Glastonbury Festival 2004

'It's the only real festival, the best. The rest of them are just rock bands playing in fields...' Noel Gallagher

Worthy Farm, Pilton - a good time was had by all!
We went on the Wednesday and got a great spot in Dragon field - near to the Sacred Space. We woke to an early call every morning as the dawn was welcomed at the standing stones with much drumming and cheering.

The stones are a great place to chill and look across the mass expanse of multi-coloured tents - it's not too far from the non-smelly African pit latrines, although by Sunday the queues were miles long for the 9 loos provided by WaterAid.

Sunshine and mud this year, but nothing damped down the Glastonbury atmosphere - another brilliant festival weekend, filled with fantastic music, theatre and a great crowd.

The ScissorSisters - the funky New York disco rockers were brilliant on Saturday - they performed a fantastic energising set on Pyramid, and then sent the Dance Tent wild later that night. My festival favourite without a doubt! * * * * *
highly recommended album

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Choices had to be made in 2004...

Friday - Oasis or Chemical Brothers or Levellers?
We chose Oasis - good to hear their classic greats but didn't have the buzz we'd expected - they just seemed to go thro' the motions. Liked Liam's bearded artic action-man look - fur trimmed dazzling white parka - didn't say a lot but he's still got a great singing voice.Described by others as 'lacklustre'and 'grumpy' - the Gallagher brothers were rumoured to have argued just before their performance.

Saturday - McCartney or Basement Jaxx?
...McCartney didn't do it for me,apart from 'Hey Jude' - which was heard being sung all over the site for hours afterwards! - and the firework filled 'Live and Let Die' was fun, but most of the old songs sounded so much better when there were four of them.
It was a shame that Ringo's son,Zak(who played drums for Oasis)or Noel, didn't join Paul for a little impromptu jamming - sadly nothing so exciting. As Badly Drawn Boy commented to The Guardian, McCartney's performance was 'like karaoke Beatles at best.'

Sunday - Orbital or Muse?
... opted for Muse and wasn't disappointed - a brilliant end to the festival - really carried the crowd up to the starry skies. Heard Orbital were brilliant - wished they'd been on at a different time.

Oasis first performed at Glastonbury 10 years ago, but apparently were too drunk to enjoy it! They recently released 'Definitely Maybe -- The DVD' - marking the 10 year anniversary of their debut album.
In an interview for the Glastonbury festival site Noel described Glasto as 'the mother of all festivals!'
Shame they didn't seem to enjoy it!

This was Paul McCartney's first performance at Glasto, he was turned down in favour of Radiohead last year. McCartney described Glastonbury to The Guardian as: 'it's the great festival; the ongoing Woodstock'.
His Saturday performance ran over the curfew by 15 mins, but he offered to pay any fine.

Orbital played their final live show at Glasto - Other Stage on Sunday - as they are splitting up after 15 years. It was their 5th Glasto appearance. Q magazine named their 1994 Glastonbury performance as one of the 50 greatest live gigs of all time - they really went out on a high.

Morrissey, the former Smith's lead singer, relaunched his career this May after 20 years with the new single 'Irish Blood English Heart', which reached No.2 in the UK Top 30. He last played at Glastonbury in 1984, and proved that 2 decades later he can still strut his stuff.

Glastonbury virgins Snow Patrol were brilliant on the Other Stage, really lifting the crowd's spirits with their hit ballad 'Run'.

ENO

On Pyramid on Sunday the English National Opera, featuring a 93-piece band and 11 soloists, performed Wagner's The Ride of the Valkyrie - we all know that one from the helicopter attack scene in Apocalypse Now...I love the smell of toilets in the morning...! Found it difficult to stick with - went on too long for me...but each to your own...

Liam is just 'Wonderwall'

McCartney Glastonbury 2004

Macca sets Glastonbury alight

Glastonbury festival main stage

Glastonbury Anthems – The Best Of 1994 -2004

This brilliant DVD includes footage of Blur, Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand, Coldplay, Prodigy and many other of the last ten year's best festival acts - voted for by festival fans.
Also includes extras, such as an aerial tour of the festival site and a visit to the Greenfields.
£8.99

Festival tickets 2004 scramble

All 112,000 were sold within 24 hours...it wasn't easy with website and phone lines seizing up. The website got two million applications in the first five minutes and 2,500 people called the phone lines every minute - many with no success. Michael Eavis apologised that 'the engineering specification was well short of what was needed', and assured that it won't happen in subsequent years...hope so.

See BBC Somerset for various tales of suffering whilst trying to get the elusive Glasto 2004 tickets.

click to see bigger image

REM bring Pyramid Stage
alive

Hands on performance
from David Gray

David Gray Glastonbury

Suede Glastonbury

Steve Harley makes us smile

The Waterboys under the
Glasto spotlight

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click to see bigger image REM bring Pyramid Stage alive