Glastonbury Festival 2019: Part 4, Hot Saturday.

Saturday is the biggest day at Glastonbury. Everyone who was coming had arrived and nobody had gone home yet. There were about 200,000 people on site now. I was awake at 5.00 after three hours sleep. I opted for croissants and fruit juice for breakfast. I was getting bored with the same old breakfast day after day. I wanted to see The Proclaimers who were opening on the Pyramid Stage because a friend of mine in Westbury had given me their last couple of albums which I enjoyed. I secured my place at the front by 11.00 and passed the time talking to other people. They played a wonderful crowd-pleasing set. 

Proclaimers violin player.

The Proclaimers are the perfect band for festivals because the crowd all know the words of their most famous songs. The band were great, and they had a guest female violinist who played on a couple of songs. I don’t know who she is, but she is a star. My only disappointment was that they didn’t sing Streets Of Edinburgh which to me is a classic song from their Angry Cyclist album. They finished with I Would Walk 500 Miles which had the whole audience singing along. I think I walked at least a 100 miles myself at Glasto this year easily.

Caroline Lucas.

After The Proclaimers I stayed to hear a short speech by Caroline Lucas of the Green Party & CND who gave a warning about the catastrophic effects we are having on the planet and the ridiculous expenditure on nuclear weapons when we could spend that money on the health service or education. I think she is great, and nice looking. If I was Prime Minister I’d have her in my cabinet anytime. The next act I saw was Carrie Underwood who I must admit I didn’t know anything about at all. I have looked her up since and she is huge in the USA and other countries as well. I would describe her as country-rock. She was blown away by appearing at Glastonbury. 

Carrie Underwood.

The security people along the front of the stage were handing out cups of water to the crowd who were suffering in the heat. She said she had never seen that at a festival before. It makes you wonder what sort of festivals they have in the USA. I enjoyed her performance anyway, she was hot.

I was too hot myself and decided to head for the shade of my favourite stage, the Acoustic. On the way I bought myself a new t-shirt in the market area because I had run out of clean clothes. I also looked in the theatre tent at a high wire act. In the theatre field there were all sorts of crazy things going on, even people dressed as sheep on mobility scooters being herded by a farmer. 

Fun Lovin' Crime Writers.

The first act I saw in the Acoustic was The Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers. I didn’t know what to expect from this. They are all famous crime writers. The lead singer is Val McDermid who I recognised from Question Time on the telly. They got together at a crime writers conference where they got bored with talking about crime and started talking about music. They discovered that some of them either sang or played an instrument and decided to get a band together. All their act was songs about murder and crime such as I fought The Law, Psycho Killer, Riot In Cell Block 9, I predict A Riot, Whiskey In The Jar, The Long Black Veil, Watching The Detectives. They also did one song about their day job which was Paperback Writer. I thought they were great and really good fun.

Ladies In The Blues.

The next act I saw was Ladies In The Blues who are four female singers from Ireland with an excellent band who sang either individually or together blues songs by great female singers from Bessie Smith to Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin. They were wonderful. I think this year was the year of female acts at Glasto. On Desert Island Discs Emily Eavis said 42% of the performers this year were female and it is their policy to get it up to 50% and have gender equality.

After that I went to Pilton Pasta and got some nice food. They have been in the same place at Glastonbury for 20 years and I always try and support them because they are nice people, the food is delicious, and the profits go to support a children’s hospice. It was getting cooler now, so I made my way back to the Pyramid Stage.

Janet Jackson.

Janet Jackson was on when I arrived. It’s not really my type of music but I watched because it was quite spectacular and brilliantly choreographed. I was surprised that I actually recognised a few of the songs. I felt a bit sorry for her though because she had trouble with her microphone which was at the side of her head. It was ok when she was sideways on to the audience, but when she was facing the audience it looked sometimes like she had a comic relief nose on. You could tell she was aware of it as well. I bet somebody got shouted at afterwards.

The next act was Liam Gallagher. I have never been a big fan of Oasis but I watched for a bit to see if his brother Noel joined him on stage, but he didn’t. It was getting chilly now so I went back to base for a while to get a jacket. When I returned the crowd were waiting for The Killers to appear. 

Killers.

I watched for about half an hour from the back of the field. They were good and quite spectacular, and they obviously love Glastonbury. After a while though I thought I ought to go and watch Hawkwind for old times sake because in the early 70’s we used to follow them everywhere. They were second only to Pink Floyd in the psychedelic rock genre. I met up with Bob & Paula for Hawkwind. I don’t know if any of the original band are still there, but they were spectacular and the light show was incredible. In the olden days they used to have a female dancer called Stacia and they have two new dancers now, but I don’t know their names. My only disappointment was that they didn’t play Silver Machine which was my favourite, back in the day.

Hawkwind.

After Hawkwind, me, Bob & Paula went round to the crew bar and got chatting to a few people. I met a couple who used to live in Westbury who knew lots of the same people I do and a lady who lives in Norton St Philip. It shouldn’t be that surprising though because Westbury is only 25 miles away. Eventually we headed back to Tom’s field and called it a night. The most  exciting day of all was only hours away.

TO BE CONTINUED…………………………….