[ some elements of this article originally published 27-28/06/2014 ]
GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL
24th-26th June 1994
This was the year the Pyramid Stage burnt down just weeks before the festival was due to begin. A hastily-constructed replacement was up in time to much relief. It's interesting to see the likes of Pulp and Oasis among the line-up but almost completely lost in the myriad of acts taking part that weekend. They only had to wait another 12 months for people to look at them a tad differently.
Looking back at the lineup, I'm sure there were plenty of bands I would have seen (Echobelly, Senser, Chumbawamba,Inspiral Carpets, etc.) but just don't remember. I mean, look at that poster! Even Nick Cave is listed, but I don't think I even saw him. Mind, this being my third Glastonbury, I was beginning to drift more and more towards the fringes of the site rather than stick around the main stages. That said, there were some memorable performances, and one very very special one... James Peter Gabriel Johnny Cash An elderly musician had just released an album that was destined to be revered as the best of his entire career. That man was Johnny Cash. Having been cast aside by the Nashville fraternity and set to seed by record companies, Johnny Cash had barely existed as an artist for a decade or more before famed rap-rock producer Rick Rubin approached him to make a record. When ‘American Recordings’ saw the light of day, it captivated a whole new audience. It was just the Man in Black, an acoustic guitar, and Rubin at the helm. It revived his ailing career, but it was still a bit of a surprise to see Cash added to the bill for that summer’s Glasto. A bit of a tradition of a ‘veterans slot’ was beginning to emerge. The previous two years had seen Tom Jones and Rolf Harris perform, but Johnny Cash didn’t seem to be regarded as much as a novelty as his predecessors. And rightly so as I’ve never experienced anything quite like Johnny Cash’s performance at Glastonbury ‘94, either before or since. It was possibly the most entrancing show I’ve ever witnessed, and that’s really something when you’re standing in a large field surrounded by thousands of strangers. Those present that afternoon witnessed something extraordinary. We were all rapt in the company of a man our grandparents probably admired. After tearing through some classics with his band, Cash then played a few tracks from the new album completely solo – and this is when the real magic happened. This old man held the enormous audience in the palm of his hand. There was a respectful hush as he played, followed by an almost euphoric howl of approval as he finished each song. It really was spine-tingling stuff. Only the spontaneous “woo-woos” the crowd sang back at him during Let The Train Blow The Whistle broke the mood a little, but that’s far from being a criticism. On the contrary, it seemed to lighten things a little and Cash clearly loved it. All that was left for him to do was bring the band back onstage and round off with a few singalong favourites, including one or two with June Carter. Johnny Cash’s performance at Glastonbury remains one of the most memorable and fondly talked-about festival shows of all time for good reason. When it was over, I was back. Cash had transported me into a little world of my own during that show, set apart from the rest of the festival.
One of the big surprises of the festival. James appeared to be on a commercial downward slope following the success of Sit Down. ‘Laid’ had been a critical success but its more experimental nature led to lower sales figures than hoped. They bounced back with ‘Whiplash’ in 1997, but during the post-‘Laid’ lull, they produced a magical turn which made everyone realise just what an excellent band they always had been – and still were. “Thank you Glastonbury,” Tim Booth acknowledged. “We thought people didn’t love us anymore.” It’s hard not to love a band like James.
The most elaborate and spectacular stage show I’ve ever seen anywhere. I may have remembered this inaccurately, but I seem to recall PG rising onto the stage through the floor! It would have been easy for him to play a straight set of hits with no theatrics – he’d have still gone down a storm – but instead, he rose to the occasion, employing many of the astonishing visuals he had used throughout the 'Secret World' tour over the previous 12 months. A brave move, for sure, but ultimately one that I’ll certainly never forget. A brilliant, brilliant performance.
I’ve seen loads of bands at festivals. It’s a strange setting for a gig in my view, hardly intimate or easy for artists and audience to engage with each other. But from time to time, something pretty spectacular happens: Primal Scream (Glasto ’92), PJ Harvey (Glasto ’95), Public Enemy (Reading ’92). But one particular performance stands out for me, in that I don’t think of it as being part of a bigger event. It is as if it happened entirely separately to anything else that was going on, like a little bubble of time that existed for this one extraordinary hour before bursting and thrusting me back into reality once more.
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