GLASTONBURY 2007

Well, I'm back - clean, dry and warm after four days of mud, rain and more mud.
But forget the weather, the rest was fantastic... if it had been dry I think I could have lived there (well, maybe not quite, as most of the year I'd be sharing the site with cows and more mud... but you know what I mean).

We arrived Thursday lunchtime - and hugely grateful that friends that had gone the day before had put our tent up for us, as it was an epic slog to find and get to our camp.






But as soon as we'd dumped our stuff it was straight onto the warm cider and checking out some of the smaller acts that had already kicked off the festival. We were aiming for Duke Special in the Leftfield Tent, but they weren't actually there, so we ended up checking out an acoustic bloke called Dan Donnelly and Irish rockers from 'County Holloway' in north London called Neck.



Made the most of a brief spell of sunshine chilling out with a few drinks at Jazz World - and spent the evening just wandeirng round the stalls, bars and The Park area.






The queue for silent disco was sadly too long, but friends that made it in (you all listen to different stuff on headphones, but hear the same DJ so it all looks a bit surreal) say it was the funniest thing they've ever done.

After an early start, I'll admit we kopped out a bit and were asleep by 1am - despite the thumping music and stuff all around us. Felt like we'd been there for days - not hours.

Friday - an absolutely brilliant start to the Festival 'proper'. Headed to Jazz World for Guilty Pleasures - all those songs that aren't exactly cool, but everyone LOVES. Some great acts doing covers -

highlights were The Magic Numbers doing Dolly Parton's 9-to-5, Suggs doing Love Is In The Air and a bloke from Bay City Rollers (can't remember what he sang). And it was straight onto the Pear Cider at around 11am.


Went for another wander, and ended up at the John Peel stage where we caught the very end of a very loud Disco Ensemble. Got caught in a huge downpour, but were thankfully right outside a beer tent!

Next was Amy Winehouse - very good, amazing voice - but couldn't string a sentence together when she tried to talk. I wonder why?!

Later that evening we gathered at the Pyramid stage for the big three acts of the night. Bit disappointed by The Fratellis - the sound systen was a bit rubbish, and they seemed to just come on, do the album, and that was that. Kasabian followed them and they were pretty good - but Arctic Monkeys totally rocked. We stupidly left during what we thought was the last song as we were knackered and were trying to avoid the mass rush in very sticky mud (it was taking twice as long to walk anywhere in the really thick, sticky stuff) - but we missed them doing a cover of Shirley Bassey's Diamonds Are Forever.

Chilled out back at the tent - totally knackered again! There was no way we were going to make Duke Special in the Leftfield Tent at 2am.

Wandered around the Greenfields area Saturday morning - caught some poetry reading which was pretty good, speakers forum, a fire breathing clay dragon kiln, odd sculptures and the Stone Circle. Listened to The Courgettes - a rather unusual covers band based on food in the Soil Association tent. Good fun.

Then traipsed to the Queen's Head after a tip-off that Duke Special (we REALLY wanted to see this band) were playing at 2pm, but they weren't. Finally managed to see them - fourth time lucky - at 4pm, and they didn't disappoint. Didn't hang around for the SingStar stage funnily enough!

Caught the end of Lily Allen, of whom I'm not a big fan, but I have to admit she was very good. She did an amzing cover of Blondie's Heart of Glass. Very impressed.

All went our separate ways for most of Saturday night. I started off at Paul Weller - one of my favourite artists ever. And he didn't disappoint - as good if not better than when I've seen him before. Also met a crazy Scottish guy who'd been to Glastonbury every year since 1970 - impressive.


Headed to the Other Stage for Editors, and just before they started I got a text from a friend's brother who just happened to be at his tent within perfect listening distance of the stage. So joined him and his friends for a few drinks while listening to Editors who were very good.

Then it all got a bit messy. Was a bit drunk and staggered back over to the Pyrmaid Stage to catch The Killers. I remember the fireworks and the first couple of songs, but then I thought it would be a good idea to try to meet up with Sam who was there, but further back. Slightly (?) drunk, wading through thick mud in a crowd of tens of thousands isn't a good idea. Kept falling over and ended up where the sound system was rubbish. The crowd where I was were boo-ing and leaving in their droves, so I gave up, and headed back to the tent.

We all congregated back there and had a big campfire, which was fantastic. Then a lot of gin was involved on my part, and I think a bit of falling into tents etc. Didn't quite make it to sunrise, but it was certainly past 4am when we made it to bed. Really great end to the night.

And what made it even better was that I didn't even have a hangover then next day... allbeit I was probably still drunk when I got up at lunchtime, and felt a wee bit ropey by 3pm, but I got off unbelievably unscathed (except for the odd humungous bruise). Spent some of the afternoon at the Leftfield tent listening to some great comedy from Marcus Brigstock and Ed Byrne - and a talk from Tony Benn (a Glastonbury must-do, surely). Tried to see Bill Bailey at the Cabaret Tent, but it was rammed and raining again, so caught some of a brilliant jazzy covers band whose name escapes me.

It was a whole evening and night back at the Pyramid stage. Shirley Bassey (we were too far back to really hear properly, but she was characteristically camp), Manic Street Preachers (absolutely excellent), Kaiser Chiefs (ditto), and finally The Who.



They did put on an amazing show - visually and audially (is that a word?), and thought they totally rocked. We may not have been quite so awe-struck as the rest of the people we were with, who are all massive Who fans, but we appreciated that they were really rather good!


Sadly it was torrential rain all night - by which point we were just too dispondent to carry on partying at one of the late night tents or discos. And the rain didn't stop until were almost back in London the next day. Thankfully for us, the reasonably early night meant we were up, packed and de-tented (!) by 9.30 - trudged to the car by 10.30, and off site (after being shoved out of the mud by a tractor with a hay bale) by 1.30. It could have been an awful lot worse - Sam, Matt, Lynn and Elma were still there mid-afternoon, and the queues to get out were around 7 hours. Everyone was getting stuck in the mud and there weren't enough tractors to cope.

Anyway - we're home now. Dry and clean. The washing machine has been working overtime, but I'm yet to tackle the muddy tent, boots and chairs. Any suggestions on how to wash and dry said items without a garden would be most appreciated.......

Until next year....!