Glasto - Day 0

Glastonbury all really rushed up on me this year - I was excited about going, but there was always something else to occupy my time.  Including 4 hours of Politics flashcards on the night before I was due to go - apparently, my eldest considered her A Level mocks to be more important than me packing for Glasto.  Just rude!

But I was ready to leave bright and early on the Thursday (which has to be Day 0 because it comes before the first official day, but I guess that just means a load of people turned up on Day -1).  And what a relatively stress-free journey it was!  Paddington station was, as always, very organised and only involved a ten minute wait for a train to appear -  but, for a very nice change, Castle Cary didn't feature any queues!  I was through the entire station and on a bus in five minutes - and two minutes of that was spent explaining to the train staff that, yes, I didn't have a ticket for that exact train but they shouldn't be trying to charge me more for being on that one when I'd been SPECIFICALLY told to get on it.  In the end, I'm pleased to say common sense won the day - which quite surprised me (and for my own reference next year (hopefully) I think the lack of queues was because I was there an hour or so earlier than normal).

The festival site made up for the relative lack of queues up to this point but I've seen much worse - twenty minutes later I was joyously standing in front of the map telling me that every single camp site was 100% full - seriously, what was I thinking expecting to be able to pitch a tent?  In the end I camped up near the main gate - my thought process was basically "not ideal, but how bad can it be?".  More on this later...

And having unpacked and erected your tent, your ideal first thought is obviously "oh, that doesn't look right" as you spot one of the supporting flexible poles is bent at approximately 90 degrees where it really shouldn't be.  My very kind and helpful campsite neighbour was insistent that "it's not broken, it's just popped out" - right up until he broke it a bit more and had to admit that, yes, I was right, it was broken.  Well yes, it is now, ain't it, geezer? (I totally didn't say - he was only trying to help!).

So, my first Glastonbury task was to go and find some gaffer tape and see whether emergency repairs could be undertaken - the short story is that I did have somewhere to sleep all weekend with in a tent held together with tape and tentpegs, but it involved a lot of walking!  My neighbour was actually very helpful but he's had a bit more recent camping experience than me having done Download, IoW and Glasto on consecutive weekends this year - which I just don't think I could do!.  

And so, to celebrate the momentous occasion of having somewhere to sleep, I went off for an explore!  There's always less music on the Thursday and what there is rammed, so I thought I'd pick the least accessible stage and hope people would be discouraged by the massive hill, which lead to another hill, which lead to an even steeper gradient - and so I found myself in Strummerville, which I've never previously visit (because, like, seriously - they're HILLS!).  And it's a lovely little (and I mean LITTLE) stage set in a leafy glade (which was nicely shady - which was an important consideration this year).  And so we had some music to listen to...

Mereki

She was like a younger, saner Courtney Love - her voice was OK, but the songs weren't great.  She did do a good version of Jewel's "Who Will Save Your Soul?" and "Wake Up Dead", her latest single was OK (but it's not got a great video)

Tom A. Smith
There's a lot of buzz about for young Tom (he looks about 15) and I can confidently report that he's fine if you like that sort of thing, but I don't.  Think Jake Bugg - I can appreciate what he does, but he don't float my boat.

Tom Bright
Young Tom was swiftly followed by Not-so-young Tom who also regaled us with scenes from his life on his guitar.  Oh joy - but actually, I didn't mind him at all.  It was all a bit less earnest than Young Tom and he had a bit more life experience to tell us about.

Lyza
Another one I'd never heard of - but she played lovely chilled funk/soul/pop which was perfect for the sunny afternoon.  So obviously they only gave her 15 minute slot.  And I learn from the internet that she has been a backing singer for Alabama 3 and her stepfather was...Joe Strummer!

JJ Sterry
Another guy with a guitar who I'd never heard of (although the internet tells me he was the lead singer for Gang Of Four in one of their incarnations) - I can't say my expectations were high, but he was OK.  And he had one of the best song intro lines over the weekend "This is a love song between a man, a woman and Kim Jong-Un.  One of the very few in this genre, I believe" - and it was actually quite a thoughtful song.

Lottery Winners

However, all the preceding acts were simply blown away by The Lottery Winners - there were four of them crammed on to the stage and the lead singer took up all the room and more.  He had a great line in audience interaction (and it was a BIG audience at this time) - some cracking banter, a few "subtle" mentions of their #1 album and encouraging us all to join in both with the songs (which were suitable simple for first time sing-alongs) and some Freddie Mercury style "eh-oh" mimicry.  They were the easy winners of the day and I'm disappointed there doesn't appear to be anything of their Glasto stuff on either iPlayer or YouTube (and they played SIX gigs over the weekend).

I also have to give a shout out to the guy who I heard on a random walkabout who was playing Darude's "Sandstorm" on his own on an acoustic guitar and he was doing a proper job with it - it wasn't this guy, but it gives you a good idea what he sounded like.

I also took a trip round a few of the dance stages (and Glastonbury has some MASSIVE dance stages now) and basically just confused myself as to whether I like dance music or not and why - what was it about Paranoid London's set that made me love it way more than Tornado Wallace's?  A mystery for the ages and no mistake.

But, all in all, it had been a long day and I was wiped out with the travelling and the tent-fixing so I headed back to the tent about 10:30 - and realised the error of my tent placement because people were still arriving and being greeted noisily.  And this continued all weekend - so that's one of the main lessons I've taken away from this year!

But, apart from a lack of sleep, it was a nice zeroth day - six acts seen, lovely weather and a chance to explore the site and see what had changed since I was last here (which was in 2016).  And in The Lottery Winners we had the first star gig - it was a cracking set which kicked the festival off perfectly.

Day 1