How Glastonbury Happened

Just continuing through "Electric Eden" and I came across a couple of snippets about how the Glastonbury Festival actually got started. Michael Eavis apparently snuck into the Bath Blues festival and caught Led Zeppelin's set. A couple of months later he put together The Pilton Festival on his farm with The Kinks headlining. Stackridge and Amazing Blondel were on the set and The Kinks dropped out and were replaced by Tyrannosaurus Rex. The festival was virtually free and lasted the weekend and for a pound you got entry and a weekend's ration of milk.

The following year it was rebranded as "Glastonbury Fayre" and was again virtually free, there was no alcohol allowed and only vegan food. Michael Eavis is a Methodist and local pastors were in the crowd dancing and socialising. The acts this time were big hitters such as The Grateful Dead, Hawkwind, Bowie and Bolan. The Pyramid Stage was constructed according to various mystical calculations and the festival was financed by a film made about it and the triple LP "Revelation"  (more here) that I bought at the time with a brilliant fold out cover. I just have a digital copy now but if you follow the links you can get your own.

The closeness of mystical sites like Stonehenge and Glastonbury Tor added magic to the festival , but after that it did nit reappear until 1978, when it began the transition to the advertising corp fest with cash machines and phone masts that it is today.

Michael Eavis makes lots of money but donates lots to many worthy causes. He doesn't drink or do drugs and still maintains his Methodist faith, and long may he continue and prosper.

So basically I will finish this with my favourite song which includes the Festival's name it it's title, "Glastonbury Revisited" by The Cosmic Rough Riders

I know it's a bit wet but have a great Saturday.

Read A Book .... You Never Know What You Might Find Out ... Again

It's World Record Store day, my mate Jim wants a copy of The Queen Symphony and I fancy the new The The single, first new music from Matt Johnson in 15 years and it's as good as ever.

I'm still working through "The Age of Bowie" by Tony Morley and today I found out how Marc Bolan (at the time Marc Feld) settled on his surname. Apparently he took the first two letters of one of his heroes' first name and the last three letters of his surname, which shows more than a little ingenuity, that hero was Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan also changed his surname from Zimmerman to Dylan taking the first name of one of his heroes , Welsh stream of consciousness poet Dylan Thomas (I love "Under Milk Wood").

I've included the Dubwood Allstars "Under Dubwood" which I never tire of (but doesnt, which takes Richard Burton's introduction and uses the soundtrack which  is the same as John Holt's "Ali Baba". Can you how my mind wanders?

Anyway, it's a beautiful day, and I have vinyl to buy.

Have a wonderful Saturday everyone.

Glastonbury .... It's Just a Tesco and Wal-Mart of Music ... but we have The Mighty Slack Babbath To Save Us

Before I start my rant about this , I first must congratulate Michael Eavis on his vision , borrowing £5000 in 1972 to fund the initial festival I believe opened by Marc Bolan doing an acoustic set. These are the sort of people we need and I am so glad that he has been successful probably beyond his wildest dreams as Glastonbury. I read somewhere that there are 2,000 acts on over the five day festival this year , I thought I'd check and looking at the line up page here that could be right. I'm not counting. Tickets this year are around £205 , not sure if that includes a spot for your tent but say you see five acts each day then that's less that £10 a concert (remember what The Rolling Stones charged at the O2). There's a download of the original festival here which gives a feel for what it was once like.

So back to the rant, Glastonbury has just become like a supermarket, lots of products to satisfy every taste , but make sure you keep to the designated areas , have your clubcard on hand , make sure to you conform to the requirements of the supermarket. Their marketing is so good that people happily give up lots of personal information just to enter the lottery to get a ticket. Even twenty years ago people went to Glastonbury to see a particular group of acts , now people go to Glastonbury because it's Glastonbury. While this is not my scene (I actually like music) , it is a huge number of people's idea of heaven. Michael Eavis could have sold another half a million tickets for this year's festival. That's £100 million pounds more he could have made , more than the GDP of some countries.

So if you are going enjoy the music , enjoy your time there , I'll be frequent some much smaller events sch as "Slacktonbury" featuring Strange Bruise and the mighty Slack Babbath and their lead singer Ozzy Ouseburn at The Schooner on the 29th June.

Anyway the June's Tunes choice is possibly my favourite Glastonbury song "Glastonbury Revisited" by The Cosmic Rough Riders  from their brilliant album "Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine":

"Where have all the angels gone,

Now that all the acid's done .....

We made love under the sun....... "

Those days are long gone

Oh and just realised this was my 100th post this year , a friend had to point this out !!