After about two hours sleep, it was time to rise again. Weather was looking iffy again. Energy was provided from the “Danish and Delicious” stall, who were kindly still serving breakfast bacon and egg baguettes long after their claimed finish time.
But really, who stops serving breakfast at 10am at Glasto, especially several days in?! Opening the day was Gilbert O Sullivan, who I didn’t think I’d heard of, but I did recognise some of his old 60-70s pop songs.
Torturous lyrics (eg Jenny was a mare, who I could just about bear, I met her on the stair, she had nice hair, etc!!), but I’d been clever today and brought my fold-away chair so I was slouched with breakfast in front of him with no energy to move!
After bacon baguette.. special Yeo Valley Glasto yoghurt.
Great Success (said in Borat accent)!
Next up was Brian Jonestown Massacre. I didn’t have to move.
As I sat, three Japanese girls came and sat in front of me. They carefully laid out their mat, then sat very properly. One had a carrier bag, out of which she took three paper cups and one can, one single can of Carlsberg. She opened it daintily and carefully shared it between the three cups. They toasted, sipped away, then when they’d finished, folded the mat up and headed off. Very amusing. I wonder if they were drunk?!
Then I went for a wonder.. to get some much needed coffee. A folk group were in the bandstand singing about Glastonbury and how nice Emily Eavis is!
Back to Pyramid, John Mayer was on.
Watched him for a bit then went round to other to meet up with the gang, who were watching Jack Penate.
It’s getting to that stage..
Not sure I approve..
The flag was clearly visible..
Someone had a reel of stripy tape and was busy sectioning off large parts of the crowd for no apparent reason!
Crowd games
Pete
Lisa
Tom demonstrates tai chi
Sarah’s got the right idea
Scouting for Girls,
another Introducing tipped band a year or two ago, are up next, and really get the happy crowd going, in particular somehow making the following work:
“Woooahoohoh, yeah yeah yeah, I’ll see you at Glastonbury next year!”
Scouting for Girls
Brief threat from cloud
Flag still going strong
Crikey
Next… I’d really like to trawl round to Pyramid for Neil Diamond, but it’s too far and I’d have to rush back for Mark Ronson who is on next. Again someone I don’t know much about, but my little bro Lewis keeps going on about him, and his remixes being better than the originals.
Mark Ronson
Sam hates Mugabe too
Sarah’s friends
Close up of Jo’s badges
Mark Ronson’s band
Mark brought up a series of guests to do his songs with him. Some were quite well disguised.
Others not so – Lily Allen appeared, but didn’t know her lines, and so sang from a piece of paper, and still managed to screw it up!
Lily Allen
Cheeeese
Lisa issues Pete with marching orders
The group now splits, with the others staying here, but myself heading off with Sarah’s friends to see Leonard Cohen at Pyramid. We caught the end of Goldfrapp. What hair! What a dress!!
Into the magic central D for the show..
No crowd squash
Leonard Cohen
is back from a 15 year absence from performing, and what a chap. He just charms the socks off us. Grinning with delight at every applause, bowing and taking his hat off after each song, going down on one knee as he croons – I’d surely have his babies!!
Down on the knee
The crowd loves it!
And the sun begins to set on my first Glastonbury. It’s been incredible.
But it’s not over yet. Back round to Other for Groove Armada. Huge flows the other way for Verve who are playing Pyramid. I think in general more people went the other way, as Groove Armada had room to dance.
We made the right choice – the gang who went to Verve were freezing, whereas we were toasty warm dancing around like nutters to I See You Baby (Shakin’that Ass) and At the River (If you’re found of sand-dunes and salty air, etc). The lights were awesome, especially wearing the Tilted Disco glasses, though how Pete wore them for almost the whole set I do not know!
Fireworks going off over Green Fields
The end of the night…
And that was it. The set finished early, which was slightly disappointing, but the show itself? Incredible, and a great way to end the day. We all headed back to the Camper van to rendez-vous and have a cuppa. Interestingly, heading out, it would appear the gate security was all gone, which I was a little confused about – surely this means anyone could come in and steal stuff etc? I would have thought it would make more sense to hold security until Monday lunchtime or so, as I think the majority were leaving then. I got the brews in at the van..
Then I realised what might happen… eyes were drooping all around me.. surely not.. the night is still young?! But the oldies were ready for bed.. and so I had to go it alone – take a stance for the team and party all night. Glastonbury was not over yet, not whilst the Pyramid’s beams were still lighting up the sky!
I headed down to my beloved Trash City,
Trash
and into Drag Strip..
Drag Strip
Sure enough, a energetic punk band had the audience going.. it was Urban Voodoo Machines.
When their set finished, I headed through to Shangri La. This was my last chance to explore the whole place properly. First up, Shackney, the reggae joint:
Shackney
Then the SlumberRave,
where one takes shoes off (yuck, plus my back wasn’t really up for bending down to them anyway!) and dances on beds
Music was no good though, so I didn’t stay long.
The venue of the night for me was Dada, which had two bands still to play full sets whilst I was there –the first of which was Shantel and the Bucovina Club from Germany,
Shantel and the Bucovina Club
Who really had the crowd going, although with the amount of dodgy cigarettes being puffed on I was having difficulties staying inside the tent!!
Before the next set, I went round Dirty Doctor Fiddley’s Bat Cave, a bizarre tiny place playing scratchy 20s LPs,
Tarts n Tease, where a live set was setting up, but for now was just a disco with an almost empty bar..
A quick look at Basslines (music wasn’t all that), then back to Dada for Destroyers Vs Phol Bros, a mad act with seemingly more people on stage than in the audience – there must have been about 15 musicians playing!
When they finished, it was time to grab a bite and head up for sunrise at the Stone Circle.
Portion of chips, very nice. I strolled up, enjoying the last couple of hours before home time. There were still lots of people streaming about.
The thing to do seems to be congregate with chums, have a fire, and smoke things. Frankly I think more of the haze was from smoking than the fires! Sacred indeed!
Time to head home.
Quiet gates on the way back to my tent
Very very sleep-deprived but.. I made it!!!
Glastonbury 2008 I have loved every minute of you!!
Day 6 – Leaving the Dream
I packed tent up, left a note for the others and headed across the site for the last time, right to the other side, for the 8:30am coach.
Rubbish being collected at Pyramid
Despite the Leave no trace, the place is a tip. There are so many rubbish bins, I don’t know why people still treat the place so badly. They’re very strict about glass, but the amount of cans trampled into the earth, surely not good for cows?
On the way out I pick up a copy of the Q end of festival magazine, which has reviews and summaries, and a large fold-out aerial colour photo of the whole site, which is interesting. You’re supposed to locate your tent, but I reckon I was about an inch off the edge!
Queuing for the bus home
Misses
Such is Glasto that I missed all of the following, all of which I would have liked to see. But that’s what Glasto is like.. I don’t have any regrets.. alright, I do regret not seeing Massive Attack in particular, but, you have to make choices and what I did see was amazing. What I can say with certainty is that I made the most of it! So here’s the list of misses, in no particular order: KT Tunstall, Editors, Fratellis, Kings of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, Massive Attack, Sinead O Connor, Freestylers, DJ Yoda, We Are Scientists, MGMT, Estelle, Fat Boy Slim, The Cribs, The Ting Tings, Howard Marks, Dizzee Rascal, Pete Docherty, Ethiopiques, Crowded House, James Blunt, A Skills, Massukos, British Sea Power, Wombats, Elbow, Matha Wainwright, The Futureheads, Buddy Guy, The Proclaimers, (most of) Kosheen, Liz Green, Cerys Matthews, Neil Diamond, (most of) Goldfrapp, The Verve, Eddy Grant, Katie Melua, Annie Mac, UNKLE, Dirty Pretty Things, Derrick May, Bluetones, Thecocknbull kid, Noah and the Whale, Mitch Benn, Tony Benn.
You know it’s over when
Although for the next couple of days I saw people about in London with them still on! Denial!
It does seem like leaving a dream world. I had the same feeling coming back to London from Glasto for 5 days as being away for a year and a half! Don’t go travelling, just go to Glasto! You won’t regret it, especially if you go with such a nice bunch as Mike, Tom, Lisa, Pete and Sarah - thanks guys, you really made Glasto the amazing experience it was for me. And so it just remains for me to say…
Woooahahooo, yeahyeahyeah, I’ll see you at Glastonbury next year….!
Glasto 2008 Blog Index: Wednesday - Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday Monday
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