Glastonbury Festival 1998

During the 1998 Glastonbury festival we were lucky enough to be asked to do an interview for BBC television news. It all started the day before we left for the festival when someone from the BBC called me. He had visited my festival site and was interested in the fact that we had been going for so long (since 1984) and the fact that it would be our wedding anniversary during the weekend. He also said that Attilla the Stockbroker was also going to be interviewed as well and I admitted that I owned one of his records (yes records - you know big round black things!)

On site on the friday morning I met one of the production team from BBC news who sorted out wristbands for us and we agreed where we would meet the following morning. It was only at this point that I finally decided that this was for real and not a wind-up from my friend Jon who also works for the BBC - only on the radio side.

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The only problem was they wanted us at 8am on the Saturday morning. As you can expect getting up at a festival can be difficult enough but getting up early - well let's just say I'm glad I brought the alarm clock! After Primal Scream on Friday night the alarm clock was duly set for 7am and we went to bed with our fingers crossed. When we got up the next morning I carefully chose my Phish t-shirt to give them some much needed publicity in the UK!

The interview itself was only 2 minutes long and as I said we shared this with Attilla. The three of us and the presentaer were standing ankle deep in mud just in front of the main stage. They asked me if we were enjoying the festival and how I thought it had changed over the years. They asked Val what made the festival special.

Real audio version of interview

They asked Attilla more or less the same questions and he said "...like Chumbawumba, Glastonbury had got more commercial without losing what made it great". Afterwards they got him to read a special love poem for us for our wedding anniversary and rather appropiately he read one called "Rain".

Rain by Attilla the Stockbroker Rain is grass The flooded lake is a summer meadow And you, my love, being seven tenths water Are a cricket pitch And I am the heavy roller in the morning dew

The interview was broadcast at 8.47 on BBC2 and apart from my nephew James who we got to record it for us the only other person I know who saw it was my Gran - C'est la vie!

All pictures and sound clips from the BBC used without permission....but then we did get up at 7 am and stand ankle deep in mud to do this for them!