The Glastonbury 2007 Experience

Best weekend ever. It certainly was. By a long shot. Glastonbury 2007 is hard to sum up in words. It is too much of an emotionally charged experience. Instead of attempting to describe it, as I am sure I will not do it justice, I have made a couple lists and linked to lots of videos.

Most memorable moments

• The knee deep “mud” around the urinals and watching some poor bugger wipe out in it.
• Chemical Brothers – Hey Boy, Hey Girl.
• Given a business card by a wizard. A genuine real wizard.
• Nizlopi – JCB Song. Then meeting Luke (Nizlopi singer) and getting a signed CD afterwards.
• Covered in mud, and most probably traces of urine, throwing frisbees in the crowd watching The View.
• Mastering the art of subtly peeing in a pint glass when stuck in the middle of a 100 000 people.
• Damien Rice. My best live acoustic performance ever.
• Finding a food store selling the biggest yorkshire puddings, filled with pork, mash and vegetables. Mmmm… festival food.
• The Marley brothers performing their old man’s “One Love” on the Pyramid Stage. One of their kids, not sure which one, who couldn’t have been older than 5, was jiving on the stage with a Jamaican flag and a smile from ear to ear. Bob must have been well proud upstairs watching his family share the love.
• The Killers performing “Mr Brightside”. (Click on the link to watch it)

Watch the BBC’s highlights of Glastonbury 2007. Unfortunately, I cannot embed this one in my post. Please excuse the cheesy soundtrack.

Worst moments at Glastonbury

• Covered in mud, and most probably traces of urine, throwing frisbees in the crowd.
• The portaloos. I never ever ever want to see another one again.
• Waking up at 5.30am with what felt like the Gobi desert in my throat, in a humid tent pitched 10 minutes away from a running tap. Bleak times.
• Dismantling our tent in the pissing rain and then having to queue for over an hour for a bus back to London. In wet jean pants.
• Amy Winehouse off her rocker trying to construct a sentence between songs. It just wasn’t happening.
• Experiencing serious paranoia that the boozed wanker behind me during The Killers set was going to take a piss down my leg. Luckily for me he chose the chick next to me.

Now I’m going to bombard you with YouTube videos because I want you to experience what I did. Or at least try to.

Watch Bloc Party performing “So Here We Are” on the Pyramid Stage:

Now watch Arcade Fire performing “Wake Up” on the Other Stage:

Didn’t that give you a cold shiver? A couple goosebumps? (Maybe it was the wet, muddy clothes I was in…)

Finally check out the mother of dance parties. The fattest vibe ever. Chemical Brothers performing “Hey Boy, Hey Girl” on the Other Stage. (That freaky looking clown dude at the beginning of this performance gave me some serious nightmares).

See all the BBC video footage and photos on their lovely website.

P.S. I’ll post my photos on my Flickr page as soon as I can find the time.

P.P.S. I’ve just realised I have written a lot about urine. Perhaps I have put a little too much emphasis on it, however 180 000 people drinking beer do pee a lot.

The view from our tent. Definitely a case of “Dude where’s my tent” at 5am.