Glasto

[Ridgley]

Don't do mud and dirt not for me :-S

[StraferJack]

can anyone tell me why we have to listen to huncamunca spout this stuff when he sells art and goes skiing, and spends so much time on a computer

"easily manipulated victims of capital on the conveyorbelt of ostentatious consumption"

[MrBen]

Almost everyone who moans about it now either:

A: Has never actually been themselves OR

B: Is one of those "you should have been here in 1985" types

It's hard to explain the once in a lifetime experience of standing in a field with 120,000 roaring on Rolf Harris and his wibble board. The usual rules just don't apply to the Glastonbury experience. It's rarely about the headliners although David Bowie's epic set in 2000 still gives me goosebumps.

[Jeremy]

giggirl Wrote:

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> Mosh pit? For U2?

[Jah Lush]

MrBen Wrote:

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> Almost everyone who moans about it now either:

>

> A: Has never actually been themselves OR

>

> B: Is one of those "you should have been here in

> 1985" types

Arf! So true. I fall into the latter category. My one and only experience of Glastonbury in '83 or was it '84? Can't remember and anyway, who cares. I'd been up a few days on the powder before I arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning, took some acid, drank a vat of bloody awful cider, smoked large amounts of marijuana and woke up on Michael Eavis's pool table back at his farmhouse before venturing off to do pretty much more of the same.

[HonaloochieB]

As a sidebar, I once made an hilarious remark concerning Beyonce during an information session on benefits.

We were asked if we knew anything about JSA (Job Seeker's Allowance) and for the purposes of comedy I deliberately confused the initials with the name of Beyonce's husband.

At least half the room were falling off their seats in helpless mirth - the others knew nothing of pop music and were perplexed at the response to my remark.

Glastonbury, though, no I won't be going.

[aspidistra]

*Bob* Wrote:

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> The 'line-up' (by which people usually mean the

> main acts) at Glastonbury has, notoriously, always

> been 'crap'.. but you'd have to be blind deaf and

> dumb to not stumble across at least a couple of

> dozen acts that surprised you. And stumbling

> across things has always been the way to go.. not

> stubbornly traipsing in line with your NME lanyard

> with various bands tediously circled in red pen so

> you can tick bands off like some sort of mundane

> musical treasure hunt.

>

> I preferred the old festival before The Fence went

> up - and probably won't go again - but anyone

> could see (especially in the last couple of years

> prior) that it couldn't continue in the way it was

> - and clearly plenty of people like the way it is

> now.

>

> The best thing about the new security is the

> burgeoning of dozens of smaller festivals -

> including those to cater for the 150,000 people

> who used to arrive without a tent and pay a nice

> man from the north west ?5 for 'special entry'.

Yes, it's not about the headliners. Rarely have all the headliners been quite so crap though.

I prefer the sub-10k festivals. Without lanyards or the rest of it. Roll on Glade (this weekend), the mutant offspring of Glastonbury.

[Jeremy]

aspidistra Wrote:

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> I prefer the sub-10k festivals.

I agree, 10k is a bit too much to spend on a ticket.

[aspidistra]

:))

[Salsaboy]

I thought 10k was how far the car park was from the stage.

[TillieTrotter]

What Strafer and Mr Ben said back on the first page.......it's all about the experience, the people watching, the utter dont-give-a-shit-ness. I love it and feel gutted every year I don't go! Now I've really upset myself.

[StraferJack]

Mr Ben

It's rarely about the headliners although David Bowie's epic set in 2000 still gives me goosebumps.

No idea what you are talking about

[Otta]

Says much that for the first couple of years of the forum, Glasto talk meant good-natured chitchat about times had there and now it's just people bleating about it

I always said it was shit... Not that I was using the forum back then obviosly.

[mockney piers]

I've just looked at the line up and there are frankly dozens of acts I'd like to see.

Wild horses however couldn't drag me into a field full of a hundred and fifty bloody thousand people. I can barely cope with lordship lane of a Saturday afternoon.

http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/line-up-poster/ its not just coldplay you know.

[maxxi]

Safety?!?? rather than experiencing the gritty, danger-laden, white-knuckle-ride that is life on the edge at Glasto? I feel my crystals vibrating......

[maxxi]

mockney piers Wrote:

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> I've just looked at the line up and there are

> frankly dozens of acts I'd like to see.

> Wild horses however couldn't drag me into a field

> full of a hundred and fifty bloody thousand

> people. I can barely cope with lordship lane of a

> Saturday afternoon.

>

> http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/line-up-post

> er/ its not just coldplay you know.

You're right - and thanks to the link I've found out I'm playing 'WOW' on thursday (got to get a diary secretary)

[malumbu]

I like Bob's views

I thought everyone had dropped that stupid pyscophantic shortening of the name to Glaso - what a load of wank (first time I have sworn on this forum).

Anyway, almost off my soapbox. Some of the new acts will be worth watching, it is a shame that the telly only covers the old farts. I rang the BBC to complain when Paul Macca was on. Also how does an audience that was not born when Blondie were in the charts know all the words?

I'm off to Beautiful Days to be a grumpy old man.

[mockney piers]

Anyway I have half man half biscuit on Friday, that'll do me.

[*Bob*]

It's an entirely different festival now, post 'superfence'.

One element remains - the stage / bands half. But the other half - the apocalyptic, 24-hour Mad Max-esque area centred around the Green Fields, has gone. This was where the party was always at for me and I rarely ventured out of it. It was comparatively dead after the fence.. transformed into a cross between a vegetarian food court and the Lambeth Country Show.

Not that it was all roses near the end.. No Police, with dubious drug dealing by endless streams of dubious shady characters rife to the point of absurdity. I saw people wearing sandwich boards with prices on. Casualties littered the ground by morning, with the paramedic vehicles constantly sweeping through. Tents pillaged nightly. Some genuinely scary people and an occasional air (or worse) of intimidation and violence.

But it was a genuine experience. A totally unpredictable, random experience. Tens of thousands of people (many, completely unhinged) on an unfettered four day path to total excess.

It used to feel like a giant party - with some festival/bands thing on the other side providing an atmospheric backdrop. Now I think it just feels like 'a pop festival'.

[Jeremy]

*Bob* Wrote:

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> Now I think it just feels like 'a pop festival'.

Ah, but they have the leftfield tent, hosting "debates" earlier in the day ("POWER IN A UNION", "ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE", etc)... and then Billy Bragg sings some songs. You can't go wrong with that, can you?

[*Bob*]

Bragg followed by Double Benn (Tony and Mitch)

Rockin'.

[TillieTrotter]

I beg to differ, I don't feel like it's a pop festival at all (having been to a few crap pop festivals). Again, it's not hugely about the music but the diversity and excitement of the crowd.

[*Bob*]

You're right.. 'just a pop festival' is unduly harsh.

It's still a great festival and I'll still wish I was there when it starts.

But it's definitely less of a party. A lot of party people who used to make it really swing (daddio) have decamped to other smaller festivals - ones that cater more specifically for them, only with less associated hassle and more chance of it not pissing down!

[malumbu]

My first year was 84, only about 30,000, sunny, sit on the grass and the hippies came round selling 'red leb' 'acid' 'speed'. Four years later it was organised drug dealers and much more threatening, and the new age traveleers were getting more unfriendly. Which is why the police were called in. But their gig was pretty bad, probably owing to the spat between sting and the others.

Also saw half man half biscuit on the second stage.

Please change the name of this thread to Glasonbury.

[Jah Lush]

People not at Glastonbury begin enjoying plight of those who are

Meanwhile, meteorologist, Jane Thompson, explained: "Scientifically speaking, if you insist on booking Bono and putting him on a pedestal to be worshipped, God will try to drown everyone within a five mile radius."