Billy Apple Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 (edited) Post up your Glastonbury experiences here. The one and only time I went was 1987, when it was called the Glastonbury CND Festival, and in some-ways was on the cusp of the end of the Stonehenge free-festival thing, to the full blown corporate monster we have today. I have only good memories of it. Me and the Lass set out hitch-hiking from Sheffield early on a Thursday morning, the very first lift we got was from a lorry (an old Army type Bedford thing) going to Bristol. He dropped us at Bristol rail station, and while we were crossing the road a Transit van stopped and just offered us a lift to Pilton. They were running a burger stall, and took us all the way in. TBH, we did not even really know where Glastonbury was, the Lord will provide we thought, and he did. Any-hoo, Friday for us was the Soup Dragons, Julian Cope (boring) and New Order (laser show, but I thought they were boring). Saturday was The Wooden Tops, Green On Red, and Elvis Costello (with his attractions). On his own he was dull, but with the Attractions it was ace. Sunday was The Poppies, Stump, Gaye Bikers, and Dr and The Medics who were all ace. All in all it was a great weekend, there was so much else going on with theatre and alt-performance, and it did feel like we were doing something alternative, and not the new mainstream. However, I could feel that things were changing and I have never been back. In some-ways I had more respect for Reading and Donnington (as they were at the time), at least you knew they were there to make money, and you were well provided for. Anyway, we did not chance out luck hitching back, instead flying National Express back to Sheffield. And that's it. Great times, seemed liked the summer would never end! Edited June 30, 2013 by Billy Apple Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 1971, I'm afraid, and very dim and distant memories of the acts that far back (we went for the Fairports and Traffic, the rest was bonus...). We made a cabin from bales in a field, and later climbed the Tor (ironic; now I can hardly climb the stairs..! ). My GF at the time was quite into ley lines and such. The weather was impossibly hot, very unlike an English summer. I got quite a bad dose of sunburn. I don't remember how we got there and back, but I assume we hitched, as it was our 'normal' mode of transport at the time. No dope, just the summer of love. Great times... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 Festivals never interested me,and still don't tbh. Donington&germany monsters of rock a few times was my lot. I think people, on the whole are treated with more respect these days. I find that we were treated like cattle in veal crates for outdoor gigs in general. Anyway, regarding glastonbury. I was a huge Hawkwind fan & purchased the ultra rare(and much talked about)Glastonbury fayre lp. It was a triple lp, complete with spaceship,and various hippy stuff. I was never a hippy tho'. It was realeased in '71? The very first Glastonbury. Bowie was good on it, as were the pink fairies and edgar broughton band. Mh tastes changed over the years,and i sold it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntLockyer Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 1996 was my first visit. It was a year of horrendous storms in the area and it took almost exactly 24 hours to get there door to door (150 miles) because of fallen trees. I fell asleep at the wheel of my van while in stationary traffic (my bird was asleep in the back) when I woke up to someone banging on the window and realised the traffic had long since started moving and cars were going round me. Anyway we went there and it was alright, muddy as f***, got into a bit of an altercation with a rentacop who tried to run me over in a land rover and I ended up smashing the windscreen by punching it gently. I remember seeing Beck and RATM and smoking some weed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 1981, when I was taken for my birthday by my sister, and then the following 2 years. Really don't remember much of the music, I remember hawkwind and aswad, but looking at the setlist, it says that gong were there, and I liked gong (at the time) but I really don't remember them. 82 I remember Van Morrison and aswad again (no idea, they always seemed to be on). I dont' remember anything of 83, not sure why, there may have been drugs.. it wasn't so much about music when I was there, but there was a lot going on. I remember kevin turvey (rik mayal) doing a set in the comedy tent and him ranting about everyone and the crowd just looking at him trying to work out if he was serious. 1981 I think I got sunstroke, 1982 we almost got rained out, it was so muddy, but either way it was quite fun. I don't think it is the same sort of festival these days. Not least as it is £200 these days, whereas it was £8 in 1981! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Apple Posted June 30, 2013 Author Share Posted June 30, 2013 [quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1372626391' post='2127922'] Not least as it is £200 these days, whereas it was £8 in 1981! [/quote] £20 in '87 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmo Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 !992 was my first time. Trying to get in was bad as the organisers had decided that year the travellers weren`t coming in for free, so they blocked the entrance. Took hours to get in. It was a boiling hot weekend.The organisers had to bring in emergency water to give out. My memories of Carter USM, The Levellers on the Friday was awesome. Saturday was not so much to my taste musically. Highlights for me was Thousand Yard Stare, Ocean Colour Scene, Lush, Catherine Wheel and Sandkings. ( Biggest disappointment after was when the lead singer of Sandkings had a hit With Babylon Zoo, Spaceman). Sunday had Blur headlining the NME stage, Neds Atomic Dustbin, Teenage Fanclub and the Frank and Walters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deep Thought Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 I was also there in 1987, my only visit thus far. I went to see Hüsker Dü, which I did, and very glad I am that I did. Otherwise I don't remember much else except That Petrol Emotion, who I also enjoyed. I have a vague recollection of Elvis Costello, although I confess I was out of my head at that point. My most enduring memory is of the sh*t I had when I got home, having clenched my buttocks together for four days being unable to face the festival toilets-no Portaloos in those days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Apple Posted June 30, 2013 Author Share Posted June 30, 2013 [quote name='Deep Thought' timestamp='1372627489' post='2127949'] I was also there in 1987, my only visit thus far. I went to see Hüsker Dü, which I did, and very glad I am that I did. Otherwise I don't remember much else except That Petrol Emotion, who I also enjoyed. I have a vague recollection of Elvis Costello, although I confess I was out of my head at that point. My most enduring memory is of the sh*t I had when I got home, having clenched my buttocks together for four days being unable to face the festival toilets-no Portaloos in those days. [/quote] I totally forgot about Husker Du, and we went out of the way to see them. Bob Mould was playing a flying V as I remember, and I've just recalled I have some pics of him buried somewhere! +1 on the pan-cracker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 (edited) I went to the first one in [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Festival_(1914%E2%80%931925)"]1914[/url]. Although the lights were going out all over Europe, they weren't going out in Glastonbury since mains gas had not yet reached the town and there [i]weren't[/i] any lights. Apart from candles and precious few of those. Accompanied by my old friend Walter Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, I drove down in my De Dion at a stately 17mph, arriving just as the spectacular Arthurian pageant began. To the astonishment of all present, Dame Nellie Melba emerged from an artificial lake costumed from head to foot in snail shells and pondweed and bearing on high a replica of the sword Excalibur. The cold water having affected her delicate throat, the antipodean songbird rendered 'God Save The King' in a rasping pizzicato twang and was duly canned off in a hail of piss bottles thrown by a splinter group from the Bloomsbury set. Darkness fell. In keeping with the traditional 'Merrie England' nature of the event I cudgelled some peasants into building me a bower of willow and fern within which I passed a comfortable night, lulled to sleep by the loud Sapphic exertions of Miss Vita Sackville-West in the neighbouring tent. The next day mighty thunderheads loomed over the Quantocks and it commenced to rain. Such was the precipitation that large puddles formed wherein a man might drown. Panic spread accordingly. Despite the piteous entreaties of the festival organiser Mr Rutland Boughton, the motley crowd of harlequins, troubadours, faire damsels, 'picturesque' rurals and fully-armoured knights-errant stampeded for the exit. Over-running a police cordon set up in anticipation of such an outcome, the crazed festival-goers fanned out through the town, pillaging and looting as they went. As Glastonbury lay beneath a lurid canopy of flames and smoke, the Mayor read the Riot Act. The while, a company of the Somerset Light Infantry fired a succession of shots over the heads of the crowd. Tragedy struck with terrifying swiftness. A mis-aimed ball took my pal Drax in the breast at the precise moment he was unplugging himself from AE Housman. There he lay as the crimson gore flowed over the cobbles, a Shropshire lad cut down in his prime. Housman was beside himself and must perforce be restrained from throwing himself upon the permanent way of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway. It was carnage on a grand scale and it's put me off festivals ever since. [color=#ffffff].[/color] Edited June 30, 2013 by skankdelvar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 [quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1372629238' post='2127973'] I went to the first one in [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Festival_(1914%E2%80%931925)"]1914[/url]....and it's put me off festivals ever since. [color=#ffffff].[/color] [/quote] Can't think why, sounds just about par to me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Apple Posted June 30, 2013 Author Share Posted June 30, 2013 [quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1372629238' post='2127973'] I went to the first one in [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Festival_(1914%E2%80%931925)"]1914[/url]. Although the lights were going out all over Europe, they weren't going out in Glastonbury since mains gas had not yet reached the town and there [i]weren't[/i] any lights. Apart from candles and precious few of those. Accompanied by my old friend Walter Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, I drove down in my De Dion at a stately 17mph, arriving just as the spectacular Arthurian pageant began. To the astonishment of all present, Dame Nellie Melba emerged from an artificial lake costumed from head to foot in snail shells and pondweed and bearing on high a replica of the sword Excalibur. The cold water having affected her delicate throat, the antipodean songbird rendered 'God Save The King' in a rasping pizzicato twang and was duly canned off in a hail of piss bottles thrown by a splinter group from the Bloomsbury set. Darkness fell. In keeping with the traditional 'Merrie England' nature of the event I cudgelled some peasants into building me a bower of willow and fern within which I passed a comfortable night, lulled to sleep by the loud Sapphic exertions of Miss Vita Sackville-West in the neighbouring tent. The next day mighty thunderheads loomed over the Quantocks and it commenced to rain. Such was the precipitation that large puddles formed wherein a man might drown. Panic spread accordingly. Despite the piteous entreaties of the festival organiser Mr Rutland Boughton, the motley crowd of harlequins, troubadours, faire damsels, 'picturesque' rurals and fully-armoured knights-errant stampeded for the exit. Over-running a police cordon set up in anticipation of such an outcome, the crazed festival-goers fanned out through the town, pillaging and looting as they went. As Glastonbury lay beneath a lurid canopy of flames and smoke, the Mayor read the Riot Act. The while, a company of the Somerset Light Infantry fired a succession of shots over the heads of the crowd. Tragedy struck with terrifying swiftness. A mis-aimed ball took my pal Drax in the breast at the precise moment he was unplugging himself from AE Housman. There he lay as the crimson gore flowed over the cobbles, a Shropshire lad cut down in his prime. Housman was beside himself and must perforce be restrained from throwing himself upon the permanent way of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway. It was carnage on a grand scale and it's put me off festivals ever since. [color=#ffffff].[/color] [/quote]*wipes tear from eye* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oopsdabassist Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 Classy stuff Skank, I never thought you were THAT old mind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted July 1, 2013 Share Posted July 1, 2013 [quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1372629238' post='2127973'] I went to the first one in [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Festival_(1914%E2%80%931925)"]1914[/url]. ... [/quote] That's got to be the best post I've ever seen on Basschat. You buffoon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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