My Glastonbury Festival Memories: Chapter 21, 2005

Chapter 20. 2005. Surf’s Up!

We had failed to get tickets for the festival in 2005 and were desperate to go because two of my musical heroes of all time were on. I wrote to the farm and asked if Kim & I could be on the recycling team and I got a nice letter back from Fiona who organises it and to our relief she gave us both jobs. Thus, began the recycling years. This was the year of my favourite ever performance at Glastonbury. The bus driver was funny and gave a running commentary as we drove through the Somerset countryside.
"If this is your first time in Somerset make sure you drink some scrumpy, I've drank it all my life and I’m 70 and fit as a fiddle".
When the first sight of the five-mile-long security fence came into view the passengers gasped with excitement. The fence glistened in the sun like a great silvery snake and inside you could see the great sea of tents. It looked fantastic. When we showed our workers tickets I was pleased to find out that we didn't have to queue up for wristbands and just walked in quickly. The recycling workers and the Oxfam workers campsite was in Tom's Field right up by the farmhouse. It was a long slow trudge up there but camping on the higher ground was to turn out to be a life-saver. We reported for duty and got our ID's, meal tickets and wrist bands. The facilities were great, there was a restaurant, great showers, bar, music, and they even showed films on a small screen after dark. We camped right opposite the catering marquee. Once we were sorted out we went for a long walk and headed to the Glade which is a stage set amongst trees and shady from the hot sun. Later on, we had our recyclers meeting and met our fellow team mates. Our team leader Dave was a great bloke. He came from Stoke On Trent and was a New-Age Traveller. He had a house in Stoke but every Spring he left his mum to look after his house and he headed for the West Country. He did agricultural work such as picking daffodils down in Cornwall and in the summer, went on the festival circuit doing various jobs. His van was parked behind the office in Tom’s Field and he was a real handy guy to know because he had a good supply of cheap tobacco and wine. Our team were great, a lot of them were university students who were a lot younger than us, but we made good friends with two women called Viv & Julie who were more our age group. After the meeting we just chilled out in our field and sat around the camp fire drinking and telling jokes. We went to bed quite early for Glastonbury, about midnight and fell asleep unaware of the horror that was about to unfold.

The next morning there was an horrendous thunderstorm which lasted four hours and we were working in it. The festival site was like a disaster zone of biblical proportions and some areas became huge lakes. At the bottom of Pennard Hill Ground people were literally swimming to their tents to retrieve their belongings. In the market areas we were wading through lakes of muddy water which came up to the top of our wellies. I was really pissed off because I hadn’t brought a proper raincoat and was soaked to the skin. My packet of cigarettes got soaked as well, which added to the misery. Lightning struck several of the stages and we wondered if the festival could go ahead because the first bands were due on stage at 12.00. The rain finally eased off just as our shift was coming to an end. It didn’t rain again for the rest of the weekend, in fact it was hot and sunny, but the damage had been done. It was a mud-fest. At mid-day Michael Eavis at a hastily arranged news conference announced the festival would go ahead. The Undertones were the first band on stage and Glasto 2005 was underway. We had survived, some poor souls camped in the lower ground just packed up and went home. We were lucky to be camped on the higher ground. Glastonbury 05 got better and better after that. I was really pleased with Kim because I thought that she would rebel during the storm and demand to go home but surprisingly she never complained once. We met our friends in the Leftfield Bar at 3.00. There was a Cuban band on stage in there who were quite good, I haven’t got a clue who they were. Then we headed for the Acoustic Stage to see who was on. It was Alison Moorer from Alabama USA. Steve Earle came on and accompanied Alison on mandolin. Time was getting on however and we had to rush to the Pyramid Stage to see Declan McManus, better known as Elvis Costello. He was brilliant, the second-best act in my opinion all weekend. That night Kim went to bed quite early but I wanted to stay up for a bit so I sat by the fire with a gang of people drinking and telling jokes.

We slept in on Saturday morning till about 9.30. After breakfast my big priority was to get Kim some wellies because the market areas were a sea of mud. It was a beautiful sunny morning as we set off. I didn't think there was a chance of buying any. The day before, a lorry load of wellies were delivered and the police had to control the crowd who were desperate for boots. By a miracle though I managed to get Kim a pair at Joe Banana's blanket stall. When I handed her the precious wellies I went up in popularity a hundred-fold. The rest of the morning we sat in the sunshine and chatted to our friends until it was time for work at 1.00. As we sloshed through the mud from market to market we did manage to see and hear little bits of the music. We heard a bit of the Kaiser Chiefs and Ash who were old Glasto favourites. We saw a little bit of KT Tunstall who was very popular in those days. The Levellers were singing It’s A Beautiful Day on the Jazz stage. In the evening we went to the Acoustic Stage to see an Irish band Jerry Fish and The Mudbug Club. I love the acoustic tent because it is in a huge tent so no mud and not so overwhelming as the Pyramid Stage. We took a long slow walk home while New Order and Coldplay played in the distance. I don’t think I particularly liked either. As we fell asleep that night I knew that the next day was to be one of the greatest ever at Glastonbury and was to be proved right. When I crawled out of our tent on Sunday morning I just knew that today was going to be special. I'd liked Brian Wilson ever since I Get Around had stopped me in my tracks in 1964.I hadn't seen Brian since 1980 at Knebworth when he was in a terrible state and I had been a Van Morrison fan since 1973.They were both on the same stage at Glastonbury. It was almost as if I had chosen the bill. There was a lightness in my step as our little band headed down Muddy Lane following our leader Dave to work. We tore into the cardboard with gusto to get the work done as quickly as possible. At 9.00 the sun came out and I knew that Brian had brought the California sunshine to Glastonbury. We had all our work finished by 11.30 and headed back to camp. After a shower and a bite to eat I put on my Jelly Roll Soul T Shirt, grabbed my flag and set off for the Pyramid Stage. Jools Holland was on stage when we reached the Cider Tree where we were to meet up our friends at 3.00. Only Andy and Alex showed up. Andy and Alex didn't want to see Van, they set off to see The Beat on another stage and me and Kim headed for the front of the stage. We met some Irish guys from County Monaghan who had a long flagstick with some little flags on it and we added our Irish flag to it. 

Van came on stage at 3.45 to a huge Glastonbury welcome. This was easily the biggest audience he has played to in Britain. The festival had changed a lot in the 8 years since his previous appearance. There must have been 100,000 people in front of the stage. Van looked quite relaxed and dapper in a new suit and even Ned seemed to be enjoying himself. The audience seemed to really enjoy what was served up, a gang of mud people near us danced in a big circle. I must say though that i was disappointed with Van's choice of songs. There was only one song off the new album and the rest were greatest hits type fare. He gave this particular audience what they wanted which was upbeat danceable music. It was filmed because we were watching the big screens as well as the stage and the mud men from Monaghan told me they had seen us on the screens. I found out later that Van refused to allow his performance on the television. I don't understand it. With a huge telly audience, he could have sold thousands of albums. I estimate his performance lasted 75 minutes or so and he left the stage to huge applause, but it could have been so much better. He didn't do Summertime In England or any other reference to Avalon. For me it was the least enjoyable of all his performances at Glastonbury and I didn't think the Pyramid Stage suited him anymore. If he ever does Glasto again I think one of the smaller stages might suit him better. Van hasn’t appeared at Glastonbury since 2005 but he has played at Glastonbury Abbey three times since. Michael Eavis has said that Van has told him he prefers the Abbey to the festival. Perhaps he can’t stand all the flag waving. 

I didn't have time to dwell on Van's lack lustre performance because I was about to witness not only the best show I have ever seen at Glastonbury but one of the best shows I have ever seen anywhere in my life. After Van's performance we dashed back to the Cider Tree and looked for our friends and got a drink. Then I heard in the distance 'Then I Kissed Her'. "Come on Kim, he’s on!" and we dashed back to the front of the stage. I got my first glimpse of Brian in 25 years. It was great to see him and his wonderful 10-piece band on stage at this famous festival. Brian looked really well. Then it was Don't Worry Baby which to me is the greatest B side to any single ever. Then Dance, Dance, Dance from the Beach Boys Today album. Somebody once said that side two of that album is Brian's finest work and I almost agree. Its comparable in greatness to side two of Van’s Into The Music album. Then it was Darlin’ followed by two ballads, In My Room and Surfer Girl. The harmonising on these songs and all the songs was simply stunning. Brian was the triumph that Van could have been. Brian did about 20 more songs including The Little Girl I Once Knew, Wouldn't It Be Nice, All Summer Long, Little Saint Nick, I Get Around, Sail On, Sailor, Marcella, Our Prayer, Heroes and Villains, God Only Knows, Sloop John B, California Girls and Good Vibrations. Then two encores, firstly Do It Again, Help Me, Rhonda, Barbara Ann, Surfin' U.S.A. and Fun, Fun, Fun. Finally Love And Mercy. Every one of them a hit and the crowd loved it, which summed up the most joyous performance I have ever witnessed. There were even people standing on surfboards being carried through the crowd. Brian left the stage to rapturous applause after winning thousands of new fans. As the crowd dispersed I knew I had just seen one of the most enjoyable performances of my life. After Brian’s amazing performance we met up with Andy and Alex and we couldn't decide what to watch next so went on a long meandering walk to the small Avalon stage where Sharon Shannon was playing. I love her music, she is to the accordion what Jimi Hendrix was to the guitar although she doesn't set fire to it or play it with her teeth of course. Her Irish jigs and reels are the perfect infectious music for a festival. One thing that marred her performance for me though was a lady with no clothes on got on stage and started dancing. It was a real distraction from the music and Sharon must have been quite embarrassed. We bumped into an old friend called Pru but by now I was tired and emotional (Drunk) so I'll draw a veil over the rest of the evening which is a bit of a blur anyway.

Monday morning was another hot sunny day as 150,000 revellers began to make their way home. The high point of the morning for me was when Michael Eavis came up to our campsite to thank the recyclers for their hard work and to do a radio interview. Wayne took a photo of me and my sister Margaret with Michael and he signed a programme for Kim and me. I reminded him that we had met twice before and asked if he remembered and he said, "No". In the radio interview which I heard later he said he would like U2 for 2007 but he wouldn’t ring them again, they must phone him. We had one last shift to do which we tore through really quickly and then our team had our photo taken. I felt quite sad that our little team was breaking up. I threw our gloves in a bin and the work was over. Afterwards we went shopping with Viv and Julie and discovered a stall run by some people from Kathmandu in Nepal. I bought Kim a skirt and she bought me a striped black and red Dennis The Menace type hoody coat which I still have to this very day. Margaret and Wayne offered us a lift home and Wayne played a nice mix of Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Nils Lofgren and Eminem as Kim and I sat in the back drinking organic raspberry wine. It would be two years before the magical city rose once more from the mists of Avalon. What we didn’t realise as we drove home that afternoon was that 2005 would be Kim’s last Glastonbury.