Glasto 2007 - the one with the mud

This time I took my old digital camera, and I even remembered to take some pictures !

OK. One wet one out of four isn't bad. Last time I couldn't get tickets, so I watched "Brown Friday" on the tele. The other three times ( 1999, 2000, 2002 ) it hadn’t rained at all – well, not proper rain.

This year it started out well, with big fluffy clouds failing to deliver, the sun giving me a sun tan - even slight sunburn on my nose.

Then Thursday afternoon great big drops of rain started to fall.

Fortunately Michael Eavis and crew had improved the drainage so that there were very few places where the mud was deeper than my walking boots (about 15cm).

Apart from not being able to sit down anywhere you wanted (solved by a canvas chair from Lost Vagueness for £6), it was harder work walking around, and more care was needed getting the camera out of the rucksack to avoid it falling into the quagmire.

As ever Glasto delivered its usual unpredictable, wonderful experience.

In fact Glasto 2007 wasn't about the mud at all for me, it was about me and my 14 year old daughter, Hannah.

We got our tickets at the last possible moment, having failed on the other three occasions.

The only tickets that were available were coach tickets with a fixed Wednesday 06:30 to Monday 06:30 timeslot.

Five days on a "family camping holiday" in Somerset - that's what it said on Hannah's school holiday form. This was true since we went with two of my sisters and their husbands : Katina & Neil, Margaret & Alan. Also my Glastonbury buddy Brian and his two boys, Archie and Huw, were there.

2006 had been a difficult year for both me and Hannah. Hannah’s mum, Sonia, had decided that she didn’t want to be married to me any more, and would rather be with somebody else. Just a normal divorce, sign of the times, etc., but very unpleasant for us all. Maybe just as bad, Huni Buni (Hannah’s pet rabbit) had been killed by a fox, my favourite Auntie had died and my dad had been very ill. So not an easy time really. Hannah had moved out with her brother Sam and their mother to a house 4 miles away, leaving me on my own in our former family home. A lot of adjusting to do – so I was particularly happy to have the opportunity to spend some time at Glastonbury with Hannah, to sort of re-group.

“Two rules” I said, as we pitched our tents (one each – 14 is too old to share with daddy) – “One : no tattoos, Two: don’t go to Lost Vagueness after dark”. So the first thing we did was get Hannah a tattoo. Just a temporary Jagua one – like Henna, but black – the Chinese symbol for Courage.

Those of you who have not been to Glastonbury may not understand how it is that a protective father could feel OK about taking a 14 year girl there at all, but in fact I would be quite happy for Hannah to wander round on her own - everywhere except Lost Vagueness, after dark. Lost Vagueness is truly weird. I think there are all sorts of really strange people there – druggies, zombies, witches and wizards etc. I certainly found it very challenging at Glastonbury 2000, and I didn’t want Hannah to be exposed to that sort of thing. Actually, I didn’t want myself exposed to that kind of thing.

So it was with some trepidation that I found myself leading Hannah, Brian, Huw and me off to Lost Vagueness one dark rainy night. But it felt right. I needed to confront my demons. Hannah had insisted that we go (forbidden fruit…). As we approached the Lost Vagueness field along the disused railway track, there was a security vehicle parked across the road, lights flashing, with people being turned back for “health and safety reasons”. Not to be outdone by such an obvious ploy, I said confidently that I would take the intrepid party by a back route. I knew that there was a back route, but I also knew that entrances and exits in that part of the festival tend be like the Harry Potter platform 9 and ¾ - sometimes there, sometimes not. But it felt right, so I followed my feet, up towards the Sacred Stones, left past the ethnic tents, past the indentation in the ground where the amazing Spacecraft Stage had been in G2000, up through a camping field that I never knew existed, and down into Lost Vagueness.

All the time I was trying to follow what was right. I explained (in my thoughts) to the good people and beings of Lost Vagueness that I, as a human being, would be very upset if I “lost” Hannah, that I would lay waste to their world if anything untoward happened to her. As if I had any idea how to carry out such a threat! But it made me feel better to express, even if only to myself, how I was feeling.

So we walked on through the mud towards the “Chapel”, the centre of the area, and just as I suspected, I blinked and Hannah was gone. There’s nothing particularly weird about losing people in a crowd – its hard not to. So I let the whole thing go. Explained (in my thoughts) that I would like Hannah back as soon as possible, and waited. After what seemed like an hour, but was in fact maybe 30 seconds, Brian tapped me on the shoulder – “we thought we’d lost you” he said. I followed him to the “Chapel” and rejoined Hannah and Huw. We took a look inside – very crowded – so went to Joe Strummer’s memorial stone, paid our respects, and started the hour and quarter walk back to our tents, sloshing through the mud, taking in the sights and sounds along the aluminium walkway.

I don’t know how Glastonbury does this. I have now been four times – each time was completely different, each time was just right. At G1999 I was shown how good life can be when people stop running after money. At G2000 I was taught how to accept things that I couldn’t understand. At G2002 I was shown how suffering can be good. At G2007 I was shown how to love my daughter by letting her go.

I was exactly 50% responsible for the failure of my marriage. Any other percentage must be wrong – there were two of us, it didn’t work out – to assign blame more to one partner than the other is to presume to understand. The breakdown of their parent’s marriage hurt our two children – and I was 50% responsible for this. I had to adjust from a life devoted to caring and nurturing two human souls, to facing up to the reality of failure. And once again, Glastonbury worked its magic, poked, prodded, challenged and healed. Awesome! Thank you.

And we saw some really good bands too :

This was Hannah’s festival - so we saw the Kooks, the Fratellis, Lily Allen, Paulo Nutini, James Morrison. I suggested we stay on for the Killers who were excellent. I picked Hannah up and put her on my shoulder for one of the Lily Allen songs – that’s fatherly love for you! Paulo Nutini deserves special mention here – he was very good. Hannah and I had been practising two Lily Allen songs (me on piano, Hannah singing) which we performed at Henry’s Beard café, and for which we got two £6 meal tickets. I’m a bit of a Lily Allen fan – lovely voice, strong lyrics.

The Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs were very good. And the Manics. Hannah and I made a deal – I would go to the John Peel tent to see Jamie T, and then Hannah would come with me to see Tinawaren on the Jazz World stage. Jamie T was superb – proper talent. There I was, crammed in the JP tent with 1000 teenagers. The rain pouring down outside, adding extra pressure from people just outside, trying to get out of the rain.

Glastonbury moment : a mud monster (i.e. young person who had been swimming in the mud) ran at the stage from outside the tent causing a kind of pressure wave as people jumped out of his way. Having reached the stage, he returned, again causing everyone in his way to move, except me. I stood motionless, happy to be able to breathe freely for a few seconds. He ran towards me arms flailing, obviously delighted by his new-found power to move people, stared at me with wild eyes, then gently placed two muddy hands on each side of my face, smiled and ran off into the rain. EXCELLENT!!! This is what Glastonbury is all about!

Tinawaren, from North Mali, were excellent. I wanted to see them because I knew that they are one of Andy Kershaw’s favourite bands, and I just didn’t like them. Well, it worked – I got it – listening to them live I understood that their music was just too different – there were no chord sequences or harmonies for me to hang onto. Now I am a fan – I just had to listen to what they actually play, hear it with new ears. Hannah liked them too… Thanks Andy!

We saw, in passing, the Bees, the Chemical Brothers (awesome laser light show), and I caught the last five minutes of the Waterboys, with Steve Wickham on violin. I would liked to have seen K T Tunstall, but it just wasn’t possible. (Later I saw her on the tele at Live Earth – I liked the way she so obviously loved singing to 2 billion people as if they were all her closest friends ;)

I like my sleep, especially at Glastonbury, but Hannah got us up early, TWICE, to go to the Left Field tent so that she could get her name down for the Open Mic sessions. We got close, but there was a lot of demand to perform in front of 5000 people, and Hannah didn’t get on. We did get to see a new band called “Retrospect” and got a free copy of their CD. I think they will go far…

But… up in the Green Field, the Banyan Tree Café had an Open Mic stage, so I got Hannah’s name put on the whiteboard. We sat inside the round marquee, on carpets and sofas, waiting for Hannah’s turn, the rain started, so crowds rushed in just as Hannah got up on stage. She sang Kelly Clarkson’s “You Found Me” and Louis Armstrong’s “Wonderful World”, solo, a cappella. What can I say? Obviously I’m biased, but - wow!

The two MCs at the Banyan Tree Café mentioned that would be playing in their band “Pink Flawed” a Pink Floyd tribute band later – so we went to see them – excellent!

About half of the time at Glastonbury seemed to be spent getting Hannah’s mobile phone charged. Orange ran the “Chill and Charge” building, a kind of techno warehouse with tables, intentionally uncomfortable stools, and a variety of phone charging leads, and even Internet (if you were prepared to wait). We got a seat at a table and chatted to the young people there while we waited our turn. (I embarrassed Hannah by dancing to some 70’s disco stuff, and got the DJ to play something by the Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger, I believe). Some days later the queue was maybe half a mile long, and as I didn’t want to stand in ankle deep mud waiting for the trench-foot to set in, I took Hannah to the Green Field area, where I peddled a bike for 15 minutes while a dynamo charged her phone. It went up from 50% to 59% charge, but then it dropped down to 58% when a text came in. Later we deposited her phone at a Gypsy-style caravan which advertised wind- or solar-powered charging, but I suspect was actually plugged in to the mains. Somehow we kept Hannah’s phone alive for the full five days!

Also in the Green Field I tried out a Power Assisted bike. I was impressed – I got the back wheel to spin in the mud and nearly came off.

Also, Hannah and I did Lily Allen’s “Littlest Things” on the Rinky-Dink piano/tricycle thingy, as a kind of rehearsal before our performance at Henry’s Beard. It was actually an electronic keyboard, to keep the weight down, mounted on a pedal powered sideways-facing tricycle.

And we chatted to some lovely people :

Our entire party - Alan, Margaret, Katina, Neil, Hannah and me, visited the Iona Community tent – Alan had heard of them from his involvement with his church (he is training to be a vicar) – and I liked the people very much.

At the Common Ground Café Hannah and I chatted with Abia, a guy from Morocco who only spoke French, I did my best translating – good enough, I hope, to understand his advice to Hannah not to hide her eyes behind her fringe. I bet Abia has a story to tell!

Also at the Common Ground I got talking to Richard who works at the medical centre, a field outside the Super Fence with their own hot showers!!! Richard told me about how they were prepared for every eventuality – another reflection of the care expressed by the organising team towards us, the punters.

In the Healing Field Hannah and I chatted to Dido ( no, not that Dido ;), at a Crystal Healing tent about children and parents. Dido and I compared notes on how we brought up our children. I bought a Moldovite crystal which apparently comes from outer space (via a meteorite) because it felt right, and I reckoned it would protect me from zombies. It must have worked, because I wasn’t troubled by zombies the whole time I was at Glastonbury ;) Hannah bought a crystal heart…

On the Sunday night, Brian, Huw, Hannah and me met up at the Sacred Stones. I spread the plastic bit of my umbrella on the ground (the only bit left) and had a nap. Then I went over to the camp fire to warm up. I got chatting to someone from Batley in the north of England. He has a brother called Howard, one of 9 children. We could hear The Who when the wind blew in the right direction. Apparently they were very good. Someone called out “anyone want any laughing gas?” I replied “ you must be joking” which Hannah, Brian and Huw found very funny, although I’m not quite sure why… On the way in from the coach park to the campsite I was carrying my big bag on my head – going past one of the ever-so-friendly people directing us, I asked in a serious tone if she could direct me to the nearest chiropractor. That was much funnier, though I say so myself ;) I was also particularly proud of my slow-motion running down hill through the mud, very nearly falling over when I tried to stop. I heard gasps from the crowd. Hannah and I took bets on which one of us would fall into the mud first. In the event neither of us did!

People often ask “who was your favourite band?” This time the answer is easy for me :

In Hitchin Hill field where we were camping, right up high to the north of the site, well out the way of the mud, a group of young people had put up two gazebos – those four-legged open tents that you can sit under, out of the rain. One of them had a guitar, and was leading the others in a whole range of campfire/busking type of songs – Beatles, Oasis etc.

Well, 04:30 Monday morning I was cold, trying to get warm under my duvet. I am never cold in a tent – but it was damp and cold, the rain was pouring down, and I knew the alarm would be going off in 30 minutes, and that I would have to get up, pack the tent, drag the bags half a mile through the mud to the coach park and leave Glastonbury. Then the Hitchin Hill Double Gazebo Band started playing, and they really lifted my spirits! From a cold, damp, depression to a wide grin!!!

I had to make two trips to carry the bags (over my head) between the tents – on the first trip I asked them if it was them who had been playing earlier – “no, not us” they said – “well somebody was playing and it really cheered me up” I said. So they confessed that it was them, and asked if I had any requests – I told them I would have a think about it and tell them on my way back. “Hey Jude” I said. “Take a sad song and make it better” I thought. It had stopped raining while we packed our tents. We smiled at each other as I lugged the bags down the road. Sunshine, metaphorically at least, broke through the cold, damp, grey of the morning. Perfect. If you let me know who you are, I’ll buy you all a beer!

A final, sad note. We finally made it to the coach park, and I unpacked the canvas chair, sat down and wrapped the Oxfam aluminium foil survival blanket around me. The entire coach park was under about 10 cm of water/mud. There were no taps, so the plan to refill my water bottle couldn’t happen. As I sat there, reflecting on life, I realised how incredibly fortunate I was – we all were. Sitting there in the cold, with a light drizzle of rain, I knew that in a matter of hours I would be home, warm, safe, dry, well fed. I had seen refugees on the television – people made homeless by floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, war. I suddenly realised what it meant to be a refugee – dependent on others, helpless. I think this may be a new direction for my life. I had been a refugee from my own life – a victim and perpetrator of a two person war. The coach came, only half an hour late. A young lady in the two seats opposite me was trying to sleep, curled up, shivering with cold, wet through. I offered her the camping rug from my rucksack – only used once before the rains came – I had to start somewhere ;)

The coach dropped us back at Maidenhead. Margaret and Alan’s daughter Emma picked them and Katina and Neil up. One of my many amazing house guests, Edward, collected me and Hannah and took us back to my house. We both had hot showers (yippee!!!), and I took Hannah back to her house so that she could go back to school. I had booked her off for the Tuesday too, but she couldn’t wait to tell all of her friends about Glastonbury!

I went to bed and slept for 6 hours, waking up at nine in the evening, my body clock running on USA time.

Tuesday I washed everything, scrubbing the mud of the bags, getting back to normal.

I went to see Hannah perform “Wonderful World” again at her school concert, fresh from her appearance at Glastonbury. What a proud father!

Wednesday I started a new contract – 20 minutes from home, instead of the usual 1 hour – for a company that has a policy of being nice to its personnel. Free coffee machine, good canteen, interesting work. Cool.

What did we learn? Hannah learnt that “quagmire” is a real word, not just the name of a character in the Family Guy cartoon. I learnt that I like African music, even from Mali, and that life is good.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to whatever it is that makes Glastonbury what it is.

Howerd 8^)

This time I took my old digital camera, and I even remembered to take some pictures J

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2007 Sep 15