update;glasto 2013,led zeppelin,abba and take that

Initially I said that this blog was going to be about Glastonbury and music in general. There’s been bits from the old book, “Turn Left at the Womble”, and extracts from the new (as yet, untitled) book.

There hasn’t really been too much about Glastonbury. (Except old stuff). There’s not been much about this year’s forthcoming festival; though I suppose that will naturally evolve the closer it gets.

I think from here on in I’ll just mainly be blogging about Glasto 2013. At the moment it’s only 135 days away and in those 135 days a lot will be happening. Presently I am in the mind to post stuff once a week or so about Glasto and how things are turning out. I am sure I’ll be having a bit of a rant about the line up and at the moment I’m not too enamoured about the speculated line-up. I’m not blown away by the prospects of the Arctic Monkeys, Rolling Stones and Lady bloody Gaga.  I’m hoping that there’ll be some curveball headliners that no-one’s thought of and that are being kept under wraps. A reformed Led Zeppelin would be interesting. Or someone that doesn’t tie in at all with Glastonbury-say AC/DC or Take That. (Although I’d like something unexpected I’d really hope that that Abba don’t crop up. Imagine the all the fuss about that. There’s a lot of revisionism about Abba and about what great pop songs they wrote etc etc. It’s the ultimate rose-tinted glasses. They were the S Club 7 of the 1970’s.)

But it’s only 135 days away and for me there’s a lot to do in the meantime.  Following the mud-fest of 2011 I have to start from virtually scratch with getting stuff together. Everything was wrecked-wellies developed holes; tent, sleeping bag and other essentials were destroyed and/or dumped. All I have is a portable kettle and a rucksack. Is there anything else really that’s needed?

I will keep posting stuff about music and whatever springs to mind. I think it’s time to get a little bit more random.  

As for the new book I don’t think that I’ll be blogging any more excerpts from it on here for a while. It needs a shed load of editing.

And a title.

glastonbury 2011 unreleased extract number 3

(Not included in the "Turn Left at The Womble" was what happened to me at Glastonbury in 2011. This is the third extract I've posted on here. It's all a bit factual without any of my usual polishing and it may be worked up into a bigger piece somehere along the line;with a bit more structure. For now its's just a working draft).

Anyway, exactly this time last week I was pouring pint after pint of cider, it was pissing down like the world was going to end and U2 were giving it some serious welly on the main stage. More of that later.

As  I couldn't get tickets as a punter I ended up working as a volunteer for a charity to get to Glasto. This entailed working 3 x 8 hour shifts in a bar anytime between Wednesday to Sunday. The charity get money for providing the staff to a bar company. In turn, I had to pay a deposit to the same value as a festival ticket (£250) and provided I did my shifts ok I will get my money back. Working for my passage so to speak. The only downside was that until I got there would not know what shifts I would be working. The upside was that I could at least get there and have secure camping, free hot meals, hot showers, flushing toilets and in reality a free ticket to the whole shebang.

As it got closer and closer to the time to go I was becoming a bit wobbly about going by myself (Amy & her mate didn't want to go & work it and were both skint anyway) and I was a bit concerned about stating that I had 7 years bar experience. (I do but didn't tell them it was over 20 years ago). However, due to Amy’s moral support I.e. “don’t be such a wuss”, I plucked up enough courage to wing it.

Well, although there were free coaches to Glasto they were only running from Sheffield & London. This entailed a two hour trip to Sheffield on Tuesday afternoon to leave there at 7 pm for an arrival time of about midnight. Everyone on the coach seemed younger, considerably younger, in fact than me. I felt like a collective Dad so to speak. Most of them seemed to be student-y age with a few couples in their mid thirties-ish.Still made me about 15 years older than them.However,being as cool as fuck and right on the cutting edge has never been a problem for me.(Oh,the irony). The coach was full, about 50 or so and ten minutes into the journey our shifts were handed out. I had dropped for Thursday 11 am to 7 pm (ok as nothing really kicks off till Friday) but then Friday 7 pm-3 am and Saturday 7 pm to 3 am again. Bollocks. This would mean I would miss both U2 and Coldplay and all of Friday and Saturday night. (U2 and Coldplay but still...).The good thing was that come Saturday I would be done and have all Sunday free. The rest of the trip was just like any other coach trip-down the motorway, snatches of sleep, half hour break at the services (leg stretch/toilet break/coffee/ciggie) until we arrived at Glasto at about 11.45.The whole site was  sparkling in the darkness though any euphoria dissipated as there was loads of messing around to get to our campsite, get us the correct wristbands and check all our i/ds. This took till about 12.30 which meant that cack-handed me took till 1.15 am in the dark to get my "easy pop up" tent up and "easy blow up" air bed inflated. A cup of brandy from the neighbours in the next tent helped things work out ok and I was in a knackered haze by the time I finally crashed at 2.00 ish.

Wednesday morning. Woke at 7 ish to grey skies and thick cloud. Not good but no rain. Yet. After a great cooked breakfast in the mess tent popped out for a ciggie and light rain was falling. The ground was turning increasingly soft and it was a case for wellies.Wellies that would stay on my feet for the four days and which I grew to loathe with a vengeance. After a briefing about what teams and bars we would be working (there were about 500 volunteers overall covering loads of bars) we all had to trudge off to our bars with the respective bar managers to see the ropes etching was assigned to the "Music and Cider bar" which meant that a) music would be played at all times (Djs/bands etc) and I would be serving cider.Only cider. Nothing else. No soft drinks. No water. Nothing but cider. It was like cider, cider everywhere and not a drop to drink. I never ever want to eat or drink another apple based product for as long I live.  One brand only and only either pints or halves. All the prepping I did beforehand to find out from Thomas & Amy what exactly "the kids” were drinking these days had counted for nothing! By the time we had been shown how to pull a pint (by pressing one button and dispensing 12 in one go) and how to work the till (press one button for a pint etc) it was 12 ish and it had now been gently drizzling for 4 hours. Outside the ground was turning more and more soft and muddy. Wandered around a bit of the site for the afternoon- bite to eat, coffee etc.Chatted to a few people.One of the stewards told me that even by the Wednesday afternoon bearing in mind that nothing really kicks off till Friday there were already 120,000 people on site (overall its 180,000 when full) and some of the camping fields were already full.Back to the site for evening meal-in the mud this now was an hour’s stretch and knackering.Our site was just outside the main fence and would have been a half hour walk in good conditions but in mud it was twice as long. I was going to go back for a wander round during the evening but being generally knackered after the travelling the day before and sleeping in a tent that was in fact slightly too small decided to hit the sack early-ish.

Thursday. Well, after a crap night’s sleep (I was full of cold before I went) coughing and sneezing through the wee small hours got up at 7 ish.Muddy wellies on again.Breakfast,Shower-good and hot. Back out in the mud again and glooped my way to the bar. Nothing to really say about the work except that for 8 hours I slapped out pint after pint of cider in paper cups. Having to check i/d for people I couldn't possibly guess their age anyway! By the time the shift ended at 7 I never wanted to see another cider as long as I lived. Glooped the way back to the site. Couldn’t be arsed in seeing anything else that night. Evening meal & chats all round till about midnight. Back of my mind-next day I would be working till 3 am and wanted to see some acts in the day before I started work. Squeezed back into the tent. Mud getting everywhere. Time to sleep anyway.

"Turn Left at the Womble" can be got here :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turn-Left-The-Womble-ebook/dp/B0060YCKGW 

sunn 0)))... an extract from the new book

Sunn 0)))

My attitude to Sunn O))) is a bit like that I have with Swans. They are so over-the-top that although I genuinely enjoy and appreciate the music, they do make me laugh as well. I think that you’d have to be so seriously po-faced, miserable and quite frankly, bonkers to take it all at face value. The second track on this album is “Big Church [Megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért]”. Are they kidding me? It has taken me about 5 minutes just to type the title and the spell check is still saying it’s wrong. In the Venn diagram comprised of Microsoft Word and Sunn O))) I don’t think that there is much overlapping.

glastonbury 2011 unreleased extract

second extract of four not in the "Turn Left at the Womble" book as it relates to 2011-wonder what I'll be writing about after june this year...

Sunday.

Well, this was a different kind of day.

No work at all so in some ways it felt as if it was just starting again.

Again got up dead early-7 am therefore only 2 hours kip but applying the I’m knackered anyway principle decided to tough it out and make the most of the day.

As I got up there wasn’t a cloud in the sky -not a one. Although the forecast was going to be good one of the security blokes told me that the BBC were saying it was going to be incredibly hot-27-30 degrees! And the mud would all be dried up by mid afternoon-happy days.

After a massive full English breakfast to start the day right the plan was to make every second count. So, with wellies on (still sceptical about the mud),bag packed for the day with suitable bananas, loads of bottles of water, fold -up chair over my shoulder (rock and roll hey!) and the brolly (to act as sunshade) off I headed for a day of relaxation and merriment.

Whilst I had checked the guide the only artist I wanted to see for sure was Paul Simon mid afternoon –thought it might be a good sing-along thing. Wasn’t sure which headliner I would go to to finish the whole thing off-it was a toss up between Beyonce, Queens of the Stone Age, Gruff Rhys, The Streets  or Kool & the Gang.

To cut a long story short I just spent most of the day wholly chilled out just wandering around enjoying the whole thing. Got the Observer and spent a good hour of so at dinnertime leafing through it with a fantastic pizza, massive cappuccino, huge home made raspberry muffin-in the sun. Wellies and socks off-feet up watching the Noisettes at the Other Stage in virtually the same spot we were at last year. Rang Amy “you’ll never guess where I am etc?” Maybe it was because I was so relaxed but tired but it was the only time I was homesick all weekend-just wished I could’ve shared that moment with her. Still it was a beautiful day and after polishing off all the grub sauntered off to see Paul Simon.

Who, quite frankly was a disappointment. Myself and everyone around me watching the main stage expected him to do hit after hit (which is what he said he was going to do) but in an hours set he did about 5 tracks off his new album which nobody really knew or was arsed about. The tone of it was set by the fact that after the first song he mumbled something about, "I’ve got a sore throat so excuse me if it not up to what you expected etc” . The bloke standing next to me said in a gruff northern accent, “We’ve been up to our necks in a muddy field for the past four days pal so stop your bloody moaning”, sentiments which I wholeheartedly agreed with. It would have taken more than Mr Simon to piss me off though and anyway he soon shuffled off. Plan B followed him & was much better than expected. By the time they finished it was 8.00 ish so just time to nip back to the mess tent for evening meal and to catch up on things.

Back out for 9.30 and I had decided to see Beyonce though was prepared to make a dash for something else if she was rubbish. There is not much to say about her show except that it was absolutely flipping fantastic. I was blown away! Whilst this is far from my cup of Earl Grey but from the get go it was hit after hit-the atmosphere was fantastic and she had everyone in the palm of her hand-young & old, men & women. There were just big grins all around and especially from the blokes (who like myself I guess had not expected much).In the end everyone was bopping away-the whole field in front of the Pyramid was rammed-maybe 80,000 people or so. What a way to finish the whole thing!

Finally back at 2 ish after Beyonce and a few drinks. Fast asleep by 3.

And that was it.

Will I go back again? Can’t wait till 2013.

Would I work it again? Probably not but if I couldn’t get a ticket I would not miss it for the world.

The mud? Oh I’ve done a muddy Glasto & lived to tell the tale-this will be a story that can live on for generations-ie  “ Grandad, tell us the tale of the big muddy field.”

the year is starting off well..

Two great new singles here today; a return to form for Prince and another consistently great cut from the forthcoming Flaming Lips album.

New book is finished in draft and (just!) needs editing before it's published as another Kindle book on Amazon . There's pre-published unedited excerpts from it here on this blog to give a flavour of what it's going to be like as well as bits from the already published and selling-like-hot-cakes(?) "Turn Left at The Womble"; which has a fair bit about The Flaming Lips in it but nothing about Prince.

Anyway here are the Prince and Flips (click on the link and go to link for the flips btw); 

UPDATE:  wef 31 jan prince video is down.sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR0kjG-uab4&feature=player_embedded

sigur ros

it's just the sort of weather to be listening to sigur ros today

Turn Left At The Womble-My Glastonbury book -A Thank You

For anyone that's bought or read my book "Turn Left at the Womble" from Amazon, many, many thanks. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did (or even if you didn't!) I'd really appreciate it if you'd consider giving it a review on Amazon-even if it is no stars I really don't mind-any review would be good. Thanks.

There's a link to it here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turn-Left-The-Womble-ebook/dp/B0060YCKGW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354357781&sr=8-1