Glastonbury 2010...

[4linehaiku]

I'd find it hard to believe there's NOTHING on the whole bill that appeals?

Well I'm only talking about the stuff on the main line up page, I'm assuming there will be plenty of things elsewhere. Hyperdub stage for example. Plus everything we'll be playing of course!

 

[Brother Randy Hickey]

well, quite

 

[Loki]

Glastonberries

well, i missed the tickets for this year, despite being more or less a local - slept in and then lost out - so i'm gonna miss it this year but I've been maybe 15 times and what differentiates it from other Festivals I've been to is that it's hard work in every way, even if it's sunny... it's relentless and often stupid and confusing and hardly ever contingent on who's actually playing... i've seen some great performances there (and Orbital reallly did... etc) but almost all of them have been accidents... stumblings....

with Glastonbury, it's the hard work that makes it unique... there's a lot of psychic energy to be smeared and there's a certain effort involved... there's always been a Monty Python (A cardboard box? You were lucky....) element to going and surviving and it's still there, despite the travellers being long gone... i got a bit pissed off circa mid 90s when the NME kinda crashed it but recently it's been easily back to form and the fact that Shangrila etc stay open forever now means you don't even have to trudge off site to the traveller raves....

And as for the music, it's never been about the main stage... though there's maybe a space for a tone setting marker (Michael Jackson dying kind of did it last year)... but a lot of bands play their heart out there - Animal Collective were transcendental at Glastonbury and dull as hell at Green Man etc etc

Now, I like Green Man well enough but it's a picnic, with nice people and pretty bands, same goes for lots of the other boutique festivals (ATP is the exception - it's a kind of Concentration camp for people who know who Devendra Banhart is ); lovely, but an entirely different experience...

I'm really pissed off that i didn't get a ticket - the last night with Orbital is going to be amazing....

 

[Brother Randy Hickey]

if anyone's about myself and my buddy in our Randy & Earl's Old Record Club guise are going to be playing in the Pussy Parlure in the Dance Village from 11am-1pm on Friday and Saturday and around 2pm on the Sunday.

Also got slots on the second stage (well, in the mixing desk tower facing it) at some point, and up in Shangri La in the Bar of Ideas and the backstage bar across the weekend too. But don't know when those are..

 

[craner]

Are there still travellers?

 

[PeteUM]

I was going to do my "it ain't what it was" spiel again but then I remembered that although I'm not going and not fussed my son is, so obviously I should shut the fuck up.

 

[Brother Randy Hickey]

Are there still travellers?

bit of a hard question to answer. There aren't that many old school travellers at Glastonbury, but that's symptomatic of a general decline rather than something specific. A large number of the old guard who might in the past have been in the travellers field now get in through the ever expanding Shangri-La / Trash City etc aspect of the site, as per Lost Vagueness in the past, which was to a great extent made up of the old traveller scene...

 

[Brother Randy Hickey]

I was going to do my "it ain't what it was" spiel again but then I remembered that although I'm not going and not fussed my son is, so obviously I should shut the fuck up.

How could it be "what it was"? I've been going for 24 years and seen it change immeasurably. Not sure it's any better or worse than before, just different., But still very special

 

[craner]

What happened to them all? I last remember seeing lots of them around 1994 on the edges of the Brecon Jazz Festival -- I suppose a sort of free rave / crusty scene limps on in the Wales and West Country landscape but otherwise did they all move to Europe or council estates or something? I mean, they were all over the place in 1992. (The Levellers were in the Top 40!)

 

[Brother Randy Hickey]

i think a lot of those with something to live from - sound systems, scrap / art types like the Mutoids etc - headed for southern Europe; lots went back to the city, either to squat or just give in.
After the Beanfield, the ratio of "together" travellers to brew crew crusties went very wrong, and most of the sites I went to had a lot of smack kicking around. It all got fucking ugly to be honest

 

[Brother Randy Hickey]

well that was pretty much wonderful. Too hot (moan, moan, moan), and going to a site that big two weeks after surgery on your leg is pretty stupid (i had some very painful moments) but the good stuff makes it worth it.

And I got a dressing room

 

[samdiamond]

I had a great time. I thought I'd call it quits with glastonbury after this year (i've been every year since i was 13) but this year was a complete cracker so we shall see. I didn't even make it to much of what I wanted to see, partly because of the heat, but just hanging out with friends and then occasionally wandering over to something was fun enough.

 

[Brother Randy Hickey]

Arcadia was fucking astonishing this year - shit like this makes Glastonbury unbeatable

 

[samdiamond]

uh huh. that whole area was amazing this year, just so much to do and a huge improvement to the club stuff, block9 or whatever it was called etc and all the others around there

 

[4linehaiku]

Just on the train back now, was a pretty amazing week and a half. Only got slightly sunburnt which is quite the achievement given how ginger I am. Saw very little music, only ventured into the main areas twice for Snoop and Stevie. Mainly just ran around around finding cool stuff, danced to Disco in Block 9 and played Techno in the back of our weird fake electrical shop. Shangri La was completely mad, thousands and thousands of people charging through the alleys, completely wrecked the place. I'd definitely go back.

 

[Brother Randy Hickey]

i got to play in the Bar of Ideas, which was the submarine-themed bar in Shangri-La - that was a real treat

a highlight was London Underground - the front was a wrecked tower block with a tube crashing through the roof, the actual venue was like a London free party in a car park. The cream of the London free party scene and then on Sunday some proper roots and culture - Saxon Sound included

 

[Brother Randy Hickey]

awesome

 

[slim jenkins]

do people at glasto smoke weed?

Yes.
And the Pope smokes dope.