Chapter 6. 1986, Dried Scorpions & The Hand Of God.
We had a lot of fun that year. One of our friends called
Paul (aka Nelly) was selling Dried Scorpions. This was a trick in which a device
with a wound up elastic band was secreted inside a folded-up piece of cardboard
that had a picture of a scorpion on it. As people opened it and the pressure
was released the elastic band would vibrate and people would scream in horror
thinking there was a live scorpion inside. When passers-by heard the screams, a
crowd would gather to see what was going on and then people would want to buy
one to try out on their friends. We had hours of fun watching people’s
reactions to the scorpions. It worked best on women. The scorpions became a
fixture of our Glastonbury’s for a few years after that. If you look on eBay,
you can still get them, but they are a lot more expensive these days.
Glastonbury has often coincided with the World Cup and this
happened in 86. They didn’t show England’s matches on the big screens in those
days because there were no big screens. Nobody had mobile phones to follow the
games either. On the Sunday everyone wanted to know how England were getting on
against Argentina. Nelly had managed to watch the game in a tent somewhere and
came back to tell us the result and the story about Maradona and ‘The hand of
god’.
The New Age Travellers started appearing at Glastonbury
this year. They managed to get their own field known as ‘The Travellers Field’.
I think some of them might have walked there. A convoy had tried to get to
Stonehenge again but they had no chance this year, so they ended up in Stoney
Cross in the New Forest. In a dawn raid 400 police turned up and impounded all
the vehicles that had no tax or insurance. The travellers had no alternative
but to try and walk the 60 miles to Glastonbury. I can’t ever remember going to
the traveller’s field myself but lots of people did for the all-night raves. Some
of them became known as ‘Crusties’. You could always spot a Crusty. They were
often seen lying unconscious on the ground surrounded by empty beer cans and
guarded by a faithful Lurcher dog. The travellers field became a fixture for a
while at Glasto till matters came to a head and Michael Eavis had to put a stop
to it.
On a happier note, the Greenfields areas had started in 84
and by 86 they were well established. This was the most peaceful area of the
site and where all the old hippy types found their way to get far from the
madding crowd. The Tipi people moved up there as well and there were all sorts
of interesting arts and crafts to look at. A friend of ours used to do stone
cutting up there for a long time but I haven’t seen him there in recent years.
A lot of people think Glastonbury is all about music and that is important obviously,
but we used to go on massive walks all over the site and still do. I reckon I
must walk about 100 miles over a few days at Glastonbury. I don’t stay out all
night long though these days. Back in the 80’s the most fun was sitting around
the campfire talking nonsense to whoever was there, and you might fancy going
for a walk about 2.00 in the morning, roam across the fields and get back about
dawn and once it was daylight you knew you had no chance of crashing out and so
another day at Glasto would begin.
Another major change at Glastonbury in 86 was that for the
first time the running of the bars had been handed to the Workers Beer Company.
They had started in Wandsworth in London to raise money for good causes and
fight against the evils of Thatcherism. All the profits from the bars went to
left-wing causes. This was a great move by Michael Eavis and another example of
how Glasto has had a positive effect on British society. The bars all had great
names. These days The Bread And Roses Saloon is in the market area but
in 86 it was at one end of the Acoustic tent if I remember correctly. This was
the feminist bar and took its name from a poem associated with the women in a
strike in a textile factory in the USA in 1912, ‘Hearts
starve as well as bodies, give us bread but give us roses!’. The Spear Of The Nation was inspired by
the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and evolved eventually into the Mandela Bar. The Tolpuddle Martyr was the trade unions bar. The Miner’s Arms was very
popular with Welsh people and the Starry
Plough was the Irish bar. I think the impact of the Workers Beer Company on
Glastonbury would eventually evolve into the Leftfield Stage which we have
today. One thing I remember about 86 is that in Nicaragua the socialist
government of the Sandinistas were involved in a struggle against the CIA
backed Contras. In the bars at Glastonbury you could get nice Nicaraguan rum so
you could get drunk and support the Sandinistas at the same time! One major problem
for the bars in those days was that there were bootleg booze outlets all over
the place. You could get a bottle of wine or a few cans of beer anywhere.
Tequila slammers were being sold everywhere and one year I remember a man
pushing along a wheelie bin full of cans of beer and cider which he was
selling. Gradually though as the security got more organised most of the
illicit booze got closed down.
The market area had also moved by 86 from a long line of
stalls leading up towards the farmhouse to more or less where it is today and
organised in a circular fashion like a wagon train. This was better from a
security point of view because it stopped dodgy geezers from getting to the
back of the stalls and robbing them. It was around this time that I discovered
falafels which became my staple diet at Glasto for a while before I got bored
with them. Even buying a cup of tea could be quite an interesting experience.
One night I asked for a tea at a market stall and the man serving asked if I
wanted a ‘straight’ one or a ‘special’ one. I opted for the special one and it
turned out to have magic mushrooms in it. There was no sleep for me that night either.
Musically for me I don’t remember 86 as an outstanding
year. Simply Red and The Cure were two of the headliners but I don’t recall
watching either of them. Christy Moore was great. I had discovered his music
two years before and this was the first of many occasions I was to see Christy.
Petra Kelly of the German Green Party gave a speech on the Pyramid Stage. She was
famous worldwide at the time because the German Greens were the first Green
party anywhere in the world to have a major impact on politics. Christy must
have listened to her speech because at a later Glastonbury he dedicated a song
to her after she had died at the early age of 44. Another band I enjoyed in 86
was The Robert Cray Band. I hadn’t heard of Robert Cray before, but he was a
fabulous blues guitarist and singer. I also remember a group called Latin
Quarter who are nearly forgotten now but they sang a great song called Radio
Africa. 86 was also the first of many occasions when I saw The Waterboys. Apart
from that I can’t remember much else. I know Lloyd Cole was on and The
Housemartins featuring Norman Cook who would later become a Glasto favourite as
Fat Boy Slim and The Psychedelic Furs and Madness and lots of other bands, but
it is just a blur to me now. I think it was one of those years when you get
home and people in the pub ask you what you saw, and you can’t remember. One
little thing I do remember though on the Sunday night just before Gil Scott
Heron closed the festival Emily Eavis aged 6 sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
I can’t remember how we got home that year but one of our
friends must have given us a lift because I would remember if we had hitched.
It is always like a tent peg through the heart when Glastonbury is over, but we
were back in 87 and that contained one of my all-time favourite great
performances.
