My Glastonbury Festival Memories: Chapter 16, 1999

Chapter 16. 1999, Reasons To Be Tearful.     

After all the rain and mud in 97 & 98 the sunshine returned for 99. It was a fabulous year with lots of great music which I will get to in a bit. It was tinged with sadness though because it was also the year that Jean Eavis passed away. Jean died on May 15^th only a few weeks before the festival gates opened. That was a big shock to Kim and me because when we met her at the festival a year earlier she looked the picture of health. We had no idea that she was ill. Although we only met her twice briefly we thought of her as a friend, especially since 92 when she was kind enough to phone us up and say she had saved us two tickets. That is what Glastonbury is like, even though it is huge it feels like a big family and Jean was the mother of the festival. We knew that Michael would be devastated and wondered how he would cope, especially with the festival being imminent so we decided to send him a sympathy card. Inside I put a copy of the photo that I took of them both the previous year along with a little note. We didn’t expect a reply because we knew Michael would have received dozens if not hundreds of cards. Imagine our surprise when a few weeks later a letter arrived from Michael thanking us for the card and photo. He also included two tickets to the Extravaganza that he had organised later that year at Glastonbury Abbey which was really kind of him. That turned out to be an unforgettable evening which I’ll tell you about later.

It was too late to cancel the festival at such short notice. I think when Jean died their daughter Emily decided to give up her studies at teacher training college in order to help Michael run the festival. As the years have gone by Emily has become a driving force behind the festival just like her mum. When the festival got underway, in memory of Jean I think they burned a wicker bird up near the stone circle and on Sunday morning the London Community Gospel Choir sang, and a two-minute silence was observed across the site. Also, if I remember correctly I think REM dedicated a song in their set to Jean called Sweetness Follows. She will never be forgotten. I think all the nice little touches around the site such as the hanging baskets of flowers are little reminders of the influence of Jean.

There was another reason to be tearful in 99. The wonderful Ian Dury had been booked to appear but sadly Ian was too ill to appear. He died the following March. Ian will never be forgotten either. He was one of the greats.

Unlike the previous two years when we spent half the time sheltering from the rain, the problem in 99 was trying to get some shade from the sun. Me and Kim found a nice Bacardi bar and sat in there for a while guzzling Bacardi drinks with lots of ice which was great. They even had an American Cadillac car parked outside to add to the coolness. Kim was always good at spotting celebs. She spotted Sinead O’Connor one year sat in the back of a beer tent having a quiet drink and in 99 we were in a beer tent and Kim said, “That’s Rick Stein over there”, she recognised him immediately because she watched all the cookery programmes on the telly. I wasn’t so sure so when we were leaving I said to him, “Hello, is your name Rick?”, and he said, “No”, and grinned at his companion. I know it was though because I’ve seen him on the telly lots of times since.

Anyway, to the music. The first band we saw that year on the main stage was an Abba tribute band called Bjorn Again. They were good fun and made me think that if the real Abba ever reformed they would go down a storm at Glastonbury. Later that afternoon we went to see the legend that is Marianne Faithfull. I had heard Marianne interviewed on the radio a few days before and she said, “Glastonbury is going to be great this year”, the interviewer asked her why that was, and Marianne replied, “Because I’m on, of course”. She was already on when we got to the Acoustic Stage and it was so crowded that we could hardly squeeze in the tent, in the end we gave up and sat on the grass outside to listen. It was great to be in her presence though.

Another legendary lady was up next on the main stage and that was Debby Harry with her band Blondie. They had recently returned to the top of the UK charts after a long absence with a song called Maria. A band called Bush were on next, but I can’t remember anything about them. After that was Hole featuring Courtney Love. She almost caused a riot by inviting the audience up on stage. The security did allow about twenty people on stage, but it was very reckless of her doing that, from a health and safety point of view. The Beautiful South were on next, but we went back to base for a bit of a rest.

The last band on that night were REM and me and my brother Paul went down to see them. We managed to wheedle our way right to the very front. REM were fantastic, although I have only ever had one of their albums. Michael Stipe must be one of the greatest front men for any group ever. They did all their really famous songs such as What’s The Frequency Kenneth? The Great Beyond, The One I Love, Losing My Religion, Everybody Hurts, Man On The Moon and many more and ended with It’s The End Of The World As We Know It. I would put that performance by REM in my favourite five Glastonbury shows of all time.

The great music continued Saturday. Billy Bragg was the first person on the main stage and Billy took the opportunity to mock the Manic Street Preachers who were headlining. The reason was that backstage, Billy had spotted a sign on a portaloo which said, ‘This Toilet Is For The Exclusive Use Of The Manic Street Preachers’. This attitude offended Billy’s socialist sensibilities and he ripped the sign down and brought it on stage to read to the crowd. Billy is a Glastonbury legend who has appeared there for over thirty years. There was another legend on the main stage in 99 as well who was the late great Joe Strummer with his band The Mescalero’s. Joe went to Glasto every year whether he was playing or not. He always camped with Keith Allen who brought his kids along who included the now world-famous Lily Allen. I think Lily has been going to Glasto since she was two years old. Joe was renowned for the enormous bonfire that he would build every year. What I remember most about his performance in 99 was that Joe took offence at all the TV cameras. “I hate these cameras”, said Joe, “You can’t go for a dump these days without a camera following you”. Then he proceeded to attack the cameras with his microphone stand. I thought it was hilarious. I never saw The Clash live so I’m glad that I got this chance to see the great Joe Strummer especially as Joe died only three years later. His legend lives on at Glasto with an area now called Strummerville and there is a stone in his memory. Ten years after this performance Bruce Springsteen would pay a tribute to Joe by starting his set with Joe’s song Coma Girl.

Another person who I am pleased I saw on that historic Saturday was Lonnie Donegan who played on the Acoustic Stage. Lonnie was one of the most important figures in the history of British music and an inspiration to everyone, from the Beatles and the Stones to The Who and many more. His career had fallen into almost obscurity until he made the Skiffle Sessions album with Van Morrison and he was enjoying a renaissance in popularity. We saw Lonnie once more that summer at the Fleadh in Finsbury Park when he actually joined Van on stage. Sadly, Lonnie also died in 2002 so I’m glad we got the chance to see him. I kept telling Hannah to come and see him because he sang a great song called My Old Man’s A Dustman. He didn’t sing it though, which was a bit of a shame.

On the same stage that day was another performance that I’ll never forget and that was by Henry McCullough. Henry was the only Irishman on stage at the famous Woodstock festival in 69 when he was in Joe Cocker’s Grease Band. Later he was in Wings with Paul McCartney. Along with Gary Moore and Rory Gallagher Henry was one of the great Irish guitarists. Henry’s guitar solo on My Love by Wings is said to be one of the greatest solo’s ever. I wasn’t all that familiar with his work, but I did know of him because at one time another of the Grease Band was someone who went to my school called Neil Hubbard, another great guitarist. Also, I really liked Henry’s song Failed Christian which had been covered by Nick Lowe. The other thing was that Henry was a friend of my brother Paul and had appeared a few times at my brother’s pub in County Mayo, Ireland. It was a shame that the audience was so small for Henry because he was great. After his set my brother went backstage to see him. They went on a bar crawl all over the site. I think it started with them raiding Lonnie Donegan’s backstage fridge for a drink. Henry was blown away by Glastonbury, he hadn’t seen anything like this since Woodstock. I think finally a lady who worked backstage drove him back to his hotel. Sadly, Henry is no longer with us either, he passed away in 2016 but he was a great man, that’s for sure.

The highlight for me on the Sunday was seeing one of the great soul singers of all time which was Al Green. He was fabulous, what a voice. The only thing that put me off was that he tried to turn his set into a religious Baptist revival meeting and kept asking the audience to put their hands in the air and let Jesus into their lives. I found that a bit cringe-worthy. I don’t mind religion, but I don’t like it being forced on me, thank you very much. The other thing was that Al didn’t seem to know where he was. He kept saying that it was nice to be here in Bristol which was about forty miles away. Apart from that he was great. The Corrs were on after Al. The girls were gorgeous looking. I had one of their albums when they first appeared on the scene, but I think they were a bit over-rated actually. Later that night we saw some of the Fun Lovin’ Criminals and finally Skunk Anansie. I don’t remember a lot about the rest of that evening though, I think I was bollixed.

That brought Glastonbury in the 1990’s to a close. It had been a decade of anarchy and the festival had been lucky to survive. A lot of people look back on Glasto in the 90’s with nostalgia and miss the edginess that it had then. A new millennium was approaching when the festival would eventually solve the problems confronting it and become the annual event we love today. Not immediately though, in 2000 I was to meet the dark side of Glastonbury full on for myself.

My Glastonbury Festival Memories: Chapter 15, 1998

Chapter 15. 1998, A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall.

The weather was great for Glastonbury in the first half of the 90’s but sadly 1998 for the second-year running was a rainy mud bath. We were back in the field next to where the Glade is these days.  We had borrowed a tent from our neighbours Dave and Sarah who lived two doors away from us. It was a nice tent, even big enough to store my books in as well. I pitched the tent right next to one of the metaled walkways because I thought that would be a great spot to sell my books from with thousands of people walking by every day. That decision was to prove to be a terrible mistake. The weather was fine when we arrived but before long it started raining and over the next few days that walkway turned into a muddy stream. Every time a vehicle like a tractor drove by one side of the tent got sprayed with muddy filth. The field was on a slight slope and about 100 yards back from us were some toilets. They were of the long drop variety where they had been constructed over a trench. Water flowed down the hill from even further up and the toilets eventually overflowed. It was all running down the hill towards our tent. They had sludge-gulpers going around which solved that problem and it was still nice and dry inside the tent, but I knew that there was no way we could clean it up and return it. The tent had been destroyed.

Even when it stopped raining it was too muddy in our area to set up my book stall. Up in the Field Of Avalon I discovered a man with a proper, dry indoor bookstall and I had a chat with him and he agreed to buy my entire stock off me. In the end though I couldn’t be bothered to carry them up there and I didn’t sell one sodding book all weekend. I had brought my ghetto-blaster along that year, so we could have some music around the campfire. The problem was that we didn’t have a campfire because the firewood was too damp to burn. We did have a dance in the mud though and one day the Bishop Of Bath And Wells walked by and grinned at us.

1998 was also a World Cup year. On the Friday night they showed the game between England and Colombia on the big screens at the main stage. England needed a draw to qualify for the next round. In the beer tent the water was coming up to the top of our wellies. I sat there at a table and surveyed the market area outside. The rain was chucking it down and the market more or less empty. I didn’t feel sorry for the food outlets because people still need food whatever the weather. It was people selling clothes and other merchandise who had my sympathy because their stock was getting splattered and muddy. They must have lost a fortune. Eventually the rain eased enough for us to leave the shelter of the beer tent and go and watch the footie. The Lightning Seeds were on first because they had recorded a football song called Three Lions which reached number one in the charts in 98.  It all ended well because England won the game 2-0 with goals by Beckham and Anderton which cheered everyone up.

There was one other thing I particularly remember about that Friday. When the music started on the main stage Kim and I thought we better go and watch some of the acts because it was a music festival after all. We were watching a band called Gomez who I had never heard of before, but they sounded pretty good. Then who should I spot standing in the crowd listening to the music but festival organiser Michael Eavis and his wife Jean. Lots of people were talking to them and taking photos.

“Come on Kim, let’s go and say hello”.

“No, leave them alone”, said Kim.

I insisted though because this was a photo opportunity. I asked Michael and Jean if I could take a photo and they were happy to oblige. Michael didn’t have a clue who we were although I had met him several times before, he must meet thousands of people every year. Incredibly though, Jean remembered us from our brief meeting at the farmhouse six years before and asked how we were and had a little chat with Kim. This put my nose out a bit because I liked to think I was the big ‘I am’ and she talked more to Kim than me. Anyway, what a nice lady she was, very friendly indeed. Taking that photo was to prove fateful for us a year later but I’ll tell you about that when I get to it.

I can’t remember who else we saw on the Friday apart from Eric Bibb who played on the Acoustic Stage. He is a brilliant American guitarist and blues singer who I have seen quite a few times since at various festivals. They had a new stage that year at the top of our field called The New Bands Stage. I never bothered going in it, but I did notice that Sean Lennon the son of John Lennon was on that stage and apparently Yoko Ono accompanied him to the festival. On the Saturday Blur and Robbie Williams were on the main stage. I didn’t bother with Williams because I can’t stand him, but we watched a bit of Blur. I think that whole Saturday must have been a bit of a blur to me because I can’t remember anything else about it.

The weather cheered up on Sunday and it was memorable for two acts. Tony Bennett and Bob Dylan. Kim loved the veteran crooner Tony Bennett and he seemed to relish playing at Glastonbury. I bet he had never had an audience like this in his life. If I remember correctly he had a white suit on and somehow managed to not get any mud on it at all. Bob Dylan on the other hand I found a bit disappointing. He refused to allow the big screens to be on which made it difficult to see him from the vast crowd. Compared to the previous time I had seen him outdoors at Blackbushe twenty years earlier when he was at the peak of his powers it was quite a sad performance. Bob said that playing at Glastonbury was a dream come true, but it seemed to me that he was just going through the motions and it was just another gig on the never-ending tour. Bob is one of the greatest poets who ever lived who absolutely deserves his Nobel Prize for literature and I still listen to his albums a lot, but I haven’t seen him live since that Glastonbury performance. A friend of ours called Pru who did stone-carving up in the Greenfields Crafts area was also in a folk band called Murphy’s Mongrels who played in the Wise Crone Café stage on the Sunday. They played for three free tickets to the festival.

“I bet you never thought you would be on the same bill as Bob Dylan”, I said to Pru.

The only other band I can remember seeing on Sunday in 98 was Catatonia on the Other Stage who had Cerys Matthews as the singer and were very famous at the time. I didn’t have a lot of interest in them though. That brought Glastonbury 1998 to an end. It was quite disappointing weather-wise and musically, but it was certainly unforgettable. When we got home on Monday evening. I put on the telly to see what it said about the festival on the local news and on the BBC report they had filmed our splattered tent to show how muddy it had been. Next day we went to Argos and bought a new tent and then went around to Dave and Sarah’s and explained what had happened. They were fine about it, probably because they are Glasto veterans as well. The whole experience certainly hadn’t put us off going and we were back in 1999 which was to be another epic year.

My Glastonbury Festival Memories: Chapter 14, 1997

Chapter 14. 1997, Twisted Firestarter.

When the festival returned in 1997 it was now eighteen years since my first Glasto in 1979 and in all that time the Conservatives had ruled Britain. The dark age was finally over. In May the Labour Party won the election by a landslide and it was time to party. Sadly, the weather that year was bad. There was a lot of rain even before the gates opened, and the festival site became a mud bath. It was raining when we arrived, and it is quite a miserable experience putting up a tent in the rain. Not to worry, as soon as I managed to get the tent sorted out Kim dived in it and poured some wine. The NME stage by now had become known as the ‘Other’ stage and I think that was the muddiest area. It looked like a lake in front of the stage and some performances on that stage were cancelled because the stage was sinking into the mud.

1997 was the first year that Glasto was broadcast on the BBC which would have a big influence in years to come on the type of audience it attracted. Also, a good performance could propel an act to being world famous overnight because of the huge TV audience. On the other hand, sadly a lot of acts have used Glastonbury to boost their flagging careers. I think that the weather might have put off a few of the ticketless gate-crashers that year but not many and it certainly didn’t put off the tent thieves. Robbery from tents was even worse than ever. There were two girls camped near us who we befriended. We called them the ‘Posh birds’ because of their accents and they wore Barbour jackets and caps and looked like they were at the Badminton Horse Trials rather than Glasto. They were very friendly though. They even had a lock on their tent but that didn’t stop the thieves cutting into the tent with a knife and robbing them.

My friends Jacky & Bill’s daughter Sarah went that year with her boyfriend Craig. He had come specifically to see The Prodigy who were the most popular band in Britain at the time. It was blowing a gale on the Friday night when they were on. They were introduced by a comedian called Dennis Pennis who was a bit of an idiot. When they did their big hit Firestarter I said to Craig, “I like that song, but what’s it all about, what is the message?”. “Well, it’s all about starting fires”, replied Craig.

Despite the weather there were some great bands on in 97. I really enjoyed The Smashing Pumpkins on the Friday night although I didn’t know anything about them previously. Beck was on as well. I really liked him and had his album Odelay. In the beer tents on all the pint containers they had printed, I’m a boozer baby, so why don’t you fill me’ as a tribute to Beck’s song Loser. Echo And The Bunnymen were also on Friday. They are a great band, but it always seemed to rain when they were on at Glastonbury. On the Saturday me and Kim met up with a work friend of hers and we watched Nanci Griffiths from a distance…. (From A Distance was one of her big hits) and then Ray Davies from The Kinks. He is an arrogant git but brilliant musically. I made a big mistake in the evening because we were part of a tiny audience in the Acoustic Stage watching Nick Lowe. I was right at the front and kept shouting out requests for The Beast In Me which must have pissed him off because he never sang it. We had a bit of a dance though to I Knew The Bride, When She Used To Rock And Roll. The mistake I made was that although Nick was great, on the main stage Radiohead were playing on of the legendary sets of all time and I missed it. This was the performance that took them from being well known to being one of the top bands in the world.

The sun finally came out on Sunday afternoon which created a great relaxed atmosphere and there was some fabulous music. Kula Shakur had replaced Neil Young who couldn’t play because he had broken a finger which was a shame. They were great and even played a Neil Young song, but I can’t remember which one it was. Sheryl Crowe was on as well, she was good and Van ‘The Man’ Morrison had returned. I have written about his performance in my previous book, so I won’t go into it all again but just add that he was on great form and in a good mood. Van changed the words of one song to Whenever Sir Cliff Shines His Light On Me and in his song Summertime In England he referenced the surrounding towns such as Shepton Mallet. At the end of his set Van walked around the stage holding the microphone stand above his head before slamming it down on the stage and walking off in triumph. What a great performance. Steve Winwood was supposed to be on last, but he didn’t turn up and was replaced by Ash. Me and Kim didn’t watch them though, we went and saw the Bootleg Beatles who were great, and I bet if you took enough drugs you would swear they were the real thing.

The car-parks at Glastonbury are all on grass which is ok normally but if it rains all weekend then it can be a disaster. On Monday afternoon when me and Kim were leaving the whole site resembled the Battle Of Verdun in World War 1. I thought we would never get out of there. Luckily for us though most cars had already gone, and they had left a little green square where they had been parked. Kim drove, and I carefully guided her from green patch to green patch until we reached the roadway. Once on the road we were home two hours later and Glasto was over for another year.

My Glastonbury Festival Memories: Chapter 13, 1995

Chapter 13. 1995, Never Mind The Bollocks.

I will always remember 1995 as the year that I put the bollocks into Glastonbury. I never claimed responsibility originally, but other people have insisted that it was me that started it. Here is how it came about. It was another scorching hot year and this year we were all camped opposite the main stage just in from Muddy Lane, (It wasn’t always muddy, that’s just the name that lane became known as over the years) It was Friday night about 3.00 in the morning and I was sitting on my little chair by the campfire. I remember it vividly because we had all been having a sing-song of Beach Boys songs. Anyway, somebody was walking home up Muddy Lane and they spotted us through a gap in the hedge.

“Alright”, shouted this bloke, “Having a good one?”. I immediately thought of a witty reply.

“Bollocks”, I shouted back.

“Oh, well bollocks to you”

“No, you bollocks”

Then somebody else nearby joined in.

“Hey, you lot”

“What?”

“Bollocks!”

“Bollocks to you as well mate”

Then it spread.

“Oi, I’m trying to get to sleep”

“You can bollocks as well then”

“Don’t you bollocks me!”

“Oh bollocks”

More and more people joined in and before long everyone was shouting bollocks at each other. I went to bed just before dawn but when I woke up later that morning all you could hear in the whole field was people shouting bollocks at each other and anyone else who had the misfortune to walk by. Chanting started as well with people shouting out the names of the politicians and celebs of the day.

“John Major”, “Bollocks”

“Bill Clinton”, “Bollocks”

“O.J.Simpson”, “Bollocks”

It gradually spread from our field to all the others till the whole festival site was shouting “Bollocks!” at each other. In front of the main stage it was all going on. Finally on Saturday night Robert Plant & Jimmy Page came on stage and apparently Robert Plant shouted, “Hello Glastonbury”, and 100,000 people shouted back, ”BOLLOCKS !!” I don’t know if that’s true though because I was somewhere else when they were on.

Another thing I remember about that day was that when I emerged from my tent was that my little fold-up chair had disappeared.

“Bollocks”, I said to Kim. “Some thieving scally has nicked my chair”

Later that day we were in a beer tent and I noticed a chair in there. “That’s my chair”, I thought to myself, so when were leaving I picked it up and took it back to our campsite.

“Somebody stole my chair”, I said to my sister Margaret, “but I saw it in the Beer Tent and nicked it back again”.

“That’s not yours”, said Margaret. “I saw you had left yours outside, so I stored it safely in our tent”. So now I had two chairs. They were breeding!

I did well on my bookstall in 95 but I made one bad mistake. One day I sat on my stall for about six hours in the blazing sun and all I had on was a pair of shorts and no sun block. Next morning when I woke up my legs were burned red raw and had swollen up. I could hardly walk. I had to go to the medical centre and the nurse put on loads of calamine lotion. It was painful I can tell you. Another thing about Glasto 1995 was that the gate-crashing had reached epidemic proportions. Glastonbury in the 90’s was crazy and 95 was possibly the craziest year of all. The official attendance figure was 80,000 but anyone who was there knows that it was at least twice that. Up in Kings Meadow at the top of the site a whole section of the fence was dismantled from inside and thousands of people just poured in through the gap.

Musically it was just as crazy. For some strange reason they decided to put Portishead on in the Acoustic Stage. They were huge at the time, one of the most popular bands in Britain. Their album Dummy had won the Mercury Prize and about 15,000 people tried to get into the Acoustic tent. How a disaster didn’t occur I don’t know. I can’t remember a lot about the music that year. I watched a bit of Jeff Buckley, but I left because I thought he was boring. I regretted that later when I discovered his album Grace and thought it was fabulous and I never got the chance to make amends because Jeff died less than two years after his Glastonbury appearance. Another band that I missed which I wish I had seen was Pulp who had replaced the Stone Roses at short notice. My niece Katherine came back to the campfire raving about how great they had been. I expect I was watching some folk band in the acoustic at the time. I enjoyed the Saw Doctors who are a great fun band to see live and I had some of their albums. I remember me and Kim watching Gilbert O’Sullivan in the acoustic. That shows what an old git I had become even in those days. 1995 was the year that they introduced the Dance Tent with the likes of Massive Attack and Carl Cox which was a huge success although I never went to it. I think that might have been one of the reasons for all the gate-crashers because this was the era of the illegal raves and acid-house parties which were sweeping the country and Glasto was the biggest rave of all.

Michael Eavis had stomach cancer in 1995 so there was no festival in 96 while he recovered. I think the festival needed to take a break anyway in order to take stock of the situation. Kim and I had to move to a new house a few days after Glasto 95 and I was still in pain from the sunburn but never mind, it had been worth it and 97 turned out to be another unforgettable year.

My Glastonbury Festival Memories: Chapter 12, 1994

Chapter 12. 1994, Sunday Morning, Coming Down.

I’m proud to say that 1994 was the only time I ever climbed over the fence to get into the festival. Every other year I bought a ticket or worked there. We had failed to get tickets, so Kim agreed that I could go with Dave and Paul. It was already evening time when they arrived at ours. Before we set off we watched Ireland play Mexico in the World Cup. Mexico won 2-1 but John Aldridge scored a vital goal which got Ireland through to the next round. Anyway, that is by the by. It was already dark by the time we got to Pilton. Dave just drove straight past the car-park attendants so that was the first problem solved. Then we sneaked along the perimeter, undercover of the night until we found a nice quiet spot to begin the assault of the fence. We gave each other a leg up to the top of the fence and then sat on the top and grabbed the last person who took a run at the fence. Then a quick dash across no man’s land to the new inner fence. This was a bit lower but quite awkward as it was wire and harder to clamber up. In my panic to get over it before being spotted by the security I managed to stab myself in the palm of the hand on a loose bit of wire. We dashed for the safety of the crowds inside, tripping over tent pegs and guy ropes as we ran. Once we knew that we were safely inside we stopped, and I looked at my hand. It was bleeding profusely with a triangle of loose skin flapping about on my hand. I knew I had to get it bandaged so I went to one of the Medical Centres.

“You climbed over the fence, didn’t you”, said the nurse.

“How do you know that?”, I replied.

“Because that is the eighth injured hand I have seen today”, she answered, with a knowing smile.

Before I get to the good stuff, apart from stabbing myself, there was one other bad incident that I remember that year and that was the shooting incident in the market area. Apparently, it was caused by an argument between two drug dealers. One of them pulled out a gun and started spraying bullets around ( It might have only been an air pistol) and several innocent bystanders got hit in the crossfire. I think about five people ended up in hospital but luckily nobody got killed or seriously injured. I want to make it quite clear that this was an isolated incident that had never happened before or in the years since. Glastonbury Festival is one of the most peaceful places in Britain. There has always been a great feeling of tolerance and good behaviour at Glasto. There is quite a lot of drunkenness to be seen but it is all good natured and I have never personally witnessed any violence. Anyway, me and my niece Lee went to have a look at the scene of the shooting and the police had roped off the area where the gun play had occurred and inside the ropes there were two blokes pretending to have a boxing match which was quite funny.

There was no Pyramid Stage in 94 because it had mysteriously burnt down just a couple of weeks before the festival. Luckily, they managed to find another stage in time for the festival, but it didn’t seem the same without the pyramid which didn’t reappear for another six years. In 94 as well they tried to go all eco-friendly and had a huge wind-turbine by the stage to generate the power. I don’t think it was a big success though because it wasn’t seen again in subsequent years.

Musically my outstanding memory of 94 was the performance by the man in black, namely Johnny Cash. He appeared on the Sunday afternoon and was accompanied to the site by the Bishop of Bath & Wells, the reverend Jim Thompson who had shown Johnny all the sacred places such as Wells Cathedral and Glastonbury Abbey. I spotted Jim standing at the side of the stage with DJ Andy Kershaw. Johnny Cash was absolutely blown away by the warm reception he got from the huge crowd. It must have been the largest audience that he had ever played to in his long career. This was the first year that Glastonbury was televised so I have enjoyed watching Johnny Cash’s performance many times since. I think my favourite song was Sunday Morning Coming Down. Also, The Beast In Me which was written by another Glastonbury legend called Nick Lowe. I enjoyed every song of his brilliant set. The audience loved it as well, especially when he shouted out, “My name is Sue”, and 100,000 people replied, “How do you do”. Also during a song called Let The Train Blow The Whistle the crowd joined in by spontaneously making train noises at the end of every verse. He was also joined by his wife June Carter for a couple of songs. It was sad when they both died less than ten years later. Bishop Jim sadly died the same week as Johnny Cash in 2003. For me personally that performance is in my top five Glastonbury appearances of all time.

Other acts who I remember from that year included Peter Gabriel who brought the festival to a close on the Sunday and Irish singer Mary Black and her band. She couldn’t believe the reception she got either. I think it must have been the greatest gig of her career. I also really liked Bjork who was on the NME stage on the Saturday. I wish I had seen Iris Dement on the Acoustic Stage though. I had never heard of her in those days but I’m a huge fan now.

When we got back to Westbury we went straight in the pub and after one pint discovered we were broke after blowing all our money at Glasto. Dave just had 20 pence on him. “Give me that 20p Dave and I’ll get us £10”. I walked over the Quiz machine and put in the 20 pence and a minute later we had £10 for more pints. Dave couldn’t believe it. Anyway, that was the end of Glastonbury 1994. The following year was to be even more eventful!

My Glastonbury Festival Memories: Chapter 11, 1993

Chapter 11. 1993. All Tomorrow’s Party’s.

If anyone tells you that it is always rainy and muddy at Glastonbury don’t believe them because after 1990 it didn’t rain again until 1997. In 1993 we were all back again in the same area of the site and it was another scorching hot year. Near us in 93 there was a burger van, it was designed to look like a great big burger. A man served burgers from it for about six days. By Sunday night he looked completely frazzled. I think anybody would after spending nearly a week inside a burger!

Lou Reed was back again for the second year running but this time as part of a reformed Velvet Underground. We were really looking forward to seeing one of the most influential bands of all time. Sadly though, they didn’t live up to expectations. To me they sounded tinny and dated. Thousands of people had gone along to see them after reading about how important they were, but after a few songs people started leaving to go to other stages. It must have been very disappointing for the band seeing the audience start to leave. The other thing for me was that there was no Nico because she was a major part of what made them great but unfortunately Nico had died five years earlier. At Glasto John Cale did all of Nico’s vocals but it wasn’t the same. The setlist included Sweet Jane, All Tomorrow's Parties, Venus in Furs, Beginning to See the Light, Heroin, White Light/White Heat, Rock & Roll, I'm Waiting for the Man and several others that I can’t remember now. The Velvets broke up again shortly after that tour of 93 and Sterling Morrison died in 95.

I went to the Theatre Tent with Dominic to see Attilla The Stockbroker with John Otway. I had Otway’s autobiography on my bookstall and I thought if I got Otway to sign it I would get more money for it, but I didn’t get the opportunity. They were hilarious though. The highlight for me was Otway singing ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ and Attilla translating it into German. At the end Attilla said that he had heard that Otway had voted Conservative in the election, so he gave him several headbutts by bashing his head into the microphone. Another act that I really enjoyed was Christy Moore who was on the Pyramid Stage before Lenny Kravitz and The Kinks. Christy’s first song was ‘Welcome To The Cabaret’ and Christy said in his self-deprecating manner. “Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen for coming along to hear The Kinks and Lenny Kravitz and Christy Moore, I’ve never heard of him before!”.

The stone circle had been put in place in Kings Meadow in 92 which became a very popular area for watching the sunrise from. We used to spend a lot of time up at that end of the site which was much more peaceful than down in the Babylon of the main arena. There was a nice wine place in the Field of Avalon. I think it was called Avalon Organic Wine which was cheaper than from the other wine outlets which charged £8 for a plastic half size bottle. The other place we really liked was the Acoustic Stage which was nice and shady from the hot sun. I enjoyed lots of bands in there but often I didn’t have a clue who they were. Sharon Shannon was playing in there though on her accordion. I was so impressed I bought one of her albums called Blackbird.

There was a band on in 93 who we knew from Wiltshire called Citizen Fish. The singer was Dick who was also in the Sub-Humans. I think they played on the Avalon Stage. I never saw them, but we met Dick wandering around in the crowd one evening and had a bit of a chat. There were lots of great acts that year such as Robert Plant, The Verve, The Orb, Midnight Oil, Stereo MC’S, Teenage Fanclub and many more but my memory of it all is very hazy. Van Morrison did his usual Sunday afternoon slot and one thing I particularly remember about that was Kate St John doing the G-L-O-R-I-A elocution lessons during Gloria. I think Van finished his usual brilliant set with All In The Game, In The Garden and Daring Night. I always used the feeling that musically the festival was over for me after seeing Van. Nothing could top Van The Man.

People had continued to pour over the fence in 93. If the official figure was 100,000 people, you can be sure the actual attendance was at least 150.000. It was hard for people to find room to put a tent up. It was so crowded, tents were being put up right near the smelly toilets. In order to get a licence for 94 Michael promised to build a double fence. This was to prove both dramatic and painful for me personally. We were back again in 94 and that year had another of my most memorable performances ever.

My Glastonbury Festival Memories: Chapter 10, 1992

Chapter 10. 1992, Satellite Of Love.

Plans for a festival in 91 were cancelled. Michael Eavis had a lot to put up with. The local Conservative MP Mr Heathcoat-Amory did his best to get the festival closed down. Also, there was this woman called Mrs Anne Goode who had moved to Pilton. She was a Christian and claimed there were satanic rituals going on and other nonsense. She even had a 30-foot-high cross erected on her land over-looking the festival. I have heard, although I don’t know if it is true that these days her daughter rents out their land for luxury camping. How times have changed.  By the time Glastonbury returned in 92 it was getting extremely difficult to get tickets. They had sold like hot cakes. I have already written about our visit to Worthy Farm to collect our tickets from Jean Eavis in my book Vanatic so I won’t recount the whole story again, except to say that the meeting with Jean was to be prove fateful for us six years later. By 1992 Kim and I were living together in our flat in Maristow Street so there was no way I could find an excuse to go on my own as I had selfishly done in previous years. Also, me going with Sara two years earlier had taken a lot of explaining away. The other advantage for me of going with Kim was that her little Fiat Panda had just enough room to squeeze my books in for my bookstall.

Car parking was now well established outside the perimeter. As soon as we arrived in the car park we were hassled by Hare Krishna’s who wanted contributions for their free food tent. The gates were much better organised by now with proper turnstiles and much friendlier people to greet you on arrival. There was still a lot of wheeling and dealing going on outside though with dodgy geezers selling tickets or getting people in, under, over or through the fence by various means. Once inside we soon spotted Margaret’s bunting surrounding our camping area. The happy Glebeland years were over for us now because that area was no longer a campsite. In 92 we were just the other side of the hedge from where The Glade dance area is now, although The Glade didn’t exist till 2000. We were in a nice spot just off the main drag which was handy for my books and the weather was great in 92. The Hare Krishna tent was just down from us and the queue for their free grub got longer every day as people’s money ran out. We never ate their food though. Me and Kim used to like going to the Wise Crone Café in the Field of Avalon which used to have music on in there as well as nice food. Kim really liked the Tiny Tea Tent as well which is still going to this very day.  Across the walkway from us were some Australian girls who were selling hats which they had made themselves. Some of the hats were really tall and others were like jester’s hats. They did a roaring trade and those types of hat became very popular for the next few years. You needed a hat that year because it was so hot. I bought one to keep the sun off my head, not from the Aussies but from another stall. It was a nice hippy type hat. The sort of thing a Mongolian goatherd or someone like that might wear. I only had it about two days though. Passing a water tap I thought I’d stick my head under the water to cool off and I put my hat down for just a minute. When I turned around my hat had disappeared. The scallies (thieves) were starting to be everywhere.

I had my books all displayed nicely and priced up. Kim was amazed at how well they sold. Then my friend Dave decided to get in on the act. He had brought along two bin-bags of books of much inferior quality to mine. Things like Haynes Car Manuals which he proceeded to tip out all over my stall and started shouting, “Any book, 50 pence!”. I had to nip that in the bud pronto and made him flog his wares a few yards away. We had a lot of fun on the bookstall though and on the Sunday evening gave the last few away to passers-by to save the hassle of lugging them home again.

There was no traveller's field in 92. After the battle of 1990 Michael Eavis stood his ground and refused to let them in. It was a shame in a way because a lot of them were just peaceful hippies but unfortunately an unruly element had attached themselves to the New Age Travellers. Another much more sinister lot had started arriving at Glastonbury and that was the scally who had come to rob from tents. Some of the bands who were on such as Carter USM and The Levellers said it was a shame that the travellers were no longer welcome. Anyway, to the music I saw in 92. One act that really stands out in my memory was the late, great Lou Reed. Me, Dave, Nelly, Fred & Kim went for a huge walk all over the site and when we reached the Pyramid Stage Lou was on. He performed a great set including Sweet Jane, Walk On The Wild Side, Rock & Roll and finally Vicious. We knew he would be back for an encore and me and Dave had a little wager on what song he would sing. I won with Satellite Of Love and Dave actually paid up!

By Sunday afternoon there is always a chilled-out atmosphere at Glasto which is just perfect for Van Morrison. Kim and I got right to the front for Van. It was so hot that the security on the other side of the barrier were spraying the crowd with water to cool them down and handing out cups of water. A lot of these got thrown up in the air which was quite amusing. Tom Jones was on after Van, but we didn’t bother watching Tom. Glastonbury didn’t used to be all that popular with youngsters who thought it was a boring old hippy fest. In 1992 though they introduced the NME Stage which had acts like Primal Scream, The Orb, Spiritualised, Blur and The Shamen. Gradually Glastonbury became cool to go to, especially later when the Dance Tent was introduced. The only act I can remember seeing on the NME stage in 92 was Jah Wobble’s Invaders Of The Heart featuring Sinead O’Connor who were great. The day after we got home me and Kim went down to the coast to chill out for a couple of days and camped at Durdle Door. When we walked over the hill we discovered Lulworth Cove was packed with Glastonbury people who all had the same idea. We even met someone who we knew from Glasto. He was making little pottery Buddhas, so we bought one off him that I still have to this very day.