NuBlue go to Glastonbury 2009

July 10, 2009 at 11:31 am, Category: Business, Uncategorized, by Rob Ellis

In which we discover just how many songs Bruce Springsteen has recorded….

Thanks to a special invite for yours truly from Carlsberg (other beers are available, just not at Glastonbury) I was lucky enough to bag myself a ticket for this year’s outstanding festival.

With a line up including The Boss, Blur, Maximo Park, Franz Ferdinand, N.E.R.D and Kasabian, it’s fair to say I was looking forward to it!!

I set off at 6am, Wednesday 24th June 2009 and boarded a National Express coach bound for the King of festivals. Due to arrive at 2.30pm, I was sure to have plenty of time for a nosey at the massive 1000 acre site!

Only 13 hours later (a mere five hours late…) I arrived, bounding into the site like an over excited Spaniel to meet my brother in law and host, Adrian.

My home

After a quick tour I was shown to my accommodation for the week, a two man Karrimor tent in a field resembling a post apocalyptic refuge.

With Adrian deeply involved in the important work of keeping the revellers in Beer, I took myself off for a wander around the site. For those who haven’t been to Glastonbury before this is a tiring thing to do, but none the less, you have to do it. There is so much to take in.

On my trundle through the main areas, past the John Peel stage, I watched the final touches being applied to the famous Pyramid stage before checking out the “Other Stage” area and onto the Queens Head for the first of many festival pints!

Feeling refreshed, I took the trek up to the Shangri- la field, the field of Avalon and finally the Healing fields and Green area. Checking out some of the Greenpeace and Water Aid campaigns, I sat and took in the sights and sounds and some of the weird and wonderful people who occupy this area of the site. Feeling very chilled out and “green” I decided to partake in a little Tai Chi. Standing at the very top of the site by the Stone Circle, myself and around 20 others followed our teacher with some breathing and relaxation exercises. This was a relatively new experience for me but before I

The Green Fields

felt compelled to run off and lay down in front of the next incoming 747 on runway 3, I carried on with my day and left the others to it.

Wednesday came and went with a final leisurely stroll around and it was a chance for me to catch up with a few friends.

A very restless night later (can people honestly not see bright purple guy ropes?!) I emerged from my tent to find the sun shining and just a handful of new neighbours (about 3 million) Fantastic, let’s go!

After sorting (dumping) my rucksack I got a phone call from Adrian telling me to go to the Queens Head bar.

This was in preparation for a “secret” Maximo Park gig, organised to officially open the festival. As a huge Maximo Park fan I managed to find my way to the front of the rather small Queens Head stage. Little did I know that behind me word had spread and the secret gig had become a 70,000 person event!

The Site

Blasting through a fantastic 15 song set, Maximo Park finished and I was left in awe of my first festival gig. Sweating and covered in beer, I was delighted, Glastonbury had really started.

Thursday ended with a shift working behind the Queens Head bar which luckily helped me avoid the 6 hour storm that had descended on the previously sunny Glastonbury site! Around about this time, a bizarre and unbelievable message was spreading around the Festival. Michael Jackson had died. People couldn’t quite believe the news.

On Friday, Adrian’s sister and I set off for the launch of the Pyramid stage. Who better to get people in the festival spirit but Bjorn Again, Abba’s official tribute act! They pounded out some classic hits from the Swedish band, including Mamma Mia, Money Money Money and Dancing Queen. As the first Pyramid gig of the weekend, festival goers were now all geared up for the weekend’s events.

The Mud!

The site now looked a very different place to what I had seen on my gentle walk the day before, by now there were well over 150, 000 revellers on site!! The storms had also turned the previously lush (ish) fields into a Zambezi-esque mud bath. Bear Grylls would have had trouble staying up right! As the sun came out the ground started to dry with the odd welly, sandal and human being the only sign that trouble had passed our way.

Bjorn Again, Regina Spektor , N.E.R.D, Fleet Foxes, Lilly Allen, Lady Gaga, The Ting Tings and Doves all left great imprints on our minds…….Worn out but happy we all went to bed to prepare ourselves for another busy day!

Saturday, the sun is shining again! Result. Saturday’s must watch? Rolf Harris, live on the Jazz World stage at 12:30pm. Rolf Harris? I’m there.

We arrived at Jazz World to be confronted by chaos. The morning bill across the site was a bit thin but where did all these people come from!? The site has gone Rolf mad, jammed from gate to gate the Aussie legend belts out a few crowd favourites and finishes with a “British” version of Tie Me Kangaroo down Sport. Awesome.

It’s at this point that I must admit something. Thanks to my invite as a guest at the event, I was lucky enough to have a shiny gold wrist band. This allowed me to the area known as “hospitality”. For those of us who get slightly overwhelmed by the sheer number of people at Glastonbury, hospitality is a god send! A private area (with seats!) for people with the aforementioned band to chill out and be far from the madding crowds. Situated right between the Pyramid and The Other stages, hospitality also provides the perfect short cut!

Paulo Nutini

I also got to rub shoulders with one or two celebs. My favourites included Tim Lovejoy, Paulo Nutini, Harry Enfield, Mark Radcliffe, Jo Whiley, Keith Allen, Zane Lowe, Jamie Cullum and the odd member of The Libertines thrown in for good measure!

Anyway, back to the Festival…

Tonight is the night of the big headliner. The man himself, the boss, Bruce Springsteen! Many have said he is not of this crowd’s generation, many said no one would know his songs. Will this just be a festival of “Dad Rock”?! The only thing I know is that the Boss brought his A-game, his B-game and any other game that you could possibly imagine. Rocking out for well over 2 and half hours, Bruce wowed the crowd with at least 1000 tracks. With energy like no other, he was a big hit with the 100,000+ crowd that had descended on the pyramid. An hour over-run and reported £3,000 fine later he released his grip on an exhausted crowd.

Just a little bit chuffed with Bruce’s performance, we capped the night off with a final few blasts from a Franz Ferdinand guitar and headed back to our tents.

The festival seemed to fly by and Sunday arrived in no time. The final day was all about fun bands and acts. Status Quo, Tom Jones and Tony Christie had the crowd jumping in preparation for the big act of the night. A reformed and rejuvenated Blur.

Blur

Topping the bill on the world famours Pyramid Stage on the final night of this year’s event, Blur front man Damon Albarn greeted the crowd as they kicked the set off with their first single ‘She’s So High’.

They hauled out the hits: Parklife, This is a Low, To the End, to an increasingly enthusiastic reception. Returning to the stage for a rousing rendition of Song 2, and then again for The Universal, the band looked genuinely delighted as they looked out over the flags and the crowd with its sunburned noses and glitter-smeared faces. They paused as they took in the magnificence of Glastonbury. And then came the guitar, and the great sing-along continued.

My first ever festival experience ended with a final few tracks in the dance tent with an energetic Calvin Harris. Shattered and happy, there was time for a quick sleep and I headed home.

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