The Glastonbury Festival 2009 Review - Part One!

This is a review of this year's Glastonbury Festival, in Pilton, UK - in three parts, fully illustrated (ha ha!)

I’ve just about recovered from this year’s festival. You need about a week to fully recharge and get this thing out of your system, catch up on your sleep and (of course) watch the BBC highlights from the comfort of your armchair.

We had the mud, the overindulgence, the cider, the lack of sleep and the sore feet of course, but as the sun peeped around the clouds on Friday morning, I knew it was going to be a much more civilised affair this year.

Being possible to sit on the grass for most of the weekend, a rare joy in itself, I took every opportunity to remove my boots and socks to give my feet some air, much to the consternation of those in close proximity. When it did rain, it was warm, welcome and thunderous, with stabs of lightening which, far from being threatening, simply added to the magic. For the most part, blistering heat prevailed, suncream was the order of the day and cool, refreshing cider went down at an alarming rate.

The site gets bigger and bigger each year. They pack so much in. This is now my seventh Glastonbury – I’ve been coming on and off since 1997 – and in the nineties there was no such thing as Shangri-La, Trash City or The Park. Although I do seem to remember an area called Lost Vagueness from years ago, but it’s an appropriately hazy recollection. It’s no exaggeration to say that it takes well over an hour to walk (slowly) around the whole site.

And why rush when there are so many delights and distractions along the way. This year was definitely the year of chilling out, hanging out and letting the forces of circumstance work their magic. Rushing to catch such and such on the Other Stage, frantic dipping in and out of the John Peel Tent to see some overrated new band, and crushing myself up with the kids to get to the front is now a thing of the past. Although I did crush myself up with the kids on Thursday to watch Maximo open the festival in the Q tent. I guess I just got a little over excited.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. For all intents and purposes, Glastonbury is now a five day festival. So, in blazing sunshine, we jumped on the coach in Manchester at 9am on Wednesday morning all excited. This was short-lived excitement as it took us 14 hours to get there. We arrived late, in the dead of night, due to ridiculous, gridlocked traffic. It was a shocker, the worst ever according to festival organiser Michael Eavis.

Although coach-locked scallies threatened like black clouds on a clear day, mercifully they remained quiet even when frustration and heat stroke finally set in. They were all early drinkers anyway, and some fell asleep. The vodka was flowing and we hadn’t even left the M6. One girl (“date-rape girl” as she became known) demonstrated that it was possible to drink oneself into a stupor, sleep for six hours with your knickers in the air, wake up, be desperately hungover and then make a full recovery just in time to get off the bus and present herself, ticket in hand, at Pedestrian Gate A, fresh as a daisy.

Of course, as soon as we arrived and got ourselves fed and watered (life saving sausage rolls, Danny!), all thoughts of the coach were banished and Thursday, “cider-bus” day, dawned. Yes, the day when I traditionally get wrecked on Somerset’s finest was upon us once again, and I certainly wasted no time glugging down a few pints of medium sweet which certainly got the juices flowing.

It’s lethal stuff. Three pints and I’m singing. Four, and I’m anybodies. It also didn’t help that I followed it up with a rather tasty cocktail of 1part undisclosed energy drink, 2 parts Strongbow, and 3 parts red wine courtesy of some nice kids who I met at the Q stage watching Maximo. Basically, other than drinking, talking a lot and wondering about, that was Thursday. What fun!

Here we are in the sun, enjoying ourselves:

Friday. The main stages open and things kick off. I’ll admit I did start the day slightly hungover, but this was banished with force of will and the might of a veggie burger! So I decide not to waste time faffing about and get on with the day. It had rained overnight, so wellies were the order of the day, and although I’ll admit the photos do look a bit drab, this was nothing compared to previous years. NOTHING!

I’m going to say a few words about everything that I saw or heard, so sit tight! Over breakfast, the sound of ABBA on the breeze – it was Bjorn Again on the Pyramid Stage, rocking up the classics like “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme” and “Mamma Mia”! I didn’t dawdle. I was in serious music mode with no time for cheese!

Swinging by The Other Stage (after a truly boring encounter with the Orange Chill and Charge tent), I caught a few songs by The Maccabees, who were OK but sadly, I’d have to assign the tag “landfill indie” to them as their set didn’t really grab me. Like a lot of MOR indie-by-numbers, they are just a bit dull. Hey ho. Hotfooting it up to The Park, I caught Gaz Coombs of Supergrass fame playing covers – a unadvertised “special guest” no less – and he was great, rocking out all over the place. That got my musical tastebuds fizzing, and about time too.

Finding myself a nice bench to rest my tired legs, I chilled out to the delightful sounds of Emiliana Torrini and band, who I’d never heard of but played a selection of delightful, heart-on-sleeve, low key songs. She has a gorgeous voice and a wonderful band, and will be someone worth checking out again now I’m back in the real world.

I wanted to catch Friendly Fires who were down on The Other Stage, and they didn’t disappoint with their hip-shaking, bum-swinging, hands-in-the-air percussion lead pop. They are a terrific festival band with a very energetic singer who has, shall we say, some serious moves! I danced and sang along as best I could. A particular highlight was their track “Paris”, its full bloodied and punchy. I urge you to check it out.

Back to The Park for the evening, and after catching the end of The Horrors, who bored me on this occasion I’m afraid by virtue of being too bleak for such a lovely day, it was time for Animal Collective who were amazing. I guess they are actually quite difficult to describe – so here’s a sample -

End of Part One!