Glastonbury Festival 2019: Part 5, Sunday..

Langa Methodist Church Choir

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning at Glastonbury. Time for some religion. I made my way to the Pyramid Stage to see the Langa Methodist Church Choir. I think their appearance at Glastonbury came about when Michael & Emily Eavis visited South Africa to see how the money raised by Glastonbury was being spent in that country. Michael is a Methodist and visited their church and decided to invite them to Glastonbury. I don’t think they had ever left Cape Town before and didn’t have passports, so Michael arranged everything to bring them to England. That must have been a huge logistical effort to get them here.

I secured my place right on the barrier at the front. A lot of the other people there were waiting for Kylie Minogue & Miley Cyrus a few hours later and were dressed in all sorts of garish garb to attract the TV cameras. The choir were wonderful in all their traditional costumes and sang hymns in their native tongue. It was a spiritual uplifting experience to be there. As a mark of respect they sang the British national anthem which might be the first time it has been sung on the Pyramid Stage, even if it was in a language we didn’t understand. You could tell by the smiles on their faces that they were delighted to be here. Their performance put me in a great mood for the rest of the day.

Mavis

I held my position at the front because the next act was the wonderful Mavis Staples, ‘The bad-ass queen of soul’ as the BBC described her. I have liked Mavis ever since The Staples Singers appeared in the film The Last Waltz in the 70’s. I think the set by Mavis was possibly my favourite of the whole weekend. She revealed that the airline had lost all their luggage on the way to Glastonbury and Michael Eavis had given them all t-shirts to wear. I can’t remember all the songs now, but I do remember a great version of the Buffalo Springfield song For What It’s Worth. Mavis doesn’t think a lot of Trump, that’s for sure. She has always been politically aware, ever since her father Pop Staples was a friend of Martin Luther King. A couple of days after I got home, I watched her performance again on the BBC Iplayer and spotted myself right at the front. Thank you, Mavis, for a great show. Vote for Mavis!

Me, Paula, Bob, Keiron.

I relinquished my position at the front after that and went for a wander. In the market area I bumped into a team of my fellow litter pickers who included Bob and Paula. That provided a photo opportunity. Sean had been telling me about Mik Artistik and I must see him if I got the chance because he was funny. I noticed he was on the bandstand at 2.00 so I hung around for that. He was the funniest, craziest act I saw all weekend. He comes from Yorkshire and his songs are mad. One is called Sweet Leaf Of The North which was all about a leaf that got stuck under the windscreen wiper on his car on a journey from Leeds to London. Lukewarm Lover was another one and a song about a plastic fox in his garden called Plastic Fox. Another song was called Pocket Of Straws where he pulled straws out of his pocket and threw them to the audience. He was brilliant and was selling merchandise afterwards such as Mik Artistik teapots and things like that. After that hilarious episode I wandered on and encountered a travelling séance and a life drawing class where the model was clothed, and the artists were naked which was quite amusing.

Mik Artistic

There were thousands of people heading towards the Pyramid Stage to see Kylie Minogue but I wasn’t interested in all that and thought it would be too hectic. I learned later that Sir David Attenborough appeared and gave a speech about the danger of plastic in the environment and he thanked Glastonbury for its policy of banning plastic bottles.

I needed a rest and a bit of peace, so I headed in the opposite direction and watched Dervish. They are an Irish traditional group from Sligo fronted by a nice singer called Cathy Jordan. I really enjoyed what I saw of their performance, but it was a shame they didn’t have a bigger audience.

Dervish.

 After that I thought I had better go back to base for a rest because I had work at 6.00. I stopped at the top of the hill to watch a bit of Kylie. It was the biggest audience I have seen since Dolly Parton in 2014. She hasn’t got anything like the talent of Dolly though. I did enjoy the song Where The Wild Roses Grow when she was joined by Nick Cave. I spent some of the time talking to a policewoman about her horse called Clifton who was 20 years old and had a nice temperament. He obviously liked people and was very friendly.

At 6.00 I set off on another long walk to The Park where we still had four hours of work to do. We tore into it with gusto and had the Park all nice and tidy again by 9.00. Our leader Andy signed us all off and that was our work finished for this year. 

Clifton, the police horse.

My big regret was that I had missed Madelaine Peyroux because of work. I sat down with my first pint of the day and studied my lanyard. On the major stages I had a choice of The Cure, Christine And The Queens, Janelle Monaie, Rex Orange County, The Streets, Rickie Lee Jones or Reef. I opted for Rickie Lee Jones and I’m glad because I enjoyed her performance. In between the songs you could hear The Cure playing in the distance. “They are The Cure and we are the disease”, said Rickie wittily. I’m not that familiar with her work apart from Chuck E’s In Love but she sang a song by the Mills Brothers from 1928 called Nagasaki and even Sheena Is A Punk Rocker by The Ramones. 

Rickie Lee Jones.

At the end she took off her jacket to reveal a Ramones T-shirt. She came over as a nice person who was enjoying herself. On my way back to base I heard a bit of The Cure but it didn’t mean anything to me. I have never been a fan of theirs, but a lot of people enjoyed it, so I’m not knocking it. When I got back to base it was very quiet because most people were out partying all night long. I was too exhausted though and went to bed. 
Next morning, I had my rucksack packed and my tent down by 10.00. The only sign I had been there was a square patch of yellow grass. ‘Love The Farm, Leave No Trace’, that is my motto. Then I went and said cheerio to Odele who had been a good friend. I had one last can of lager with my mates outside the marquee. In the olden days of the 80’ & 90’s we used to go in a big gang of family and friends to Glastonbury but that has diminished to only me over the years. That is why I am grateful to the friends I have made on the recycling crew because if it wasn’t for them, I would be wandering around like Billy No-Mates. Then I hauled on my rucksack for the long walk to the bus station. I got home at 3.30 Monday afternoon, eight days and two hours since I had set off.

Queue for buses.

I have been home a week now and the memories of Glastonbury 2019 are beginning to fade into the mists of Avalon. I don’t think it was a vintage year. There were no classic never to be forgotten performances like the Stones in 2013 or Bowie in 2000, but Glastonbury is about much more than music, it is about being in a different reality for several days and being with like-minded people. There would be no Brexit if it was down to Glastonbury people. It is about seeing old friends and meeting new friends. Next year is the 50^th anniversary of the first festival in 1970 and I hope I will be there. See you next year x

Glastonbury Festival 2019: Part 4, Hot Saturday.

Saturday is the biggest day at Glastonbury. Everyone who was coming had arrived and nobody had gone home yet. There were about 200,000 people on site now. I was awake at 5.00 after three hours sleep. I opted for croissants and fruit juice for breakfast. I was getting bored with the same old breakfast day after day. I wanted to see The Proclaimers who were opening on the Pyramid Stage because a friend of mine in Westbury had given me their last couple of albums which I enjoyed. I secured my place at the front by 11.00 and passed the time talking to other people. They played a wonderful crowd-pleasing set. 

Proclaimers violin player.

The Proclaimers are the perfect band for festivals because the crowd all know the words of their most famous songs. The band were great, and they had a guest female violinist who played on a couple of songs. I don’t know who she is, but she is a star. My only disappointment was that they didn’t sing Streets Of Edinburgh which to me is a classic song from their Angry Cyclist album. They finished with I Would Walk 500 Miles which had the whole audience singing along. I think I walked at least a 100 miles myself at Glasto this year easily.

Caroline Lucas.

After The Proclaimers I stayed to hear a short speech by Caroline Lucas of the Green Party & CND who gave a warning about the catastrophic effects we are having on the planet and the ridiculous expenditure on nuclear weapons when we could spend that money on the health service or education. I think she is great, and nice looking. If I was Prime Minister I’d have her in my cabinet anytime. The next act I saw was Carrie Underwood who I must admit I didn’t know anything about at all. I have looked her up since and she is huge in the USA and other countries as well. I would describe her as country-rock. She was blown away by appearing at Glastonbury. 

Carrie Underwood.

The security people along the front of the stage were handing out cups of water to the crowd who were suffering in the heat. She said she had never seen that at a festival before. It makes you wonder what sort of festivals they have in the USA. I enjoyed her performance anyway, she was hot.

I was too hot myself and decided to head for the shade of my favourite stage, the Acoustic. On the way I bought myself a new t-shirt in the market area because I had run out of clean clothes. I also looked in the theatre tent at a high wire act. In the theatre field there were all sorts of crazy things going on, even people dressed as sheep on mobility scooters being herded by a farmer. 

Fun Lovin' Crime Writers.

The first act I saw in the Acoustic was The Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers. I didn’t know what to expect from this. They are all famous crime writers. The lead singer is Val McDermid who I recognised from Question Time on the telly. They got together at a crime writers conference where they got bored with talking about crime and started talking about music. They discovered that some of them either sang or played an instrument and decided to get a band together. All their act was songs about murder and crime such as I fought The Law, Psycho Killer, Riot In Cell Block 9, I predict A Riot, Whiskey In The Jar, The Long Black Veil, Watching The Detectives. They also did one song about their day job which was Paperback Writer. I thought they were great and really good fun.

Ladies In The Blues.

The next act I saw was Ladies In The Blues who are four female singers from Ireland with an excellent band who sang either individually or together blues songs by great female singers from Bessie Smith to Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin. They were wonderful. I think this year was the year of female acts at Glasto. On Desert Island Discs Emily Eavis said 42% of the performers this year were female and it is their policy to get it up to 50% and have gender equality.

After that I went to Pilton Pasta and got some nice food. They have been in the same place at Glastonbury for 20 years and I always try and support them because they are nice people, the food is delicious, and the profits go to support a children’s hospice. It was getting cooler now, so I made my way back to the Pyramid Stage.

Janet Jackson.

Janet Jackson was on when I arrived. It’s not really my type of music but I watched because it was quite spectacular and brilliantly choreographed. I was surprised that I actually recognised a few of the songs. I felt a bit sorry for her though because she had trouble with her microphone which was at the side of her head. It was ok when she was sideways on to the audience, but when she was facing the audience it looked sometimes like she had a comic relief nose on. You could tell she was aware of it as well. I bet somebody got shouted at afterwards.

The next act was Liam Gallagher. I have never been a big fan of Oasis but I watched for a bit to see if his brother Noel joined him on stage, but he didn’t. It was getting chilly now so I went back to base for a while to get a jacket. When I returned the crowd were waiting for The Killers to appear. 

Killers.

I watched for about half an hour from the back of the field. They were good and quite spectacular, and they obviously love Glastonbury. After a while though I thought I ought to go and watch Hawkwind for old times sake because in the early 70’s we used to follow them everywhere. They were second only to Pink Floyd in the psychedelic rock genre. I met up with Bob & Paula for Hawkwind. I don’t know if any of the original band are still there, but they were spectacular and the light show was incredible. In the olden days they used to have a female dancer called Stacia and they have two new dancers now, but I don’t know their names. My only disappointment was that they didn’t play Silver Machine which was my favourite, back in the day.

Hawkwind.

After Hawkwind, me, Bob & Paula went round to the crew bar and got chatting to a few people. I met a couple who used to live in Westbury who knew lots of the same people I do and a lady who lives in Norton St Philip. It shouldn’t be that surprising though because Westbury is only 25 miles away. Eventually we headed back to Tom’s field and called it a night. The most  exciting day of all was only hours away.

TO BE CONTINUED…………………………….