My Glastonbury 2023: Part 5, Morning Has Broken.

Roll call with Millie.

Morning had broken at Glastonbury. It was Sunday, the last day of the festival. The sun was shining, and another great day of music lay ahead, but first we had to complete our last shift of litter-picking. The birds were singing in the trees, and everyone in our gang was in a good mood as we marched down Muddy Lane to meet Millie at 6.00. We had a lot of fun on the last shift as we tore into the work. Me, Peter, Helen, Paul, Gretta & Berna formed a group that we called The Poo Fighters and made up a song about Millie based on Molly Malone. During a break another team member Pete (Thanks Pete) filmed us singing it into Millie’s walkie-talkie so they could hear it back at the office. You can see it below if you want. It seemed very funny at the time. 

Top of the Park.

We finished work as usual at the top of the Park. This time we actually cleaned up the backstage area at the Park Stage and even on the stage where some members such as Peter pretended to be playing on the Park Stage which was also very funny. We were all done by 11.30. Millie gave us more meal tickets and our work was over for another year. What a great team we had been. I hope we all meet up in Millie’s crew again next year. After a rest in a shady café in the Park we strolled slowly back to base for lunch.

The Chicks.

I was pleased with myself for not drinking any alcohol for three days, but now the work was over I enjoyed a couple of cold cans of cider in Tom’s Bar before it was time to hear some music. At 1.30 I made my way to the Pyramid Stage to see The Chicks. I didn’t know a lot about them until recently when their Glasto appearance was announced, and I started watching them on youtube. Also, Iris Dement mentioned them on her recent album which aroused my interest. I had a feeling that they would be one of the hits of Glastonbury, and I was right. They were great. They haven’t been all that well known in Britain but have sold millions of albums in America. 

More Chicks.

In case you don’t know about The Chicks they used to be called The Dixie Chicks, but dropped the Dixie part because it had bad connotations to slavery and things like that. They come from Texas, and since 1995 they are Natalie Maines (lead vocals, guitar) and sisters Martie Maguire (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, guitar) and Emily Strayer (vocals, guitar, banjo, Dobro). I would say they are essentially a Country and Bluegrass band leaning towards rock and pop. They have been quite controversial in the past and suffered a lot of abuse when they criticised American foreign policy in Iraq. I admire them for sticking to what they believe. This was their setlist at Glastonbury Sin Wagon, Gaslighter, Ready to Run, Landslide, Wide Open Spaces, Cowboy Take Me Away, Tights on My Boat, White Trash Wedding, Long Time Gone/Daddy Lessons, Rainbowland, March March, Not Ready to Make Nice & Goodbye Earl. It was a wonderful show which I’m sure brought them many new fans.

Yusuf Cat Stevens.

After The Chicks show ended, I moved nearer to the front and found a nice shady spot next to the mixing desk towards the right side of the stage. I sat on the ground with my back to the barrier and got chatting to this man who had actually cycled to Glastonbury from Bradford On Avon which had taken him two hours. It passed the time having a chat while waiting patiently for the next act to appear. Someone who I had been a fan of for over 50 years but had never seen live before. It was Yusuf / Cat Stevens. I stood up when he appeared to a huge welcome from the vast crowd. He himself seemed visibly moved and emotional with the welcome he got.

My view of Cat.

He had a first-rate band of musicians and backing singers with him as well. I expect most of you watched his performance on the TV, but in case you didn’t this was the setlist, The Wind, Moonshadow, I Love My Dog / Here Comes My Baby, The First Cut Is the Deepest, Matthew & Son, Where Do the Children Play?, Oh Very Young, Hard Headed Woman, Sitting, Tea for the Tillerman, Remember the Days of the Old Schoolyard, If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out, Morning Has Broken, Take the World Apart, Here Comes the Sun, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, Highness, Peace Train, Pagan Run, Wild World, & Father and Son. I was pleased to see that he can still sing as well as ever, unlike some other singers from a similar era. Nearly every song was a highlight for me, but I particularly liked the songs from Tea For The Tillerman and Teaser & The Firecat which took me right back to my college days in the early 1970s when I first discovered his great music. 

More Yusuf / Cat.

Also, I thought it was very meaningful when he sang Nina Simone’s Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood because no musician has been more misunderstood than Cat Stevens. Another magical moment was when he paid a warm tribute to George Harrison and sang Here Comes The Sun. There had been cloud cover for about half an hour, but just as he started singing that song the sun burst through again. I think his performance will live long in the memory as one of the all-time great Glastonbury shows, and I’m grateful that I was there to witness it.

Blondie were due on stage next, but I gave that a miss. I saw them at Glastonbury about 20 years ago and although they were a great band in their day, I didn’t want to see them again. I wasn’t all that bothered what I saw in the evening because I thought nothing would top Cat Stevens performance. After dinner that evening I thought I would wander down to the Leftfield Stage. This is a stage for left-wing causes curated by Billy Bragg which hosts talks and political discussions and music by left leaning musicians. I have heard some great speeches on this stage in the past by the likes of Tony Benn and Jeremy Corbyn. I wanted to see a singer-songwriter called Will Varley because I saw him a few months ago and have two of his albums. He is also a friend of my brother’s family in Deal, Kent. He wasn’t due on stage until 7.30, so I listened to a bit of Barrington Levy on the West Holts stage.

Leftfield Stage.

All I know about him is that he is a reggae singer from Jamaica. I haven’t a clue what he was singing about. It sounded ok, but I moved on to the Leftfield. When I arrived, there was a band called The Lottery Winners setting up their equipment. I thought I had the time wrong and asked when Will Varley was on. I was told he had problems with his voice and had pulled out. I was disappointed but have found out since that Will’s doctors have found polyps in his throat and he has had to cancel all his summer shows until after surgery, so best wishes to Will for a full recovery.

Theatre/ Cabaret Field.

I didn’t know what to do now, so wandered back through the theatre & cabaret field to The Acoustic where I met up with the gang again who had just seen the Bootleg Beatles. I ordered a large chardonnay because I was tired of cider and watched Gilbert O’Sullivan. He was surprisingly good and sang all of his well-known hits from the 1970’s. There was a time when he was just as famous as Elton John. I wonder what he thought about playing to about 300 people now while Elton was playing to about 150,000. Me, Berna, and her friend Orla were dancing to Get Down and every time Gilbert sang ‘Get Down’ we got right down to the ground. It was hilarious at the time, but I could feel it in my back the next day. 

Gilbert.

After that the others headed off to see Elton John, but I wanted to see a bit of Rickie Lee Jones performance because I had seen her before in 2019 and she was great. I said I’d meet the others by an ice-cream van near the back, but that proved impossible. Like Paul Carrack the previous night Rickie played to a tiny audience, but she thanked everyone for coming to see her and not Elton’s ‘supposedly’ last ever performance. I stayed for a few excellent jazz-based songs, September Song, One For My Baby (And One More For The Road), The Second Time Around, There Will Never Be Another You, and Show Biz Kids.

Rickie Lee Jones.

Just before Rickie came on stage you could clearly hear Elton John belting out Pinball Wizard from the Pyramid Stage several hundred yards away. She shouldn’t have to compete with that. Anyway, after a few songs I thought I ought to go and watch the Rocket Man because although I have never been a great fan of his, everyone knows his songs and it would be the only time in my life that I would see him. I watched for a while, but left before the end because I didn’t want to get caught in the rush. I ordered a large glass of wine in Tom’s Bar and listened to the rest of the show from outside the marquee in Tom’s field. Eventually everyone returned after Elton’s show, and we sat about, talking until the bar closed because it had run out of beer.

Aerial view.

Next morning 200,000 bleary eyed revellers were leaving the site, but we had decided to stay on until Tuesday to avoid the queues and the traffic chaos. There was a nice chilled out atmosphere around the site on Monday, but another scorching hot day. I had run out of clean clothes, so rinsed out a t-shirt at the taps and put it on while still wet. That was really refreshing and it soon dried in the heat. On Monday afternoon I went for one last lazy walk around the whole site ending at the Peace Garden where a few people were sitting quietly enjoying the view. There was a large round wooden table there with benches where I noticed this lady sitting and writing in a journal. “That’s a good idea”, I thought to myself, and joined her at the table. I sat there for a while writing notes about everything I could remember about the past amazing week. Eventually we got talking and I found out that she was American but had recently moved to the Cotswolds and had been working at the festival. I told her about my blog page because she was writing about her experience as well. It was nice talking to her and we exchanged email addresses, so I hope you have enjoyed reading this Lynn.

Me, all ready to go home.

On Tuesday morning I had a shower, put on the cleanest clothes I could find, had breakfast and then packed my rucksack and took down my tent which had done such a great job. Kate took a photo of me on the faded square of grass where my tent had been. Donna fetched the van onto our campsite, and we were ready to go. It always feels like a tent peg through the heart leaving Worthy Farm and returning to the forlorn rags of ordinary life, but we will be back. I have been home for six days now, and already the memories are beginning to fade like the mists of Avalon, so I am glad I wrote it all down. Back at the farm the big clean-up goes on. They go over all the fields with a fine toothcomb and even drag powerful magnets across the ground which can detect lost tent pegs. The fence will come down and peace will return to Worthy Farm for another year. Before long the cows will be released from the Pilton Mootel and will be chewing their way happily across the lush pasture, and you wouldn’t even know we were ever there. Thank you very much to Michael & Emily Eavis for a wonderful time. See you next year.

THE END.