My second time at the festival was with my cousin and flat-mate Digger & spent the week-end with Smiley Riley and Mitsus gang (Paddy, Debby and Peppy). We made the fatal mistake of arriving late on the Thursday night and putting the tent up as the light was failing. We then wandered the site in search of enlightenment, not taking any notice of where we’d camped……a long frustrating night ensued, trying to find the tent. We finally stumbled on it several hours later…..thankfully it was a good weather year.
We saw Michelle Shocked a couple of times over the festival. Once on a small stage on the Friday and on the pyramid stage early on the Sunday when she did the tear jerking ‘Penny Evans‘ as her opening number – a cappella – so brave. I’d previously seen her in central London on the strength of her first LP ‘The Texas Campfire Tapes’ which was recorded on a walkman tape at a festival in the States somewhere. Kershaw championed it and we lapped it up. Anchorage off her first proper LP ‘Short Sharp Shocked’ still does it for me. The 10″ version has her version of Penny Evans from the festival on the B-side which I still treasure.
Friday night at the main stage saw a great set by Julian Cope when he was in his Saint Julian phase with that marvellous microphone stand he’d had made. Trampoline from that LP still sounds boss! I saw him at an anti-poll tax gig in 1990 – no one recognised him til after his first song he said “my name’s Julian Cope and I’m not paying my poll tax”. New Order headlined that night and the set was released as an LP “Have you noticed how all our songs have big endings? Big endings, small dicks!”
By Saturday night we were dead on our feet but determined to see Elvis Costello – he did an ace solo set by the end of which, I really REALLY needed to lie down….he came on for an encore “You wanna make some noise?!” “YEAHHHHH!” and down came the backdrop curtain to reveal The Attractions and they burst into Olivers Army “Fantastic!” (clearly one of the best songs ever) and “Awful” (Oh God – I’ve got to stand for another hour) at the same time.
Husker Du, Ben E King, Robert Cray, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Proclaimers….etc…etc…
Bob