The Ghost Of Glastonbury Past...

It was 20 years ago today Sgt Pepper taught the band to play. It was also 20 years ago that I had my one and only visit to Glastonbury. It is easy to view the past with rose tinted spectacles, but 1995 at Glastonbury was a vintage year. At the height of Britpop we had the joy of seeing Sleeper, Elastica, Belly, Gene, The Charlatans and Supergrass amongst many others. It was the also first year that they had a dance tent which witnessed sets from the likes of Massive Attack and Dreadzone. The Metro published an article the other day about why Glastonbury in '95 was the most '90's thing ever and looking back 20 years later it probably was. In fact the festival was so good in '95 that they took the next year off to recover. For a festival that is almost synonymous with rain and mud, '95 was also the year of glorious sunshine. The entire weekend was baking hot from the second we arrived, something we were not prepared for, so to say that we were looking like three lobsters by the middle of day one is something of an understatement.

As it was the 25th Anniversary of Glastonbury they needed big name headline acts to celebrate this and they did not disappoint. Oasis, Pulp and The Cure had the honour of headlining each night. In the years since I don't really listen to much Oasis but at that time when they were riding high as the biggest band in the UK they were the perfect end to the Friday night. Pulp, brought in as a last minute replacement for The Stone Roses delivered one of the best performances of the weekend with a set that was set was a triumph of wit, style and pop suss. But for me, The Cure not only played a blinding set, they were the highlight of the weekend. Which is saying something given the line up. A special mention must go to two acts who were largely unknown before the festival and who both played sets that will go down in Glasto folklore.

Portishead were delayed from going on stage due to a rather worse for wear Evan Dando eating into their time slot with an impromptu acoustic set that resulted in him being booed off the stage by a few thousand highly expectant Portishead fans.When they eventually made it onto the stage in the extremely sweaty acoustic tent, they showed that all the hype surrounding them was genuine with a set that is still spoken about today as one of the best ever at Glastonbury. Also on the bill on the main stage, on Saturday afternoon, was Jeff Buckley who played a nine track set that included a blistering cover of Kick Out The Jams. To say the crowd was mesmerized by him does not even begin to describe his performance. A stunning performance from one of the most gifted musicians of his generation that will be remembered by everyone fortunate enough to witness it.

Over the last couple of days I have been watching some of this year's Glastonbury and there has been some great sets so far. On Friday we had stellar sets from Motorhead, The Libertines and Super Furry Animals. Although I am not a huge fan I have to take my hat off to Florence Welsh, who stepped up to the plate after Dave Grohl's accident, and put on an audience pleasing finale to Friday night. On Saturday we had a terrific performance from Edinburgh hip hop trio Young Fathers alongside the legend that is Mavis Staples and a fantastic headline performance on the John Peel stage from Suede.

This year's headline act on Saturday night has been the source of much discussion with Kanye West seemingly splitting opinion down the middle. I did watch his full set last night and have to say that it left me cold. Telling the crowd that they were watching “the greatest living rock star on the planet” was not borne out by his performance. At least when Jay Z headlined a few years back he tried to win the crowd over by having a bit of banter with them and opening his set with Oasis' Wonderwall, due to Noel's disapproval of his presence of him on the bill. No such trying to woo the audience from Kanye. He seemed totally disconnected from the crowd and only seemed interested in the Kanye West Show. Never mind, at least we have Patti Smith, The Fall and The Who to look forward to today.