I didn't have any work to do till Friday but Tuesday morning I was awake at 5.00 because I wanted to get in the habit of getting up early. It was a beautiful sunny day and the birds were singing in the trees as I strolled down what has become known at Glastonbury as Muddy Lane. In the real world I would never dream of getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning and going for a five mile walk but that is exactly what I did. I walked all the way through the Park, past the Ribbon Tower right up to the Glastonbury sign and took in the incredible view over the site. Then I visited the Tipi Field and the Stone Circle and the Field Of Avalon. Kim used to love the Tiny Tea Tent which has been a fixture here since 1992 so I stopped here for a cup of tea for old times sake. I got chatting with a really nice lady called Sophie. She was based in the Green Crafts Field giving lessons in stained glass making. She was beautiful and friendly. A lot of people who have never been to Glastonbury think it is all about the music and they miss the whole point. People love Glastonbury because they get a community spirit which is lacking in modern society. At Glasto people are friendly and they talk to each other and communicate. Anyway, I thought Sophie was great, I asked a passer-by to take our photo and I resolved to visit her again in Green Crafts.
Later backstage at the Acoustic Bar we bumped into an old friend Barbara and one amusing incident was that we met a man who was painting the base colours for the rubbish bins. He told us that when he got the job he didn't tell them that he was colour blind. They have fifteen artists following him painting designs on the bins and some of them are quite spectacular. They had asked him to paint some bins terracotta and he had painted them pea green because he couldn't tell the difference. After that I returned to Tom's field for lunch and was really pleased to see my friend Odele arriving. She is nice. I asked Odele if she would be in my quiz team later and we arranged to meet at 8.00.
They had arranged a quiz for the workers in Tom's Bar. Around the campfire I had met this great guy from Bristol called Peter who has also been going to Glasto for over 30 years. Also in the team were Viv & Julie who were the best friends of Kim and I when we worked with them in 2005. Odele had been coming to Glastonbury since 2003 and the other member of the team was called Robin who was a friend of Odele. All the questions were about the history of the festival and I knew with our combined knowledge we had a chance of winning. We were called 'The Glastafarians' and we smashed it. We won easily. I was over the moon. I celebrated by getting drunk, but I didn't care. God knows what time I finally crawled into my tent. It had been a great day.
I emerged from my tent all bleary eyed and goopy at 8,30 the next morning and decided to see how long it would take to walk to Arcadia which is where I would be working in two days’ time. It took about half an hour. The gates were now open, and tens of thousands of people were pouring into the site every hour. It was incredible how fast the camping areas were filling up. I had bought some postcards and sat outside a bar writing them. I sent an offensive one to my mate Smithy which must have given his postman a good laugh. One amusing incident took place then. Two young people dressed as condoms came along and they were handing out free condoms to anyone who wanted one to promote safe sex. They gave everyone on the next table to me a condom but when they got to my table they took one look at me and proceeded to the next table. I was most hurt. I felt like saying, "Hey, you ageist little pricks, are you under the impression that people of my age don't have sex?". I decided to let it lie but it would have been nice to be asked. I went back to base for lunch. The food for the workers was delicious as usual by the way. When I was sitting by my tent two guys came along and asked if I would like a Glastonbury design stencilled on my tent. This is to encourage people to take their tents home because thousands of them get abandoned at Glastonbury every year which is a crying shame.
That evening I took my torch to the Stone Circle because I heard that they were going to create a huge torchlight CND sign in the field to celebrate the long association between Glastonbury and CND (Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament) but I didn't find it. Also, I wanted to see a group of Mexicans called The Volodores doing a Meso-American ceremony with dancers on a thirty-foot pole but sadly that was ending as I arrived. I did see a choir of about 100 people performing though. God knows where they came from. It was well worth the walk because I witnessed one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen, and I noticed a couple of security people guarding an entrance and when I asked what they were doing they told me they were stopping people from pissing in the stream by the dragon. Pissing in the hedges and streams is a real problem because if people do it then it ends up in the river and kills the fishes and plants and I was pleased to see a couple of people who did it being publicly humiliated by other festival goers.
I went in and found this incredible stone dragon about 30-foot-long sitting in the stream. It has been there since 1992 and I never seen it before. I sat outside a bar listening to a man playing an accordion and then walked to Shangri-La and the Unfairground which is bizarre late at night. We call it 'The Naughty Corner' because all sorts of strange things go on in there. Finally, I went home because I was exhausted. I told loads of jokes around the campfire and when I finally said that I had to get to bed one of my friends who had kept the fire going and made the benches said, "Don't worry folks, he's here all week", which was nice.
On Thursday I knew I had to be sensible because I was starting work the following day, so I laid off the booze on Thursday. I spent a lot of time up the hippy end in Permaculture and Green Futures where there were lots of interesting displays to see. Wandering through a market area I got chugged. Chugging is where you get mugged by a charity. I was looking at some T-Shirts on a stall and wondering if I should buy one as a present for my friend Jacquie. This very attractive girl approached me and said, "I see you are admiring our T-Shirts". I explained that I was thinking of buying one for a friend and asked how much they were. "Oh, they are free actually, we give them away to supporters of our charity". Ten minutes later I had signed away £4.00 a month to support the RSPB (Royal Society For The Protection Of Birds) I walked away clutching a t-shirt, a book about birds and a magazine and £48.00 per year worse off. I fall for it every time. I must support more charities than Bill Gates. I am the ragged trousers philanthropist. At a bookstall I bought a book about Van Morrison by Griel Marcus which I have owned before but never read and after lunch I sat in the sunshine reading it because all the walking was tiring me out.
After dinner that evening it was the Recyclers annual party. They had a good live band on and there was a great atmosphere. I was sitting outside having a cigarette and who should come strolling along looking lovelier than ever in the evening sunshine but Odele. As we sat there chatting a scruffy old Jeep pulled up only yards from us and the greatest living Englishman emerged. It was Glastonbury Festival supremo Michael Eavis whose land we were privileged to be on. Michael always comes to the recyclers party to thank them for the hard work. I had met Michael several times before but this was an opportunity too good to miss. I whipped out my camera and asked Michael if we could have a quick photo and Odele took a photo of me and Michael and I did the same for her. He was very patient and courteous as usual. What a great man he is. That night I was in my sleeping bag by 10.30 because I was worried about not getting up for work which would be a disaster. I had already been at Glastonbury for four amazing days which had passed in the blink of an eye. Tomorrow the music would begin. As I drifted off, little did I realise what destiny had in store. The real magic was about to begin......
It was Friday morning at Glastonbury. I had been on Worthy Farm for five days now and finally I had to start work. Also, today the music would begin so I knew it was going to be a long exciting day. The queue was too long to get breakfast, so I just had a couple of cups of coffee to wake myself up. Rain had been forecast so I packed my raincoat in my little back pack. I also pulled on my bright yellow veteran’s t-shirt to impress the other team members. I didn't wear it for long though, I'll tell you why in a minute. Finally, at 5.30 I marched off down Muddy Lane to get to Arcadia. It was quite a long walk and I was knackered by the time I got there. Arcadia is this huge metal structure that looks like a great 3-legged spider. At night it breathes fire which can be seen all over the site and they have lots of performances on it. This morning though it was deserted except the field was covered in rubbish that we had to clear up. I was worried about being late but when I arrived there was just one couple there. They were called Rob and Alison from Chatham in Kent who were there with their daughter and her friend. I had a spare litter-picking stick which I gave to Alison. All of our team were nice, but it was them who I talked to most over the next four shifts. Gradually all our team turned up and our leader Jeremy arrived pushing the wheelbarrow laden with boxes of rubbish bags. Over the next four days I realised that our team was the best because we had the best leader. Jeremy knew how to motivate people without getting stressed about it. There were 48 of us I think and what I liked about our team was it covered all age groups from teenagers upwards. The previous year I was in a small team where I was the oldest by about three decades, so I didn't feel out of place this year.
After roll call we all helped ourselves to plastic bags from the wheelbarrow. Jeremy explained it all to people who hadn’t done it before, but I knew the drill inside out by now. 47% of all the waste at Glasto is recycled which is quite an achievement. Then we all formed a line in the corner by the ice-cream van and moved across the field picking up the rubbish. In previous years I had just used my gloves to pick stuff up with but this year I had a litter-picking grabber and I got on well with it and my back didn't ache like in other years. In areas like Arcadia one of the things you get a lot of is nitrous-oxide containers and balloons. This seems to be the craze these days, squirting the gas into a balloon and inhaling it. It all seems a bit silly to me. You can’t even call it a drug. The gas cylinders are valuable scrap material, so they went in the blue bag. The time went quickly and by 9.00 we had Arcadia looking spick and span.
The sun came out and it started to get hot and I discovered the problem with my bright yellow veterans t-shirt. It attracted lots of tiny little black flies. I think they were trying to pollinate me. Luckily, I had another t-shirt on underneath, so I reversed them which solved the problem. After Arcadia we had a welcome break and then carried on towards The Glade. Some of the worse mess was around the litter bins where they had overflowed. There are 2,500 bins at Glasto but even that doesn't seem to be enough. Anyway, our great team soon cleared that mess up. The Glade is the oldest dance area at Glastonbury. I can remember it being there since 2000. It is nice and shady in there amongst the trees, hence, chillin' out in the Glade. Today it was relatively easy in that area and we were more or less done by 10.30 but that was too early to go home, and Jeremy got instructions that we were to help out the Park team who were struggling. It was quite a gruelling walk up the hill, but we didn't mind, and we worked our way right up to the Glastonbury sign and were rewarded with the magnificent view. Finally, Jeremy got the word from HQ that the work was all done for the day. Jeremy signed us out and gave us our meal tickets. Our first shift was over.
I got back to Tom's field I found the queue for lunch was too long, it was going out the door. There were 1,800 hungry litter-pickers in our field. I decided not to bother, I had places to go and people to see so after a quick wash at the tap I headed back down the lane and bought a vegetarian Cornish pasty. I didn't eat meat once at Glasto, the vegetarian food was that nice. Then I wandered on and I wanted to hear some music. It was a music festival after all. I went to the Leftfield stage because I had heard that there was a 'Pussy Riot' going on which sounded very exciting but when I got there all I found was some Russian women talking! I got bored after about 20 minutes and carried on to the Theatre field. I love the theatre bar where I stopped for a drink because you only have to sit outside it for a few minutes and something amazing will happen. Sure enough, two men dressed as Arctic explorers, wearing skis and pulling a sledge came by and I had my picture taken with them. Then I saw this man who I had seen the previous year. He was dressed like a character from Dickens and played an upright piano. It moves along by him cycling a device underneath. This year he had a girl who was about 8 years old standing in the piano dressed as a cat and singing a song called 'It Ain't Wot You Want, It's Wot You Get'.
I met up with Margaret and Wayne at the Acoustic Stage bar at 2.00 and as well as them it was great to see my niece Lee and her friends and Neil and his mate Dominic from Westbury. On the stage I saw a band called Red Sky July who are a 3-piece band formed of ex members of Texas and Alisha's Attic. I thought they were good, playing Country/Americana type music. After that we watched Stornoway who were great. As you know Stornoway is in Scotland but when the band were formed they had never been to Stornoway, they come from Oxford, but they had heard Stornoway on the Shipping Forecast and liked the name. I'll tell you the real reason I spent so much time at the Acoustic Stage on Friday afternoon. It was because the predicted rain had started, and I had stupidly left my raincoat in my tent, so I was trapped in the Acoustic marquee. I didn't mind though because the music was great. I particularly enjoyed the set by Duke Special. I have had the pleasure of meeting him on a couple of occasions at gigs and parties. Some of my friends are big fans of his and I had promised them I'll write an individual review of his show.
They had only allocated Duke a short slot of less than an hour, but he certainly made the most of it. After Stornaway's performance it began to rain quite heavily, and a lot of people took shelter in the huge marquee of the Acoustic Stage, so I think Duke was fortunate to have a larger audience than he might have had otherwise, and I think a lot of them would have left as fans because his set was great. I have seen him twice before and have two of his albums, but I wouldn't say I was an expert on his music. The previous occasions I have seen Duke it was just himself and a piano but at Glastonbury he also had a drummer and a guitarist with him. The drummer looked an interesting character with the drums adorned with all sorts of strange gadgets on them.
The first song that Duke performed was Going In A Field by the late great Ivor Cutler. It was originally on Ivor's 1967 album called Ludo. I think Duke must be a huge fan of Ivor because I have heard him sing other songs of his. I remember seeing Ivor myself at a festival in Cornwall called The Elephant Fayre back in the early 80's. That was followed by Nail On The Head from Dukes lates album Look Out Machines which I haven't heard yet. The next song was called Hand Of Man and Duke said it was about a train. It is from the album Under The Dark Cloth. An album inspired by the work of pioneering American photographers. One of my own personal favourite songs of Duke followed, Last Night I Nearly Died, But I Woke Up Just In Time. I think Duke was driving home from a gig one night and fell asleep at the wheel which inspired the song. Another song from the new album was next and Duke said it was about Belfast and was called In a dIve. I must get that album because the songs sound great. Next up was Duke's version of Alabama Song also known as Whiskey Bar which was a poem by Berthold Brecht and set to music by Kurt Weill. It was originally sung by Lotte Lenya I think and has also been recorded by The Doors and David Bowie. I really liked Duke's version. Duke then made a little speech about the importance of everyone being creative in whatever way they can. I certainly took it to heart because I haven't stopped writing since. Then he sang a song which I think is called Salvation Tambourine. I put in my notebook, Fecking great, so it must have been good. The great song Freewheel was next. Then there was a short silly fun song where the drummer came to the front of the stage and played a weird instrument that I suspect he made himself and Duke sang lyrics like, 'Glastonbury, Glastonbury, we're so happy to be here' or something like that. Duke finished his set with the great Digging An Early Grave. At the end of the song he leaned the piano over further and further till it finally crashed to the floor sending his plastic bottle of wine flying. Then he jumped off the stage, climbed the barrier and threw himself into the audience who held him aloft and carried him around until finally returning him to the stage. What a great ending. The set wasn't long enough but I thought it was brilliant and I'm sure Duke made quite a few new fans after that performance. After Duke I saw a bit of J.D. McPherson which was good but the rain was easing off and I was determined to get some dinner after missing breakfast and lunch. As I marched back up the lane I could hear Motorhead singing The Ace Of Spades on the Pyramid Stage. Lemmy of Motorhead was 70 that year, quite amazing really and in hindsight I wish I had watched because Lemmy died within a year. After dinner in the recyclers restaurant I fell asleep in my tent, so I would be fit for the evening. When I awoke, "Oh no", it was 9.00. I pulled on my wellingtons and marched down Muddy Lane and turned left heading for the Acoustic Stage. All the Proclaimers fans were leaving. I was disappointed because I had hoped to catch some of their set because my friend Dave had given me a copy of their recent album which is good. However, it did allow me to walk up the side of the audience right to the front and then squeeze my way into the centre, right on the front barrier. This is the nearest I had ever been to Christy when he is singing live. While waiting for Christy to begin I got chatting to a lady who lives in Glastonbury town and I told her that I would write a review, so I hope she reads this.
Christy was assisted by Declan Sinnott on guitar, Jimmy Higgins on percussion and Vicky Keating on backing vocals. Being this near the front I could see Jimmy's deft work at close quarters for the first time, but I thought maybe Vicky's vocals could have been turned up a smidgen in the mix. Declan who I occasionally think looks a bit serious was beaming all over his face and Christy obviously loves Glastonbury and seemed really pleased to be back. The stewards at the front held up signs saying, 'No Flash Photography Please' so I had to respect that request but towards the end of the set I did move to the back and took a couple of sneaky ones. They weren’t very good.
The performance began with A Pair Of Brown Eyes which was great and made me think how nice it would be if Shane McGowan would return to Glastonbury one day. The City Of Chicago was next and was followed by Ride On which the audience sang along with. "You're singing well", said Christy. McIlhatton was next and then Yellow Furze Woman in which I was really impressed with Declan's great electric guitar playing. Natalie Merchant's beautiful song Motherland followed. The next song was a highlight for me. It was Ewan McColl’s Go, Move, Shift, Christy introduced it by saying that this was his fifth Glastonbury and his second was 1985 which coincided with the notorious Battle Of The Beanfield exactly 30 years ago which happened right here in Wiltshire. I remember it vividly. There were many low points of Thatcher's regime and that was one of them. It showed to me what a great memory and awareness of the history of Glastonbury that Christy has. The next song was also by Ewan McColl which is the one he wrote to win back Peggy Seeger The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. Next up was Missing You which I found quite moving for personal reasons.
Somebody in the audience shouted out a request for Joxer Goes To Stuttgart and Christy said, "Joxer will be here in about half an hour, he is backstage with Kanye West having the craic", which was hilarious. The great Spanish Civil War song Viva La Quinte Brigada followed which the crowd really enjoyed, and Christy said, "This is the biggest Folk Club I've ever played in". North And South Of The River followed and then Christy said he would like to sing a Scottish song as a tribute to The Proclaimers which was Black Is The Colour Of My True Loves Hair by the late Hamish Imlach. Declan's acoustic guitar was quite outstanding on this one. The audience loved the sing-along Don’t Forget Your Shovel. Christy then asked Declan to sing a song which I hope is called Little Light Box. It was nice. Christy then played the bodhran and sang Well Below The Valley which took me right back to seeing him sing this song on the Pyramid Stage in the 1980's. Jackson Brown's great Before The Deluge was next, but today I think it was after the deluge because we had two hours rain earlier in the afternoon but the weather was great for the rest of the festival. Declan and Jimmy were both outstanding on this song. Ordinary Man and the very profound Yellow Triangle followed and then Richard Thompson's fabulous Beeswing. Another sign of Christy's great generosity and humility is that he tells the audience who wrote the songs. A lot of performers don't give the songwriters the credit. I knew that the show was coming to an end when Joxer Goes To Stuttgart finally appeared and the crowd went wild. Some of them were sitting on their friend’s shoulders and singing along. Christy and his three campaneros all took a bow, but I knew he still had a couple of tricks up his sleeve and sure enough they returned for the classic Nancy Spain and finally the best song ever written in celebration of a festival Lisdoonvarna. All four took another bow and left the stage in triumph with the applause ringing in their ears.
As I trudged back up the hill I could hear Florence And The Machine playing in the distance but I wasn't interested. Back at base I sat around the camp fire drinking cider and telling jokes with my campfire mates and finally crawled into my rancid sleeping bag at 12.30. It had been a 20-hour day and another epic day at Glastonbury was only 4 hours away. Thank you very much Christy Moore for making Friday night so memorable.
It was Saturday morning at Glastonbury. Saturday is the peak day at Glastonbury. It is the biggest shanty town in the northern hemisphere with about 160,000 people on site. The sun was shining, and I was awake at 4.30 even before my alarm clock. Considering I had only four hours sleep I didn't feel too bad at all. I even had time for breakfast today before setting off for work. Our brave band of brothers and sisters had now bonded into a battle-hardened fighting unit like the 101st Airborne Division and we tore into the work with gusto. It was a bit muddy at Arcadia after the previous days rain and those gas things had been trodden in and now the mud was drying in the sunshine they were quite difficult to dig out. That was a bit annoying, but the morning went quickly, and we helped other teams who weren't as great as us.
After work, on the way back to base I caught some of the Unthanks set on the Pyramid Stage. They had a full orchestra backing them led by Charles Hazlewood. They are Rachel and Becky Unthank and they combine Northumbrian folk music with other genres of music and the resulting sound is quite mesmerising and mysterious. I have bought some of their albums since and have seen them again in concert and got their autographs. They couldn't have been that mesmerising for me on that day though because I was hungry and left after about twenty minutes to get some lunch. The catering company that kept the workers fed was called 'International Eats' I think and as well as the food being nice the staff were very pleasant. I asked one girl where she came from and she had come all the way from Estonia just to work at Glastonbury.
After a leisurely lunch I made my way back to the Pyramid Stage to see The Waterboys. One of the reasons I wanted to see them was one of my Facebook friends Ralph Salmins plays drums in The Waterboys. He also used to play drums for Van Morrison which is how I first discovered him. The main reason I wanted to see them though is that they are brilliant. I have seen The Waterboys at Glasto going back to the 1980's but I think this incarnation of the band is as good as any that Mike Scott has assembled. I didn't have my notebook on me or I would have written down the set list. It has been a long time now, so I can't remember all the songs, but one was called The Nearest Thing To Hip which I really liked. It seemed really 'Beat’ with its references to Sun Ra, Miles Davis, John Coltrane etc. The Waterboys were the perfect music for a sunny Saturday afternoon. I also really enjoyed Glastonbury Song which is the best song ever written about this festival apart from possibly Glastonbury by Nizlopi. During their set I noticed some loose change on the floor and picked up 90 pence in total. I found more money watching The Waterboys than I did in four days of litter-picking. I met up with my friends again at the Acoustic and enjoyed a set by a duo called The Lost Brothers. I had never heard of them before. They were Irish, and they did a great version of Corrina, Corrina, which I really enjoyed. Then I went back to the Pyramid to catch George Ezra. I first realised how good George was when I saw him supporting Robert Plant. Of all the crop of young British male singers of the last few years such as Jake Bugg and Ed Sheeran I think George is the best. Only time will tell if he has another great album in him. After George it was the legend that is Burt Bacharach with his orchestra and singers, but I couldn't be bothered listening and wandered back to camp.
In the evening I really wanted to see the legendary Mavis Staples in the surroundings of the Park Stage, but I couldn't bear the thought of the long walk up there again. I was mentally and physically exhausted by now. I had also missed Gregory Porter who like Mavis had also recorded with Van Morrison recently. Instead I opted to see Nick Lowe, Paul Carrick and Andy Fairweather-Lowe. Nick is almost a Glastonbury tradition now. They were all in fine voice and as well as their own individual hits they also did great cover versions of other people’s songs such as 'Things' by Bobby Darin. It was a thoroughly enjoyable set. I needed a bit of a sit down because I was shattered and relaxed with Margaret & Wayne in the Theatre Bar before returning to see The Moody Blues. In the bar we met this man who claimed to be the king of Glastonbury. He came from Nottingham and showed us an article in his local paper with the headline ‘King Of Glastonbury’ because he had been at every festival since 1984. We informed him that we had been coming here since 1979 which took him down a peg or two.
It was seeing The Moody Blues at the Bath Blues Festival in 1970 that gave Michael Eavis the idea to have his own festival at Glastonbury in September that same year when 1,500 people attended. Little did he realise that 45 years later it would be the greatest festival in the world. I must say though at Glasto 2015 I was most disappointed with the Moodys. In the late sixties and early 70's I had lots of their albums. Unfortunately, they started their set with four songs I had never heard of. Who wants to hear the Moody Blues new stuff? Not me that's for sure. They should have started the set with some classics and put the new stuff in the middle and finished with more old classics. I lost interest and left. I regret that now because I have since learned that Michael Eavis joined them on stage and played tambourine during their song called Question. I think I was a bit hasty in leaving.
I had heard a lot about the controversial decision to book Kanye West to headline on Saturday night so I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and judge for myself. Considering it was Saturday night I thought the crowd was small compared to the Rolling Stones two years ago or even Metallica last year. I must say that after two songs (If you can call them songs) I had heard enough. I thought he was crap and not deserving of a headline slot at Glastonbury. The real star of Glastonbury is the audience and great performers understand this. Dolly Parton was a big success last year because she took the audience to her heart. For Kanye West though it was just another gig and he obviously has no understanding of the history of this great festival. My view isn't an age thing because a lot of the youngsters in my team told me that they thought he was rubbish as well. Also, it's not a genre thing either. I saw Cypress Hill here years ago and thought they were good and my friend Fred gave me a hip-hop album called Dirty Acres by The Cunning Linguists which I enjoyed. If they want to book this type of music, why don't they get Eminem whose lyrics I find witty and intelligent.
When I got back to camp I felt quite deflated after the disappointment of the Moody Blues and Kanye 'Bleeding' West but my mates around the camp-fire soon cheered me up. I had lots of good chats with Peter and others round that camp-fire, chewing the fat and putting the world to rights. As I fell asleep that night, I didn't realise it at the time but the next day Sunday was to be one of the most memorable days in the history of Glastonbury Festival. It was to be amazing.
When my alarm clock woke me up at 5.00 Sunday morning the urge to just turn over and have another ten minutes sleep was almost overwhelming but I knew I couldn't risk it, so I forced myself out of the sleeping bag and pulled on my wellies. There was light rain on Sunday morning, but I didn't mind that because I had my raincoat and I found the rain on my face quite refreshing. It helped to wake me up and the forecast said it would clear by mid-day. Sunday was to turn out to be one of the best days in all the 38 years I have been to Glastonbury. The best litter-picking team of all knew exactly what to do by now and the work went smoothly. We reached The Glade by 10.30 and Jeremy got the word from HQ that we were to help out cleaning up the roadway known as the old railway track and proceed along there towards the Sacred Space. We knew something special was afoot because the road was closed to all traffic. Then we got the word that His Holiness The Dalai Lama was to speak in the Peace Garden at 11.00. This was brilliant that we had arrived here purely by chance, Or was it karma? At the entrance to the field they were giving out pictures saying, I LOVE TIBET and pictures of The Dalai Lama. Jeremy let us have a quick break to listen while he awaited further instructions. I couldn't see because there was no stage there and the crowd was so big, but I could hear what he had to say, and he made a speech all about the importance of religious tolerance and other matters. You can't really call it a speech because he doesn't read from notes, he just says whatever comes into his head and he goes off on tangents but it all makes wonderful sense. One thing I like about the Dalai Lama is his great sense of humour and one thing he has in common with me is that he laughs at his own jokes. What a great man he is and there is not one jot of bitterness in him after having his country ransacked and forcing him into exile. That might be karma as well though because it has enabled him to take his message to the whole world. He makes the so-called world political leaders look quite pathetic in comparison
"They would have to get The Pope here to top this", I said to Rob, "That wouldn't top this in my book", replied Rob and I had to agree with him. Having the Dalai Lama at Glastonbury is the ultimate. After he finished speaking I was so moved that I bought a TIBET hoody sweat shirt from a stall. It looks great and kept me warm that night. I was to cross paths with his holiness again three hours later. There was some divine intervention as well because when the Dalai Lama appeared the rain stopped, the sun came out and it was a glorious afternoon. In more ways than one, I might add. After lunch I headed to the Pyramid Stage and caught some of Hozier’s set. The previous year he had been on the Acoustic Stage and I hadn't bothered watching because I had never heard of him. Now here he is gracing the Pyramid Stage. What a difference a year makes at Glastonbury. I left after Take Me To Church because we had arranged to meet up at Bread & Roses again. Wayne had his doubts about seeing Patti Smith but I insisted to him that she would be great but even I didn't realise how great her performance would be.
Unlike Kanye West, Patti was blown away by appearing on the Pyramid Stage. I think this performance was to be one of the highlights of her whole illustrious career. Patti had been on tour for six weeks and her voice was shot away, but she promised to give the audience every bit of voice she had left, which she did. She only did nine songs because she had given up part of her set for a very special reason. Those nine songs were amongst the best I have every heard on the Pyramid stage. They were, Privilege, (Set Me Free), Redondo Beach, Ain’t It Strange, Beneath The Southern Cross, Pissing In A River, People Have The Power, Land, Gloria and My Generation. Not only is Patti a great singer she is also a writer and Poet as well and in the middle of her set she read a poem she had written to celebrate the 80th birthday of the Dalai Lama. "That's nice of her", I thought to myself, not realising what was to happen next. Michael Eavis's daughter Emily led on the Dalai Lama to the cheers of about 80,000 people. He greeted Patti and all the members of her band. Then they wheeled on a birthday cake and the whole crowd sang 'Happy Birthday To You'. He spoke for a few minutes and joked that Patti had white hair, but she moved with the energy of a teenager and he wished he had her energy. Then he talked about how friendship is the most important thing in the world because we are a social animal and friendship is based on truth and honesty, which is very true.
I think when he left the stage the whole audience felt better for being in his presence. Then Patti carried on with her set. It was great to hear her singing her version of Van Morrison's Gloria. I have seen Van on this stage on Sunday afternoon seven times but not for ten years sadly. Patti finished with a frenzied version of The Who's My Generation. During this she got over-excited and climbed down to be nearer the audience but when she tried to get back on the stage she fell over. She said, " I just fell on my f**king ass at Glastonbury and I don't give a f**king s**t". She said something else as well which was even more outrageous, but I won't repeat it. For me musically Patti stole the whole show at Glasto. She was great. After that we needed a drink and sat outside the bar opposite the Cider bus for a while before going our separate ways. Lionel Richie was on next but for me that would have been a come-down after what I had just witnessed so I wended my weary way back to camp for a rest before the evening. Later on, I didn't really care what I saw. The festival had already peaked for me but there was something I had been meaning to do since Tuesday but hadn't got around to and that was to go and visit Sophie in the Green Crafts field. So, I went on a slow walk there. On the West Holts stage there was a band on called FKA Twigs who I had never heard of but they sounded really good to me, so I listened for a while. Finally, I reached Sophie's place but sadly it was all closed down. I had left it too late. This whole area was quite deserted. Everyone was down at the main arenas. On a small stage I saw a girl playing to an audience of about 3 people. I felt sorry for her, so I listened for a bit and took a picture.
I have known Donovan's music since 1965 but never seen him so I decided to check him out. That was a mistake. He began his set with about ten minutes tuning up and sound-checking. When he did sing some songs, it was alright but in between the songs he kept talking all this quasi-celtic mystical bollix which got on my nerves. After I heard Catch The Wind and Colours I moved on because The Who were on the main stage. I hadn't seen The Who since 1974 when they were at the height of their powers and in those days, I thought they were the best live band in the world. I watched at Glastonbury from the top of the hill where the whole view behind the Pyramid Stage looked spectacular. I did get a bit bored at certain points in their show but when they did songs like Behind Blue Eyes, Pinball Wizard and Won't Get Fooled Again I thought they were great. Roger Daltry's voice is more restrained these days and Pete Townshend is the same as ever but overall, I thought they were good. I think though over the 40 years since I last saw them my music tastes have changed. While watching The Who I got chatting to this police lady who was enjoying the festival as much as anyone else. The police had behaved themselves well this year and there was no trouble whatsoever. If only every town in Britain was like Glastonbury.
Back at the camp-fire I felt quite sad that the festival was nearly over. As I gazed into the flames I reflected on all the great Glasto's I had been to before. With Kim in 2005 we had stayed in the very same faithful little tent in Tom's Field that I was still using. "I'm not here all week any more mate", I said wistfully to the lad who had kept the fire going all week. What nice people they were around that campfire.
Next morning, we had one more shift to do before we could head home. We were brilliant as usual and at the end we were drafted in to help Park and Greenfields team. We had one lucky break. The riggers were already dismantling Arcadia, so we weren't allowed near that on health & safety grounds. Jeremy sent us in to clean up The Rabbit Hole. This is a venue where normally people must crawl in on their hands and knees to experience it but today we got in through a gap in the fence at the back. Inside there were lots of revellers who were still partying although it was 11.00 in the morning and the sun was blazing down. "Just ignore them, do the work and get out", advised Jeremy. It was mad in there. One person had appointed himself King of the Rabbit Hole and was wearing a crown. They obviously had no intentions of going home yet. I was glad to get out of there. It was weird. Finally, all the work was done for 2015 and we were all signed out. I walked back to camp with Rob and Alison.
Margaret and Wayne were waiting and itching to get home, but I had one last thing to do before I took my tent down. I really wanted to say cheerio to Odele. I hadn't seen her since the party on Thursday night. I had just assumed that I would see her again, but it hadn't happened. I ran across to where I knew her tent was, tripping over guy-ropes as I went but all I found was a sad little patch of faded grass where her tent used to be. She had already left town. Never mind, she only lives 20 miles from me so hopefully I wouldn’t have to wait another year before I saw her again. We left Tom's Field at about 1.00 and amazingly I was turning the key in my front door in Westbury by 3.00. I had never known it so easy to get out of Glastonbury. Other years I have known it take 5 hours to get home. Meanwhile, back on Worthy Farm the real clean-up was about to begin. An army of workers would move in and go over all 700 acres with a fine-tooth comb. They even use huge metal detector machines to remove every piece of rubbish. It would take about 6 weeks before all the 398 dairy cows were released from the Mootel once more to munch their way across the lush pastures of Worthy Farm. I hoped I was spared to return next year and as Van the Man might say, 'We'll walk down the avenue again and sing all the songs from way back when, and roam across the fields and stay out all night long and listen to the rock n roll because baby you know how it feels when the healing has begun'.
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