Glasto - Day 3

 

Ah - the last proper day.  Which started way too early after a TERRIBLE night's sleep - fortunately my chaise longue was available up the hill and I spent 2 hours resting my eyes on it and felt almost human having done so!  In between the snoozes, I worked out my targets for the day - Beth Orton, Toyah Wilcox & Robert Fripp, Slowdive, Becky Hill, Caroline Polachek and some geezer called Elton. And I wasn't in the mood to move anywhere to find music, so I got what I was given in the form of...

John Francis Flynn
Ah OK.  Maybe it's time to move on then.  He was trying for the mysterious Celtic sound, but all he achieved was slightly dull.

On my slow wander over to the West Holts stage, I caught the last 30 seconds of a Mother Sky song on the Other stage and really liked it, so decided I would stop and catch the rest of their set.  Yup, it was their last song - oh well, time to move along then to go and see...

Beth Orton
I saw Beth either last time or the time before and she was exceptionally nervous, especially considering how long she'd been on the scene - would she be more confident this time out?  Marginally, I'd suggest - but it was still nice to catch up with her old stuff.  Her new stuff?  I think "no comment" is probably the kindest answer here

It was now decision time - it didn't look like it was going to be as hot as yesterday, but shade still seemed like the best option so the next couple of hours were spent under the cover of the Avalon and Acoustic stages in the company of some delightful music

Cara Dillon
A name I knew as one of them folk-y types, but I wasn't aware of her music - and it's lovely.  She's got a gorgeous voice and it was just perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon - a definite find!

Bird On The Wire - The Songs Of Leonard Cohen
I like Leonard Cohen songs - but rarely when they are sung by Lenny himself, so I was intrigued to see what Pauline Scanlon and The Whileaways would make of them.  And they made a very decent fist of them - I really liked them.  However, they didn't sing Bird On The Wire, which irked me.

Toyah Wilcox and Robert Fripp
I would never have gone out of my way to see them if I hadn't stumbled across this when writing up another entry - so I was intrigued to see what they'd do.  And I didn't hang around for long, but what I heard was pretty impressive - Robert may be 77 now, but he's quite a mover and his guitar playing was ace.  I would have liked to listen to a bit more, but I had the length of the site to walk to get back for...

Slowdive
I love a bit of shoegazing and Slowdive were up there with the best of them - and they're still making a fine, fine sound.  I really enjoyed this.  

Becky Hill
I think it's fair to say Becky doesn't have a very shoegazey sound - it was slightly different.  It's not going to win any awards for musical innovation but it was bright, breezy pop and she was very, very, very happy to be there - it was a load of fun.

Editors
And I think it's fair to say Editors don't have a very Becky Hill kinda sound!  They did their thang well though - I can't say I know their stuff that well but I did recognise "Munich" and a pretty well done cover of Adamski's "Killer" - I have to admit I didn't pay them as much attention as I normally would have done because I had to spend a lot of time pretending to eat some tasty grass soup (made by some charming children who were having a blast at the festival!)

Caroline Polachek
A change in sound again - I like her and she put on an impressive show, but I have to admit I watched the second half on iPlayer because I thought I should head off to try and find some space to see one Elton Hercules John...

ELTON!

I did find some space - I wasn't exactly close, but I had a decent line of sight from up on the hill and the sound wasn't too bad either.  At least during the songs it wasn't but I couldn't really hear a word he was saying between songs which meant that most of the special guests resulted in quizzical looks from everyone around me until someone got a message telling them who it was and word quickly spread!  I did enjoy Elton, but I'm glad I also got to watch it on iPlayer to catch the bits I missed and also that I got to see him at the O2 - the acoustics were somewhat better there!  It was unsurprisingly, a BIG crowd.

And with that, I was pretty much done.  I waded back to my tent through the rubbish - the Pyramid stage on Sunday night is horrendous, but I'm not sure what they could do about that.  A deposit scheme on the cups (like they do at Reading) might be worth a trial but I feel it would probably have limited impact.  The main gate was really busy with people leaving, once again showing the folly of my location choice but I was so tired it had pleasingly little impact!

My personal highlights for the day were Cara Dillon, Slowdive and Elton.  The people I would have liked to have seen but missed were Mother Sky (based on the 30 seconds I caught), Sophie Ellis-Bexter (not cool, but would have been fun), The Nova Twins (lots of people said nice things about them), The Big Moon, Weyes Blood, Cat Burns, Alison Goldfrapp, Alt-J and Phoenix.  I think I'd have done better if it had been Friday, but it wasn't and I have to accept that I'm getting old - and at least there's iPlayer these days.  I also feel a bit sorry for Phoenix because they headlined on Woodsies for the third time - and they've been up against The Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters and Elton, which is a pretty hardcore set of audience-grabbing competition.

The only people that I've really heard anyone talking about from the Sunday are Elton and Queens of The Stone Age - and I get the impression people only talk about QOTSA so they can point out they weren't at Elton.  It was an easy choice for me though and, all in all, I had a great day - not so frenetic and not so hot, ending with a great singalong.

And that's pretty much that - I got up, threw my tent away (it had done good service, having come with me to my first Glasto in 2004), packed my stuff up and joined the first of several queues to get home.   The train station staff didn't cover themselves in glory with four people giving me four different answers as to which train I was allowed to catch, but we got there in the end and it was lovely to have a shower.  And a very early night - my phone told me I walked 70km over the four days I was there.

Here's hoping for tickets for next year which would be my tenth Glasto, twenty years after my first with strong rumours of Taylor popping by to help me celebrate.  But, the one thing you absolutely must not do is assume you'll get tickets...

Day 2