I can't get no sleep....

Friday morning started at 7 am when I had to get up and go to work. It was all right for Val, as a ticket worker she only had to work 16 hours and she did half of that yesterday. I wandered off towards the pyramid stage and the information point. After stopping for a bacon sandwich I woke up Rebecca, who was sleeping in the Portacabin, for the second day running and set about putting out the tables and stuff.

Even though all the staff turned up on time the morning started off badly, we had ran out of Guardian guides (those things that you hang round your neck), we had ran out of condoms (well there aren't any bands on Thursday night) and we were getting desperately low on sunscreen (and it looked like being another hot day). We called for replacements and thankfully some more guides arrived before we got too busy but sadly no sunscreen .

The first crisis came just after midday when a lady from the Oxfam tent came over to tell us that a girl had collapsed from the heat. By the time I got there she was already in good hands as a nurse had put her into the recovery position and was giving her some water. I called out an ambulance anyway and about 25 minutes later the girl was taken off to Medical for a check over.

Val turned up around that time and as my fellow Core worker had to go off for half an hour I threw her a yellow info jacket and told her to get behind the counter!!! Soon I was off to another emergency - this time (and it was only about 2pm) someone had passed out near the Wateraid stand. I spoke to his friends who insisted he was alright, they told me that he had had some weed and a lot of lager. The lady from Wateraid said he had been passed out for nearly an hour and she had made his friends move him into the shade. I asked her to keep an eye on him for a bit. After a while I returned to see if he was all right and by this time he was being sick. He was lying in the shade but it was still very hot, he had been sick, he wouldn't drink water and if he did he threw it straight back up and I was worried he would de-hydrate so I decided to call an ambulance.

Once again I met the paramedics near the info point and took them over to where he was. By this time he had regained consciousness and although he couldn't talk or stand he could swear!!! Paramedic: Come with us to the medical centre Drunk: Fuck off Paramedic: Are you refusing treatment? Drunk: Fuck off Paramedic: Will you sign a form to say that you refused treatment? Drunk: Fuck off At this point we gave up and left him to sleep it off. I didn't hear any more so I presume he was all right. While we had been working we had heard the bands on the main stage and we did have a somewhat restricted view of them. First up had been Bjorn Again who drew a huge crowd. I don't understand this obsession for Abba as I'm old enough to remember they were crap in the 70's. Next were The Bare Naked Ladies who I saw last time they appeared here. Then there was Blondie who came on just before I finished and at first we thought that Debbie Harry had dyed her hair red but then we realised it was just a hat. We were able to get away at 3.30 because I had covered for Jon earlier so we dashed around to the other stage to see our first proper band of the weekend Gaydad. We had only just caught onto the band and I bought the CD just before we left and had to tape it to listen to in the car on the way down. Having said that I seemed to know a lot of the songs.

 

After Gaydad we set off towards the green field because I wanted a shower. I hadn't bothered with showers for the last two years, the thought of taking off all those muddy clothes and then having to put them back on over a nice clean body was too much but I did want to try out the Greenpeace showers. As it was quite late on there wasn't much of a queue but it was moving slowly. Inside the long plastic tunnel was a huge cut out of a whale which had the showerheads attached to it. Greenpeace even provided Eco friendly shampoo and I soon felt much better.

Unfortunately it took so long to get clean that we had missed Wilco so we set off after dumping the wet stuff in the tent to go down to the main stage to catch Courtney Love and Hole. Last time I saw her was at Reading and I just caught the end of her set where she pushed her amp from the stage and was eventually carried off. This time she looked and sounded great. She was wearing pink pants with (almost) matching bra-top and a pair of wings (which seemed to be the trendy thing to wear this year). During her set she kept leaping off the stage to get close to the crowd and bringing members of the audience up on stage and sitting them down on the drum riser. We watched most of her set before wandering off to the acoustic tent to catch Marianne Faithfull. Photo: Western Daily Press

I really wish Glastonbury would move the acoustic tent from the top of that hill because I never feel happy in there, always feel as if I'm going to fall over backwards!! After 20 minutes or so we got sick of feeling about to fall over and we set off for the Other Stage to catch Gomez. It just goes to show what a difference a year and the mercury music prize can do! Last year they were filling on the Pyramid stage this year second headliners on the main stage. Our enjoyment of them suffered somewhat because of poor sound so we walked to the back of the crowd where the sound was better but we couldn't see very well.

To avoid the crush we left Gomez finishing their set and wandered back to refuel with cider and then over to the main stage to catch REM. Now if I were to play Glastonbury (unlikely I know) I would start with a really big number and fire the crowd up. REM didn't and after half an hour listening to tracks that I either didn't know or knew vaguely I was bored. Bored and cold to be precise as I was still only wearing shorts so I suggested that we head on over to the Jazz World stage and catch Faithless.

In contrast to REM the 40 minutes or so we spent watching Faithless were very enjoyable and more to the point I knew the songs! The version of Insomnia was definitely one of the highlights of the day if not the festival. Still cold we decided to head back to the tent, it had been a long day. However on the way back we had to pass the Avalon stage and coming out of the tent were some of the most fantastic sound I had heard for ages. The Peatbog Faeries were in full swing. Set against a pounding bass and drums backing were bagpipes and fiddle and all in all it conspired to create an enormous sound. We edged close to a fire and watched for a while. Eventually we got back to the tent and as we opened it and went inside we were convinced we had been done over. It just goes to show the addled state of our minds that we slowly came to realise that few tent thieves would carefully close all 5 zips on the tent before leaving!!!! Then Val came to realise that it was me who had made the mess before we went out and I was in trouble.

All Photographs © Kevin Shewan1999 unless credited otherwise