys would be managing, but it seems like the Glasto spirit prevailed.
I’m going to try to get there next year – in previous years have utterly failed to get tickets cos they’re snapped up so fast. I think himself would die if we camped though, so it might be caravan time, no doubt complete with annoying small children next door. Ah well…
Good luck with getting the new internet set up, and we’ll miss you til then!
June 29th, 2007 @ 10:07 am
tag fixed (er i think) – yey did it all by myself. Hmm.. now really need to start cleaning the house before we move out -_-
June 30th, 2007 @ 12:09 pm
Hello!
Thanks for the mention in your blog, glad you enjoyed my set. Hope you’ve managed to get all the mud out of your things by now!
Rod
July 1st, 2007 @ 10:15 am
Wow – seems like it was really nice fest :) But there is serious lack of Gao in this post – how was he? :D
July 1st, 2007 @ 5:01 pm
Ooh thank you Rod, yes the mud is now out of most things (apart from oh my jeans, some underwear that was hiding from the laundry basket, and of course the tent). Maybe catch you busking around london somewhere ^^
MisterX, sir, the lovely Gao was with us the while time. He had much much fun. He particularly enjoyed Gogol Bordello (or as he lieks to call him ‘Gao gao Bordello’)
July 15th, 2007 @ 2:31 am
Very cool! I just stumbled upon your page when I was looking around for Strawberry Panic! news and stuff. I’m enjoying your stories and blogs, so keep those up! ^^
August 11th, 2007 @ 1:38 am
Glad to hear that, love! After all, fun is what matters the most on those kind of actions :)