This year was my 20th anniversary of working at Glastonbury for FMS who were celebrating their 40th anniversary. The weather was red hot and the medical team saw 4500 patients with only 50 needing to leave the site – a remarkable feat when you think there’s over 200,000 people there.
Mik Artistiks Ego Trip kicked us off musically on Thursday asking the crowd not to sing ‘Mexico’ to ‘sweet leaf of the north’ to which we obviously sang ‘Mexico’
Fontaines DC have lots of catchy bass driven tunes and a frontman just waiting to explode
The Charlatans were a late but welcome addition to the bill. After that we just wandered the site, taking in a bit of comedy and trying to find shade…
The Mavericks were on top form and had everyone dancing the night away (sorry)
Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets – always a joy and what a catalogue of songs!
Made it down to Shangri-La before the crowds and caught French (very) heavy metal heavyweights Gojira – sounded like 2 drummers on stage but it was only one….going mental….
IDLES were an absolute joy. Everyone was raving about their Park performance and this was just as wild – Joe Talbot won frontman of the weekend award with wonderful lyrics as well as the best inter-song banter – thanking everyone (even the bouncers) before starting a conga. Awesome!!
The Burning Hell kicked off Saturday Morning winning over the audience with usual funny/touching songs – getting us all to sing ‘LOOOOOOVE’ – One of my favourite bands
It was SO HOT that we next just sat by a fence in the shade, drinking water and listening to Bean on Toast’s set. It sounded great but we couldn’t bring ourselves to move…..
Sons of Kemet rocked out – I’m up for any band with 2 drummers….not often you hear a tuba solo
Foals were the suprise guests at the park and it got packed – we went up onto the hill to get some air but Simons clothes drowned out the sound…
Sharon Van Etten came on mega serious and focussed – not the ditzy New Yorker I’m used to
SHAME did a great set – wild and what a fabulous guitar sound
We sat outside the Acoustic tent waiting for Hawkwind listening to Keane (funny how many of their songs you know) who over-ran, then Hawkwind were late and we couldn’t be arsed heading for Shangri-La where we’d heard The Damned were going to play, and it would’ve been a pain to get to the Other Stage for the Chemical Brothers so we wandered into the Pyramid field for
The Killers – a great greatest hits set topped with an encore featuring the Pet Shop Boys and the Johnny Marr comes on and they do ‘This Charming Man’ – cue loud sing-a-long
Mavis Staples started Sunday morning with a brilliant blusey set – it was a bit like going to church. She was wearing a Glasto T-Shirt as the airline had lost their bags “I’m keeping mine!”
Love Slaves since seeing them at Reading last year. Ariarne was in stitches “It’s just like 2 angry men bashing it out”
The synchronised dancing to death metal music that is Baby Metal was interesting….but we got together for…
Kylie – A real party atmosphere in the crowd with everyone singing and dancing around us. We had to see this one with
….our favourite Aussie
BC Camplight – heavy and folky – hardcore noise and funky – I can’t classify what he does which suits me
The Cure – We got quite close to you (sorry). Their 2 hour set was just great – Robert Smith’s voice has’t changed since I was a kid – loved it and sent us all home happy
Those we missed: LOW, The Damned, Hawkwind, Tame Impala, Cat Power, Pip Blom, Interpol, Grace Petrie, The Magic Numbers, Frank Turner, Amyl and the Sniffers, Billy Bragg, The Proclaimers, The Chemical Brothers, Slowthai, Snapped Ankles, KT Tunstall, Vampire Weekend, This is the Kit, Fat White Family, The Good the Bad and the Queen, The Streets, Hollie Cook, Keb Mo
Bob the Chiropodist