ISLE OF WIGHT, 1969
There was nothing like it, certainly not on the Isle of Wight, the land the 1960s forgot. I was just starting out as a reporter for The Observer and desperately seeking a non-existent pay phone to dictate my copy. Thousands upon thousands kept rolling in off the boats, all flowers, paint, bells, dope n and a biting cold wind in my minuscule Biba dress, floaty but freezing, watching the naked tribes plunge into the sea waving peace signs as they went [pictured on the previous pages].
Hedonism was an earnest business back then, a cause. eIt's a question of alienation,' a 17-year-old girl explained to me at the time. eIn the town where I come from there's only a few of us and we're laughed at in the streets for the way we look.'
Dancing in front of the stage, a naked girl with a red bandana, red paint on her arms and nose, whirled and writhed for eager cameras until a security guard took her away and she cried out: eWhy can't they let me be what I am. I just wanted to be free.' Organisers Ron and Ray Foulk were wandering about backstage, I described in my piece [which The Observer ran on the front
page] elooking frightened and distracted, amazed at what they had created'.
suzanne vega
singer
isle of wight, 2004
I peeked through the [backstage] fence to see the crowd . Security ran forward. eMiss Vega, I wouldn't do that if I were you! You'll see why in a minute.'
They tested the PA by playing Crowded House, who were produced by my ex-husband,
Mitchell Froom. I was behind the barricades at this point, having a nostalgic moment, listening to my ex-husband's production, when suddenly the sound of gushing liquid made a racket
over my voice. I turned round to see an arc of pee, cheerfully flying through the air where I had stood seconds before. This was joined by another and then another . I shrieked with laughter and ran back to the bus. Honestly, gentlemen, if you must poke your penis through a fence, consider
who may be on the other side!
jimi goodwin
lead singer, doves
Deeply vale, 1978
My first festival was Deeply Vale free festival near Rochdale. I was eight years old and me and my Mum and Dad and brother went for the day. I remember little fragments of it. It was lovely and sunny and I remember bursting with excitement at seeing all these mad people wandering
around. I also remember seeing a local punk band called Wilful Damage. Another thing
I was dead impressed by was seeing a traveler kid, who can't have been much older than
me, playing on the scaffolding at the front of the stage, and what should be dangling from his mouth but a humungous joint! I'd seen and smelt spliffs at my parents parties, but smoking
them? In full view of adults? Radical shit! I've since met one of the people who made it happen from 1977 to e79, Chris Hewitt, who's filled me in on the ethos and spirit of the Rochdale workers' co-operative organised festival. He 's still amazed at how the police and council approved and
let them get away with it! Michael Eavis apparently name-checks Deeply Vale as a festival with a kindred spirit . There is talk of reviving it and in theory Doves are well up for it. It would be wonderful to think it could be free still and family-friendly and all-inclusive yet wild
at the same time.
STEVE LAMACQ
BBC RADIO 1&6 PRESENTER
READING, 2001
Working as the compere on the main stage at Reading it's quite often the silly incidents you remember more than the music, like the bands who engage in these odd little bonding ceremonies just before they go on n touching each other's tummies, or mumbling some elucky'
mantra or other.
But the Foo Fighters' set four years ago was one of the best, most emphatic I've seen. In fact, I don't think they've ever done a dui gig at Reading, but the thing about them is that they always score the biggest celebrity mate count.
So while they were hammering away I noticed my jacket had fallen off the DJ console where I'd left it and this big bloke was standing on it. But it was so crowded at the side of the stage I couldn't squeeze through to rescue it.
Anyway, the big bloke turns out to be Norm from Cheers, which is fine, but then Brian May from Queen takes a step back and he's standing on it as well. By the time I managed to push them off it was knackered.
HOWARD MARKS
AUTHOR
GLASTONBURY, 2003
I had just finished my performance at the Lost Stage (the only one I could find) and was settling down to getting wankered. eIt's Michael Eavis here. I wonder if you could help me out and go on the Pyramid Stage toN.'
eOf course.'
My main ambitions in life have been to score a try for Wales, to shag Tina Turner, and to headline the Pyramid Stage. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
eThank you so much. It's hard to find anyone who has credibility with the festival crowd. I did try to get Fatboy Slim to do it, but he's unable to speak. I think he must have laryngitis.'
Unlikely for a DJ, I thought.
eI'll send someone over to pick you up.'
Jimmy Cliff (one of my heroes) was just i nishing his set. A man in charge came up to me.
eYou know what you're doing, right?'
eNo idea.'
eWell, we don't mind people shitting in the hedges, but if they piss there, the urine seeps through the ground into underground streams into the river and poisons aquatic life. Please tell them not to do it.'
Jimmy Cliff came oi . The crowd was yelling for more. How could I follow that act with one line: eDon't pish on the fish.'
It was the worst 10 seconds of my life.
kate rusby
singer,
winnipeg festival,
canada, 2001
We had been warned about the mosquitoes here but the main problem was moths! If I see moths or daddy long legs, my legs start to run. As we began to play I felt something large land on my arm, so I tried to think of cream cakes and puppies to take my mind off it. By the instrumental I could stand it no longer. I opened my eyes and saw this big brown thing on my shoulder.
I blew it with all the breath I could muster and it took oi and hit me in the face. I screeched and ran like an eight-year-old girl to the other side of the stage. My guitar made a loud bang as I ran out of lead and it unplugged. The audience let out a gasp and cheer. They only noticed the huge moth when I blew on it, giving the impression that I had blown it out of my mouth like an
experienced conjurer.
KEN LIVINGSTONE
MAYOR OF LONDON
GLC jobs for a change Festival, 1984
I learnt a very important lesson at a music festival. It was the early 1980s and we n the Greater London Council n were holding an open-air gig with the Smiths as the main attraction. I was expected to go on and make one of my fascinating political speeches just before the Smiths were due to perform, by which time the gathered crowds had been waiting for hours for them to appear. It was at this point that I learnt the importance of keeping the politics brief when you're standing in front of a huge festival audience that, however politically sympathetic, really isn't there for the rhetoric. I risked five quick minutes of viciously denouncing Margaret Thatcher before introducing the band to plenty of applause. Any more and it might have been a different story. A good time was had by all. This lesson stood me in good stead when I had to speak just before Run DMC, De La Soul and Public Enemy in successive years at our annual anti-racist festivals.
DYLAN JONES
GQ EDITOR
READING, 1975
The first festival I went to was Reading in 1975, when I was 15. I'd just seen Dr Feelgood at The Nag's Head in High Wycombe and they were supporting Hawkwind on the Friday night, so six of us decided it would be fun to go for the weekend. It wasn't, and made me realise my life was meant to be spent in six-star hotels and not in a muddy field surrounded by drunk Status Quo fans on cider and bad Red Leb. It was the quintessential awful festival experience: dreadful
music (Lou Reed and Thin Lizzy were great, but can you imagine sitting through Judas
Priest, the Mahavishnu Orchestra or Yes?), disgusting food (I remember burgers and burgers and nothing else), overflowing toilets, rain, mud, marauding denim-clad Quo fans and gallons and gallons of lukewarm bitter. But did it stop me going the following year? Of course not.
roots manuva
rapper
homelands, 2001
I lost my driver at Homelands four years ago. It was one of those situations: eYou'regoing to the drum'n'bass tent, I'm going to the house tentN I'll see you back here in two hours', but I never saw him again, and there was no mobile reception. I'm an inner-city boy who's used to all-night buses and stuff, and I was stranded in this field in the middle of nowhere near Winchester. I thought I'm gonna have to buy a blanket and sleep in a field, but then when the sun came up I managed to get on this special festival train back to Waterloo. The train was rocking, man, full
of festival kids singing, shouting and coming down from whatever they were on. None of them recognised me, but I had a chat with eem, just festival banter. I'm not that good at festivals, man, it took 10 of us to put up a tent at The Big Chill once, and it still fell down . We played Homelands again this year, but it was proper luxury this time, on our tour bus. And I didn't lose my driver this time.
PAUL KAYE
ACTOR
GLASTONBURY, 1997
I got a call out of the blue from Liam Howlett asking me if I fancied picking up the Prodigy's Brit
Award as [Dennis] Pennis because the band were going to be in Australia. Being a huge fan of the
band I said I'd be honoured and that was that, until the Brits decided I was banned from Alexandra Palace on account of my behaviour the previous year, when I'd upset Madonna . So it was then decided that, instead, I would introduce the band when they headlined the main stage at Glastonbury on the Friday night. Having never done a stand-up gig in my life, I figured a crowd
of 90,000 people was a good opener for me so I nervously accepted the invite. I introduced the band as a tribute act, The Australian Firestarters, and on they went. After two songs the sound just went and my worst nightmare was realised. I had to go on stage in front of an angry, frustated
crowd, with no jokes and nothing to say. Mud and rocks flew and chants of eFuck off Pennis' n I was in big trouble. Then suddenly, out of nowhere in my head I decided to sing the Hebrew folk
song eHava Nagila', which got the whole site clapping along. As I sang the final notes, the Prodigy's Maxim came on stage screaming ewe're back on' and I was left to sink into a puddle backstage where I thanked my Dad for making me learn that song against my wishes when I was 10 years old.
PHILL JUPITUS
BBC 6 MUSIC PRESENTER
GLASTONBURY, 2004
Having never been much of a festival goer, the opportunity of attending Glastonbury with the safety net of The British Broadcasting Corporation beneath me was just the ticket. I was
required for various television bits and bobs during the day and from 10pm-2am to host BBC2's coverage . Last year I had some free time to wander the site on the Sunday and had a hot date to go and see rising South Coast beat hooligans the Ordinary Boys. As I tramped up to the
backstage area, Preston and Will of the band called me over, beckoned me into their dressing room and said: eWe were wondering if you wanted to sing eLittle Bitch' with us?' My fi rst thought was: eI only know the words to the last verse.' However, I went eyes!' They seemed quite
chuffed and went off to take the stage. As they thrashed around their hectic and marvellous set, I stood backstage and pondered the folly of my actions. And as my already overworked heart started to thump a little faster my one thought was: eYou can't sing a Specials song in
wellies...' So Preston announced me and I shouted and bounced around along with four young men who hadn't been born when I fiirst saw the Specials at Hammersmith Palais. Tremendous fun with no quarter given to my own dignity...
Bill Drummond
author
Leigh festival, 1979
Ring, ring. I pick up the phone: eBill, is that you?' And before I had time to say yes, or no, or you've got the wrong number, he's oi . It's always the same with Tony Wilson. eI've got this idea, we do a festival, we call it Factory Meets Zoo Halfway. We have it halfway between Manchester and Liverpool. You bring your bands and I bring mine.'
eWhereabouts?'
eLeigh, I've got the field booked, staging, the PA and lights. It's going to be onN'
eWho is going to promote it, Tony?'
eDon't worry Bill, people will come.'
But that was it n as far as Tony was concerned it was all sorted and agreed. That's what's great about Tony Wilson it's also what drives people up the wall about him. Zoo was a fledgling record label in Liverpool that I co-owned we had put out a half a dozen seven-inch singles. Factory was a label which Tony co-owned in Manchester. It, too, was fledgling.
I turned up on the given date with my bands, as Tony called them, Echo and the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes.
Tony brought his n A Certain Ratio, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Joy Division. There was a field, a stage, a PA system, even lights, but there were next to no people. Just a few friends of the bands and some kids from the local council estate. This was the summer of e79. Both mine and Tony's bands meant little in the national pop consciousness.Whatever impact and legacy
they were gonna have and leave was all in the future.
A hot dog van turned up, Echo and the Bunnymen's drum machine got temperamental (it was before drummer Pete De Freitas joined them). The bands played in broad daylight to no response whatsoever. They were all out of their depth in this setting.They still required the intimacy of a
small club to work their charm.
As the light of the day began to fade and the lights began to have some impact, Joy Division came on. They were the headline band n Tony had decided that. They got in gear and got going and Ian did his spazz dance that we had seen him do before and the lights turned blue and they were great. My bands and I knew they had something we could never have. We all got into Les's
(Pattinson) mini bus with our bits and pieces and left before the end. As far as I was concerned the day was a waste of a good Saturday and I vowed to put my foot down when Tony phoned again with one of his ideas. But anybody who knows Tony knows that he is a very hard person to put your foot down with n and that is another one of thereasons he is great.
David Bowie
singer
glastonbury, 1971
It was 1971 and I was bottom of the bill. I remember my onstage time being shoved back later and later. I was originally scheduled to go on around midnight or so, but things got so delayed that I didn't make it onstage till around 5am. So, what better than to spend the intervening hours ensconced in the farmhouse, along with a crew of latterday hippies, singer Terry Reid and all kinds of mushrooms. By the time I was due to perform I was flying and could hardly see my little electric keyboard or guitar. I have no recollection of the show itself, although I seem to recall a strange girl getting up onstage and whirling away, mostly without any music playing, while the audience cheerfully awoke from its slumbers.
Vernon Kaye
Radio 1 presenter
Reading, 1991
My favourite festival memory was at Reading in 1991 watching Nirvana play for the first time. It was a Friday afternoon and everyone had been talking about how this new band was supposed to be amazing. I got very excited and went down to the stage with some mates from school to
watch. It was an electric performance and one I'll always remember. It was really the
first moment that people in the UK knew they were going to be something special, so it felt good to be part of it. Kurt threw himself into his drum kit and everyone was rocking out. Such a defining moment.
Pearl Lowe
singer and socialite
Dour festival, 1995
I first met Danny [Goffey, Supergrass's drummer] at the Dour Festival in Belgium in 1995. It was quite mental because I was having a party at my house and I hitched a ride on the Dodgy tour bus. They had come to my party n the Bluetones, Pulp, people like that n and I left all the bands at my house and went on the bus. Everyone was warning me: eIt's awful, that festival, it's only one field.' I thought it would be a laugh so I arrived at 6am going eoh my god, they were right. It's awful.' I only went because I missed Glastonbury the weekend before and every single person I knew went. I watched it on television and cried my eyes out. When I got to the Dour festival I was cursing myself, going eWhat are you doing here? You idiot'. I met Danny five minutes later so it was fated really. I'm still with him now. July the 11th is quite a landmark n it's 10years since we've been together so we're going to have a massive party.
Annie Nightingale
Radio 1 presenter
Woodstock, 1994
It was horrendous. You had to have Woodstock money, buy Woodstock cola and eat Woodstock burgers . They even tried to grab the name so that people living in Woodstock the town couldn't sell T-shirts with Woodstock on. It was so badly organised that the artists had to break down the fence to get on the site. They had buses to ferry people from the car park 40 miles away onto the site and back . That was supposed to go on all night but didn't. It's the middle of the night and you've got 100,000 white middle-class American kids going eI haven't got any water' n they just couldn't cope. So we were all stranded in the middle of the night with no water and no facilities . A total nightmare.
Dave GOW
SONS AND DAUGHTERS
GLASTONBURY, 1999
My favourite festival experience happened at Glastonbury. It was the year that Bez was arrested, and the mud was so horrendous the site resembled the Somme.
My friends and I decided on the Sunday to blag our way into a VIP party backstage. We were having a right good dance, then I noticed the bottom of the marquee wall moving. A blackened face appeared, with eyes like big polo mints.
The guy crawled in, jumped to his feet, and started dancing with us right there. It was Bez, looking like a wired coal miner! Not only that, Mani from the Stone Roses crawled in right after, looking even muckier! They danced furiously with us for half an hour, punching the air like they'd justwon the marathon. I only managed to askBez one thing: eHey, we heard that you got arrested?' Bez looked like he was remembering something a fortnight before and then said: eYeah'. I never got to ask if he'd burrowed his way back into the site, or if that was just the way it looked.
Jade Jagger
designer
Notting hill carnival
Having lived in Notting Hill for so many years, I think my favourite has to be the Carnival. There is something so diverse, wild and rebellious about it , and there are always great acts, old and new. I remember about 10 years ago seeing Aswad, who blew me away, and now I just love all the ragga and hip hop sound systems on the All Saints Road .
