In less than a few months I will be hopefully travelling to Blighty to see some prog bands and a myriad of other eclectic kinds of music.
Living in rural Ireland and about sixty miles to the nearest city. I don't get much chance to see any live music. Not the kind I like anyway. So it's good to visit some literary places, old churches and visit real England again. I will write a Dorset post another day.
I will be 61 in December and I am still young in my head and the idea of rock and music festivals still excites me.
Even public transport, sleeping in a tent and hiking. Not forgetting the prog rock birds dawn chorus and being tired for weeks and not forgetting the foot blisters and campsites and bars and hotels refusing cash.
One man who I admire and am looking forward to seeing is Tony Christie. He's Yorkshire's Elvis Presley in my humble opinion and I remember when I went to a festival in Oxford in 2022. The campsite farmer owner saying: "If Gene Pitney or Roy Orbison played there he would buy a ticket".
Well it won't be those two. But I still think Tony will bring the house down. Do you remember this classic?
You probably remember the television series from which this was the theme tune?
I've never been to a festival, ever, which is strange as I grew up in Somerset, not far from Glastonbury. It just never appealed to me, camping was never my thing, dry or wet, just not for me.
ReplyDeleteHi Marlene. I visited Glastonbury festival in 1989. 200000 people in a canvas city for four days. Admission 28 pounds and very little sleep. These days I go to much smaller festivals with audience capacities of 5000 and 20000. The 20000 capacity festival gets a lot of people with motor homes and punters who stay in hotels and day festival visitors. I don't particularly enjoy sleeping in a tent but it does bring the costs down when on foot and using public transport. I just wish I was twenty years younger.😊
ReplyDeleteI can remember the ripples when Evis started to have the festival each year, local news thought he was mad.
DeleteYes Marlene I can imagine. When I went in 1989 people said that locals were given free festival tickets to compensate for the festival biblical multitudes invasion. A lot of residents rented out their properties for the weekend and others guarded their houses and gardens. The festival is in Pilton which is a village away from Glastonbury itself. A magical place. Joseph of Arimathea and Jesus are said to have visited there.
DeleteTents? When I went to Weeley Festival in the early 1970s we slept in paper sleeping bags under the stars. Lucky it was a hot, dry weekend!
ReplyDeleteYou sound like the Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen Sketch Rachel. 😊"Luxury". I just Googled the 1971 Weeley festival. A pound admission. What a line up. I'm seeing Curved Air this year. Never saw Rory Gallagher but I have visited his grave and the music festival in his home town in honour of him.
ReplyDeleteApparently the first Glastonbury festival admission fee was one Pound and they gave you a free bottle of milk. I paid 28 pounds in 1989. Now it's 355 Pounds and sells out in twenty minutes. I saw Colloseum a few years ago. Amazing prog band. Thanks Rachel.
Yes, that Weeley Festival was a great one with an amazing line up of bands of the day. A weekend I will never forget.
DeleteIt does sound an amazing music festival Rachel. I still visit them whilst I am still able. There's so many old bands I want to see.
ReplyDeleteIt will be grand I'm sure. I hope you can get Internet access to keep us all updated on the way.
ReplyDeleteIf Travelodge or other such establishments allow us to stay and recharge our cameras and mobile phones I will post a blog or more JayCee. If not it will be the usual blog intermission and then blogs when I am back. We are also revisiting Dorset which I am really looking forward to so much. Thatched cottages, old churches and graveyards and literary settings. Such fun.
ReplyDeleteTony Christie has been on our local news programmes a few times recently. He now suffers from dementia, but continues to perform.
ReplyDeleteYes Tasker I watched him in an interview on BBC television talk about his dementia. He really can sing. Like ten percent of the UK he's got Irish roots. That's the Yorkshire mention I hinted at on a blog the other day.
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