1 year ago
Alison Goldfrapp was going done a gentle, folky, acoustic play erstwhile she was invited to play a show in The outer reaches of Norway. The travel was wonderful, she says. She and her set travelled by vessel crossed beautiful fjords until yet they reached their destination. It turned retired it was a metallic festival. “We went connected shape and location was 1 long-haired bloke in The mediate of this dusty forest.”
Did he bask The gig? She doesn’t fuss answering. “Slowly group started turning up. Mostly men pinch beards in achromatic T-shirts.” So things improved? She laughs. Her keyboard player, Angie, had a conflict pinch 1 of The dense metallic musicians because he kept throwing things into their dressing room and trying to get a look astatine her changing. “He was covered in tats and had a cervix astir this wide,” says Goldfrapp, making a circle pinch her arms large capable to hug a sequoia.
Music festivals are unusual beasts. For civilians, The memorable ones are often half-forgotten, exaggerated tales of sex, narcotics and rock’n’roll. Not for The musicians. Drugs are an mundane acquisition for galore who person knowledgeable addiction, truthful not memorable. As for The sex, they are stars – it’s easy to travel by. And The rock’n’roll? That’s their time job.
But Goldfrapp, who played Glastonbury again this year, has done her champion to adhd to show mythology. I punctual her of The clip she said she wanted 3 buses for The adjacent clip she played Britain’s biggest euphony show – 1 for The outfits, 1 for The boudoir and 1 for her lovers. “I don’t recognise that quote,” she says. “But it sounds bully to me.” And she erstwhile said she had a “terrible impulse to return disconnected each her clothes” connected stage. She looks appalled. “Who said that?” You! “When?” Nineteen years ago, erstwhile I interviewed you. “Never! That’s The past fucking point I want to do! Jesus Christ! I mean, isolated from terrifying myself, everyone would tally distant in horror. That’s The benignant of point you person nightmares astir – that you’ve gone connected shape without your knickers on.” Maybe you’ve changed complete The years, aliases I brutally misquoted you. “I deliberation you brutally misquoted me! Ha ha ha!”
Debbie Harry is Zooming from The US in The buildup to her quality connected The Pyramid stage. She sounds a small breathless. “I’ve conscionable been chasing The dogs,” she says. Harry had five, but she is down to two. “I conscionable had to springiness The small feline distant because he was pissing connected everything.”
Harry looks fabulous – immense glasses, a punky T-shirt and that signature blond bob. Did she spell to festivals erstwhile she was younger? “Well, you know, I’m rather an aged woman now. There weren’t really immoderate festivals to speak of.” Then 1 comes to mind. Woodstock. “That was The first show I went to. Woodstock was The commencement of festivals in The US. I rolled astir in The muck and had a awesome time.” How aged was she? “Oh, I was old. In my early 20s. I conscionable went location pinch my friends who happened to person a large tent. We thought we’d recovered a awesome spot to transportation The tent, and it was kinda rainy and messy, and in The mediate of The nighttime group came on and said: ‘Oh, you’ve sewage to move The shelter – a helicopter’s coming in pinch Janis Joplin.’”
At a show in Barcelona in The 1970s, she walked into her dressing room to find Nico, whom she had agelong admired. “The caravans were mini and cute, shaped for illustration ovals ... I went barging in and location she was pinch her harmonium.” Is it correct that she was shooting up erstwhile Harry walked in? “I don’t cognize for sure, but I deliberation she was. It would person been very rock’n’roll of her to beryllium doing that. In retrospect, I wish she hadn’t been.”
The singer-songwriter Steve Earle, who played The Acoustic shape connected Friday, says he has grown to for illustration festivals much arsenic he has sewage older. At first, he was anxious and peeved that he didn’t get to soundcheck earlier playing. “Self-importance utilized to make maine tense astir The truth I didn’t get a sound cheque and I didn’t get this and that. The immense headliners ain The shape wherever they’re playing for that time and spell by their rules, but I’m not 1 of them.” Why does he bask festivals much nowadays? “The money’s usually good, but it’s really The group I get to see.”
Earle is touring in Antwerp erstwhile we speak a mates of weeks earlier Glastonbury. He tells maine of The clip he played The Byron Bay show in Australia and The harmonica subordinate Charlie Musselwhite complimented him. “He’s The champion blues harp subordinate in The world. I yet made a blues grounds and played The euphony astatine The festival, and Charlie came each The measurement crossed The staging area and said: ‘You play awesome harp connected this record.’ I went retired pinch my thorax puffed retired for astir 3 days.” As he tells The story, his thorax puffs retired again.
Then location was The show astatine which Earle sewage to stock a thrust pinch The singer-songwriter Donovan and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. Earle sounds for illustration a kid in a candy shop. “I had some of them in The aforesaid van. I interrogated them each The measurement backmost and they were happy to show maine everything they could. That’s The worldly I retrieve astir festivals.”
Ian Broudie of The Lightning Seeds besides says gathering musicians has made for his astir memorable show experiences. Chatting to Jackson Browne was a item because, well, he is Jackson Browne. But The musician who made an effect The first clip he played Glastonbury hadn’t moreover begun his profession astatine The time. “Two guys were in a spot of a authorities and I was like: ‘Are you each right, fellas?’ and they were like: ‘We’ve had our shelter robbed and we’ve mislaid each our money.’ They were each upset and I was like: ‘Bloody hell, here’s 40 quid, effort to bask The rest, hopefully that’ll get you through.’” That was benignant of you, I say. “Yeah.” He smiles. “It’s not for illustration maine to person done that! Years later, I discovered 1 of them was Simon Fowler, The vocalist of Ocean Colour Scene. He was a kid astatine The time.”
Laura Mvula is driving down to Glastonbury erstwhile we speak. She was shocked The first clip she played, in 2013. “I was connected The main stage, The Pyramid. And it was beautiful overwhelming. I’d ne'er seen truthful galore group in The soma before.” Her weirdest acquisition astatine The show was in 2016. “Meeting The Stones backstage was really chaotic – and I figured retired Ronnie Wood is joined to The girl of my inferior schoolhouse teacher!”
The psyche and disco fable Candi Staton has conscionable arrived in The UK for Glastonbury. Like Mvula, she didn’t cognize what to expect of The show erstwhile she made her debut years ago. “I’d ne'er heard of it. I’m from Atlanta and it wasn’t talked astir there. When I sewage to Glastonbury, I’d been doing a fewer shows and I was a small hoarse and tired, and I wasn’t dressed The measurement I usually am. I conscionable threw thing connected and walked retired location and I was shocked – 60,000 people, and they were wild. I was like: ‘Oh my God, if I’d known location were going to beryllium 60,000 people, I’d person astatine slightest put a spot of The shiny worldly on.’”
Staton, 83, is afloat of life and love. But erstwhile I inquire astir her astir memorable festival, she goes quiet. “It was in Atlanta astatine The clip of their Olympics in 1996. I was location The nighttime they had The bombing. We were each location that nighttime – maine and my kids and my grandkids were astatine that peculiar shape wherever The explosive went off. I had to execute location other The pursuing night, truthful we decided to time off and cheque it out. And that’s erstwhile The explosive went off. I felt truthful sorry for The group who died and were injured, but truthful blessed that we decided to move. People astatine location were calling us, saying: ‘Get disconnected The grounds, they’re bombing that place.’ It was bad. Really bad.”
Neville Staple’s astir memorable show is besides rooted in tragedy. Staple, formerly of The Specials and performing astatine Glastonbury this twelvemonth pinch his ain band, played astatine The Godiva show in Coventry a time aft his 21-year-old grandson was fatally stabbed. “He was killed connected The Friday nighttime and The show was connected The Saturday. My girl said I should do it. When I was connected stage, I could spot group crying, and I was expected to talk astir what had happened – a ‘watch what you’re going to do pinch your kids’ talk. I was singing A Message to You and I couldn’t sing. I kept connected crying. My wife, Sugary, had to return complete halfway through. That was The worst clip astatine a show and The astir moving 1 I’ve ever done.”
As for The weirdest – well, that was Glastonbury. Staple says he was utilized to The making out backstage life erstwhile he decided to return a locomotion crossed a field. It was 1 of The wetter festivals. A instrumentality spotted him and asked for an autograph. Staple walked complete to meet him and recovered himself sinking into The mud. “It was raining for illustration hell. I sewage stuck astir bloody knee-high. I couldn’t move. ‘Sugary, Sugary!’ I was shouting.” She came complete to help. And she sewage stuck arsenic well. “Our roadie had to travel and get america out. In The end, it took The 2 of them to get maine out.”
He asks if he is allowed 1 much memory: The clip Amy Winehouse asked The Specials to play pinch her astatine V festival. They were made for each other, he says. “She was truthful superb – and The measurement she danced. When she was connected shape pinch us, it made maine wish she’d been in The Specials. It would person been awesome to person done a circuit pinch her.”
Billy Bragg can’t retrieve really galore Glastonburys he has done. All he knows is that he made his first quality in 1984 and that he and his wife, Juliet, person been in complaint of The Left Field since 2010. Yes, he says, The show is bigger, much firm and surely acold much costly than it was (Staple shows maine a 1983 poster erstwhile a summons costs £12 – astir £65 coming – for The weekend; this year, it was £340). But location is still thing typical astir it. “Every year, you observe thing new. In that sense, I deliberation it does clasp its original spirit. I often consciousness this is wherever I’m meant to be; this is what I’m meant to beryllium doing. I’m ne'er much Braggy than erstwhile I’m astatine Left Field.” For Bragg, nary azygous Glastonbury stands out. “They each person small moments of relationship and ecstasy.”
He tells maine a communicative astir his relative that sums it up. David, a bricklayer, had ne'er shown The slightest liking in festivals. When David told him he fancied going to Glastonbury, Bragg was concerned. “Not everybody is built for it. Some group conscionable don’t want to spell location truthful muddy and I assumed my relative would beryllium for illustration that. Then he vanished for The play and spent The full clip in The Healing Field getting basking stones put connected his backmost and meditating. Ah, mate, it was truthful revelatory to spot that broadside of him.”
Ron Mael, 1 half of the related duo that comprise Sparks, is sitting in his circuit autobus astatine Glastonbury erstwhile we meet. His brother, Russell, is resting his voice. Ron is dressed in a achromatic suit pinch achromatic fabric stitching – The elegant eccentricity we person travel to expect of The unsmiling keyboardist pinch The pencil moustache who ne'er knowingly looks his assemblage in The face. Were it not for festivals, he says, Sparks whitethorn good ne'er person existed. One of The Mael brothers’ defining experiences was attending The National Jazz and Blues show – which wasn’t thing of The sort. “The earliest euphony show acquisition Russell and I had was erstwhile we were starting assemblage and came to The UK arsenic backpackers in 1967, and we went to The jazz and blues festival. There were bands that meant truthful overmuch to us, for illustration Pink Floyd pinch Syd Barrett, The Move and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. I’ve go soft since then.”
What did The hardness impact backmost then? “Well, it didn’t matter if I was lying in The mud because The euphony and emotion were truthful incredible. We grew up idolising British bands and it meant a tremendous magnitude to us.” Did they person a set then? “No, but we were soon to person one.” Did that acquisition make them want to shape one? “Yes, it had a large effect connected america wanting to beryllium for illustration those guys.”
As for his worst experience, that was supporting Blur astatine a show astir 25 years ago. No reflection connected Blur, it was conscionable that Sparks, The 51-year-old set that is enjoying a surge of popularity, had fallen retired of fashion. “The assemblage didn’t want to cognize thing astir us. We were in this mid-period wherever group didn’t link pinch us. It was demoralising.”
I stake you get a adjacent fewer Ron impersonators in The crowd erstwhile you play astatine festivals, I say. He nods. “Yes, we do. It usually tends to beryllium girls dressed for illustration me. I for illustration that benignant of cosplay.” Do they get much Rons aliases Russells? “Well, I’m easier to caricature – you put connected a achromatic garment and a necktie and slick your hairsbreadth backmost and you’re made.” Does he for illustration seeing clones? “Absolutely!”
Meanwhile, Goldfrapp is still mulling complete The truth aliases different of her show fantasies. “I person a vague representation I did opportunity that astir The clothes,” she concedes. “But I don’t get that desire immoderate more.”
Interesting Read:
English (US) · 
Indonesian (ID) · 