Yesterday marked the first day of The Festival. What festival? What are you, dead? Ok, so not everyone cares - at least not enough. I'm refering to Glastonbury Music Festival. I mean I could go but I don’t and yet I purport to be some sort of music enthusiast - critic even!. It’s like a football pundit deciding he’d rather polish his car than go to the world cup. Except that well, I don’t want to sound like a culture snob...but sorry it’s just not what it used to be and by that I mean this:
Once upon a time Glastonbury was a kind of annual measure of the state of music, all the Glastonbury line up tells me today is who was available on the circuit. Scan as I do every year the line-up, I realise I have already seen all the acts I would want to see in circumstances that don’t involve being so uncomfortable I want to chop my own legs off.
And this year Glastonbury turns 40 – reason one would think to pull out a few stops, but again – it’s the same acts that you will have already been able to see at some point this year or who are touring anyway with a couple of exceptions (Dizzee Rascal and Florence & The Machine were pretty amazing) and that’s because they haven’t got much else on. When Prince Charles deems it beneficial to his ‘brand’ to make an appearance something has forever shifted for the festival. And so it staggers from one year to the next.
I would have liked to have seen Eminen coaxed there since he isn’t touring but does have a new album and we have missed him dearly. I mean I LOVE Stevie Wonder (headlining on Sunday), I do, please see this blog post. It's just that he’s also gigging in Hyde Park tonight (Saturday) for crying out loud. For me that’s one 20 minute bus ride away and I can guarantee I won’t have to smell anyone else’s poop.
To quote the music critic for The Telegraph: “...it's [Glastonbury] really just an endurance test... and it's not about the music any more.” Harsh but I have got to agree. There are some that will agree for other reasons. This festival is perhaps more about the music if you remember 1971 when Bowie played for free. Some people get married there and others spend their whole time in Green Fields with the children having gone with absolutely no intention of braving the crowds around the pyramid or other stages. But I can't help feeling there are better places to spend a weekend camping with the kids.
Perhaps it has to do with age? No, I don't think so. I went to Bonaroo festival in Nashville in 2008 to see bands such as Metallica and The Raconteurs who have not since toured. That's my motivation I think and the reason why many festivals in the UK don't do it for me. Ah, what do I know?
Another music critic writes that when Paul Simonon of The Clash was asked how he felt about Glastonbury, he apparently looked utterly aghast. “I have never played Glastonbury and I never would,” he said, in tones of near comical outrage.
“Joe Strummer spent years trying to get me to change my mind but culturally and even ethically it has got nothing to do with my life. Notting Hill Carnival is more my speed.”
Hear, hear.
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