Glastonbury revisited

It’s Thursday mid-day and we’re making calls and loading gear from the lads club and everything has that last minute feel to it, we should make it OK, sure we will. Andy, Ben and Mike went down last night and have spent the day blissing out and about as is the festival way. We’re on at 9.30 on the CROWN stage. The billing has been organised by Aziz so we’re in good Mancunian company alongside the likes of Bez and other notable local lads and ladies. Craigs partner Karen is driving and we arrive pretty much without delay. On site we get directions from Ben stylishly attired in French Foreign Legion hat and meet up and greet in the hospitality tent. It all feels a bit privileged as we check into our caravans. Last time I was here I was camping behind the Acoustic Stage when I was working as a compere, talking jibberish between sets and doing my bit to make the artists feel at home. This feels like a very different gig. Lots of people here I’ve not seen in ages. It feels like an old school reunion; even though I still feel a bit of a gate crasher. Steve and Mark from The Fab Café are backstage and we talk about Gerry Anderson again as the Bud flows. The tent is rammed and the gig goes well. Nothing breaks down. People down the front are throwing things at the stage, hats and T Shirts to be precise, they land on our effects pedals and in Bens case on his head. He looks pretty fetching in Panama and wears it throughout the gig. Then it’s back to hospitality and more Bud. Later Karen, Craig and me spend an hour looking for Leah who is working on a food stall but fail to find her due to signal problems and a spontaneous visit to the Cider tent where we enjoy a pint of scrumpy and enjoy the atmospherics, the place is apparently 50,000 strong already. Giving up the search I head back to meet up with Helene and Tim who have a gallon of pear cider to share. All this drinking is not my usual style but it really is a wonderful thing to be catching up with friends around a campfire in a hazy heady way, I get the giggles and feel like a hippy in a time warp. Tim did the artwork on the retrospective Whatever Happened to record…and very fine it is too. We talk about the look of the artwork for the new record and of Helene’s new record and of the joys of Archway’s greasy spoon cafes. I really should get to see them more often. Tim is like my imaginary lunch buddy. I feel like his long lost older uncle. After more cider I hug some emotional goodbyes and head back to the CROWN stage. Andy and Mike are DJing and it’s now 1.45 am, the tent is buzzed up and the tunes are kickin, wicked even [just like they say in dance-world]. People love it. I think I love it too. Then I’m off to bed down in the caravan as I can’t really stand up as well as I should. I ask Ben for a piggy back but he’s having none of it. At five thirty am the others all pile in, Ben is sleeping next to me and as he climbs over me the entire bed collapses, luckily Ben’s the practical type and manages to fix it much to my amazement and gratitude. Then the count is truly out until we are all awoken by the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard and the rain comes a battering on the roof like a man with a big hammer [as my Mom always used to say]. Next day we breakfast in the mud and loiter in hospitality, we can’t get off the site cause there’s a restriction on vehicles. We finally blag a golf buggy courtesy of stage manager Rich and he drives the gear plus Craig [who’s somewhat worse for wear] across the site to the car park. The rest of us follow in the mud. On route the devastation is every bit as complete as you’ve no doubt seen on the news. Then we’re away up north to watch the rest of the festival on the telly. VPx .............................................