All lined up for
Glastonbury
In a little over
4/5 weeks I’ll be getting up on the Saturday morning and emerging from my tent
like a mole, blinking in the summer sun, squinting at the burning rays of the
sun and wondering what the day will bring. Or possibly not. I may well be
rummaging around in the tent, wondering what got soaked and/or ruined with the
rain and thinking just how much muddy can it possibly get. Come what may, I’ll have
seen the first full day of Glastonbury and there’ll be two days to go.
Along with all
the practical planning; getting all the gear together, checking the list and
buying a new tent, I’ve been looking at the line-up since it was announced and
trying to work out the must-sees. (On a bit of a side issue, there appears to
be quite different opinions as to the whole purpose
of Glastonbury. At one end of the spectrum there are some that will say that
the music is irrelevant; that what happens on the Pyramid Stage is simply major
artists flogging the same old tat and that simply being at Glastonbury is the
most important thing, soaking in the atmosphere and being a part of the
experience. At the opposite end are those, who I’m sure, rush around from stage
to stage, trying to see as much music and as many artists as they possibly can.
They’ve paid £200 for their tickets and they’re going to get as many bangs for
their buck as possible. I do think, however, that most people fall somewhere in
the middle. It’s just too big to see every band that you could possibly want to
and however hard you try there are always going to be ones that you miss. On
the other hand, I can’t personally see the point of going and not seeing and
watching any music. You may just as well stand in a field with your mates, getting
pissed and stoned for 5 days. But that’s just my position, and I’m fairly
relaxed about the whole thing. That is why it is such a fantastic place and
without falling into obvious clichés, there really is something for everyone).
But back to
getting lined up. Or rather, the line-up. And here is where I go on about the
music. For me in 2010 and 2011, there were obvious artists that I wanted to
see-Flaming Lips, Coldplay, Dr John and many more. At least a dozen each year. This time however, it’s a
bit slightly thin on the ground. When the line-up was announced it was a case
of “here’s the line up !” followed by a
bit of “well, ok but, mmm, I don’t know exactly”. It was all ho hum. There was
all the fuss about The Rolling Stones finally playing Glastonbury and then the
rest. Just add ons. Now I am in a bit of an odd position about the Stones.
Legends of music and all that, but would I just go to watch them out of a sort
of sense of duty i.e. because they are legends and because they are clearly on
their last legs, I may never get the chance to see them again? I certainly would never pay just to see them,
so in one sense it will be my only opportunity. And they may be really, really
good and I therefore would regret missing out. On the other hand, I may end up
wasting a Saturday night at Glastonbury watching a bunch of old men drag the
tired, bloated corpse of “rock ‘n’ roll” (oh, how I hate that phrase!) round a
stage. In the mud and rain, possibly. A
bit of a dilemma therefore. Maybe I’ll just wait to see what happens and go
with the flow. Maybe I’ll just stand in a field, getting pissed (wet) and cursing
the fact that “Sir” Mick Jagger appears to be bone dry.
(More about the
rest of the line-up later today. Or tomorrow. It make take a couple of days as
I’ve got a tent that needs to be tested. I’m so cack-handed it will take a
couple of days. Actually, thinking about it, I’ll probably miss the Stones as I’ll
still be trying to get the damn thing up.)
