balti-pie

It must be. Its normally january for day festival and gig season down under, but camping in 35 degree heat isnt much fun at all so they have to move it away from then - i cant help imagining that september/october would make a lot more sense in terms of it being post-european festival season, weather more predictable and temperate in oz, well away from christmas etc . . .

i'll be honest, i have considered the knob chafage for those thick wool kilts, and it does put me off a bit. The clever tailor would pop a little cotton pocket to tuck everything into 😄

tbf if theyre looking at 30ml of rain on to already saturated fields, its looking fairly shite for em. I'm obviously not the first person to ask this, but why is their festival in the absolute middle of southern hemisphere winter over there?

EDIT - ive forgotten to mention the Shakespearian tradition of all parts being played by men, so the female love interests were male as well, this is 1600's etc etc - its really, really, really old

Its a classic british tradition thats been around for absolutely years - rooted in vaudeville/end of the pier and pantomime dame entertainment, so thats from the 1800's onwards really. The comedy of men dressing up as women is such a long standing tradition that is both tacky and terrible, and all the better for it! It's such a peculiarly british trope. I love a bit of Ru Paul's drag race and to be honest i do think the british seasons have been the most entertaining - there's so much history of it in the UK, and the queens have been far more interesting and boundary pushing (and hilariously bitchy) than the slightly more professional and bland US competitions. That might be my inherent cultural bias coming to the fore, admittedly . . . In terms of at a festival, i think its just a microcosm of wider society. Cross dressing isnt particularly rare or taboo, so pulling it out at a festival is almost normal. And the bigger and hairier the man the better, for the juxtaposition of it all. Plus as festivals are getting hotter (the last three glastonburys ive been to can attest to that, 17/19/22 have all been pretty bloody warm at times) its quite nice to get a bit of air to parts of the body that dont typically get aired!

40 is really very bloody hot. Undeniably so. The hottest temp i've ever personally experienced was 46 in Melbourne when i lived there a few years back - i worked in a call centre at the time, so that was air conned, and i lived above a pub which was part air con - and i took a slightly circuitous walk to work that went through three shopping centres with notably nippy aircon to try and make the walk to work as decent as it can be. It built up over a few days - 40, 42, 42, 45, and then 46 - and then it broke in an absolutely glorious hour just as i finished work, and it went down about 15 degrees really quickly - people were just stood in the streets basking in the cooling breeze, it was blissful being back down in the early 30's 😊 but it wasnt so bad with the buildup and the break, i thought it was manageable. I look at desert climes like Dubai or Qatar and its just the sheer relentlessness of a month of 40+ days, and i think bleh. No chance!

😄 its my fave post-beatles album by a Beatle! In terms of Macca albums, i think Flaming Pie is actually pretty decent. i've barely ever listened to any of the 80's stuff, cos of the hideous production - but Flaming Pie came out right in the middle of britpop and i listened to it a fair bit and it still stands up really well, too. Bet i'm the only person who picks it!

All things must pass 👍 i always had George down as my favourite Beatle, cos being in a band while Lennon and McCartney are writing ridiculous bangers three times a day while you're trying to write your own songs must've been ridiculously frustrating

Musically, Harry Styles is a load of bollocks (i'll caveat that by saying for me, personally, etc etc) but he is proper massive, has a fair bit of cross-generational appeal, is british/homegrown, and has gained the kind of respectability that most people with his musical background (tv shows, manufactured band, teen screams etc etc) never seem to attain. He's a definite headliner in the next couple of festivals i'd have thought, and while i wouldnt be anywhere near it at all under any circumstances, i say fair enough and good on him. Headliners arent designed for me, i'm a 43 yr old bloke, i can piss off to a smaller stage and watch something niche. Theyre designed for huge mass appeal, and thats great. My main reason for thinking he's alright is his propensity for winding up great swathes of the public by dressing like a 70's lesbian geography teacher, to be honest - he really does rustle the right jimmies by doing that 😄

Yes! a very old style antipsychotic, its not really used these days - it used to give leg cramps and prompt a bit of a shuffle in patients too didnt it?

There's a little enclosed garden in the middle thats quite airy and nice, i'm encouraging people to get out there for a bit. And very regular drink and ice lolly runs! This time of year always reminds me of a really rare type of deliberate self-harm - people who actively want to be sunburnt - thats really nasty

Good on you! was your pal a long term pal or not someone you knew all that well? too much booze/drugs? unable to deal with the crowds? have they contacted you at all since the festival? I just cant imagine getting aggy at glastonbury, there's so much positivity around me its infectious!

i work on a psych ward, where some rooms have aircon and some don't - and the windows don't open much at all, so its impossible to get fresh air in. Its currently 28.2 in here and its only going to go north of that today . . . its a bloody pain, restraining hot sweaty people! psych patients in hot conditions tend towards two kinds of behavioral patterns - either a hibernative 'might as well have a nap' state, or an active 'i'm hot and hate the world and will punch you all in the face' kind of state. I far prefer the first one 😄

same, same, same 👍

There's some big gaps between dates at the same venues, making me think they'll fit extra nights in - but then he aint young and will need some rest so spacing the dates out makes sense too . . . . in short, dunno lol

They played acoustic in 2019, and i'm sure they've played Avalon before as well - they definitely don't mind a smaller slot

there's definitely been a conscious decision not to offer slots to the likes of Take That, Westlife, Boyzone (though Robbie Williams played in the mid-90's, and east 17 played a thursday in about 2009ish?) but that seems to have been turned a little these days, with some out and out pop acts playing. But they're playing a packed avalon, rather than a less exclusive and interesting mid-afternoon set on the pyramid. As long as we're guaranteed no Barlow, i dont mind what they put on and where, i can very easily avoid it. But no Barlow. #nobarlow

There's a certain demographic (ok, me 😄) that will be watching absolutely bloody anything on any stage, instead of the Spice Girls - i dont really mind what they put on, they can get a bit weird and go with Babymetal/Bring me the horizon like 2019 opposite Kylie, or Fontaines DC seemed like a big draw opposite Diana Ross (i was at Amyl, which was also pretty busy)

Dolly Parton pinball, ffs. the whole set-up was worth it for that alone!

Doing it with an ounce of wit is a good thing, I’d say that Black Midi aren’t perhaps willing/capable of that kind of touch

Alright, whatever. You don’t see it as a problem, and I did. Different experiences innit.

Maybe im being precious, i dunno. Perhaps a frontman has no place calling part of his audience 'shit'? call me a traditionalist if you like, jokes are typically meant to be funny

I was there at Yard Act as well - who are so obviously a band completely disinterested in trans-pennine footballing rivalries and enmity its ridiculous. I think, just like the agreement when buying a ticket to love the farm and leave no trace, there should be an agreement to not be a braindead bloody idiot who wants to row with people over tiny perceived differences. Those stories of the late 80's when all the various hooligan firms discovered ecstacy and raving and started loving each other, instead of fighting outside backstreet pubs, has always fascinated me. big groups of inner city lads have far more in common with each other than difference, and if they united (thats such a poor choice of word here 🤣) they could be capable of amazing things, society changing things. But then after a couple of summers of celebration, out goes that drug and in comes this drug and then its all back to Stone Island and lobbing bottles at motorway service stations. . . .

Absolutely spot on - i don't want football and music crossing over at all, its not a good combination. I had no idea Black Midi had any interest in football at all, and i didn't really need to, until the last couple of minutes of their set the singer shouted 'what do you think of Tottenham? Shit!' etc etc and that just made me think what a prick, i'm here to see you perform and you're coming up with tribalistic bollocks like that - why would you alienate a bit of your audience? I tweeted em about it asking why do that at a music festival that's nothing to do with football, and they were 'hilarious' in their reply, too. Maybe i'm naive in being a bit 'silo' in my thinking - football is football, music is music, lets keep em separate. I like that the summer comes and i don't have to be moronically wedded into it all for a couple of months.

Ill be scrupulously honest here, i dont care about your rage 😊 id be absolutely priapic at the majesty of it all #neiljam