Forty years of Glastonbury
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/festivals/article7112205.ece
Artists, organisers and fans remember Glasto as the festival
celebrates 40 years of rock'n'roll and counterculture
April 30, 2010
Pete Paphides and Kaya Burgess
The booklet from Glastonbury Fayre, the 1971 album released after the
second festival, talks about "commune groups and the travellers
living out of vans ... placing themselves within an environment that
involves earth, sky and a life ritual". Beside it, the face of a
willowy hippy chick with flowers in her hair conveys an even greater
sense of what Glastonbury was and 40 years later the spirit it
somehow retains.
Somewhere along the way this vast countercultural Brigadoon that
assembles and dismantles itself annually became a national treasure,
with all the good and bad that entails: the pride we take in our
cultural institutions and the sense of entitlement we adopt when
criticising them. It means that what was once 1,000-odd people in a
Somerset field watching Stackridge and Marsupilami became the subject
of a nationwide debate when Jay-Z was announced to play.
How did that happen? It's perhaps a story best told by the artists
who have passed through Worthy Farm, and the owners of the farm itself.
1970s
1970
Andy Davis
Stackridge
"What do I remember? I remember a field, a five-bar gate and
scattered remnants of humanity lying down, with a gaggle of musicians
by the side of the stage. The changing room was the farmhouse
kitchen. No one was sure who was going to turn up. We were the first
band on. Even though it was September, I don't remember it being
cold. There were police there, but they were fine. This was a field
in Somerset, not Ohio State University. It was just a day out, really."
Al Stewart
Singer
"It was about 1,000 people in a field, essentially. My overriding
memory is that it was the day that Jimi Hendrix died. It just caused
a huge downer on the day."
1971
Nik Turner
Hawkwind/Sphynx
"It was just this sort of ... hippy shambles. It was free to get in,
but they were hoping to finance it by raffling some etchings that had
been contributed by John Lennon. The main stage was in the same
location that it is now, and everyone was camped on that hill. The
crowd was mainly comprised of what you might call itinerants people
having a good time on mind-warping drugs. There was a free food
kitchen, which was giving away brown rice and vegetables.
1977
Nik Turner
"In the intervening six years, there hadn't been a festival, and I
don't think Michael [Eavis] had planned to hold another. Had it not
been for the local police, there might not be a festival now. I was
on my way to this festival near Glastonbury. The police had been
instructed to stop this convoy. There was a traffic blockage as a
result, which they dealt with by asking Michael if the convoy could
go on to his land. I had built a pyramid-shaped stage in which to
perform my show, which was inspired by my travels in Egypt. So that
became the Pyramid Stage! Michael and I spoke about the possibility
of future festivals. The rest is history."
1980s
1981
Peter Hook
New Order
"It wasn't like it is now, although it was starting to get bigger.
The whole place had a lawless air about it. There was the real feel
of a happening. It was marshalled by bikers, which gave it the
feeling of a proper festival. We co-headlined with Hawkwind. We were
so terrified and off our heads on whizz that the whole day was
surreal. Our dressing room was Mr Eavis's farmhouse, and his wife
gave us tea and home-made biscuits."
1984
Emily Eavis
Co-organiser and daughter of Michael
"I've no really clear memories of the festival until the mid-1980s,
with people like Elvis Costello, Van Morrison and the Style Council.
I remember the outcry that greeted the announcement that the Smiths
would be playing in 1984. The stage crew were travellers and they
deliberately misspelt the Smiths on the running order. They called
them "the Smits" because they felt it was totally wrong to have a
popular band playing."
1986
Robert Forster
The Go-Betweens
"We weren't built to be a festival band. Our music was a little too
delicate and inward-looking, and no one in the band fancied climbing
the PA stacks. But something at Glastonbury clicked. It was the
biggest crowd we had played to, and the first time my wife saw me
play. She was a German student who had come over with friends. The
trampling of their tent didn't help, but once they'd seen the
Go-Betweens and were convinced no one could be better, they left. I
met her a year later."
1990s
1990
Ed O'Brien
Radiohead
"I was a huge Happy Mondays fan. I had been up at Manchester
University and we had just finished finals, and we all decided to go.
The Mondays were absolutely abysmal. In fact, I remember the Hothouse
Flowers being much better."
Mark Chadwick
The Levellers
"Calling Michael Eavis a c*** on stage was pretty bad. He came round
the back afterwards and asked us why. He had banned all travellers
that year, and we were pretty aggrieved about it, but he explained
why, and we said we were very sorry. I regretted that."
1991
Julien Temple
Film-maker
"Michael Eavis had taken the travellers in and given them a field
after the Thatcher crackdown in the late 1980s, but after that, the
travellers thought the festival was selling out and there were
confrontations between them and other elements, including the police.
Michael's farmhouse was surrounded by travellers, threatening to burn
it down. He looked genuinely terrified in the flickering light of the flames."
1992
Emily Eavis
"The first time there was anything popular from a kids' perspective
was Shakespears Sister in 1990. Suddenly school kids identified with
the festival."
Siobhan Fahey
Shakespears Sister
"We were headlining the Pyramid Stage and I found it terrifying. We
hadn't had a soundcheck and the whole feeling of a connection with
the people didn't happen. The sound was horrific so I threw myself
into the performance, and chipped a tooth on the microphone. A few
years ago, I was at a function with Michael Eavis. I said we'd played
the Pyramid Stage in 1992. He looked at me with disbelief and said:
'Who else was on?' I told him, we came on after Lou Reed, and he was
like, 'Well, there you go. It must have been Lou Reed that headlined!' "
1994
Phil Hartnoll
Orbital
"Our first set at Glasto was the most mental. My brother Paul was
sick before and I was absolutely shitting it. It was so scary because
everyone was really waiting to see what it would be like to hear
dance music at a rock festival. But when we got out there it was
mind-blowing. After the set I was away with the fairies for hours,
wandering around and looking back on the whole magical place."
1995
Martin Carr
The Boo Radleys
"I'd bought a stupidly expensive jacket on my way down. By the time
we went on stage I had also bought a smiley rave hat. I looked like
an idiot. After we came off, I bumped into Jeff Buckley, who gave me
advice about the monitors etc. I didn't have the heart to tell him we
had already been on, or that I preferred his dad's records over his."
Tim Wheeler
Ash
"I finished my A levels two days before we played our first
Glastonbury. We were totally inexperienced. The stage was so big that
the gap between each person was bigger than most of the venues we had
played in. It was a super-scorching summer, all these guitar bands
were on the radio, and the possibilities seemed endless."
1997
Peter Hook
"I did that one with Monaco. A vast lake of mud. I went up to every
member of the band and said: 'The moment this finishes, I'm going to
the car and if anyone isn't there, we're leaving without them.' It
took our crew days to get out."
Tim Wheeler
"We played early, which freed us up to take lots of illegal
substances and wend our way through the crowd in a conga in time for
Radiohead. They were amazing, but afterwards, we were told we had to
headline on Sunday, because Steve Winwood had dropped out. In a way,
it ruined the weekend."
Colin Greenwood
Radiohead
"We were launching OK Computer in the most audacious way possible, by
playing our first show for ages in front of tens of thousands of
people in a field of mud."
Thom Yorke
Radiohead
"I remember lots of things going wrong. I came off stage at the end,
and I was, like: 'Oh my God, that was a nightmare,' and my girlfriend
said: 'No, no, no! Look out there!' She pointed out at the audience,
and I went [mimics the moment of realisation]: 'Ah!' So, then we came
on again [for the encore]. It was amazing. " Ed O'Brien "It was Phil
[Selway, the drummer] that held it together. Live, your two most
important people are your lead singer and your drummer. Thom had a
bad day. He couldn't hear himself or see the crowd. He told our
lighting person to turn on the lights. It's a moment that seems to
have become part of Glastonbury folklore."
2000s
2005
Peter Hook
"It was not a happy time for New Order. That was my first year sober
and the band were no help whatsoever. At the end of our set, the
legendary pantomime horse came on. You had Ian Brown at one end and
Bobby Gillespie at the other, although neither will say who was at
which end. We were all pissing ourselves laughing [at the frontman
Bernard Sumner's dancing]. He's always refused to look at footage of
himself. Afterwards I headed straight to the Lost Vagueness field. I
loved that place, but since Joe Strummer died, it hasn't been the
same. You'd see him and Keith Allen sitting around a campfire,
beckoning you in and that's when you knew you were doomed."
Nick Hodgson
Kaiser Chiefs
"I always said that I would only go to Glastonbury when we were
playing there. It took about ten years to achieve, so walking on
stage in the sun was certainly emotional. We knew it was a good gig
when we saw our WAGs crying by the side of stage."
2008
Emily Eavis
"After two muddy years, people were pissed off. When we announced
Jay-Z would be headlining it was the final straw. The next few months
were stressful. I was reading articles that started, 'With the demise
of Glastonbury . . .' My dad lost a stone in weight and we were both
having sleepless nights about not selling the remaining 80,000
tickets. There's no secret back-up plan: we have to sell out to break
even. By the Friday morning, however, we sold the last tickets. It
was the best, most diverse crowd we've had here and they were so
determined to make it a top year."
Beyoncé Knowles
Singer and wife of Jay-Z
"I was so excited, driving up [with Jay-Z] and seeing all the tents.
I've been at big shows before but never in my life have I seen so
many people and everyone seemed like they were in their own world. In
what way? Oh, you know, just like, happy! [Laughs] It was something
that I would love to do one day. They looked like a great crowd.No
one knew what to expect. I know how amazing Jay is as a performer,
but all the controversy ... I was on the stage watching him, stood
behind a little railing. It was the most exciting moment I've seen. I
knew that everybody would love it, but whenever there's controversy,
it's a little like: 'OK, what's going to happen? This has never
happened before.' In that respect, it was kind of like the [US]
election! Ha ha!"
Emily Eavis
"I met my dad before Jay-Z's set, and I have never seen so many
people in that field or felt an atmosphere like it. We were looking
at each other and laughing at the spectacle. They were chanting, 'We
want Jay-Z!' He walked on like a boxer into the ring. The whole place
went mental for an hour and a half. Incredible. We went into the
crowd and the gig was phenomenal. One of the best moments in our
history. He helped carry us into a new era and I think he walked off
the Pyramid Stage the biggest hip-hop star in the world. It felt like
scoring the winning goal in extra time having come back from 4-0 down."
2009
Damon Albarn
Blur
"[Blur's headlining set] was as beautiful a memory as I will ever
have in Blur, and as a kind of healing moment, I feel very privileged
to have been able to participate in it. Surely the most important
thing about Glastonbury is its connection with very ancient rites
that were performed in that vicinity. Human beings have changed so
much since the Druids but there's still a deep need inside of us all
to commune with something. I got them all to say hello to the Moon.
So that's why it was really special. But hard to repeat, I imagine.
So my instinct is not to attempt it again."
Alex James
Blur
"It wasn't until we walked to the stage that we got a sense of how
many people were there. By Girls and Boys, the second song, they were
going mental, and something changed for ever during Tender. We all
cried. That was the best gig we've ever done, absolutely the best gig
we have ever done."
2010
Michael Eavis
"Why do I carry on? I wake up in the morning and I'm still excited
about it. I've been doing it so long it's a major part of my life."
--
The Glastonbury Festival runs at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset (www.
glastonburyfestivals.co. uk), June 23-27
--
Tweets for the memory
@WoodlandBear
In 2008, while wandering about the Glasto crafts fields, I stumbled
across a transsexual teaching a seven-year-old to weld
@VirtualFiona
Best Glastonbury moment when I was proposed to at Stone Circle on
the first night of the festival
@swisslet
Avoiding the Stereophonics and being rewarded by the sight of a
ballerina performing attached to an illuminated hot-air balloon
@Bernard77
Dancing to a hypnotic deep bass beat after sunrise at Glasto '03,
only to discover it was the shit truck pumping out the toilets
@clarabel74
Working in the med tent & witnessing the life ebb away from a young
lady at end of shift Drs & nurses watched end of Radiohead
@stillan
My first Glasto, the first morning sitting at the Stone Circle facing
out seeing the whole of Glasto in all its glory! Wow!
.
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