Ain't no motive for this crime - Jenny was a friend of mine

I went to Bath Uni for 4 years and every year, towards the end of the summer term, I quite fancied going to Glastonbury.  But, you know it wasn’t that convenient because it was like a whole hour away on the train and the tickets were extortionate - they were, like, 50 pounds!  Can you even begin to imagine spending that amount of money on going to see music?!?


So, I have to thank Grant Donald for suggesting in 2004 that we should go – because, you never know, it might be fun!  Well, it was and I’ve made it back 5 times since, experiencing both types of weather (that’s boiling hot sun and torrential rain) and enjoying a great variety of new (and old) music.  I’ve also suffered seeing Paul McCartney live but you can’t have everything, I guess.


So this selection of albums is groups I’ve “discovered” at Glasto – generally lesser known (although one of them has done OK for themselves over the years).  Rilo Kiley were first on the Other Stage on a very rainy Saturday morning – and they were soooo excited to be there.  The Killers played an electric set to a packed John Peel Stage before their first album came out.  Bright Eyes played a leisurely set on a muddy Sunday afternoon – bravely dressed in a white suit. (this album also has the coolest CD cover featuring focal decoding!)  And Silversun Pickups played a most excellently shoe-gazing set on a very rainy Saturday afternoon.  And I truly loved them all – and many more besides over the years.  


Other highlights are Orbital bouncing an inflatable Dalek around the crowd, Dolly wowing the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen, James Brown doing his thang (barely), being on TOTP with Franz Ferdinand and Marina wearing the most horrible orange dungarees you have ever seen – but the message to take away is “keep trying new music – you might like it”. In these days of all music being available everywhere, it’s both incredibly easy and remarkably difficult to find new stuff – but keep at it and the rewards will come. 


Grant : “I’ve never seen Supergrass live – and I’d really like to”

Me : “You do realise that’s them on stage right now, don’t you?!?”







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