Post by Catfood on Apr 28, 2006 22:37:06 GMT -5
Ok I'm writing this because I'm bored, drunk and nostalgic, this is the first 3 day music event I ever went to.
I never wanted to go to Glastonbury, mainly due to my hatred of many of the bands that were closely associated with it(Oasis, Blur). But I had been conned into agreeing to going by my friend, Charlotte, who had told me that Marilyn Manson were playing. Not having the internet at the time or the common sense to take a glance inside a music mag, I didn't realise that this was bullshit until it was too late.
Thursday:
We set off from Charlottes house later than we expected, the people who we were getting a lift with being slightly less organised than us. Anyway, the other people on this trip were my college classmate Kerryn, her boyfriend Chris and some bloke whose name I can't remember. The Landrover that we were travelling in probably shouldn't have been on the road for all the problems we had with it. The first came when we made what was supposed to be a short stop and the fan belt snapped. This was made made worse by the AA taking ages to find the place. With this fixed, we made our way to Glastonbury. The second came when we finally get there at about 2 in the morning and there are rediculous queues to get in and the Landrover had
sprung an oil leak. Which isn't so bad as we can keep getting out and walking to the garage on the way in. We finally get in, exhausted and grumpy, we finally find the hardest, stone covered bit of land ever and set up camp at about 4.30am. Too aware that there is more stuff to be carried, me and Charlotte quickly get into our tent. The last thing I hear is Kerryn saying "Have Paul and Charlotte gone to sleep?"
Friday:
We both awake about 9 in the morning, but without hangovers it is easy enough to get going, having not gotten there until really early in the morning, me and Charlotte are eager to take a look around the place. The great thing about Glastonbury is that there really are no bounderies as to where you can go within the festival site. For example if you wanted to plonk yourself in front of the Pyramid stage at half past nine in the morning, then you can. Unlike say Reading or Download where you have to wait to be allowed into the arena. But anyway, with the looking around done, food eaten etc, we catch the last few songs of an ABBA tribute band called Bjorn Again who are pretty good, covering "Born To Be Wild" and ending on "Dancing Queen". Good way to start the days bands with. We then made our way over to the New Bands Stage to watch a fledgling band called Muse. They are awesome, full of energy, enthusiasm and some great songs if I remember rightly. It came as a great shock about a month later when the songs came across as flat, depressing and boring on their debut album. After that we took a walk around again, catching a reformed Blondie performing their current hit, "Maria", and moving on. We decide to go and see 'it' band of the moment, Gay Dad, who were nothing really special and I'm not too surprised by their current "Where are they now?" status. Charlotte heads back to the tent as I go and check out Bush. Bush have just about enough good songs, plus a few new ones to make them the second best band I saw that day. Say what you will about Bush, they are fucking amazing live, "Machinehead", "Little Things", "Glycerine", "Swallowed" all rock and I got to touch Gavin Rosdale's arm. Anyway, I go back to meet Charlotte back at the tent, getting totally lost along the way and accidently bumping into Kerryn, Chris and nameless bloke. They show me the way back to the tent, which I promptly forget and tell Charlotte how much Bush rocked which is met a "No they didn't." Anyway we go and see Hole, who for me anyway steal the band of the day. If not the whole festival. Courtney Love knows how to work the stage, inviting most of the first 2 rows up on stage, gently coaxing a nervous fan into singing "Celebrity Skin" with her and slapping a poor deluded bloke who dares to declare his love for her. Its all good entertainment and some decent tunes as well. And having gotten seperated again from the people who know where they were going, it took me ages to find the tent again. When I finally do, The Beautiful South have started on the Pyramid stage there is little to do apart from cover your ears and smoke some pot. Eventually the torture ends and we head out again to catch the Headliners, REM. I won't lie, REM are boring beyond belief. But about halfway through the set they play "Everybody Hurts". I don't know if this was part of the act or not, but about halfway through the song, a red firework is fired up into the sky and because it is so cold and still, it just hangs there in the sky. Its one of those moments that makes you go "wow" and definately one of my favourite festival moments. The set closes with Michael Stipe draped in an American Flag singing "Its The End Of The World as We Know It" and running around like a mad man, it would have been nice to have had that sort of enthusiasm for the entire set, not just the last song. With that, me and Charlotte head back to the tent and crash out.
Saturday:
Ok, Saturday is started by being woken up at some rediculous time by someone selling milk. Not a great way to get woken up, but never the less we get up and go and have breakfast. Charlotte wants to see Billy Bragg, so we split up and I check out pop punk band, Fungus. They are quite good, but nothing really special. We meet back up again and decide to check out Nojahoda, stomp through a set of fun dumbass songs that really should have seen them get at least a bit bigger. Its going great until something breaks and the band are reduced to singing ballads until we are told its the end of the set and the band smash the stage up as they leave. Great stuff. We split up again and I go and check out Annie Christian, who are crap. The band look bored and the singer is too out of it to actually care, I wait around to see if they play the one song I like, which they don't and go and meet back up with Charlotte. There is no one else that either of us want to see for a while, so we take a walk around and finally find the comedy tent. We decide to stop for a while, the bloke on stage is very good, talking about getting stoned(someone talking about getting stoned at Glastonbury, who would have thought it?) We head back to the Pyramid stage to catch Ash, who at the time, still knew how to rock. They are pretty good, but there is too much from the new album when its pretty clear that people only wanted to hear the old stuff. With that, we head back to the tent to chill out. Unfortunately we time it just as Texas are on and again we can hear the entire set. So we sit, get stoned, talk crap and slag off Texas until it is time for the Super Furry Animals. Despite my claims to be just fine at the tent until she got back(Texas had finished by this point) I got dragged along. The Super Furry Animals are a band I never ever want to see again, even the sight of of a stage full of people in fancy dress isn't enough to save it. The only redeeming feature is "The Man Don't Give A Fuck" which gets so distorted through the speakers that it starts to resemble an Atari Teenage Riot song. And then its back to the tent so that Charlotte can get ready for The Manic Street Preachers headlining set. I'd seen the Manics a few months before and they had blown me away, but tonight is not their night. They start well enough, but by the third song, such a crush has built up at the barrier that the band have to leave the stage while it gets sorted. When they take the stage again, the energy is lost and the set suffers as a result. Not a total loss, but not as great as it could of been. And with that, I call it a night, head back to the tent and fall asleep.
Sunday:
Another early start again, I decide to go get another lighter while Charlotte gets ready and as I'm walking back to the tent I'm surrounded by a load of people running around with a rainbow while London Community Gospel Choir are singing on stage, its quite surreal and quite frankly far too early for me to deal with, so I head back to the tent. There really were no bands that I wanted to see that day, so I went to see Joolz, a poet on the Caberet/Comedy stage. Ok, I have no interest in poetry, high school and college english lessions sucked all the fun out of it for me. But this woman was really good, for the first time in God knows how long, I found poetry interesting. Mind you I haven't bothered since. And with that, we were both at a loose end at what to do, seeing as none of the bands appealed to us. There is a vague plan to see Keano Reeves vanity band, Dogstar, but after about a minute it turns out they are very dull and we move on. We decide to go and see what the Greenfields part of the festival is all about, until now we had only checked out the more commericial side of the festival. It was interesting, like stepping into a different world, though for me having been surviving on £80 for the entire weekend, a £75 aura clensing session was sadly out of the question. And with that we head back to the tent. We hadn't been there too long when Kerryn, Chris and whats his name turned up with the offer of food, booze and pot. Being more or less skint, we gladly except the offer. This really was the only time of the fest that we were all together in one place so we all swapped stories, ate food and got stoned. Unfortunately, at the time I was only 19 and a total lightweight when it came to mixing my intoxicants, I was very sick. Which in turn, made Kerryn very sick. Which in turn annoyed Chris. Oh dear. Anyway, they want to see bands, so me and Charlotte tag along with them. Unfortunately they want to see Lenny Kravitz who is very very dull. The Fun Loving Criminals are a revelation after that, fun of energy and good fun, I wasn't expecting much from them but was pleasently surprised. Then it was Mogwai headlining the Other stage. I still hate Mogwai with a passion. Tuneless, vocal less passages of music that last for for more than 10 minutes at a time, I had seen them support the Manics and they were shit then. This time its just torture, though for some reason everyone else seems to be enjoying them. Maybe I wasn't wasted enough. After Mogwai had finally finished, we headed up to the Stone Circle. Which is exactly that, a stone circle where people go to chill out and get wasted. Its not very interesting during the daylight hours, but during the night time its a alive with activity, people druming, people spinning Poi and breathing fire. The atmosphere of the place is cannot be described and it is a awesome ending to what has been an great weekend.
Monday morning, we pack up, me feeling especially rough and head home. There are massive queues to get out of the carparks and we don't get home until about 2 in the morning.
So that is where it all began for me, I went again the following year and loved it. If I can remember enough of it, I'll post another review if I get bored enough. I wouldn't hold your breath, it was hard enough remembering this one.
I never wanted to go to Glastonbury, mainly due to my hatred of many of the bands that were closely associated with it(Oasis, Blur). But I had been conned into agreeing to going by my friend, Charlotte, who had told me that Marilyn Manson were playing. Not having the internet at the time or the common sense to take a glance inside a music mag, I didn't realise that this was bullshit until it was too late.
Thursday:
We set off from Charlottes house later than we expected, the people who we were getting a lift with being slightly less organised than us. Anyway, the other people on this trip were my college classmate Kerryn, her boyfriend Chris and some bloke whose name I can't remember. The Landrover that we were travelling in probably shouldn't have been on the road for all the problems we had with it. The first came when we made what was supposed to be a short stop and the fan belt snapped. This was made made worse by the AA taking ages to find the place. With this fixed, we made our way to Glastonbury. The second came when we finally get there at about 2 in the morning and there are rediculous queues to get in and the Landrover had
sprung an oil leak. Which isn't so bad as we can keep getting out and walking to the garage on the way in. We finally get in, exhausted and grumpy, we finally find the hardest, stone covered bit of land ever and set up camp at about 4.30am. Too aware that there is more stuff to be carried, me and Charlotte quickly get into our tent. The last thing I hear is Kerryn saying "Have Paul and Charlotte gone to sleep?"
Friday:
We both awake about 9 in the morning, but without hangovers it is easy enough to get going, having not gotten there until really early in the morning, me and Charlotte are eager to take a look around the place. The great thing about Glastonbury is that there really are no bounderies as to where you can go within the festival site. For example if you wanted to plonk yourself in front of the Pyramid stage at half past nine in the morning, then you can. Unlike say Reading or Download where you have to wait to be allowed into the arena. But anyway, with the looking around done, food eaten etc, we catch the last few songs of an ABBA tribute band called Bjorn Again who are pretty good, covering "Born To Be Wild" and ending on "Dancing Queen". Good way to start the days bands with. We then made our way over to the New Bands Stage to watch a fledgling band called Muse. They are awesome, full of energy, enthusiasm and some great songs if I remember rightly. It came as a great shock about a month later when the songs came across as flat, depressing and boring on their debut album. After that we took a walk around again, catching a reformed Blondie performing their current hit, "Maria", and moving on. We decide to go and see 'it' band of the moment, Gay Dad, who were nothing really special and I'm not too surprised by their current "Where are they now?" status. Charlotte heads back to the tent as I go and check out Bush. Bush have just about enough good songs, plus a few new ones to make them the second best band I saw that day. Say what you will about Bush, they are fucking amazing live, "Machinehead", "Little Things", "Glycerine", "Swallowed" all rock and I got to touch Gavin Rosdale's arm. Anyway, I go back to meet Charlotte back at the tent, getting totally lost along the way and accidently bumping into Kerryn, Chris and nameless bloke. They show me the way back to the tent, which I promptly forget and tell Charlotte how much Bush rocked which is met a "No they didn't." Anyway we go and see Hole, who for me anyway steal the band of the day. If not the whole festival. Courtney Love knows how to work the stage, inviting most of the first 2 rows up on stage, gently coaxing a nervous fan into singing "Celebrity Skin" with her and slapping a poor deluded bloke who dares to declare his love for her. Its all good entertainment and some decent tunes as well. And having gotten seperated again from the people who know where they were going, it took me ages to find the tent again. When I finally do, The Beautiful South have started on the Pyramid stage there is little to do apart from cover your ears and smoke some pot. Eventually the torture ends and we head out again to catch the Headliners, REM. I won't lie, REM are boring beyond belief. But about halfway through the set they play "Everybody Hurts". I don't know if this was part of the act or not, but about halfway through the song, a red firework is fired up into the sky and because it is so cold and still, it just hangs there in the sky. Its one of those moments that makes you go "wow" and definately one of my favourite festival moments. The set closes with Michael Stipe draped in an American Flag singing "Its The End Of The World as We Know It" and running around like a mad man, it would have been nice to have had that sort of enthusiasm for the entire set, not just the last song. With that, me and Charlotte head back to the tent and crash out.
Saturday:
Ok, Saturday is started by being woken up at some rediculous time by someone selling milk. Not a great way to get woken up, but never the less we get up and go and have breakfast. Charlotte wants to see Billy Bragg, so we split up and I check out pop punk band, Fungus. They are quite good, but nothing really special. We meet back up again and decide to check out Nojahoda, stomp through a set of fun dumbass songs that really should have seen them get at least a bit bigger. Its going great until something breaks and the band are reduced to singing ballads until we are told its the end of the set and the band smash the stage up as they leave. Great stuff. We split up again and I go and check out Annie Christian, who are crap. The band look bored and the singer is too out of it to actually care, I wait around to see if they play the one song I like, which they don't and go and meet back up with Charlotte. There is no one else that either of us want to see for a while, so we take a walk around and finally find the comedy tent. We decide to stop for a while, the bloke on stage is very good, talking about getting stoned(someone talking about getting stoned at Glastonbury, who would have thought it?) We head back to the Pyramid stage to catch Ash, who at the time, still knew how to rock. They are pretty good, but there is too much from the new album when its pretty clear that people only wanted to hear the old stuff. With that, we head back to the tent to chill out. Unfortunately we time it just as Texas are on and again we can hear the entire set. So we sit, get stoned, talk crap and slag off Texas until it is time for the Super Furry Animals. Despite my claims to be just fine at the tent until she got back(Texas had finished by this point) I got dragged along. The Super Furry Animals are a band I never ever want to see again, even the sight of of a stage full of people in fancy dress isn't enough to save it. The only redeeming feature is "The Man Don't Give A Fuck" which gets so distorted through the speakers that it starts to resemble an Atari Teenage Riot song. And then its back to the tent so that Charlotte can get ready for The Manic Street Preachers headlining set. I'd seen the Manics a few months before and they had blown me away, but tonight is not their night. They start well enough, but by the third song, such a crush has built up at the barrier that the band have to leave the stage while it gets sorted. When they take the stage again, the energy is lost and the set suffers as a result. Not a total loss, but not as great as it could of been. And with that, I call it a night, head back to the tent and fall asleep.
Sunday:
Another early start again, I decide to go get another lighter while Charlotte gets ready and as I'm walking back to the tent I'm surrounded by a load of people running around with a rainbow while London Community Gospel Choir are singing on stage, its quite surreal and quite frankly far too early for me to deal with, so I head back to the tent. There really were no bands that I wanted to see that day, so I went to see Joolz, a poet on the Caberet/Comedy stage. Ok, I have no interest in poetry, high school and college english lessions sucked all the fun out of it for me. But this woman was really good, for the first time in God knows how long, I found poetry interesting. Mind you I haven't bothered since. And with that, we were both at a loose end at what to do, seeing as none of the bands appealed to us. There is a vague plan to see Keano Reeves vanity band, Dogstar, but after about a minute it turns out they are very dull and we move on. We decide to go and see what the Greenfields part of the festival is all about, until now we had only checked out the more commericial side of the festival. It was interesting, like stepping into a different world, though for me having been surviving on £80 for the entire weekend, a £75 aura clensing session was sadly out of the question. And with that we head back to the tent. We hadn't been there too long when Kerryn, Chris and whats his name turned up with the offer of food, booze and pot. Being more or less skint, we gladly except the offer. This really was the only time of the fest that we were all together in one place so we all swapped stories, ate food and got stoned. Unfortunately, at the time I was only 19 and a total lightweight when it came to mixing my intoxicants, I was very sick. Which in turn, made Kerryn very sick. Which in turn annoyed Chris. Oh dear. Anyway, they want to see bands, so me and Charlotte tag along with them. Unfortunately they want to see Lenny Kravitz who is very very dull. The Fun Loving Criminals are a revelation after that, fun of energy and good fun, I wasn't expecting much from them but was pleasently surprised. Then it was Mogwai headlining the Other stage. I still hate Mogwai with a passion. Tuneless, vocal less passages of music that last for for more than 10 minutes at a time, I had seen them support the Manics and they were shit then. This time its just torture, though for some reason everyone else seems to be enjoying them. Maybe I wasn't wasted enough. After Mogwai had finally finished, we headed up to the Stone Circle. Which is exactly that, a stone circle where people go to chill out and get wasted. Its not very interesting during the daylight hours, but during the night time its a alive with activity, people druming, people spinning Poi and breathing fire. The atmosphere of the place is cannot be described and it is a awesome ending to what has been an great weekend.
Monday morning, we pack up, me feeling especially rough and head home. There are massive queues to get out of the carparks and we don't get home until about 2 in the morning.
So that is where it all began for me, I went again the following year and loved it. If I can remember enough of it, I'll post another review if I get bored enough. I wouldn't hold your breath, it was hard enough remembering this one.