#Glastonbury2017 how it was for me

I write my blogs for a number of reasons - I don't need to go into them again - save to say perhaps the foremost is they act as memory jog - what I have been thinking - and experienced - and maybe learned - ha!

A year ago I attended my first Glastonbury and subsequently wrote a blog about it - here is a link for the die hards! :-

http://davidshoulder60onwards.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/glastonbury-2016-how-it-was-for-me.

I am now just back from my second one - tired and elated. Glastonbury has delivered again - it is a special place indeed. So how was Glasto 2017 for me?

Well the basic formula was the same - 6 guys - who have known each other in the main for donkeys years (Primary school) - travelling together, all sharing a tent - total age 362 years - so average age over 60. (could this be a Glasto record?). This sounds ridiculous - not because we are doing it but because we are that old! It certainly doesn't feel like it when we get together that's for sure - same banter - same laughs - same nonsense. Priceless.

We travel up from Exeter on the Wednesday morning, mindful of the traffic problems we had last year - plus tales of foreboding about delays because of heightened security checks this year. Amazingly - not a single traffic jam - and they must have liked the look of us on the gate. This combined with the fact we were much better prepared this year - with sack trucks and trollies for our gear (including 60 liters of real cider) and the most massive factor - no dreadful mud to contend with (as last year) means we are in and tent set up in double quick time - fantastic! A good camping spot in our preferred field - not too close to the main stages but convenient enough and with in reasonable distance of toilets and drinking water (worth thinking about!) It is a full on summers heat day - we have had a beer - we head off - in great spirits - for our first watering hole in The Park.

Glasto is basically a 3 day festival - Friday, Saturday, Sunday but as I have said the majority seem to arrive over Wednesday. So Wednesday is low key - chilled and nice - a gentle introduction in the sun. Hundreds of people sat around chatting and chilling. Really great. As last year our go to area at Glastonbury is Avalon Fields and the Avalon Inn. It suits us there. Plenty happening but not too mad - and a good run of real ales. The sun is shining. What a great start. We are part of the unique Glastonbury family again. There is so much to look forward to over the coming days.

Our approach to Glastonbury is the basically the same each day - that is how it has evolved. We stir pretty early especially as every night is quite late - very late for me - ha! This period is always a laugh - invariably a p--s take as we go about getting ready for the day. The dreaded ablutions (especially dreadful when Crabbers is performing) - what we have for breakfast - what we are wearing - recounts on the day before - recounts about last year and the last 50 years - plenty of material. And some awful sights - Geoff blowing a Kazoo while naked and giving himself a very personalized wet wipe - probably the most Pythonesque this year. I have to mention Rog - mending his camp bed with sack trucks as a truly artistic solution - like a Tracy Emin installation!

There are two vital jobs to do in the morning. The first is to look at "Clashfinder" app. There are so many acts at Glastonbury playing at so many different venues and stages - that you have to make choices. Stating the obvious you cannot see everything - and of course it is quite likely that artists you want to see are performing at the same time. Clashfinder can help you solve the puzzle and make choices. (Remember to allow time to move from one arena to another.) The second and maybe be more important job is to decant the cider from the boxes to the two litre plastic bottles we carry around in our day sacks. Cider is a good choice - not the gassy stuff - but real cider. We usually had a pint or so before we headed out each morning! (never had a hangover at any stage over the weekend).

Just on health and well being - a few thoughts. Four or five days at Glasto is a full on challenge and not for the feint hearted. In my view you have got to give your body a bit of a chance as the days are long and you are likely to walk miles. Of course there is likely to be plenty of alcohol involved but you must hydrate with plenty of water. The Glasto organisers are on to it. They offer water bottle refill points all over the site. I finished each night drinking a good gulp of water. The other is food. Food on offer is vast in variety and quality is pretty good and cost about £8 per full meal. We brought our own breakfasts with us and I carried some other stuff - like tins of fish which I ate with couscous (which I was happy to share but surprisingly with no takers!) I have to mention the Hari Krishna Tent - between the Pyramid and Other Stage. They offer free food. I went there everyday. Of course I was accused of being a tight wad - ha! While I cannot deny there was economic advantage - despite a voluntary donation - actually I REALLY enjoyed the spicy vegetarian fare and the calm atmosphere the HK chanting offered. Glasto is a mad place. We were sat on the quiet benches in the HK tent - gentle chanting going on - low key chatting. Out of the crowd comes a guy wearing shorts and wellies and a huge plastic penus covering his nose. He danced across the stage in time to the chanting. It could have been viewed as lewd or disrespectful - but actually he did it well - it was outrageous but it was funny. Everybody laughed or at least grinned big - even the HK band doing the chanting. So try and get some decent food at Glasto, drink plenty of water - and sleep helps of course. Oh - and decent footwear! Final tip - toilets. The smell did get bad on the hot days - and some terrible people do leave a mess. Hard to understand. However they are perfectly useable providing you carry plenty of wet wipes. Someone told me they use Imodium for the duration of weekend and someone else we know bizarrely uses a Tesco carrier bag in his little tent. There are certainly some strange people around but each to his or her own I guess. Go for it big would be my recommendation.

The music!! This is highly personal. Your view of the line up. Who you want to see - who you are not interested in. Here are some general points I can make.

Everyone who performs at Glasto deserves to be there. They are all good - however big or small their Glasto stage. You may not like their style - their genre - but in their own way - they are all accomplished. It is a massive music melting pot. Sometimes you have to go with the flow - literally if a crowd is moving
You will have your must sees. You will probably end up missing some of them. You will probably have your want to avoid - but you will probably end up seeing one or two of them.
You will come across some random acts you will really enjoy.
There will be highs and relative lows - but overwhelmingly Glasto will be positive.

Some personal specifics. I wanted to see the Pretenders, British Sea Power, The Avalanches, Future Islands, The XX, The Courteeners, The National, Radiohead, Foofighters and of course the Sunday afternoon slot with Barry Gibb and then Nile Rogers and Chic.

I wasn't much interested in Royal Blood, Biffy Clyro (who I had seen before) and particularly Ed Sheeran.

As it turned out I missed Courteeners which was a shame and I missed the FooFighters (just run out of energy and got back to the chilled atmosphere of Avalon Fields.) Everyone said the Foo's were outstanding - but as I have said before - you can't see everything. (we watched Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel and Hobo Jones and the Junkyard Dogs instead!) I ended up watching Royal Blood - an outstanding act even if I am not a fan - and I am glad I did. I also sat through Ed Sheeran - most of the time literally. Much has been said about him, his choice as a headline and his performance on the night. It is a personal thing. Thousands seem to enjoy him. Not for me though.

I will mention Barry Gibb. Sincere. Genuine and gentle. He was nervous at the start but the massive crowd had total respect for him and his life's work. He was blown away. It was memorable. It was lovely. It was definitely emotional. Perfect for late afternoon in the Glasto sun - 100,000 people singing along and dancing to Night Fever and so many other hits he made with his 2 late brothers as The Bee Gees. Fantastic.

And then came Nile Rogers and Chic. What an act. Uncomplicated. Full on fun. Few could resist dancing and clapping - even the hard rockers. It was great to be there and be part of it.

I could go on of course - The Slade tribute band, Hobo's shit song and c---try girl, Frank Sinatra - there were so many. I could mention the "dark side" and Shangri la but I couldn't do it justice. Find out for your self how mad and how wonderful it all is.

So to round off. Glasto is unique. Even if you just went for people watching it would be worth it. Go with a group of mates and get into the music and the atmosphere in this multi dimensional and highly layered festival and you will have a most memorable time. No other festival can match it for diversity.

One final observation. In two years at Glasto I had never experienced any aggression or unfriendliness. There is a great ethos that everyone seems to buy into. Alas I did experience one this year. Jeremy Corbyn had been making a play for the young vote at Glasto this year. I was just leaving the Avalanches set when a nice young lady asked me if I would take a picture of her and her friend. Her friend turned around wearing a new Jeremy Corbyn T Shirt. I said - I thought with warmth and good humour - "you are asking me to take a picture of you wearing a Jeremy Corbyn T Shirt are you?" She said "you are not a fucking Tory are you - we don't want our photograph taken by a fucking Tory". I laughed and muttered something along the lines of "you might feel differently when you find out how the world really works!" She said "I already know how the world fucking works and it won't be long before your darling Theresa is brought down by us !" She went on to shout at me as I started to walk away with a big grin. Just in case she reads this blog - this is something I wrote in an earlier blog for her and her friends like her! :-

Here are a couple of truisms. They are not mine - but they make the point I want to make because they reflect REAL life :

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

A parable: The ant worked hard all summer collecting food and preparing his home for winter. The grasshopper played all summer not doing any work. When winter came the grasshopper had no food. No worries, the grasshopper elected a socialist leader that took away 40 percent of the ants food and gave it to the grasshopper. The next year the ant thought what is the point of working hard if the government is going to take it off me. He decided that the new government would have to take care of him the same way so he played all summer too, as did all the other hard working producing ants. When winter came, there was no food and they all starved to death.

Here are a few Glasto snaps :-