Beautiful Days
Aug. 31st, 2005 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alixandreaI kept a notebook with me at the festival because I never did get around to writing up Glastonbury. This time I wanted to have a permanent record of my first visit to this particular event. As it happens, I’m glad I did keep a notebook – so many things happened that I wouldn’t have been able to remember it all without!
Day 1
We travelled across country via Milton Keynes and Oxford to get to our destination, a route I have never before taken but probably will again since it misses out all the motorways including the dreaded M25. It did mean taking the A34 Newbury Bypass which, as I’m sure you are aware, was the site of a huge road protest camp back in the 90s when they built it – going through several sites of special scientific interest and some ancient historical sites as well. See:
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/19981117000146.html
http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news32.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbury_bypass
It’s a battle that, reported in the Cambridge Free Information Network papers that Crusty Tim lent me, helped me to write ‘Crossing the Boundaries’. I am always shocked when I travel along this road – not just because of the beauty of the surroundings, but also due to the quietness of the road. Even now I can’t really understand why it had to be built.
We travelled down with Tariq, Mandy and their daughter Iona in a car borrowed from Mandy’s parents. (Tariq called the South quarter in our wedding ceremony and it was the two of them that got us the tickets for this festival as a wedding present). The journey was somewhat painful – I was sat in the middle seat of the car, which was badly shaped and not at all conducive to comfort. We got there in OK time, although later than Tariq’s prediction, but had to sit in an enormous queue for ages before we could get on site. Then, just as we were separating into lines to go through the barriers, the radiator of the car in front of us exploded in a cloud of steam, necessitating a bit of manouevring to get around him! Anyway, we got into the car-park (field) eventually, unloaded our camping gear and traipsed down a hill and back up another one to the campsite. I miss hills in Cambridge, and the view where we were was breathtaking (or maybe that was the walk!)
We had arrived late enough that we only heard the first act on the main stage, while setting up camp. Tariq’s friend Frank and our mutual friend Jay (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jagwap, who was also at the wedding) had already got us a prime spot near enough the toilets for usefulness and far enough away from the smell! The strains of Nick Harper http://www.harperspace.com/ drifted up the hill from the stage, but unfortunately he finished about the same time as we did. We made our way down to the main stage area for food and to check out the bands. We caught most of I Am Kloot http://www.iamkloot.com/www/home.html then headed off to a special stage at the back of the campsite where Rev Hammer’s, http://www.revhammer.com/ "musical story of John Lilburne, the first radical and unsung hero of the English Civil War," Freeborn John was to be performed by Rev, the guys from New Model Army, Maddy Prior, the boys from The Levellers, Rory McLeod, Phil Johnstone and the English Civil War Society. We had already heard the
soundtrack in the car on the way to the festie, and I sang along with the catchy songs while toasting myself gently on magic mushrooms. All of a sudden, a green-white light streaked across the sky, too big to be a shooting star, too fast for a 'plane and completely silent. People (many of us in various drug-induced states) turned to each other with a, "did you see that?" Some people had been watching the stage and hadn’t, but many did. A still unsolved mystery...
Next was Chas n Dave http://www.chasndave.fsnet.co.uk/ in the Big Top stage across site. The good thing about Beautiful Days is that it is a fairly big festival but all the stages are fairly close, making it far easier than Glastonbury to get from stage to stage in plenty of time. Plus the acts are staggered slightly, meaning that we got the chance to see at least part of quite a few performances. Anyway, Chas n Dave were hysterical and well worth seeing, even if they are cheesy. A weird moment occurred when they sang ‘You Made Me Love You’, the tune to which was immortalized in my mind by Ron (Les’s dad) when I burnt some toast (age 10 or something!) and he sang, "who burnt the toast then, she didn’t mean to do it, she didn’t mean to do it..." It was all very surreal, especially in my heightened sense of awareness, and un-helped by the fact that I’d never before heard the real version of this song...
To finish off the evening, we went back to the main stage to watch the last half of Michael Franti and Spearhead, http://www.spearheadvibrations.com/ an American band with loads of energy and love for their audience, their world and their profession. I hadn’t realized until now that Michael Franti was responsible for ‘Socio-Genetic Experiment’, a fantastic poem he did when still in The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy. I’m even more in awe of the man now!! Erik and I retired to bed happy, high on music and mushrooms, and ready for the next day’s events.
Day 2
I spent much of the glorious daytime shopping, eating and checking out the many wonderful (mostly punky) bands on the main stage. I was impressed by (and jealous of) their professionalism. One day that will be me again. The prize for best band of the day went to Anti-Product, http://www.antiproduct.com/ a London-based band with the most amazing outfits as well as tight, great musicianship and songs. Weird moment of this day happened when, sitting near the beer tent, I saw a lady walk past who, apart from being about two stone lighter and having longer hair with green streaks in it, was the spitting image of Tavvi (Les’s sister’s daughter and my cousin). I didn’t go any closer or say hi, preferring to spend my time with mixed feelings about possible contact... That evening we went over to the Big Top to finally see Red Sky Coven, http://www.newmodelarmy.org/ a band made up of Justin Sullivan from New Model Army, his lady Joolz and Rev Hammer. I’ve wanted to see them for ages; they are all so talented and, as expected, make a great band. Joolz is one of the most amazing poets I have ever heard and it was a real pleasure to finally hear her live. The Peatbog Faeries http://www.peatbogfaeries.com/ were next, although Erik and I spent some time outside the tent to get some air, so we didn’t really hear them so well. Oysterband http://www.oysterband.co.uk/ who were on after the ‘Faeries were absolutely superb and had us all singing along for ages during one of their songs. I highly recommend them. And for the last show of the evening in the Big Top, after all these years I finally got to see Steeleye Span! http://www.parkrecords.com/ They were also marvelous, loads of fun and so professional. I had already seen what a wonderful musician Maddy Prior is during Freeborn John the previous evening, and this performance did not disappoint either. We left partway through though, as on the main stage The Wonderstuff http://www.thewonderstuff.co.uk/ were playing! I remember these guys as being one of the first contemporary bands I was really aware of on Top of the Pops in the early 90s, and they were fabulous! We watched them from a way up the hill and had a great view of the action. That night we spent some time at the stall Crusty Tim and his lady Fiona were helping to run, drinking tea and listening to music, chatting with various people in various states of smashed-ness. The night was cold but beautifully clear and a full moon hung gloriously over us. After the previous, also cold night, I had got us a fleecy blanket (made of recycled plastic in India no less!) and Erik and I were very grateful for it when we finally went to bed!
Day 3
I shopped some more on the Sunday, and sunbathed in front of the main stage while listening to Intervurt http://www.intervurt.com/ and Nozzle, http://www.nozzle.org.uk/ but (despite being somewhat sunburnt by this stage) couldn’t stay half-asleep in the sunshine for Skindred. http://www.skindred.com/ They were an awesome mix of punk, hip-hop, metal and Gods only know what else, but I loved ‘em!! They were far better than most of your regular Nu-Metal crowd and really got the audience going, stopping songs if necessary to whip us up into more of a frenzy. And five or six people to my right in the same line of crowd, Tavvi (I’m now about 90% sure it was her) rocked out with the band as much as I did. I would never have put her at one of these events, but then maybe six years ago I wouldn’t have put me there either. I still avoided any possible contact with her, disappearing off at the end of the band’s set to the campsite to get changed. She didn’t follow, despite us both getting a moment's clear view of each other before I left.
Los Albertos http://www.losalbertos.co.uk/ and The Beat http://www.thebeatuk.com/ were next and also plenty of fun, although I preferred to sit with Erik by the beer tent (name me one other festival that only serves real ale/cider??) and sample more of the wonderful veggie cuisine that was on offer. Glenn Tilbrook http://www.glenntilbrook.com/ followed, someone I’d not been too bothered about seeing until I realised it was he who was responsible for many of my favourite radio songs, ‘Pulling Mussels From the Shell’ and the original version of ‘Up the Junction’ being two of them. Asian Dub Foundation http://www.asiandubfoundation.com/adf_home_fs.htm were next, and also marvellous, although we only stayed for part of their set because we wanted to catch Billy Bragg http://www.billybragg.co.uk/ in the Big Top. I’ve seen him once before in Cambridge, and he was OK, although nowhere near as good as he was on all the old tapes of him I have. He’s married with a kid and a big house now, so he’s lost a lot of the rage he used to have. He’s still full of bitterness though and this performance saw more of a return to form than his previous album tour. He played a lot more of his old tracks and some of his newest ones which are much more fiery than the ones on ‘England Half English’. I find it hard to listen to some of his older stuff as I associate it quite strongly with Stef, but it was great nevertheless to hear these still much loved songs.
Rounding off the evening in style were The Levellers http://www.levellers.co.uk/ who organize the festival and so headline every year. This is a bit of a cheeky tactic in my opinion, but I can’t pretend I wouldn’t be sorely tempted to do it if it were me! They were, as always, awesome, although not as good as I have seen them at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge. Maybe it was just that their sound wasn’t contained in a hall, or maybe they were tired from all the organization. It was still great to see them again, and I danced like a lunatic to pretty much all their songs.
Day 4
We had a fairly early night and woke to rain on the tent. I love lying in a tent with rain falling outside, but it’s a pain in all other respects – muddy campsite, everything damp, and given that this was the last day, I was not looking forward to putting my tent away wet and having to unfold it all again at home. However, Tariq suggested we wait for the main rush to pass (the campsite is supposed to be closed after 10am, but of course there’s no way 10,000 people can all leave at once before this time, even given that some of the audience left the night before after The Levellers). I went down to the main stage area for breakfast and found to my disappointment that most of the food trailers were closed, and those that were open were only doing a minimal menu for that last morning. Nevertheless I finally got a good vegan brekkie inside me, by which time the rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to peek out. By the time we packed up our tent it was pretty much dry, and the sky had cleared once again. The walk back to the car-park seemed harder work than the walk to the campsite had been on the Friday, and packing the car was more of a nightmare of organization than it had been before due to the various things we’d all picked up on the stalls, but everything fit in eventually and we headed off. On the way home Erik and Tariq shared out a few more mushrooms each, so our scheduled stop in the army town of Aylsbury was... Interesting! Mind you, the soldiers are all pretty much used to hippies invading their town from time to time, as the Summer Solstice Stonehenge party crew apparently often end up here for supplies. We made about the same time on the way home, although I was a bit more comfortable since Iona got relegated to the middle seat (on her booster seat, and perfectly safe due to the full seatbelt this strange car had in the middle). I think I’m just a bad passenger, getting into my van at the end of the journey to drive us and our kit back to the boat was a huge relief!!
I love camping, but getting back home and having a shower was pure bliss, and getting the cats back from the cattery next day was even better. Erik and I are planning on going next year, this time in the minibus, since there are a few spaces for camper vans. It was a far better festie than Glastonbury in my opinion, less to see and do, but far easier to get from place to place, better, cheaper food and drink and generally a much nicer atmosphere. I look forward to my next visit!!
Day 1
We travelled across country via Milton Keynes and Oxford to get to our destination, a route I have never before taken but probably will again since it misses out all the motorways including the dreaded M25. It did mean taking the A34 Newbury Bypass which, as I’m sure you are aware, was the site of a huge road protest camp back in the 90s when they built it – going through several sites of special scientific interest and some ancient historical sites as well. See:
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/19981117000146.html
http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news32.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbury_bypass
It’s a battle that, reported in the Cambridge Free Information Network papers that Crusty Tim lent me, helped me to write ‘Crossing the Boundaries’. I am always shocked when I travel along this road – not just because of the beauty of the surroundings, but also due to the quietness of the road. Even now I can’t really understand why it had to be built.
We travelled down with Tariq, Mandy and their daughter Iona in a car borrowed from Mandy’s parents. (Tariq called the South quarter in our wedding ceremony and it was the two of them that got us the tickets for this festival as a wedding present). The journey was somewhat painful – I was sat in the middle seat of the car, which was badly shaped and not at all conducive to comfort. We got there in OK time, although later than Tariq’s prediction, but had to sit in an enormous queue for ages before we could get on site. Then, just as we were separating into lines to go through the barriers, the radiator of the car in front of us exploded in a cloud of steam, necessitating a bit of manouevring to get around him! Anyway, we got into the car-park (field) eventually, unloaded our camping gear and traipsed down a hill and back up another one to the campsite. I miss hills in Cambridge, and the view where we were was breathtaking (or maybe that was the walk!)
We had arrived late enough that we only heard the first act on the main stage, while setting up camp. Tariq’s friend Frank and our mutual friend Jay (
jagwap, who was also at the wedding) had already got us a prime spot near enough the toilets for usefulness and far enough away from the smell! The strains of Nick Harper http://www.harperspace.com/ drifted up the hill from the stage, but unfortunately he finished about the same time as we did. We made our way down to the main stage area for food and to check out the bands. We caught most of I Am Kloot http://www.iamkloot.com/www/home.html then headed off to a special stage at the back of the campsite where Rev Hammer’s, http://www.revhammer.com/ "musical story of John Lilburne, the first radical and unsung hero of the English Civil War," Freeborn John was to be performed by Rev, the guys from New Model Army, Maddy Prior, the boys from The Levellers, Rory McLeod, Phil Johnstone and the English Civil War Society. We had already heard thesoundtrack in the car on the way to the festie, and I sang along with the catchy songs while toasting myself gently on magic mushrooms. All of a sudden, a green-white light streaked across the sky, too big to be a shooting star, too fast for a 'plane and completely silent. People (many of us in various drug-induced states) turned to each other with a, "did you see that?" Some people had been watching the stage and hadn’t, but many did. A still unsolved mystery...
Next was Chas n Dave http://www.chasndave.fsnet.co.uk/ in the Big Top stage across site. The good thing about Beautiful Days is that it is a fairly big festival but all the stages are fairly close, making it far easier than Glastonbury to get from stage to stage in plenty of time. Plus the acts are staggered slightly, meaning that we got the chance to see at least part of quite a few performances. Anyway, Chas n Dave were hysterical and well worth seeing, even if they are cheesy. A weird moment occurred when they sang ‘You Made Me Love You’, the tune to which was immortalized in my mind by Ron (Les’s dad) when I burnt some toast (age 10 or something!) and he sang, "who burnt the toast then, she didn’t mean to do it, she didn’t mean to do it..." It was all very surreal, especially in my heightened sense of awareness, and un-helped by the fact that I’d never before heard the real version of this song...
To finish off the evening, we went back to the main stage to watch the last half of Michael Franti and Spearhead, http://www.spearheadvibrations.com/ an American band with loads of energy and love for their audience, their world and their profession. I hadn’t realized until now that Michael Franti was responsible for ‘Socio-Genetic Experiment’, a fantastic poem he did when still in The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy. I’m even more in awe of the man now!! Erik and I retired to bed happy, high on music and mushrooms, and ready for the next day’s events.
Day 2
I spent much of the glorious daytime shopping, eating and checking out the many wonderful (mostly punky) bands on the main stage. I was impressed by (and jealous of) their professionalism. One day that will be me again. The prize for best band of the day went to Anti-Product, http://www.antiproduct.com/ a London-based band with the most amazing outfits as well as tight, great musicianship and songs. Weird moment of this day happened when, sitting near the beer tent, I saw a lady walk past who, apart from being about two stone lighter and having longer hair with green streaks in it, was the spitting image of Tavvi (Les’s sister’s daughter and my cousin). I didn’t go any closer or say hi, preferring to spend my time with mixed feelings about possible contact... That evening we went over to the Big Top to finally see Red Sky Coven, http://www.newmodelarmy.org/ a band made up of Justin Sullivan from New Model Army, his lady Joolz and Rev Hammer. I’ve wanted to see them for ages; they are all so talented and, as expected, make a great band. Joolz is one of the most amazing poets I have ever heard and it was a real pleasure to finally hear her live. The Peatbog Faeries http://www.peatbogfaeries.com/ were next, although Erik and I spent some time outside the tent to get some air, so we didn’t really hear them so well. Oysterband http://www.oysterband.co.uk/ who were on after the ‘Faeries were absolutely superb and had us all singing along for ages during one of their songs. I highly recommend them. And for the last show of the evening in the Big Top, after all these years I finally got to see Steeleye Span! http://www.parkrecords.com/ They were also marvelous, loads of fun and so professional. I had already seen what a wonderful musician Maddy Prior is during Freeborn John the previous evening, and this performance did not disappoint either. We left partway through though, as on the main stage The Wonderstuff http://www.thewonderstuff.co.uk/ were playing! I remember these guys as being one of the first contemporary bands I was really aware of on Top of the Pops in the early 90s, and they were fabulous! We watched them from a way up the hill and had a great view of the action. That night we spent some time at the stall Crusty Tim and his lady Fiona were helping to run, drinking tea and listening to music, chatting with various people in various states of smashed-ness. The night was cold but beautifully clear and a full moon hung gloriously over us. After the previous, also cold night, I had got us a fleecy blanket (made of recycled plastic in India no less!) and Erik and I were very grateful for it when we finally went to bed!
Day 3
I shopped some more on the Sunday, and sunbathed in front of the main stage while listening to Intervurt http://www.intervurt.com/ and Nozzle, http://www.nozzle.org.uk/ but (despite being somewhat sunburnt by this stage) couldn’t stay half-asleep in the sunshine for Skindred. http://www.skindred.com/ They were an awesome mix of punk, hip-hop, metal and Gods only know what else, but I loved ‘em!! They were far better than most of your regular Nu-Metal crowd and really got the audience going, stopping songs if necessary to whip us up into more of a frenzy. And five or six people to my right in the same line of crowd, Tavvi (I’m now about 90% sure it was her) rocked out with the band as much as I did. I would never have put her at one of these events, but then maybe six years ago I wouldn’t have put me there either. I still avoided any possible contact with her, disappearing off at the end of the band’s set to the campsite to get changed. She didn’t follow, despite us both getting a moment's clear view of each other before I left.
Los Albertos http://www.losalbertos.co.uk/ and The Beat http://www.thebeatuk.com/ were next and also plenty of fun, although I preferred to sit with Erik by the beer tent (name me one other festival that only serves real ale/cider??) and sample more of the wonderful veggie cuisine that was on offer. Glenn Tilbrook http://www.glenntilbrook.com/ followed, someone I’d not been too bothered about seeing until I realised it was he who was responsible for many of my favourite radio songs, ‘Pulling Mussels From the Shell’ and the original version of ‘Up the Junction’ being two of them. Asian Dub Foundation http://www.asiandubfoundation.com/adf_home_fs.htm were next, and also marvellous, although we only stayed for part of their set because we wanted to catch Billy Bragg http://www.billybragg.co.uk/ in the Big Top. I’ve seen him once before in Cambridge, and he was OK, although nowhere near as good as he was on all the old tapes of him I have. He’s married with a kid and a big house now, so he’s lost a lot of the rage he used to have. He’s still full of bitterness though and this performance saw more of a return to form than his previous album tour. He played a lot more of his old tracks and some of his newest ones which are much more fiery than the ones on ‘England Half English’. I find it hard to listen to some of his older stuff as I associate it quite strongly with Stef, but it was great nevertheless to hear these still much loved songs.
Rounding off the evening in style were The Levellers http://www.levellers.co.uk/ who organize the festival and so headline every year. This is a bit of a cheeky tactic in my opinion, but I can’t pretend I wouldn’t be sorely tempted to do it if it were me! They were, as always, awesome, although not as good as I have seen them at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge. Maybe it was just that their sound wasn’t contained in a hall, or maybe they were tired from all the organization. It was still great to see them again, and I danced like a lunatic to pretty much all their songs.
Day 4
We had a fairly early night and woke to rain on the tent. I love lying in a tent with rain falling outside, but it’s a pain in all other respects – muddy campsite, everything damp, and given that this was the last day, I was not looking forward to putting my tent away wet and having to unfold it all again at home. However, Tariq suggested we wait for the main rush to pass (the campsite is supposed to be closed after 10am, but of course there’s no way 10,000 people can all leave at once before this time, even given that some of the audience left the night before after The Levellers). I went down to the main stage area for breakfast and found to my disappointment that most of the food trailers were closed, and those that were open were only doing a minimal menu for that last morning. Nevertheless I finally got a good vegan brekkie inside me, by which time the rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to peek out. By the time we packed up our tent it was pretty much dry, and the sky had cleared once again. The walk back to the car-park seemed harder work than the walk to the campsite had been on the Friday, and packing the car was more of a nightmare of organization than it had been before due to the various things we’d all picked up on the stalls, but everything fit in eventually and we headed off. On the way home Erik and Tariq shared out a few more mushrooms each, so our scheduled stop in the army town of Aylsbury was... Interesting! Mind you, the soldiers are all pretty much used to hippies invading their town from time to time, as the Summer Solstice Stonehenge party crew apparently often end up here for supplies. We made about the same time on the way home, although I was a bit more comfortable since Iona got relegated to the middle seat (on her booster seat, and perfectly safe due to the full seatbelt this strange car had in the middle). I think I’m just a bad passenger, getting into my van at the end of the journey to drive us and our kit back to the boat was a huge relief!!
I love camping, but getting back home and having a shower was pure bliss, and getting the cats back from the cattery next day was even better. Erik and I are planning on going next year, this time in the minibus, since there are a few spaces for camper vans. It was a far better festie than Glastonbury in my opinion, less to see and do, but far easier to get from place to place, better, cheaper food and drink and generally a much nicer atmosphere. I look forward to my next visit!!
