Service back to normal/Glastonbury write-up.

Thanks to all of the SavyGuesters who posted interesting posts whilst I was away at Glastonbury (it was just Will..)

If any of the rest of you still have stuff you wanted to post, but never got round to it, I'll leave the SavyGuester account open for the next few weeks, let me know if you want more time.

Starting tonight I'll be posting bargains again, there'll be loads from whilst I've been away.

Anyway, Glastonbury was fantastic. I just got back a few hours ago, had a bath and have now emptied the car.

Here's a synopsis of my week at Glastonbury.

Saturday:
I arrived, set up the tents, unpacked my stuff, had a few chilled ciders and had a relatively early night. There was some confusion as to whether I was on the early shift or not, and in the end I wasn't technically on it, but if there was spare jobs, I would be offered them, instead of working later.

Sunday:
Had my first Oxfam stewarding shift, from 8am to 4pm. I spent about 2 hours sitting in the admin office, and I helped them out with a few computer stuff, then got sent to enforce a one way system at a junction near a bridge. Pretty boring work, but met a really nice guy (hey Nick!), who happened to be camped right near me, with a bunch of friends. After shift he introduced me to his mates, and we had a pretty heavy drinking session round the campfire.

Monday:
Second shift. I was officially 'floating', which from what I can tell means playing scrabble and drinking tea all morning. At about 11 I was sent to cover people who were doing the same job as I had been doing on Sunday on their lunch breaks, but then I was let off shift a little early (I technically hadn't had a lunch break, so they just let me off a half hour early). Queue another drinking session round the campfire.

Tuesday:
Things got a bit more interesting on Tuesday. I turned up at 8am to see if I could work another, final, shift. I was told by my supervisor that there was no shifts available for me today, so to just have the day off.

Like any responsible festival goer with nothing to do all day, I cracked open the first can of Cider.

Shortly after finishing, one of the Oxfam organisers tracked me down and said "Actually, it turns out we do have a shift we need you to do, can you get ready for work now?"

I replied "Sure, Iam very happy to work now, however, in case it matter, you should know that I have just had a can of Cider. I am sure I am perfectly fine to work, but I thought it would be best to be honest."

She said "At 8 in the morning?!?!"

I just laughed. In the end, they sent me away for a few hours to 'sober up', and I started at 12. It did become a running joke on camp that I turned up for work drunk and got sent away...

This time my shift was greeting and directing all pedestrians entering the site, for 8 hours. It was really dusty too, but at least no rain.

Wednesday:
Barely got out of bed. Just relaxed all day.

Thursday:
I went to see Santogold in the afternoon, really good live, you should all check out her album.

We made an interesting discovery on Thursday.

Oxfam staff have a slightly different wristband to punters.
Press have a slightly different wristband to punters.
Sometimes security staff struggle to tell the difference between press and oxfam staff.
If you are friendly and confident with security staff they will let you anywhere if you have a wristband that they assume is press.

Even into a private press party.
With KT Tunstall playing to a room of about 100 people.
And a free bar.

Me and my parents all snuck into this party in the hospitality area. They had sofa's, hard floors with carpets, nice toilets. I spent all night hanging out with people from Q Magazine, The Guardian, and the BBC. Brilliant night.

Friday:
I woke up with an awful hangover.

Still managed to catch most of Kate Nash and The Subways at the Pyramid Stage. Kate Nash was great, although The Subways didn't really impress me much.

Then I shot off to The Park, where a long time favourite of mine, John Cale (from The Velvet Underground) was playing, and after him a "Special Guest". But I also caught most of Edwyn Collins too, who despite struggling to even get on and off stage because of some pretty serious brain damage, was still incredibly full of energy, and a real inspiration.

John Cale was really great, the only dissapointment being that he didn't play his cover of LCD Soundsystem's "All my Friends" which would have no doubt gone down a treat with the festival crowd.

Then after that, the "Special Guest" ended up being Franz Ferdinand, who I saw at Leeds before and loved live. They played a lot of new material, and a few classics. It's amazing how many of their songs still sound fresh even now.

After Franz finished, I headed back to the Pyramid Stage for Kings of Leon, who are so much more mature that when I saw them on their Youth and Young Manhood tour.

Back to camp, relaxed by the fire for a bit, then off to bed.

Saturday:
Got up and ready in time to head for the Pyramid Stage, to see Martha Wainwright, who was pretty dull for the most part, but saved by a guest appearance of the superbly talented Shlomo. Shlomo is a fantasticly technically accomplished beatboxer, he does things his voice than no human should be able to do.

He provided the beat, whilst she was singing and playing the guitar, and the end product was fantastic. I made a note to make sure I caught his set later.

Then I headed back to The Park for Kool Keith (Founding member of the Ultramagnetic MCs, and also know as Dr. Octagon) and Kutmaster Kurt, who put on a great set. It was a little rude for me, considering the time of day and audience, but it wasn't a bit deal.

Then the next two hours was the single most entertaining performance I have ever seen at a music festival - Shlomo presents "Music through unconventional Means".

First it was just him on stage, he started off pretty simple, and without a repeater (so just him and a mic), but he just built it into something incredble. He was beatboxing classic like Seven Nation Army, and Outer Space, but doing the entire song, scratching, and remixing it at the same time. I actually saw a member of security turn around and clap!

Then he introduced his Vocal Orchestra. A team of seven beatboxers, who almost looked like they didn't think they deserved to be there, but that couldn't have been any further from the truth. They worked really well together, and with Shlomo coordinating the effect was incredible.

Then Shlomo started bring on the special guests to perform with him. Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Martha Wainwright, The Reverend, Lemn Sissay, DJ Yoda, and many more all turned up. Playing covers from a wide range of genre's, including classics by Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder, all with insane beatboxing going on.

It lasted two hours, but was interesting and exciting for the whole time. If you ever have the chance to see Shlomo, you owe it to yourself. He had a really endearing charm too. He is obviously a bit of a nerd, and almost looked like he thinks he doesn't deserve to be on stage at Glastonbury, but when he opens his mouth, magic happens.

Next up was "Very Special Guests" The Last Shadow puppets.

They were OK, but I don't really think they are a festival band. Although Jack White turning up to play a song with them was pretty cool.

After that was MGMT, who where great, but the most interesting thing was a little scrap between a member of the band and security.

Towards the end of the set, they decided to go stage diving. I thought this would be as good a time as any to jump over the barrier and head off to the Glade, my next destination, since there was no way I could have walked through the crowd. As I got over and ran down the side (in a sailor hat and tail coat if you are looking out for me on the coverage ;D) one of the security staff mistook a member of the band for a punter trying to get back on stage. The security guard grabbed him and threw him to the ground pretty forcefully. No idea what happened after this, but it got a laugh out of me.

After that, I avoided the immature Jay-Z backlash/anti-backlash and headed to the Glade to catch Squarepusher. I would have quiet liked to see Jay-Z, but Squarepusher trumped him, sorry Jigga. He was obviously having a lot of fun, and really interacted with the, very intimate, crowd.

Then back to camp for drinks and campfire.

Sunday:
I didn't really see many bands on sunday, but the ones I did see where fantastic.

I spent most of the morning in the Leftfield tent, listening to, amongst other people, living legend Tony Benn talk about how broken the world is, and what we should do to fix it. It was a bit heavy going, but interesting.

First band up was Crystal Castles, one of the most exciting bands I have seen in a while. I love their album, but live, I don't think it is much of an exageration to say they are the blueprint for the future of electronic music, and in 10 years time they'll be listed alongside Daft Punk and Aphex Twin.

Then I only really saw The Verve.

The Verve set was exactly what I expected. Very Good, a collection of hits, mostly from Urban Hymns, and a few new, decent tracks.

They got to Bittersweet Symphony, which I assumed was the end, and I was overall pleased with the performance.

Then they played one more new song.

They dropped the phatest rave song I heard in a long time. Completely out of the blue. Nothing like anything else they have ever done. The crowd were going insane. I am now really excited for their new album.

Monday:
Packed up, got home, ready lots of email and spend an hour or so on my RSS reader, then posted this.

There is a tonne of Glastonbury coverage on the BBC iplayer, if you want to check it out.

Sorry for the downtime then, normal service has resumed as of now.