Christy Moore at Glastonbury 2004

On YouTube just now I was watching Christy Moore singing Missing You at Glastonbury 2004. It brought back some good memories because me and Kim were there, right down at the front, but I couldn't spot us. I shared the video to this blog page if you want to see it. Also, I dug out this story I wrote at the time.....

It was time to make our way to the Pyramid Stage to see one of my personal favourites Christy Moore. We got there good and early to get right at the front. Before Christy played The Bishop of Bath & Wells came on stage and gave a short speech which was well received. He reminded the audience that during the three days of the festival 90,000 children will have died worldwide because of lack of the basic things we take for granted and he urged the audience to support the charities that the festival supports.  What many people forget, that Glastonbury is a fundraiser. Each year it gives millions to groups such as Oxfam, Greenpeace, Water Aid, Amnesty International and many others. 

I had seen Christy three times before at this festival. The previous time was 1993 when he came on before Lenny Kravitz and The Kinks. On that occasion when he sang Welcome To The Cabaret  Christy said something like, "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to see Lenny Kravitz and The Kinks and Christy Moore, I've never heard of him before!". Christy has always been a big supporter of the festival so it was great to see him back on the Pyramid Stage at 4.00 Sunday afternoon. He hadn't enjoyed the best of health in recent years, but seemed fighting fit again now. It was also great to see him arrive on stage with great support from Declan Sinnott and Donal Lunny. We were in for a great show. Christy began with Before The Deluge, a Jackson Browne song that Christy has made his own. I wondered why he chose that song to open? Had he gotten word backstage about the storm brewing? He followed that with North And South Of The River, a very moving song about Northern Ireland. This set the tone for the show with Christy opting for songs with a strong political message rather than love songs or the whimsical humorous songs for which he is noted.  I wasn't taking notes so can't remember every song that Christy sang, but he did the following for sure, After The Deluge, North And South Of The River, Black Is The Colour (Christy does requests even at Glasto), Missing You, Viva La Quinte Brigada (Awesome, My Favourite), Burning Times, City Of Chicago, Go Move Shift, Hiroshima/Nagasaki Russian Roulette, and Yellow Triangle.

 A few minutes into the set it began to rain and got heavier until it became a downpour, the crowd stayed though even though they were drenched which is a huge sign of the affection the audience had for Christy. I think the rain even made him more determined to entertain the crowd. “I know it’s hard but thanks for staying with us, you created a great vibe to work off," Said Christy. We all knew what the finish would be. It was of course Lisdoonvarna which was superb, and I always like it when Christy name checks my other hero Van Morrison. The song evolved into I'll Tell me Ma and the crowd danced in the mud. All three of them took a bow and walked off in triumph. What a show. As we left John C Scott from the official Glastonbury Website took our photo. I looked like a drowned rat. we went back to the tent. where we found a huge pool of water in it because I had not done the zip up properly. I made a decision. "Shall we go home?", I said to Kim.  "Don't you want to see James Brown?". Neither of us were that fussed about seeing the Godfather of Soul, so we put our possessions in a couple of bags and walked away, leaving our little faithful little tent in a rubbish bin.

 It had done a good job for four years, but it was knackered and caked in mud. I wouldn’t do that these days, I would take it home even if I didn’t want it any more. Love The Farm, Leave No Trace!. We got the bus to Castle Cary and the train and were home about fifty minutes after leaving the site. That evening I went to the pub and watched the Czech Republic play Denmark in the football. then watched about two hours of Glasto on the telly. Bonnie Raitt sounded great and Morrissey and we began to regret coming home early. I felt that we had cheated. That was the only time I have come home from Glasto before Monday. The next day I washed my wellies with a hosepipe in the garden because they were covered in mud and a little bit of Worthy farm became part of our back garden.

Me & Kim soaked after watching Christy Moore. Glastonbury 2004