Glastonbury 2009

Anyone who's been to Glastonbury will know how vast it is. I had high hopes of taking in loads of bands, but alas caught very little. Here's my highlights & lowlights of what I did see at Glastonbury Festival 2009...


Thursday
Being a highly organised music machine Pama Intl arrived on the Thursday night in readiment to open the Dance Stage on Friday. With our arrival the rain came down. Had a wander round site, but didn't really get to see any bands. Went up to see what the powers that be had replaced the superb Leftfield stage with. Oh dear. The Queens Head tent was poor, even with it's £30,000 screens. Why replace the success of a 6000 capacity tent that was Leftfield with a 1000 (?) cap nonsense, where more money has been spent on the screens then anything else? With Q magazine putting their name to it I thought the programming would of been better.

Highlight; Delicous fish and chips
Lowlight; No Leftfield


Friday
I was a bit apprehensive that people would turn out for our Dance Stage performance being at midday, but I needn't have worried. The marquee filled up quickly and everyone warmed nicely to Pama's dub ramblings. What a wonderful crowd. Loved it!

What a difference a bit of sun makes. Off we headed to see what Glasto had to offer. The sun came out and Glasto was transformed into somewhere I enjoyed being. Caught some of V V Brown on the John Peel stage. Wasn't over keen on the music, but what a fantastic voice. Would love to get her on a Pama Intl tune. She is a star for sure. Then onto The White Lies. Really not my bag at all. I was told they had 3 good songs.

Evening rolled round and time for the show I was looking forward to the most...The Specials. With all their fantastic songs it was interesting to see the biggest cheer for their set went to the 3 chord wonder 'Message To You Rudy'. I wonder if the originator of the song Dandy Livingstone
knows what an impact his tune still has today. Great stuff. The Specials set was super tight, although it seemed the electrifying energy you get from their club shows didn't come across at times in a field. Watch their performance on TV (which I've done now) and it comes across much better. Got to be one of the best bands Britain's produced. Can't wait to catch their UK tour in November.

Straight after The Specials we headed to see the legendary Kinks frontman Ray Davies doing an acoustic show. Absolutely fantastic. Best show I has seen in years. He played all the classics... pick of the bunch being; Apeman, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, All Day & All Of The Night, You Really Got Me, Waterloo Sunset, Shangri-La... they just kept coming. And the crowd, me included lapped it up, singing every word. 3 encores later he finished with Lola. Superb. People were still singing it 10 minutes after they'd left the tent.

I wan't a huge Kinks fan walking into the tent. Can't imagine why now! Definitely off to buy the new Kinks Choral Collection by Ray Daives now.

Highlight; Ray Davies & our Dance Stage show


Saturday
We managed to walk round for hours and saw next to nothing. 3 or 4 songs of Crosby, Stills & Nash, which sadly was very disappointing. I really don't like watching bands on the big stages. To me the sound is always terrible.

Up to Chai Wallehs tent to do our second set of the weekend. Didn't have Ernie McKone on bass for this. He was playing the Motown Revue with Martha Reeves and Jnr.Walkers All-stars elsewhere in the country so he had hightailed off site after our Dance Stage show. In stepped a dep who did very well under the circumstances. The Chai Wallehs crew are a great bunch. We did Sunrise Fest for them back in May, which I have to say was much better then the Glasto experience, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Highlight; the glorious sunshine
Lowlight: the showers were beginning to pack up


Sunday
I got the hell out of dodge. Headed for the train and managed to be home for lunch. Wonderful.
A few of the guys weathered out the Sunday rains. Pick of the bunch for them were Madness and Blur (with a very emotional lead singer).

Highlight; getting home


So there you have it. My 5th time at Glasto. All in all very enjoyable, even if I did seem to spend more time walking round then anything else! Looking forward to 2010, bring back Leftfield! If you get the chance to go see Ray Daives grab it with both hands!



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