Glastonbury

Glastonbury Festival, probably the world's greatest music event, now in its 50th year, though sadly this year, 2020, it, along with pretty much everything else, found itself cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Personally I have never been, even though it is only a couple of hours drive away, but every year I sit at home and take in as much of it as I can on the TV. I like Julien Temple's work,a very talented film maker. Sadly I don't think that Glastonbury is one of his better works. It started off very promising, with the festival being set up and people arriving, inter-cutting footage from different decades. Pity he didn't maintain that throughout. This film is more focused on the festival goers rather than the history or musical acts, although there are many great performances of the latter. Most of these are from the 1990's/early 00's, I would like to have seen more older stuff (assuming footage exits). Too much time is given to the New Age Travellers period, and seeing Rolf Harris being adored on stage now feels rather sickening (he is now serving time in prison for historic sex offences). One of the last tracks played is Bowie's"Heroes", the heroes of this film were father Ray plus his sons Andrew and Mark, who each day empty the brimming toilets, taking great pleasure in their work.At just over 2 hours I chose to watch in instalments rather than one swoop.

Glastonbury feels a lot like a home wedding video: If you were there, watching it back will probably be a fantastic experience. If not, expect to struggle in places.

The movie is a mix of music, background events and smiley faces in silly costumes. While the smiley faces are important if you intend to create a sense of the atmosphere, two hours of this starts to drag. As you might expect, there is a fair bit of music, although inevitably only a tiny proportion of all the acts that have appeared at the festival over the years. Some clever production techniques are used, such as mixing performances from different years together, and using specific songs to provide a narrative to other festival scenes.

But this subtle narrative is about all there is to guide the uninitiated through the movie. This might be acceptable for the music, but not the interviewees. The movie seems to revel in this to the point of arrogance: Early on, it includes a scene in which the organiser, Michael Eavis, is talking to festival goers who have no idea who he is - much like me at that point in the movie.

Background events and history are covered, but not very well explored. Genuinely interesting themes, such as the involvement of travellers and the growing commercialisation of the festival, are dealt with rather too quickly. There is a lot of social history here, which could have made this quite a challenging documentary. But perhaps if Glastonbury had covered these fully, I would be bemoaning the lack of music or complaining it didn't convey a festival atmosphere?

Americans have never heard of Glastonbury. That may seem surprising to our British friends, but neither myself nor any fellow "Yank" I've ever spoken to had any idea of what it was. To all my fellow Americans out there, let me explain: It's the greatest kept secret in all of Britain. We don't know about it because there is no way for anyone to make any money telling Americans about it. The only way I can describe Glastonbury is "Woodstock, but cool...I mean really, really cool." I kept saying as I watched this film, I wish it were longer. First of all, as a rock film, it's better than any concert film you can name (even though we Americans only knew maybe 20% of the bands in the film). Better than Live Aid. Better than Live 8. Better than Knebworth. (Unfortunately, we can't see every performance in its entirety because there are so many of them.) And the fascination extends beyond the musical performances. It's a wonderful historical document, showing the evolution of British pop, from classic rock to punk to new wave to industrial to whatever they call today's music. Plus you get an look at the fashions and zeitgeist of each music. Hippy's to bikers to (what we Americans call) lot-scammers. Glostonbury shows nakedness, drugs, mud, music and chaos on a biblical scale, often times on the stage itself. It defies explanation. You can only see it to believe it. Woodstock happened only once. This goes on every summer, and the music doesn't suck. It's a crowning achievement for rock cinema and rock history. I've always wondered why the best rock comes from Britain. This film offers a clue. After the film was over, I walked out of the theater and wanted a hit of acid or a stiff drink. I wanted to smash a window and streak down the street. I wanted to light a fire, quit my job and join a rock band, renounce all my worldly possessions and grow out my hair. I wanted to stand up and cheer because this is a classic film. I didn't do any of those things, except the later, because I'm not a moron; but the film certainly conveys the liberating power of music and it's capacity to free the soul. I am so amazed that the Glastonbury festival even exists in this modern age of the puritanical War on Drugs. It couldn't exist in America. I'm glad it does exist, and I'm glad that this film exists because Bachanalia is no longer valued. It is seen as a threat, as a corruptive force rather than a liberating rite of passage. It is an experience everyone should have at least once in their life, and should the day come when the 'Forces that Be' close Glastonbury down, at least Temple's film will still be here to show future generations how wonderful life can be when lived with perfect unfettered collective freedom, (as Bowie says) "if just for one day."

Living near the Glastonbury Festival site gives me a rather different perspective from that of the visiting Festival fan. And this film offers both views - that of the "local" and that of the visitor to mid-Somerset.

Covering all 30 something years of the festival's life, Julien Temple's film distills many hundreds of hours of professional film, archive film and home movie into just over two hours and really makes you feel that you spent a whole weekend there. Just like the Festival, there are different experiences for different audiences and those who love the festival for rock music will have some considerable reward with lovely filming (and soundtrack) of the main stage acts. Others who spend their time in the more alternative areas of the festival are also rewarded with extraordinary performers. A few of the punters are great value too - look out for the young man who had been there far too long although he could just about remember that he arrived "last Sunday".

Most interesting for me was the piece of contemporary social history that the film delivers. The first years of love and peace, followed by the travellers' convoys, the gradual growth of the corporate influence and the era of the all-encompassing wall chart our own memories of the festival through more than three decades. Some of the earliest archive footage is wonderful with great characters drawn from Pilton, the village near Glastonbury that hosts the Festival. Television coverage from those years will show you how much life has changed - as indeed have the TV presenters themselves. And the journey that Michael Eavis has himself taken over this mighty era is nicely covered too.

The stars of the show are, for me, the family who have the unenvied responsibility of clearing the loos early each morning. Father and his two sons - not men to tamper with - note that it's not a bad job "early mornings and plenty of people to talk to" but the graphic footage of their work might make you think it's the worst job in Somerset!

Edited in a way that doesn't do the work for you - years mixed together, no names for interviewees or performers - means you have to keep focused but at the end of the film I was left with a clear and enjoyable image of the journey the festival and its people have taken.

35 years and still going strong this documentary from Julien temple tell the story of one of the worlds best festivals. From day one until the most recent the film is punctuated with memorable performances from acts like the prodigy, pulp, Joe Strummer, David Bowie, Bjork and Dr.John to name but a few. There are moments that gave me goose bumps, I suppose it helps that I was there, but none the less there are some amazing performances. As I started watching the film I began to feel it was very one-sided all great atmosphere and friendly smiles and I was pleasantly surprised when it told the side of Glastonbury we would all wish wasn't there, drugs, robberies (no mention of the shooting in 1996) and it even tells the story of the travellers that used to go to Stonehenge before they were stopped and it briefly touches on the battle of the bean field. Elsewhere it gives an overview of everything the festival has become apart from the music. Wild sculptures, musical jams, costumes and over the top performance art all is here along side the things you'd expect tie dye, silly hats and naked hippies. If you've ever been to Glastonbury then you will enjoy this loving take on all its mystical aspects, if you've never been you'll get to see just what you've missed. Music, mud and mayhem combine to make this an amazing inside glance at a world that only exists for five days once a year.