Festival review by : Robby Turner

Glastonbury Festival 1999

Friday 25th to Sunday 27th June 1999
Worthy Farm, Pilton, nr Glastonbury, Somerset, England
£83

This was my fifth Glasters in succession and what a relief it was not to have the mud of the previous years. It was a brilliant festival this time although in my opinion, the line-up was sadly lacking in comparison to the other four years that I have visited. The thing is - it doesn't really matter at the end of the day - there is so much to see and you will always miss something no matter how organized you are and no matter how many good bands there are playing. The truth is, the best bands for me are the unknowns that you stumble on whilst walking around and have no preconceptions of. Like for example the brilliant thumb-pianists at the Jazz stage on Saturday lunchtime which were followed by The Egg. Both bands I'd never heard of but they were both fantastic and what a way to dance away a hangover. Then due to a delay at the New-tent preceeding Ultrasound there were the fantastic Death in Vegas - also a newie but one which I will shortly be adding to my CD collection. Here we also bumped into Michael Eavis which was kind of weird but was great to see the big man himself.

Although I am a Manics fan I found them totally boring to watch - I mean a Geezer standing there with a guitar just singing away doesn't really do it for me I'm afraid - I know Noel and Liam always say that if you want a monkey to dance around the stage - go to the circus - but still - not a highlight in my opinion - the best tents will always be the Jazz or acoustic. I didn't even have time to visit the circus, Theatre or cabaret tents even though a friend was playing there but thats life in Glasters........

Sadly there were again hundreds of sad gits choosing to rob the tents again. I must say I saw a lot caught by the police near the main tents but no doubt a lot went free. There were in any case clothes and rucksacks strewn all over the joint which signifies that a lot of people were hit - what kind of animal can do this - I mean this is Glastonbury for gods sake - the best festival in the whole world. You can survive all weekend on free food and drink anyhow so why steal you bastards!

Bands that I can remember I saw:
Gomez, Manics, Ultrasound (what a dress!), Death in Vegas, Transglobal Underground, Mercury Rev, Orbital (before Manics) The Egg, Burning spear, Suzanne Vega (great), Beth Orton (I left quickly), Texas, Joe Strummer and his dancing microphone stand (mega brilliant), REM, Skunk anansie (why were they headlining?), Travis, Cast (crap), Reverend Al Green.