The sunshine was looking over us for most of the long weekend. I soaked up as much of the beautiful festival spirit as i could over the six days spent at the festival. The shows i played were great fun; first one was at the Strummerville Bandstand very late on Friday night; it was pretty surreal to see Neil Young play and then go and play a gig myself...by the time i played; think it was about 2am, there was a big crowd of people dancing round a huge campfire just in front of the stage, my songs got everyone moving ...(those of them who could actually move anyway!) ....i resisted from playing any new tunes and just played the ones i was sure would go down well.. sunshine sunshine, love, let it begin, for all my kingdom , and a few others made way for a very memorable night. There was a huge dance/techno thing next door to Strummerville & evreyone was there..having fun; getting along and sharing the time together, different music and different people all getting down & having fun.
On Saturday I woke up to another one of Matt's fantabulous barbaques and learnt a very valuable festival lesson...come prepared!! My beloved boots..which i bought on Brick Lane a couple of years ago and have been with me on tours throughout the UK, America and all the way round Europe sadly gave way on Saturday morning...tear in my eye in tow, I left them on a field in Glasto in favour of some wellies. It had to be done and from them on I had dry feet and full mud protection that would stop me from falling over , face flat in the mud, like i'd be doing all the night before.
I played a set at the Oxfam tent on Saturday; three days intoitl & i was bearing up pretty well all things considering! The oxfam gig was filmed and is meant to be out there on the magic net so i'll try and track it down and show you. It's a pretty hard task playing a set to people at a festival if they've never heard your tunes before but I think people really dug my tunes and got what my music is all about; a long drive down the coast on a sunday afternoon; top down & raring to go.
After that, the only thing left for Saturday evening was to make my way down to the Pyramid Stage to see The Boss. I'd never seen him play before. The excitment was immense. I think the first time i ever heard one of his songs was when my mum had a tape of one of his live albums playing in our kitchen in Rome when i was maybe 8 or 9 years old and i heard his song "The River" and learned that songwriting wasn't just about "i love you" or whatever, it's about telling a story and putting the listener in a time and place...Bruce Springsteen's specialty is writing songs about getting out of wherever you are and finding something else that's waiting for you..a better place; a new future. I can relate to that very much. Emotions were running wild at about 10 to 10 on Saturday just before he came on..and there he was...The Boss! Starting his set with Joe Strummer's "Coma Girl" was more than enough ...2 hours and 45 minutes of glorious rock n roll followed and I was a very happy man in a big field in the West Country.
I played a bunch more times in peoples's tents and willing passers by..i hope to see them all again very soon as i do all the other amazing bands i saw over the week..far too many to list..Bon Iver takes the crown for my favourite and most memorable Glastonbury moment...getting every single person in the crowd of the Other Stage to sing "what might have been lost" on their closing track Wolves was quite simply...awesome.
My journey home was rather epic...my ride had decided to leave on sunday and there i was on monday afternoon at 4pm without a clue as to how i'd get home..i was in good company though..Vari & Sam and I managed to get ourselves on the last bus out of Glastonbury to Castle Cary train station and get home. That's the thing about the festival..people are happy to be there together and happy to get to know each other and the barriers that The Big City throws between us seem to get lost...everyone's there to have a good time and be together.
I look forward very much to being back at Glasto next year. No tent next year though. A great big fuck off tour bus sounds like much more fun. You're all welcome; free balloons for everyone!
see you soon
love & all good things
xx
Strummerville Campfire Glastonbury 2009
Posts
