Chapter 3. 1982, Summertime In England.
We were back at Glasto in 1982 which was memorable for me.
One reason was that it was the first time that I worked at Glastonbury and
another reason was that my favourite musician of all time Van Morrison made the
first of his seven Glastonbury appearances. The job I had in 82 was working
backstage for a pub landlord from Trowbridge who was running the backstage bar.
I have written about this episode in my book called Vanatic so I won’t
repeat the whole sorry saga here. Sufficient to say that we arrived on the
Wednesday and my services were dispensed with on the Saturday morning. We were
camped up near one of the electricity pylons right in front of the Pyramid
Stage, so we got a great view of the proceedings. There was quite a gang of us.
Sadly, I can think of three people from that year who are no longer with us,
Gordon, Richard and Tim but that’s not surprising I suppose.
Back in those far-flung days of yesteryear the cows used to
be grazing on the land right up to the festival starting. You had to watch out
for cow pats which were everywhere. It wouldn’t be advisable to wear a black beret
to those early Glastonbury’s because if it blew off at night you could try on
five of them before you found the right one. There were lots of animals in
those days as well. Horses pulling gypsy type caravans and lots of dogs. The
dogs had a great time at Glasto. A dog’s nose can sniff out a discarded half
eaten burger from hundreds of yards away. I’m not sure if it was 82 but my
friend Dave brought his dog called Hagan one year and as soon as he arrived and
took Hagan’s lead off he ran away. He didn’t return until Monday morning when Hagan
realised it was time to go home.
There were no police on the site in those days. They didn’t
arrive till quite a few years later. They weren’t needed anyway as it was so
peaceful. They were outside though and searched anybody going in at random and
ran up cricket scores of arrests for possession of marijuana and LSD. Many a
bright young person had their future blighted by getting a criminal conviction for
having a bit of pot in their pockets. The police in those days regarded hippy
types as the enemy. This was encouraged by the Thatcher government who hated
Glastonbury and its association with CND.
Matters would come to a head a couple of years later with the notorious
Battle of The Beanfield. I’m glad to say though that these days with the
festival ten times bigger the police attitude has changed completely. The
amount of arrests is tiny in comparison and their presence is mainly concerned
with the welfare of the festival goers.
1982 was the first year as well when I got a taste of the
mud that Glastonbury is famous for. The Friday was the wettest day in Somerset
for 45 years and the site was turned into a mud bath. This is because the site
is on clay, also it is in a valley so the water all goes downhill into the
basin at the foot of the hill. When you have been to a few Glastonbury’s though
you get used to it and its not muddy every year which some people who have
never been seem to think.
Musically 1982 was the first Glastonbury for me when there
were some truly great performances. On the Friday punk poet John Cooper Clarke
was brilliant and I was on the side of the stage for his performance and shook
hands with him at the end. I was also on stage to see Black Uhuru because I
knew their roadie Mick from Bradford On Avon. Backstage I also met the late
great Randy California. I can’t remember his performance. All I know is that he
must have been quite drunk by the time he got on stage because I had been
drinking with him. Roy Harper returned to Glastonbury on Saturday afternoon but
this year there was no punch-up as in 81.
The highlight for me on Saturday was Van Morrison’s performance.
It was only the second time I had seen him in concert. Van was still based in
the States in those days and I think this was his first tour in Britain since
79. Van arrived in his car backstage, walked straight on and gave a magnificent
performance then got straight back in the car and was driven away immediately. It
was to be five long years until I saw Van return to Glastonbury. His band did
hang out for a while though. I found a photo of his sax player Pee-Wee Ellis
chatting to Jackson Browne and about twenty years later I presented a copy of
the photo to Pee-Wee and he was really pleased because he had never seen it
before and he signed a copy of it for me as well.
The head of CND Bruce Kent gave a talk on Sunday before the
music began. I remember this person who didn’t like Glastonbury supporting CND
flew around and around above the site in a light airplane trailing a banner
with the slogan HELP THE RUSSIANS, SUPPORT CND on it. I think he ended up in
court for that stunt and got fined. Good!
Sunday was another great day of music. There was a fabulous
set by Jackson Browne who had been on the site all weekend enjoying the festival.
There was also a great performance by Judy Tzuke who played just as it got dark.
I think she must remember that as the gig of her life because she has faded
into obscurity since those days but she was brilliant that night. I
particularly remember her last song called Stay With Me Till Dawn.If I remember
correctly the last person on was the late great Richie Havens. It was a thrill
to see him for the first time because I had always liked his performance in the
film Woodstock. It was raining quite heavily during his set so I watched from
the entrance to my tent. He was great and I was to see him again at Glastonbury
many years later. The festival of 82 was brought to an end with an amazing
laser beam display accompanied by the music of Tubeway Army.
Next morning as we left there were hundreds of people
hitching out of the site. I don’t think people hitch to festivals any more.
Most of them were heading for Stonehenge and all along the lanes were people
with signs saying STONEHENGE PLEASE. I expect they all got lifts because that’s
what it was like in those days.
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