On one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that I was hoping to find a single image to sum up the festival. I couldn't find one, but this one says quite a lot:
As with the previous days there was lots of wandering round, but luckily the ground had dried up so no wellies were needed. Fairly early on we saw a lot of Tom Jones' set on the Pyramid stage and he was really very good. I expect that will do his CD sales the world of good. Beth Rowley in the acoustic tent was also excellent, although she wasn't exactly acoustic. We also saw Roots Manuva who was great. It's nice to see some truly excellent British hip-hop. Bo Peep didn’t lose any of her sheep:
But I want to focus on the evening. There are many stages at Glastonbury and at about 10PM we had to choose between these acts who were all on at the same time:
The Prodigy, Black Eyed Peas, Blur, Echo & The Bunnymen, Gong, Peaches
I'd happily have watched any of them, but really I had to go see The Prodigy as I'd never seen them before and their live shows are legendary. Interestingly though, we did catch the last song by Steve Hillage and the 1st by Gong on the way to see The Prodigy, and both were excellent. I confess I didn't realise that Daevid Allen was still alive!
So, The Prodigy: they were good. Maxim and Keith were all over the stage with incredible energy whilst the music banged and boomed away in grand and epic style. They had the second deepest and heaviest bass I have ever heard, beaten only by Leftfield (and maybe Motorhead now I think about it). But there is a but. They were only on for 65 minutes - I timed them. For a Sunday night Glastonbury headline slot, that's outrageously short (Neil Young did 2 hours, Bruce Springsteen 2 hours 40 mins). They played their last song and then just abruptly disappeared, with no encore. Their were loud boos from all over the crowd. They have upset a lot of fans by doing this. Perhaps there was a valid reason for it, but we weren't told - they just left and that was it. Most disappointing. This is them on-stage, and I apologise for it being a bit blurred:
Straight after this we wandered up to the Stone Circle and I snapped this on the way:
I think that gives a pretty good feel for wandering round at night. About an hour later the heavens opened and the rain absolutely tipped down so we made our way slowly back to our tent. All in all, a great Glastonbury and we’ll most likely try to go again next year, if the great ticket god in the sky is willing!
Cheers, Tom.