There is definitely reason for me to write down exactly what I did at Glastonbury this year. It was, by all accounts, the greatest Glastonbury festival ever, the 40th anniversary. And for me it was certainly better than last year and possibly one of the best weekends of my entire life.
We start the narrative on Wednesday, got the train down to Somerset with Meredith, carrying a selection of incredibly heavy rucksacks, tents, sleeping bags and carriers full of kit. The train went Piccadilly to Birmingham, on to Taunton, Castle Cary and then the shuttle bus to the festival site. Then a trek across the site to the Park Home Ground where we finally pitched up, nine hours after leaving, in a little site with Mike, Matt R and their mate Alex. That night was spent sleeping.
The next day was spent exploring the festival grounds, eating, lying in the scorching sun and generally relaxing with a couple cans of lager. The evening was spent up at the Stone Circle celebrating Alison's birthday. I hadn't seen her in so long so it was excellent to catch up with her again and spend a bit of time chatting.
Friday it all began properly. Where's my festival program? I want to write down exactly who I saw... got it! Right, Friday began with a hilarious set by Rolf Harris on the Pyramid Stage. Possibly the best bit about it was trying to explain to Meredith, an American girl from the midwest who had never heard of him before, why he was so brilliant. Her overall opinion following his set was "He kinda sucked".
Following on from that we stood toward the back of the Other Stage field to watch The Stranglers, and then worked our way to the front for The Courteeners and Phoenix. The Courteeners were one of the main bands to completely turn around my opinion of them with their performance. I pretty much discarded them beforehand, they were like a less good version of The View, indie rockers with guitars and nothing much else about them in my eyes, but their set took me by suprise, they blasted the songs out and they just took me over somehow. For whatever reason I am now a fan. Phoenix as well, I liked them before but I just supposed they would come onstage, play their songs pretty soberly and then leave, but they were really enthusiastic, very lively, the singer was the first of many who I'd see walk down from the front of the stage and approach the crowd during the weekend, they just seemed to be really enjoying it as much as the audience was. So a very good start to the weekend.
Afterwards we went to the Pyramid Stage to catch a lightning fast stormer of a set from Vampire Weekend, they literally crammed every song you would want them to play from their two albums into an hour long set. Took myself along to the Leftfield tent then to see Carl Barat who played a mixture of new solo songs, Dirty Pretty Things best tracks and some Libertines classics. Can't say I was too taken by his new solo material but that might just be because you can never get an idea of a track when you hear it live for the first time. But the Libertines songs just turned the crowd crazy. Finally I went back to the Pyramid Stage for the Gorillaz set. Everyone seems to have their own opinion of it and according to people I spoke to 80% of people hated it, and 20% of people loved it. I would argue that those 80% just didn't really care much for them in the first place past Dare, Feel Good Inc and Clint Eastwood and everyone who did genuinely like them, and was aware of who Mark E Smith and Lou Reed were would fall into that enlightened 20% but maybe that's just snobbery. Mark E Smith and Lou Reed performed with them during their set by the way, as did Snoop Dogg, Shaun Ryder and a bunch of rappers/hip-hop artists who I don't really know but were still excellent.
I was on a little downer after that evening for a reason or two so tracked down Mike, Alex and Alex's girlfriend Jen for a little entertainment. We walked through Arcadia and then found a little bar in The Common where one of the bar staff would climb onto the bar every hour or so and play a saxophone solo over whatever music they were playing, to dance, drink and sniff poppers in through til the early hours which definitely lifted the spirits.
Saturday morning began watching Two Door Cinema Club followed by a brief stint in the Orange Chill'n'Charge tent that I spent talking to a gorgeous blonde Irish Stornaway fan girl in massive aviator shades who used to live in Manchester and a random 40 year old guy from New Zealand via Rhyl. After that I told Mike to come watch Imogen Heap with me, who played another highlight set of the festival for me, all sampling wine glasses live on stage and accapella crowd interaction numbers. She also played Let Go which I was blown away by, one of my favourite songs ever and as it's a Frou Frou track as opposed to her solo material I didn't consider she might play it.
After that I was well placed to see Kate Nash. I am a massive Kate Nash fanboy, let that be known to the world. I think My Best Friend Is You is a great indie pop album, Don't You Want To Share The Guilt is a modern day alt-pop classic. She is stunning and has the potential to be a real feminist icon. They didn't show it on the TV footage but toward the end she went on a big call-to-arms rant about how the number of male musical composers outweighs female composers and how people need to change that and also jumped down from the stage throwing water over herself from the barrels, screaming down the mike and flapping her oversized outfit about not giving a toss about the fact she was flashing her giant granny pants to whoever was watching. Genuinely love her.
Quickly ran to the Pyramid Stage to catch The Dead Weather then who were good, then hot footed it back to the Other Stage for The Cribs. Definitley the greatest indie band around right now. They walked on to the Twin Peaks theme tune. At one point when I looked up at the stage the realisation hit me, I was staring at The Cribs, playing with Johnny Marr, whilst Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth was being shown on the big screens either side of the stage doing his spoken word part for Be Safe, with Kate Nash stood at the side of the stage cheering them on. My eyes nearly burst.
Off then to see The XX on the John Peel Stage. Great band, played much as they sound on record only they brough Florence without her machine on to play You Got The Love only I didn't witness this fully as we left halfway through their set to sit on the grass outside, my feet were near bleeding at that point. But somehow we found the energy to get back in there for Jamie T's headline set. That was the first time I'd ever watched Jamie T play live and I wasn't dissapointed. He roared through each and every track about twice the speed as they are on record and bounced around the stage like a slightly sedated Tigger off of Winnie The Pooh.
The following night then included an aborted attempt at finding Strummerville with a few other people I'd known once upon a time, but Shangri-La had been closed off as it was too busy, and I was too tired to hang about so just went back to the tent to sleep.
Sunday then, the final morning, kicked off with The Joy Formidable on the Other Stage, I had never ever heard them before, just went to see them from some vague internet recommendation but was so very glad I had, they were a grungey force of a band who haven't even released a proper album yet, which reminds me I need to get every single thing of theirs I can find downloaded as soon as I stop writing this.
Quickly took myself over to the Pyramid Stage for Paloma Faith. Again this was a defining Glastonbury 2010 moment for me again. Her stage set was ridiculous, she was running around with two giant balloons attached to her shoulders which looked like they were going to launch her into full flight at any given moment. I knew some of her songs before but every single one was so luscious and haunting, I had a bit of an epiphany moment during Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?
Saw Everything Everything after this in the John Peel tent, then met my brother for a bit of a wander and chat. Went to find Meredith after that and sat for a bit toward the back of the Other Stage for possibly the only two underwhelming performances I experienced all weekend, The Temper Trap and Grizzly Bear. Following from that myself and Mike barged our ways down to the front again for We Are Scientists, Mike hardly knew them either but went mad for it, same with MGMT who were just enthralling, a complete psychadelic indie haze, what made it a little more trippy is that we seemed to be surrounded by teenage girls in full blue avatar body paint who kept insisting on climbing onto Mike's shoulders, and a guy stood behind us who kept waving a fluffy sheep over our heads.
Onto the final acts of the weekend, Julian Casablancas was definitely up there. Had gone along expecting maybe his solo album from start to finish but he ended up peppering the highlights of Phrazes For The Young with Strokes songs, whilst running about the stage ranting like an indecipherable lunatic, kitted out in a red 80s shellsuit jacket and blonde streak in his hair.
Finally I took myself over to the Pyramid Stage for the closing Stevie Wonder set which was simply breathtaking. Happened to be stood next to Jo Whiley for near enough the whole thing as well which added to the surrealness. Him closing with Happy Birthday featuring Micheal Eavis rounded it all off perfectly. And then it was time for sleep, and an early trek back to the shuttle bus stop to get the train back to Manchester.
All in all a fantastic weekend with some of my best friends, it had it's highs, it had it's lows, it had plenty of smoothies, waffles and bacon baguettes. Cannot wait until Glastonbury 2011 now! I will be there. I have the bug, I will be one of those beer bellied 40 year olds who walk around the site with their bucket hats on.
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