Oisin Leech, One Hill Further, Acoustic Stage, Glastonbury 2025

My Glastonbury Adventure 2025: Part 4, 'A Chance Encounter'.

Alanis by Anna Barclay.

Friday and Saturday proved to be the worst of days and the best of days for me at Glasto 25. I’ll get Friday out of the way first. It began pleasantly enough. After breakfast our gang gathered around the radio at about 10.30 to listen to Heidi’s triumph ‘live’ from Glastonbury on BBC Radio 2 which was great fun. I called her Radioheid from then on. One of our two Donna’s is a huge Radiohead fan and had their t-shirt on, so I took a photo of them called Radioheid & Radiohead. However, I started to feel quite ill shortly after that. I think it was the heat causing it. It had been nice and warm all week, but by Friday the temperature had reached heatwave proportions. It was almost 30 degrees C, and we Celtic types don’t like it that hot. Even worse, our second shift was from mid-day to 6 O’clock, the hottest time of the day. The music had just started on the Pyramid Stage when we arrived for work. From the backstage area we could hear Supergrass followed by CMAT (who I would have loved to see), Burning Spear, and Lewis Capaldi. The work was fine; I had no problems with that. It was the heat that was doing me in. There was a water point and every time I walked past it, I took my hat off, turned on the tap full blast and stuck my head under it. 

Radioheid & Radiohead.

It was a real relief when me and Odele had a tea break in the shade outside the workers canteen. That seemed to revive me and got me through the shift. I must have walked past dozens of well-known people in the hospitality area, but I’m so out of touch these days I didn’t recognise anyone. I did see one man run up to somebody, shake his hand, and ask for a selfie with him. “Who was that?”, I asked the man when he had walked off. “That’s Tom Ogden from The Blossoms”, he replied excitedly. That meant nothing to me because I had never heard of him. I felt a lot better when the shift ended, and I knew tomorrow would be easier because we were on morning shift before the heat kicked in. Alanis Morissette was just beginning her set when we left backstage. I can’t say she was on my list of must-see acts, but I stopped to listen and quite enjoyed it, and found I recognised some of the songs, especially Ironic because I bought her Jagged Little Pill album a long time ago, although I haven’t played it in years.

After Alanis I headed home because I was starving. Dinner was excellent, Turkish Aubergine with chips, curry sauce, delicious salad, and a nice dessert. Then I enjoyed two cold ciders from Tom’s Bar. My original plan for the evening was to go and see Dhani Harrison, The Searchers last ever gig, and Ani DiFranco because I have an album by her called Red Letter Year that I like. All those plans went out of the window though because I was just too tired to walk down there. I listened to a bit of Biffy Clyro from the back of the field. I didn’t know anything about them, but they did sing a little bit of God Only Knows as a tribute to Brian. A band called The 1975 ended the night, but I was already in my Sleeping bag by the time they came on.

Me & Zoe (Blurred)

I had asked Kellie to give me a shout in the morning, but I was already up and about at 4.30. Compared to Friday I felt great in the cool of the morning and was raring to go and ‘kick some ass’ as they say in America. Take away breakfasts were available at that time of the morning, but I couldn’t be bothered to queue up for a baguette with a vegetarian sausage and an egg in it. The work was a pleasure on Saturday morning. Me and Odele kept busy tidying up the walkway to the Other Stage, then cleared up some of the BBC area. BBC people are very friendly and polite by the way. Then we were asked to tidy up this area that I think is called Moonglow. It is where the A listers stay in futurist looking caravan type things that I think are called Airstreams. I was busy clearing a table outside one of these things when a friendly familiar looking lady emerged from inside and thanked me for what I was doing. We started talking and she apologised for sounding hoarse and said she had lost her voice and had a show to do that day. The penny dropped, and I realised she was a famous BBC radio presenter. She asked my name, and then said, “What’s your friends name?”, looking at Odele a few yards away. “It’s Odele”, I replied, “Odele, come and meet Jo Wiley”. “That’s not Jo Wiley, it’s Zoe Ball”, Odele replied.

“Oh no, sorry I got your name wrong Zoe”, I spluttered.

“Don’t worry, it happens all the time, people are always getting us mixed up”, she said, laughing.

Zoe & Odele (Much better)

Anyway, Odele took a photo of me and Zoe which came out blurry sadly, and I took a photo of them both which is a lot better. Then Kate appeared who had met Zoe the previous year, and Zoe remembered her, so that was another photo opportunity. Finally, Zoe wandered off with this man who smiled at us. When they had gone, I realised he was none other than Zoe’s ex-husband and still best friend Norman Cook better known as the world-famous DJ Fat Boy Slim. What nice people they are. The Kaiser Chiefs were on stage when our work finished at mid-day, but I headed straight for the Acoustic Stage. We didn’t have any more work for 34 hours and I was determined to make the most of it. What a fantastic day of music it would turn out to be.

To Be Continued………………………………….

My Glastonbury Adventure 2025: Part 3, 'Make Tea, Not War'.

Odele & Me backstage.

It was Wednesday morning at Glastonbury, the sun was shining, the gates were open, thousands of excited music fans were pouring onto Worthy Farm, and I felt better than James Brown!. I decided it was high time I took a long walk to one of my favourite places which has been in the same spot at Glasto since 1992. It is The Tiny Tea Tent. The people who run it are wonderful and some of them remember me from previous years. It is a great place to sit, have a cup of tea and just watch the world walk by. In past times I used to sit here and write a few postcards but couldn’t be bothered with that this year. 

If you sit outside the Tiny Tea Tent for long enough everyone you know at Glasto will walk by eventually. I got talking to these two Irish guys who were working at the Theatre & Circus Field. It was their first Glastonbury, so they were blown away by it. Then Bob from Nottingham strolled up, other people came and went, and three pleasant hours were wiled away until I decided to move on. Although the main stages didn’t open until Friday there was plenty to see, such as this Australian lady held aloft on a surfboard by four lifesavers while operating about six hula hoops. I bumped into Kate, Kellie, Heidi and Donna and we ended up in a crew bar where the New York Brass Band entertained us for a while (They aren’t really from New York!).

That evening, I met up with Peter, Helen, and their gang by the Ash tree at the back of the Pyramid field for the opening ceremony. Last year they had hundreds of drones flying about. This year they had a 1,000-voice choir of which Odele was one, acrobats, high wire performers and other acts. There were probably 50,000 people in the field, it might have been spectacular on the television, but it all fell a bit flat for me, the choir were un-miked so we couldn’t hear them from the back and couldn’t see much on the big screen. I went back to Tom’s before the end to avoid the rush. 

Opening Ceremony.

Back in Tom’s bar it was great to see Greta’s sister Berna who had just arrived from Dublin. Her journey here had been eventful and hilarious. She had taken a Uber taxi from Bristol airport, but it had dropped her at Gate A instead of miles away at Gate B where she had to pick up her wristbands before the cabin closed at midnight. She ended up getting a lift in the cab of one of those sludge gulping tanker lorries which empty the long drops. She made it in time, so all’s well that ends well.

Heidi Wins!

Thursday was to be a very eventful day for us. Firstly, I’ll tell you about Heidi being on Britain’s most popular radio show. The Vernon Kay show has an average of 6.73 million listeners every weekday morning. It includes a quiz called Ten To The Top in which two people compete against each other, and the one who gets the most answers right wins a smart speaker. They wanted two people who were both at Glastonbury to take part. Heidi applied and was chosen to compete live from our little encampment in Tom’s Field. She was competing against a lady who was camped in the northeast corner somewhere. Although it was Thursday, Heidi had to pretend it was Friday when the BBC Glastonbury coverage began. Heidi was nervous, but she scored 8 points, her opponent only got 2 answers right, so Heidi won! Brilliant. We had to wait until next day to hear Heidi broadcast on the radio.

As with last year I took a walk to the Peace Garden in Kings Meadow for the Peace Ceremony. Although it is nice to get away from the likes of that orange thing in Washington for a few days, everyone is still aware of the horrors going on in Gaza and elsewhere. Nothing has improved since last year. It was nice to see an Israeli and a Palestinian peace activist together on stage appealing for peace. There was also an opera singer from Ukraine who had joined the army, was seriously injured and was now working for peace. He sang Nessun Dorma. I listened from a bench under the shade of a tree and had a chat with a nice London Jewish lady called Debs who was running one of the bars at Glasto. We didn’t really agree about Gaza, but could discuss it without hating each other, which is always a good thing.

Hodmaddodery

After that interlude, I thought I’d go back to the tea tent for a sit down, but I had trouble getting there because it is opposite the Greenpeace Field where they have a death-defying huge slide. There was a girl on the top who had lost her nerve and couldn’t decide to slide or not. Everyone on the walkway stopped to watch, cheer, and encourage her to go. This created a people jam on the road, until finally to a huge cheer she slid, and the crowd dispersed, so I could get my cup of tea and a flapjack. The last few years it has been a tradition with me to go and see an old friend Tony Carter and his mate Steve who are a folk duo called Hodmaddodery and always play on Thursday at 2.00 on the bandstand in the Market Area. I was a bit late this year but caught the last three numbers which were The Well Below The Valley, a song about Down End in Bristol, and a Led Zeppelin song The Battle Of Evermore. They are great, go and see them if you live near Bristol. I went back to base then for a rest because my first work shift was at 6.00. It was really nice to see my fellow Van Morrison fan friend Emer from Dublin who has also been on the recycling team for the past two years.

3 Bin Rats, Kate, Kellie, Me.

Our team all met at 5.30 at our camp and walked down to the Pyramid Stage backstage gate together. Kellie christened our team The Bin Rats. We were Kate (Our Leader), Me, Odele, Kellie, Donna, Russell, Julie, Heidi, Donna & Leon, and a nice couple from Liverpool called Spike and Sharon. The shift was only four hours until 10.00 and the time passed very quickly. There were various jobs to do and Odele and me had the task mainly of making sure the bins in the hospitality area didn’t overflow and change the bin liner bags when they were getting full. Also litter pick anything on the ground. After work ended, I was too tired to do anything else, so just had my first alcoholic drink of the day back at base. I was in bed by midnight. Tomorrow, six days after we arrived at Worthy Farm, the music at Glastonbury 2025 would finally begin!.

Photo by Andrew Allcock.

To Be Continued…………………………….

My Glastonbury Adventure 2025: Part 2, 'A Dramatic Incident'.

Michael & Emily Eavis.

I emerged from my tent all bleary eyed on Monday morning at about 6.30, quickly pulled on my boots and made a dash to the loo. It is a myth about how bad Glastonbury’s famous long drop toilets are. These days they are kept adequately clean by teams of volunteers from Water Aid who I call the Poo Fighters. So, total respect to them. After a quick wash I made my way to the workers marquee for breakfast. We didn’t have meal tickets this year. We were given a bar code when we collected our t-shirts and gloves. The bar-code had to be scanned every mealtime. I must say that the catering was a vast improvement on last year and the food was delicious. I’m not famous for my cooking and I ate better at Glasto than I do at home, so congratulations to the hard-working catering staff. This year I was determined to cut down on any unnecessary walking because the previous year I had walked about 15 miles a day all over the 900-acre vast site. My aching feet were so blistered and sore I could hardly walk by Sunday night. Therefore, I never left Tom’s Field until the early evening, just sat around chilling and chatting with old friends until Kellie announced it was Beer O’clock and I cracked open a can of cider. 

Kellie.

After dinner on Monday evening Me, Kate and Kellie walked down to the Acoustic crew bar where they met Kate’s friend John, and I sat with Peter, Paul, Greta, Helen, and some other people whose names I can’t remember. Peter said that it was going to be very hot later in the week, so it was important not to look at The Sun,…or the Daily Mail, ..or The Express, which is the only joke I can remember. Finally, it was time to make our way home. “Come along children”, I said, guiding them back up Muddy Lane. Back at base, me and Peter decided to have one last drink in Tom’s Bar. I asked for two cold ciders and Laurie who has run the Bar for at least 20 years said, “Those drinks are on me, I’ve known you boys a long time”, which was another example of the kindness of Glasto folk.

Kate, Heidi, Me, John.

I thought Tuesday would be another quiet day of just hanging out and chilling. It began quietly enough but ended with some high drama in the evening. I could hear the pitter-patter of rain on my tent when I awoke, so I just turned over and went back to sleep until 9.30. I had missed breakfast, but never mind, 8 hours sleep is great by Glasto standards. The programmes had arrived, so I picked one up at the office and sat outside the marquee drinking tea, reading the programme, and talking to old mates like Pete, Bob & Paula from Nottingham, and Mani who drew mine and Odele’s portrait last year. In the afternoon Leon and Donna who had gone home on Sunday for work returned and we even had a glass of champagne. I kept telling my fellow campers stories about my previous experiences which always began with, “In the old days at Glastonbury”, until Kellie said I reminded her of Uncle Albert in Only Fools & Horses who always started a tale with “During the war”.

My Wristbands.

Odele messaged to say that she was arriving late and would probably miss the annual recyclers quiz at 7.00. That was a bit of a blow because our team The Glastafarians were the reigning champions. Greta and Paul were also meant to be in our team, but we wondered what had happened when they didn’t show up. So, our depleted team was just me, Peter, Helen, and Robin. When the first question was ‘In what year did Brian Wilson give a memorable performance on the Pyramid Stage?’ I thought it was a good omen that we would win again. Sadly, we only came 3^rd, but we still have the best record of any team, with our two previous victories. The entry fees always go to charity which makes it all worthwhile. Right at the end Greta’s husband Paul arrived and told us the reason for their absence. 

Festival Medical Services.

Earlier in the evening Greta and her friend Mary went to the carpark to bring in more stuff. On the way there they saw a man collapse on the ground. He was having a heart attack. Greta and Mary are both nurses and knew exactly what to do without panicking. They performed CPR on the man and contacted Festival Medical Services. An ambulance arrived within two minutes because they are already on site. The ambulance staff used a defibrillator on the man and transferred him to the air ambulance. Within a few minutes he was flown to hospital in Bristol. The good news is that he survived. He is a very lucky man because he would have almost certainly died if Greta and Mary hadn’t been there. 

Opening Ceremony.

Later that night I met up with Odele and talked with her and Steve until retiring early just past midnight. There was to be lots more excitement the next day. The gates were to be opened, and 130,000 people would pour onto Worthy Farm. Thousends of people were already in the queue and sleeping in cars outside, eager to get a good spot for their tents. There was to be an opening ceremony, and also, our friend Heidi was to appear on the Vernon Kay show to millions of listeners on BBC Radio 2 live from Tom’s Field. I’ll tell you all about that in the next instalment.

To Be Continued...........................

 

My Glastonbury Adventure 2025: Part 1, 'A Tent Called Brian'.

 

Since I first went to Glastonbury 46 years ago in 1979, I think I have only missed about five festivals which was mainly due to Kim being ill. However, 2025 was the first year where I seriously considered not going. This was due to worrying about being at 73 too old for it, and not being up to all the walking, and suffering in the heat. Also, I had usually worked the morning shifts which meant I got the work out of the way by mid-day and didn’t miss any music. This year I had been put on evening shifts at the Park Stage which is on the opposite side of the valley from our camp site at Tom’s Field. With the walking involved this would have turned a 6 hours shift into 8 hours. Even worse, I would have missed seeing Neil Young. Happily for me, an angel came to my rescue which was Kate who has arranged my lift to Glasto for the last four years. Kate is a team leader on the Backstage crew at the famous Pyramid Stage and managed to get me transferred to her team, also it meant I was reunited at work with Odele my Glasto friend since 2013. So, in the end there was nothing to worry about, and Glastonbury Festival turned out to be just as magical as it ever was. This is what happened.

Heidi, Julie, Kellie, Me, Donna, Kate.

On Sunday morning I was up and about by 4.30, and my rucksack and tent were ready to go. At 7.00 I got the message that the convoy was on the way and got outside on Westbury marketplace. Soon three cars arrived driven by Kellie from Frome, Donna from the Isle Of Wight, and Russell from near Devizes. It was wonderful to see them all again after a year. I travelled with Kellie who we first met three years ago when purely by chance she camped next to us, which is often how friendships begin at Worthy Farm. Kellie is kindness personified and always brings me a chair and 8 cans of cider. She also has a wicked sense of humour. There were no traffic problems, and we soon arrived at the car park where we found Heidi and Julie. (Later in the week Heidi was to become a radio star, but I’ll tell you all about that when I get to it). We met Kate in the long queue at the recyclers cabin which had opened at 8.00, so we had wait patiently to collect our wristbands for Glastonbury and Tom’s Field. Once inside we made our way to our usual spot near the far end of Tom’s field which was already filling up. I had bought my little tent in Lidl for only £19 and was a bit concerned that it wouldn’t be up to the job, especially if it rained. 

Brian.

I called my tent Brian in tribute to the late great Brian Wilson who was my favourite ever Glasto performance exactly 20 years ago. Brian the tent proved to be well up to the job and looked after me for the next 8 days. Shortly after we got the tents up there was a couple of quite heavy rain showers, so we sat in the porch of Heidi and Julie’s huge posh tent until the rain stopped. Our little encampment was completed when Donna And Leon arrived. They are a brilliant, fun, positive couple who live only a few miles away. In Tom’s Bar it was great to meet up again with my friends of many years now Peter, Helen, Paul and Greta. There are about 30,000 workers at Glastonbury, so there are crew bars everywhere behind most of the main stages. On Sunday evening we made our traditional way to the Tow & Hitch which is the crew bar at Arcadia. You can also get food there which kept me going for the evening.

Pyramid, Sunday Evening.

After two pints I was getting tired and decided to be sensible and head back. Halfway home I stopped at the Bread & Roses Saloon and after another pint I seemed to revive, so decided to make my way home via the Acoustic Stage Crew Bar. I chatted to the barmaid who was from Dilton Marsh just outside Westbury and knew lots of people and pubs that I know including Rob Pike who always provided the marquee for this bar, so that was interesting. I also had a good chat with this guy who has helped build the Kidz Field for the last 20 years. Finally, I made my weary way home and crawled into my sleeping bag about 12.30 and fell asleep almost instantly. Little did I realise all the amazing adventures, chance encounters, great music, and excitement that was to fill the week ahead.

To Be Continued…………………………………

 

Gone To Glastonbury.

 My home for the next 9 days.

My Glastonbury Festival Memories: Chapter 1, 1979

Chapter 1. 1979, Year of The Child. 

As Glastonbury is coming up again soon I thought I'd dust off my old Glastonbury stories.

My first Glastonbury was 1979. I was 27 years old. I had been going to festivals since I was twenty. My first festival was The Great Western Festival near Lincoln in 1972, but when I went to Glastonbury for the first time I knew that it was the best and I have been going to Worthy Farm ever since. In total, I think I must have spent about six months of my life at Glastonbury festival. I think we were in the Canal Tavern in Bradford On Avon and somebody said that there was a festival to be held down at Pilton. We needed cheering up because a month before on May 5^th there had been an election and Margaret Thatcher had come to power and a pestilence had descended on the land. It started at Thatcher and spread outwards. The Conservatives held on to power for another 18 years, but Glastonbury Festival was to be a beacon of hope in all the misery that was to come. On the sunny evening of Friday June 21^st, 1979, I got on the back of my friend Fred’s motorbike and we set off for Pilton. We didn’t even take a tent. In those days, we called a sleeping bag a Doss-bag. You just rolled up your doss-bag and tied it up with string and slung it over your shoulder. That was all I took to my first Glastonbury. I think when it got time to sleep I just curled up around a campfire and if it rained there was a crash tent up near the market area. When we arrived, the entrance was right up at the top of the site near the farmhouse. Standing at a table collecting the £5.00 admission was this girl who was topless. All she had on was a pair of shorts and a big smile.

 “Crikey”, I thought to myself, “I’m going to enjoy this”, as I handed her my fiver and tried not to stare.

In those days the small market area of craft stalls and food outlets was at the top of the site as well and we wandered down there towards the main stage. The whole of the valley could then be seen leading away to Glastonbury Tor in the distance. It looked beautiful and the whole scene seemed peaceful compared to other outdoor music events that I had been to. I could immediately feel that there was something special about this place, something spiritual, ancient, healing and mysterious especially with the view of the Tor in the distance, enveloped in the myths and legends that surround Glastonbury.

That festival was one of the few occasions I can remember when they didn’t have the famous Pyramid Stage. The other time was in 94 when it burned down shortly before the festival and wasn’t replaced till 2000. In 79 the stage was a square sort of thing with what looked like an inflatable roof. I think there were about 12,000 people there in 1979 and it was so small and friendly that you got to know quite a few of them by Monday morning. These days at Glastonbury everybody has a phone and are twittering and Face-booking non-stop but in 1979 amazingly there wasn’t one single phone on the site. To make a phone call you had to walk into the village of Pilton and use the public phone box. That’s what I loved about this festival, being cut off from the outside world in this little cosmic bubble of Glastonbury. The information point got covered in little hand-written notes of people looking for their friends but there was no real need even for that. If you walked around for half an hour you would meet everyone you knew.

It was still called Glastonbury Fayre in 79 and was in aid of the International Year of The Child and the Children’s World Charity. That charity was founded by Arabella Churchill and is still going to this very day. Arabella was the grand-daughter of Sir Winston Churchill and was a real driving force at Glastonbury. As well as organising the theatre and cabaret in 79 she introduced the Children’s area to the site which evolved into the Kidz-field of today. A lot of festivals don’t cater for children but that is another thing that makes Glasto so great in that it isn’t ageist. You get all ages from little kids to pensioners and everyone gets on fine. Arabella is remembered today on the site because Bella’s Bridge is named after her. Arabella was quite a character. My partner Kim and I met her one magical night in 1999 but I’ll tell you about that when I get to it. Another thing I ought to mention is that there was a tiny medical centre there which was run by the local doctor whose name is Chris Howes. As Glastonbury has grown it has developed into Festival Medical Services and is the biggest field hospital in Britain and also provides medical services for other festivals and events as well.

A major difference to today’s festivals is that these days there are bars all over the site but in 79 I can’t remember there being any. The only booze available was from a wagon which sold rough farmhouse cider in gallon plastic containers. It was smelly and tasted horrible but people including me still forced it down. Another difference to today’s festival as well is that there were no teams of people picking up the rubbish. I think everyone just took responsibility for their own area. There was probably some tidying up to do afterwards but compared to the scenes of devastation these days it was nothing. Also, in the early days at Glastonbury there was a huge supply of firewood provided, so there were campfires all over the site. By Sunday night I think most people had put all their rubbish apart from plastic on the campfire which cut down on the amount of waste. The campfires were great for bringing people together, there is something magical about a campfire, primitive communities have gathered around fires since the dawn of civilisation. It is that sense of togetherness that is missing in modern society. How times have changed. In 2017 I saw a market stall selling little bags of firewood for £8.00, nobody would pay that, would they? People wouldn’t dream of abandoning their tents back then either. Tents were expensive, they were too valuable compared to today’s cheap throwaway society. One final difference is that these days there are cash machines everywhere for instant access to money. At Glasto 79 most people were completely broke by Sunday night and there was a lot of scrounging of cigarettes, tobacco & food going on. Nobody seemed to care, everyone shared what they had.

And so, to the music. I could look through the archives and tell you who was on but that would be cheating. Because this is a personal memoir I will just tell you about who I can personally recall which isn’t all that much I’m afraid because it is so long ago in the mists of time and I can’t really remember who played on which day. One band I do remember were called The Only Ones. They had a minor hit around that time called Another Girl/Another Planet which was good. I remember Steve Hillage as well because I had one of his albums. The only song of his I can recall was his version of the Donovan song Hurdy Gurdy Man. Steve must have played last on either Friday or Saturday because the organiser Michael Eavis came on stage to ask them to stop playing as he had made an agreement with the villagers to end the electric music at midnight and it was now 12.30. Steve dutifully brought the set to an end after explaining it to the audience. Steve Hillage was to have quite an influence on the development of Glastonbury in subsequent years.

Although the weather was nice that weekend I think there was some rain because I have a vague memory of John Martyn playing and the rain dripping onto the stage through the leaky roof. I wasn’t all that familiar with his music at the time, but I have read somewhere Michael Eavis saying it was the most moving performance he had ever seen at Glastonbury and brought tears to his eyes. I did have a chance encounter with John Martyn many years later at Glastonbury, but I’ll tell you about that later as well. Sunday night was my best memory of all. There was a big jam session featuring amongst others, Pete Gabriel, Alex Harvey, Tom Robinson, Nona Hendryx and Steve Hillage. People told me later that it was Phil Collins on drums, but I didn’t recognise him at the time. Songs from that set I remember were Pete singing Solsbury Hill, him and Tom Robinson singing Bully For You and Alex Harvey singing a song called The Mafia Stole My Guitar. The festival ended with someone called Tim Blake playing synthesisers accompanied by a laser beam display.