Saturday begins with a bleary noggin, a bacon and brie baguette, coffee and a nice relaxed audience with everyone’s favourite convicted drug smuggler Howard Marks. Despite technical difficulties he managed to soldier on and regaled the crowd with tales of vicious inmates, machete wielding killers and hallucinogenic toads. A thoroughly enjoyable session and the perfect calming cure following the previous nights excess. He tours often so try and catch him if you can. Swiftly followed by one of the best Milkshakes I’ve ever had, were The Bees on the Jazz World who were great despite the rain coming down again. Wash in the rain, Chicken Payback and especially A Minha Menina guaranteed that the rain and mud would soon be forgotten all about. After a quick beer stop, we get ready for CSS. They turn out to be as mad as a box frogs, particularly the lead singer Lovefoxx who was sporting a catsuit so bright she must be visible from space. One of the highlights of the festival for sure. After standing in the rain for the entire duration of CSS’ set we chose to take shelter in the Pussy Parlor where all kinds of circus acts, dancing girls, acrobatics and burlesque thing were happening. A Square Pie fills a much needed hole and supplies us with the energy required for DJ Yoda. Often touted as one of the DJs you must see before you die, he certainly lived up to the hype. He was on top form, mixing Star Wars and Muppet Show theme tunes alongside Bob Marley, Johnny Cash and plenty scratching and hip hop beats. You find a track list let me have it. We stuck around for the beginning of Mark Ronson’s DJ set which sounded good but jettisoned that for some drinks and a freshen up in readiness for Mr Scruff’s headlining set. It’s the first time I’ve seen Mr Scruff and as DJ Yoda, he’s also touted as another DJ you must see before you die. His set was absolutely top draw. Highlight of the whole festival. The set was accompanied with a big screen telling the crowd to “Hold on to your tent pegs”, “That is a prize winning marrow of a bassline” “Wobble Your Wellies”. Piss funny. If you want a taste of what the set was like pick up his Solid Steel Mix CD on Ninja Tune. It’s aces…..but not as good as his live set ; )
Sunday we managed to catch the tail end of the next big things, The Enemy who sounded like they will be the next big thing. Breakfast and a beer was soundtracked by Cold War Kids who were adequate. If you saw their recent set on Later With Jools Holland, it was ten times better than that. Next was a trip to the Green Fields for a calm moment as I was feeling ropey. A copy of the Guardian and sit down sorted me out but we were enticed into a tent which was oozing some trippy 70’s synth space rock. It happened to be a hippy armed with a guitar and a synth and he wasn’t afraid to use them. That was provided members of the crowd got themselves on the tandem bike which was powering the electrics for the tent. Considering I’d just managed to pull myself out of a semi-hangover I passed on that one. So in an effort to ditch the hangover we headed over to the Queen’s Head next to the Other Stage for some more beer and to watch the tail-end of The Rakes. They were joined by Kate Jackson of Wakefield / Sheffield group the Long Blondes to perform Johnny Cash’s and June Carter’s Jackson and also did the great 22 Grand Job. Mika followed The Rakes and he was better than expected to be honest. Quite a talent that fella even when joined by a whole load of fancy dress animals for his final song. Good job I wasn’t on acid like some of the festival goers. That would have sent me over the edge. The Go! Team followed and they were superb as expected. We caught the first few songs of The View but had to leave. We weren’t ever going to miss the chance to see Pendulum do a live set and they nearly blew the roof off the Dance East tent. Astonishing. They even had the balls to cover The Prodigy’s (their spiritual forefathers) Voodoo People with aplomb. If you don’t own their album “Hold Your Colour” then you should. Fact. After having our heads blown off we trundled back to the Other Stage to see the Chemical Brothers bring the festival to a close. As usual they delivered the goods with a fantastic set complete with a fantastic light show complete with unnerving clowns and quality lasers. The only one small tiny gripe was that the set seems to end suddenly with no encore either. Very strange for the final night. Maybe they’d come too close to the curfew and had to wind it up.
And so another brilliant Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts comes to an end. Roll on 2008 !