This Really Couldn't Be Rotterdam
Jun. 29th, 2005 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liadnanSo, with the ceremonial faffing dance of "have I left the oven on" complete, I headed for Paddington. By the time I reached there the monumental queue in the pen they set up was already ridiculous, nevertheless I made the midday train and was at Castle Cary in under three hours, on to the bus, and at the site fairly shortly thereafter.
Thursday was, of course, swelteringly hot, and it turned out that masses of people had gone down on the Wednesday, so many of the campsites were already full. Plans to join others on the Pennards Hill ground were clearly out of the question, which at the time was mildly irritating. Ah, the irony.
Managed to locate Atommickbrane &c. through the miracle of mobile telephony (ah, I remember the days when trying to use a mobile at Glastonbury was (a) pointless and (b) liable to result in you being laughed at) on the campsite near the John Peel Stage, and parked myself fairly high up the hill. Not, at the time, that this seemed likely to be particularly important.
Tents up, and sweating like a very sweaty thing, it was clearly time to see if Brothers Pear Cider (surely it should be Perry?) was still up to scratch. I have a particular fondness for this stuff because apple cider (of any kind) actually makes me quite horribly ill. Pear Cider just makes me quite pissed.
Uon and Kat and lots of other people whose names I forget or never knew joined us, and I lay there in the sun below the Girls Aloud scarf someone had tied to a flagpole as a marker.
Eventually I decided to go wandering around the rest of the site, up to the stone circle and all around. Time somehow evapourated until I found myself at the tiny Croissant Neuf stage, the heart of the hippy end of Glastonbury (entirely powered by renewable energy and lit by a revolutionary LED rig, don't you know) and scene of loads of legendary performances over the years, just in time for a not-quite-official set from Almeida Girl and Descarga, a 9-piece band doing Latin stuff with enormous energy and ability. Truly stupendous find. I must have been dancing there until well past midnight.
Much of the rest of the evening is something of a blur. I do know that I visited Lost Vagueness, and the Avalon Café and stage (usually my main base throughout the festival) and also found the new all-night area in the Circus Field, the Gin Palace (featuring CanCan girls). I stumbled back to my tent around 3.40-4, and, I swear, the weather was absolutely fine.
I must have woken very early, and I remember lying there listening to the pitter patter of rain and thinking "bollocks". After a while, it turned into what sounded like a downpour, and then... the most almight clap of thunder I have ever heard. And again, and again, as the sky lit up. I lay there for about an hour not daring to look, trying to convince myself that rain always sounds worse than it is inside a tent. Then I discovered the bugger had sprung a mild leak and, swearing, dragged myself out.
It didn't sound worse than it was. In truth, it couldn't have sounded much worse than it was. Fortunately I had actually packed waterproofs and co, so put them on and went to investigate the leak. As it turned out, some git had stolen the peg from one of my guy ropes and that side of the flysheet -the side facing into the rain- was lying on the inner, hence the leak. I think, if I'd known what was actually going on down the hill, and on the Pennard's Hill ground, and had been going on for an hour or so by then, I might have been less cross.
Having sorted that out, the next priority, obviously, was coffee, so I struggled down the hill. Through the dance area.. no. Dance area closed. OK, round, along the road, by now under about a foot of water. I'd already noticed several flooded tents at the bottom of our ground.
Having struggled onto the main part of the site, there was more in store. "Coffee please." "It'll have to be instant." "Eh?" "No power, we're on gas only." "Oh, well, I'll try somewhere else." "No, there's no power anywhere on the site. Including the main stages. All they've told us is 'we have a major problem'." "Aaah."
So I wandered around for a few hours, the scale of the devastation (which at that point was actually going to continue worsening for a few hours- it finally finished around 1.30, having started around 4.30AM and this was about 10). Tents literally covered in water. Loos overturned (I tried not to think about the water I was wading through). Major thoroughfares such as the main ways from the Pyramid thigh-deep in water. Vans stuck and unable to move because the driver was terrified he was going to slip off the roadway and crash down the slope. Eventually I was too sodden and morose, so I wended my way back to the tent. Where I had my realisation that since the problem, at the stage, was water, not mud (the ground was so hard that the water was draining off to sit in lakes at various key points), I might as well go with sandals and shorts and avoid dragging wet muddy jeans, boots, and socks around all day. After all, it wasn't cold.
When I struggled out again, they'd just managed to regain power on the Pyramid Stage, so I saw my first set of the festival proper, the Undertones, struggling manfully, and actually managing to bring off a reasonably decent gig.
From there back up to the relatively dry hippy end of things, the Avalon stage where, err, nothing was happening (apart from continuing rain and thunder) as they had a rip in the roof and still no power.
Scroll forward through a fairly low couple of hours, as I finished my book... Once the rain did finally slacken off I wandered out and about again, and took various photographs of the devastation on my phone, almost all of which have proved to be not very good.
Back to the Pyramid for the Zutons: a storming set, which finally converted me to them. Elvis Costello: never my thing, but fun nonetheless. Alabama 3 on Jazz/World: sounded immensely good as ever but they really need to write a second song one day instead of continually reworking the first one. White Stripes: listened to the start. I'm not the world's greatest White Stripes fan and I didn't think this was anything like as good as their previous Glastonbury appearance so I buggered off and listened to Oysterband instead, which was a good laugh. After that the usual blur of late night wandering winding up once again at the Gin Palace and then one of the three great Wine Bars (which play classic stuff on their soundsystems and serve wine to dancing loons outside until the wee hours). To bed around 4.
Saturday: started early with the great Hayseed Dixies. Levellers on Jazz World: a storming set as ever. Caught the end of Kaiser Chiefs: thought they were rubbish myself. Chas n' Dave: hurrah. Keane: good gig. Jerry Fish and the Mudbug club, who I discovered last year: on form again. New Order_... not so much. Frankly disappointing, despite the guest appearance of Ana Matronic from Scissor Sisters (and, err, Dave Allen for The World In Motion, but let's pretend that didn't happen and the song remained, as it should be, decently buried). They weren't helped by the fact that the sound seemed a bit buggered up where I was, on the hill. Wound up my evening with Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel on the Acoustic Stage: almost worth it for "Come up and See Me" but I do rather regret missing Kasabian and Razorlight. No, I don't remotely regret missing Coldplay. I would rather stick pins in my eyes. After that, the usual. Bed, waaay after dawn. Went up to Lost Vagueness but it was absolutely rammed, so it was the Wine Bar and the Gin Palace again until I faded. The place was beginning to turn into sticky mud by then, and my sandals almost weren't up to it, but I persevered.
Sunday... and the sun came out. An absolutely gorgeous day, wherein a reburnt my sunburn. Started with Bellydance Superstars and the Desert Roses, the obligatory Sunday morning random slot, the name is fairly self-explanatory. A bit of James Blunt: not my thing but he's a good performer, and his songs are reasonably interesting. Dragonsfly (electro-folk type thing) on the Avalon Stage: danced myself silly. Dresden Dolls (on the sms-conveyed orders of Rob), on the John Peel stage: an instant convert. The end of Van Morrison (good stuff) by default in an attempt to find a good spot early for.. Brian Wilson. Which was just fab. OK, so he's still on another planet, but at least he's visiting for tea these days. And.. oh I just lost myself in the sun ("We thought we'd bring a little bit of California with us") and the sound of the sixties. As Shirley Manson said, "one day we'll be old, and whatever happens, we'll know we heard Brian Wilson play Glastonbury". Garbage were next up, in fact: another storming set.
Finally, I was left with a difficult decision. Tori on the Acousitc Stage, the Wailers on Jazz/World, or the reformed Las on the Other Stage. I went for Tori in the end, performing completely solo for some reason and playing piano and keyboard simultaneously at some point: superb but I do regret not hearing the others.
For the very end, I went with the Beautiful South: perhaps an odd decision but I am rather fond of them - and it's only when you hear them do a set you realise just how many brilliant hits they've produced over the years- and Primal Scream and basement Jaxx do little for me.
From there around and about. Much of the night is very blurry, though I do remember joining a mass a capella version of Bohemian Rhapsody outside the main drag WineBar when they'd run out of music, complete and word perfect. Wound my way slowly up, via a much less crowded Lost Vagueness, to the stone circle and dawn.
Wandered around, paid for my breakfast with an odd 5 euro I found in my pocket, having run out of sterling, and finally made my way to the train station. Managed to clamber on to a train shortly before midday, whereupon my clerks rang me to tell me I was in court the next day, and had to do a very urgent piece of drafting by the end of the week. Heigh ho. They wanted me to come into the office, but when I pointed out how much sleep I'd had in the last few days, and when I last had a proper wash, they saw my point.
So much for the run down. Rather bald, and doesn't give much a feel for the atmosphere, which was actually stupendously good throughout. People are lovely, by and large, at Glastonbury. And I haven't said anything about all the circus/theatre stuff I saw, or the many many random bands and whatnot. In the end, I drag myself down there every year in an attempt to maintain contact with the more random end of what I laughingly call my personality. The point is to just be, and to just be in the company of lots and lots of people who are happily doing the same. Still, there it is. Let the last word go to the wise Atommickbrane:
"The thing about Glastonbury is that it's a great leveller. I typically have quite "high" standards, but at Glastonbury it all boils down to "ground you can walk on", "leak-proof wellies" and "a bottle of perry please". I always find Glastonbury to be a good holiday, but also quite challenging to "go with the flow" and all those other absolutely terrible things which are just an excuse to be a SODDING HIPPY."
Some really not very good pictures here. I may add some more when I find the energy.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 10:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 11:08 pm (UTC)And I'd have gone to see the Beautiful South as well.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-30 01:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-30 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-30 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-30 08:25 am (UTC)Although the crowds would have me hosipitalised in twenty minutes, so I'm not that jealous.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-30 09:25 am (UTC)Kaiser Chiefs
Date: 2005-06-30 03:59 pm (UTC)Re: Kaiser Chiefs
Date: 2005-06-30 06:36 pm (UTC)Re: Kaiser Chiefs
Date: 2005-06-30 07:00 pm (UTC)Right, off to read NME's Glasto coverage in the bath with popcorn and chocolate milk.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-30 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-30 07:25 pm (UTC)Re: Kaiser Chiefs
Date: 2005-06-30 10:31 pm (UTC)