There’s a big gaping hole in my soul this weekend. I should be on a farm frolicking in the mud. I should be at Glastonbury. It was cancelled this year because apparently athletes go to the toilet, just like us and the dreaded portaloo’s were needed for some sports day in London. Alongside that, cows like grass and Glastonbury is, lest we forget, still a working farm.
I went to Glastonbury in the early nineties and then lived abroad for the latter part of the decade, so I lost touch with it really. On my return to England in 1998, I’d watch it on TV and find myself pining to be there again. Not enough to buy a ticket but an admiration for it, from afar. I think I was scared that it had changed too much and that I was growing out of it. How wrong could I be?
A chance meeting with Glastonbury farmer/legend Michael Eavis changed all that five years ago. He was doing a Q &A in Brighton and after the event; I invited him on the radio show. He was a delightful guest, recalling stories of the first ever Glastonbury, when the main stage was a few planks of wood, held together by chicken wire. Marc Bolan rocked up in a car ‘covered in purple velvet,’ and told people very firmly that no-one was allowed to touch it. He also found Heather Mills very rude, when Macca headlined the Pyramid. The stories poured out.
'It's excellent for the skin.'
A few days after that meeting, a friend encouraged me to go for Glastonbury Radio, a temporary station set up for the week of the festival (Worthy FM). I went for the kill. I tracked down Michael’s number, called his farmhouse and spoke to him personally. He then recommended me to Worthy FM and was invited to work for them that year. I’ve been working for them every year, ever since.
It’s an amazing job. You get nice toilets for a start. And my job, alongside presenting a show there, was to hang around backstage and get interviews. I’ve met everyone from Bono to Russell Grant, Damon Albarn to Andrew Marr. I’ve had the highlights of my professional career at that festival.
But it’s not that which I will miss. I’ll miss the people, the smiles, the love, the whole spirit of the place. It is without a doubt, a very special place and I can’t wait to go back.
This weekend, I’m going camping (in Pevensey). I’ll sit by a fire, I’ll think of Stevie Wonder performing on the main stage and I’ll raise a glass or five, to the Greatest Show on Earth.