CROWDS are descending on Glastonbury Festival today for four days of music, marvel and mayhem.
Stormzy, Kylie, The Cure, The Killers and Liam Gallagher are among the line-up and 200,000 music fans are expected to rock up at the site in Pilton, Somerset, after a ticket frenzy saw the event sell out in just over half an hour.
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It is all a far cry from its beginnings as a blues festival in 1970, which cost a quid to get in and drew a crowd of 1,500. This will be the 35th Glasto in 49 years and there has been lots of craziness. But how much do you remember?
From Robbie going rogue with Oasis to organisers spraying the dance tent with poo, here’s an A-Z of the best tales.
A IS FOR ADELE
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DESPITE getting a stern warning beforehand over her notorious potty mouth, Adele swore a whopping 33 times during her 90-minute headline set on the Pyramid Stage in 2016. Not only that, she also accidentally burped in the face of a young fan while they took a selfie on stage together, blaming a “dirty burger”.
B IS FOR BRITPOP
In 1994, a cocky Liam Gallagher strode on to the NME stage and demanded: “Are you lot gonna wake up for some proper songs?” As well as Oasis, other newcomers Blur and Pulp were performing at the festival, with some arguing it was the birth of Britpop that would come to define a decade.
C IS FOR CRITICS
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Not all acts have been happy to perform at Glastonbury. Manic Street Preachers’ now infamous 1994 debut is largely remembered for bassist Nicky Wire calling the festival a “s**thole” and saying a bypass should be built over the site. Reflecting on his comments in 2014, he said: “I remember it vividly because we were so grumpy and grouchy . . . I look back at the footage and wonder how I could be that angry about nothing.”
D IS FOR DRESSING UP
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The festival is as famous for fancy-dress as it is for music, with Fatboy Slim (aka Norman Cook) getting into the spirit of things by slipping into a bumblebee ballerina outfit, including a tutu, at Lost Vagueness in 2007.
E IS FOR EAVIS
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There would be no Glasto without organiser Michael Eavis. But the seemingly tone-deaf dairy farmer turned impresario probably learned it was best leaving the entertainment to the professionals after his stint on stage in 2010. Stevie Wonder got him up on stage to mark the festival’s 40th anniversary by singing along to Happy Birthday. Very badly.
F IS FOR FISTICUFFS
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In 2008, Amy Winehouse was filmed elbowing a man in the audience as she descended from the stage while singing her hit Rehab. She lashed out after the man, who grabbed at her beehive, reportedly insulted her jailbird husband Blake Fielder-Civil.
G IS FOR GATECRASHERS
The Levellers are said to have played to the festival’s biggest crowd to date in 1994 as, without a steel fence, there was nothing to keep out the gate-crashers. Around 300,000 people are believed to have enjoyed a free gig. After that, in an effort to control the numbers, a new £1million 12ft “super fence” was introduced.
H IS FOR HAPPY MONDAYS
The nation was in the grip of a second summer of love when Happy Mondays played the Pyramid Stage in 1990, and the crowd went mad for them. But things were even wilder backstage. Some members of the band’s massive entourage knocked up bootleg backstage passes, reportedly making £20,000. The punters who got their hands on them apparently ran riot backstage, nicking various items.
I IS FOR INVASION
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The Smiths’ set in 1984 was marred by sound problems, which prompted boos and bottles being hurled from the crowd. But it also inspired Glasto’s first stage invasion which turned things around. Johnny Marr said: “One fan was trying to climb on stage, I helped pull him up and then a few more people followed, and all of a sudden we’d managed to turn it into a Smiths gig.”
J IS FOR JOKER
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Kanye West’s much-hyped performance in 2015 was interrupted after British celebrity prankster Simon Brodkin, aka Lee Nelson, ran on to the stage as West was halfway through the song Black Skinhead. The rapper stopped briefly as the cheeky comedian was hauled off the stage before then restarting the song.
K IS FOR KATE MOSS
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Glasto fan Kate uses the festival like a catwalk and was snapped in heels in 2007 walking through the mud, arm in arm with then boyfriend Pete Doherty. She even joined the rocker on stage, providing backing vocals during his band Babyshambles’ set, to huge applause.
L IS FOR LAST MINUTE
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Pulp came to the rescue in 1995 after The Stone Roses were forced to pull out at the eleventh hour when guitarist John Squire broke his collarbone. The relative newcomers weren’t the first choice — Blur, Primal Scream and Rod Stewart were all approached first. Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker said at the time: “It is all a bit last-minute, but we’re used to that sort of thing.”
M IS FOR MOSH PIT
The Prodigy’s Keith Flint rolled on stage in a giant hamster ball in 1995 and emerged with the spiky hairdo he became famous for, and which he still had in the Firestarter video a year later. His anarchic dancing created one of the biggest mosh pits in history.
N IS FOR NUDITY
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Many festival-goers embrace the hippy spirit but none more so than those who took part in a nude mud bath in 1992.
O IS FOR OAPS
Michael Eavis spent decades negotiating to get the Rolling Stones to play Glasto — and it was all worth it when they finally did in 2013. Despite the rock veterans having an average age of 69 at the time, they performed an energetic two-hour set, which ended with fireworks exploding as they belted out Satisfaction.
P IS FOR PRINCE HARRY
In 2013, Prince Harry partied until 4am with Kate Moss. Harry was spotted with then girlfriend Cressida Bonas on the dancefloor at the festival’s hardcore dance club The Rabbit Hole, a popular haunt with celebrity visitors.
Q IS FOR QUAGMIRE
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Glasto is famous for mud and, in 1998, the dance tent was flooded by a 6in quagmire of the stuff. Organisers had the bright idea of sucking it up with a toilet truck. But instead of switching the setting to “suck”, it was set to “blow” and the whole tent was covered in human waste. The dance tent was closed off for 24 hours while it was disinfected.
R IS FOR ROBBIE WILLIAMS
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Back in the Nineties there was a bitter rivalry between Take That and Oasis, with the Gallagher brothers dubbing Robbie Williams “the fat dancer” of the group. But all that backbiting went out of the window at Glastonbury 1995 when Robbie was seen hanging out with new best mate Liam. Robbie spent much of the festival in a tracksuit, with bleached hair and a blacked-out tooth. He left Take That shortly afterwards.
S IS FOR SHAGGING
Despite the fact that many people don’t bother having a shower for the whole weekend, Glasto is the number one place for people to have sex with strangers. It was voted the UK’s most promiscuous music festival in a survey by online adult toy shop Lovehoney.
T IS FOR T REX
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Marc Bolan and his band T Rex were on their way to play Butlin’s at Minehead in 1970 when they were drafted in as a replacement for The Kinks, who had dropped out. It was the first ever Glasto but, back then, it was basically a farmers’ party with a few Blues artists. The band’s fee was a “fortune in those days” for organiser Michael Eavis who added: “I had to pay him a hundred pounds a month for five months afterwards out of my milk money.”
U IS FOR UNDERWATER
For some it’s not Glasto without rain, but the 2005 downpour was so bad it caused the Portaloos and a bar to sink in the mud. One festival-goer was spotted swimming to his tent to try to rescue his belongings.
V IS FOR VIPS
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Many a celeb has enjoyed Glasto’s VIP hospitality, and none more so than Lily Allen. Having spent much of the 2015 festival in a giant inflatable penis costume, the singer then burned a flag which read “F*** off Kanye” — who was headlining — before collapsing in the VIP area causing paramedics to be called. Lily has been open about her drug use at previous festivals, revealing she took drugs for the first time at Glastonbury 1998 — when she was 13.
W IS FOR WAR OF WORDS
A feud was sparked between the Manic Street Preachers and singer Billy Bragg at the 1999 festival over what is now known as “toilet gate”. The Manics brought their own loo to the site and Bragg claimed there was a notice on the door warning: “These facilities are reserved exclusively for the Manic Street Preachers.” Bragg declared: “That’s a nice socialist gesture, lads.” Manics bassist Nicky Wire hit back, saying of Bragg: “I wouldn’t let him p**s in my toilet for all the money in the world.”
X IS FOR X-RATED
Iggy Pop pretended to have sex with an amp while shouting: “I can’t stand this bulls**t any more!” as The Stooges played in 2007. A stage invasion by festival-goers holding banners demanding Wispas be reintroduced followed, prompting guitarist Ron Asheton to walk off. He returned after Iggy warned him: “Play your f***ing guitar!”
Y IS FOR YURT
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Not all celebs are happy to slum it at Glasto — some would much rather be glamping. When the Rolling Stones played there in 2013, Mick Jagger reportedly hired a £3,000-a-night yurt.
Z IS FOR (JAY) Z
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When Jay Z was revealed as a 2008 headline act, Noel Gallagher wasn’t having any of it. He declared that hip-hop was “wrong” for Glasto. But Jay Z got his own back. He started his set with a rendition of Oasis hit Wonderwall in front of a screen playing videos of Noel’s criticism. He then declared, triumphantly: “For those that didn’t get the memo, my name is Jay Z and I’m pretty f***ing awesome.”
