music – Page 5 – Babycakes Romero

04/05/201604/05/2016

#MYLDNites (41)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london nights

This is July Talk. Terrible name, pretty good band. They were playing at Kokos at an NME presents event which means it was packed but not necessarily of their fans and even though they were headliners on the bill no-one really seemed to paying attention. The young crowd seemed much more interested in themselves, their phones and their mates. The band were delivering but no-one was bothering to check the post. At one point the girl in the band shouted to the crowd “We need you to help us sing the next song” and someone in the crowd shouted back “SING IT YOURSELF!”.

22/04/201623/04/2016

Despacio in the Desert

Me and my camera at Coachella, my U.S festival, my Despacio in the desert

Pictures:

Despaciolimbo anyone?

one devoted fan was so enraptured she made her own despacio badges and handed them out on the final day.

Words:

I just got back from Despacio at Coachella Pt 1 . I am still reeling. Before this one there have only been 7 other Despacios – Manchester Int Festival, Hammersmith Town Hall, The Roundhouse x 2, Glastonbury, Sonar, Electric Picnic and now Coachella. It is going to be rolling out again this weekend for Part 2 of the festival and I am already gutted I am not going to be there. Out of the ones listed above I have been to them all bar one (Electric Picnic) and despite personally clocking up over a hundred hours on the Despacio dance floor (maybe more than anyone else on the planet) there is no drop off. Its impact has not diminished on me. I still cannot get enough. My love has not faded, it js still continuing to grow. I am basically now addicted to this ultimate dance experience and everything it delivers. When I am on the floor there is nowhere else I want to be. When I am somewhere else all I want to do is be back on the floor. Not only is it as good as it has ever been but it is actually getting better.

This was the first time it had come to America and for the young Californian crowd at Coachella, the largely mp3 generation who have been raised in a world of compressed music were literally jaw-dropped walking into the Despacio tent. It is impossible not to be. Despacio is there to show you how it can be, how it should be. It makes you feel that you are being hugged & caressed by the music rather than being repeatedly hit over the head. I watched their faces light up. It was clear from their reaction they had not even come close to hearing music sound this good before. And how could they? There is nothing on earth quite like it. Most stumbled upon it by accident which made its discovery all the more incredible for those that found it.

It was tucked away in a corner of the festival with no great signage so it was often only the adventurous & the inquisitive that were rewarded. I was standing next to this guy beaming from ear to ear at the end of day 2 and he turned to me and simply said “tell no-one!” It was so good he didn’t even want to share it with the hoards on site. But as everyone started to talk about it, it quickly became known as the best kept secret of the festival. By the Sunday, I am in the queue going through security to get into the festival (which is a little on the extreme side to understate it severely) and the people behind and in front of me were talking about Despacio so I knew the word was out.

The gloriousness & uniqueness of Despacio is that you don’t really care who else is there. It is joyful to look up as you are dancing your socks off and see the same level of exhilaration in the eyes of those you are surrounded by & you intrinsically know you feel identical without even exchanging a single word but even if you were there on your own it would still be off the chart incredible. You are at one with the music being played, you get lost in the groove, in your own moves & come to the zen like realisation, everything about it is better than you have ever witnessed. The sound, the lights, the music, the crowd, the vibe, you…everything is superior by comparison to what you have already been to. This is as good as it gets.

What Despacio makes you want to do more than anything is bust some serious moves. You are not just dancing. You are rocking out with everything you’ve got. Maybe because the sound is so much fuller, cleaner, stronger, more complete you feel it better, better than you ever have felt it before and as a result you are a better dancer than you ever have been before. You pull off moves with confidence. You bullseye the beat. You surf the rhythm. You tiptoe along the tempo. You’re John Travolta, Jacko & Gene Kelly all rolled into one. But you look up and everyone else is doing the same. And you are dancing together in circles. Strangers together busting full on moves and loving each other for it. When does that ever happen?

A lot of the people coming into it at Coachella might have only previously known the dancing experience that is the EDM face the front in rows dj worship bullshit but Despacio shows there is another way. A better way. It shows you can dance with each other and connect completely. How can you do that when you are always staring at someone’s back? It shows you that crescendo is nothing without the build up. You are taken on a journey, an undulating wave that guides you, lifts you and then lays you gently down before scooping you up again and firing you off into the stratosphere. Despacio is the dance antidote to the techno foot shuffle. You cannot just foot tap & head nod your way through it, it has control of your limbs, it will do what it wishes with you.

I keep using ‘it’ as if it is the machine doing all this and maybe that is because you are surrounded by these 7 speaker stacks and that is all you can see. But it is the ‘they’ behind the ‘it’ that are making you feel this way. Tucked away from sight are the 3 people driving this overwhelmingly positive feeling: James Murphy (LCD) and Stephen and David Dewaele (2manydjs). They are the creators and curators of this perfect analogue experience. They dj together for over 7 hours each day and every choice they make feels like the right one. It is a seamless stream of killer tune after killer tune. Some tracks you know, songs that you love inside out but which sound better than you have ever and will ever hear them and then there is so much you haven’t heard before but which you love instantly. Epic tracks that land for the first time. It is mind-blowing how good the sets are. Although there are now tunes which are full on Despacio moments that you long for and which detonate like joy grenades (Jungle Boogie, fly like an eagle, plastic dreams to name but a few) at least 50% is always new. Obscure moments of magnificence delivered one piece of vinyl at at time by the expert hands of the djs who you cannot see but who you feel at all times.

One of the greatest thing about Despacio and possibly the reason why it is not getting boring is that it is always different. It always somehow manages to morph into something else depending on where it is and who is inside it. The largely L.A crowd at Coachella turned it into a full on house party, the best house party in the world..ok, its not in a house, its in a tent but that was the vibe so sue me. They were also the first crowd to ever do a conga in despacio and also the first to have a limbo competition. It makes me people be silly. This is a good thing. If you wanna look cool go elsewhere. This is for anyone who don’t give a shit.

Not everyone that comes through the doors gets it. For some it is too far from familiar, too different to what they know, they don’t have a point of reference and for some that is too much. But I feel, rather than them choosing, it is Despacio who decides who goes and who stays. The machine filters out those who won’t be able to lose themselves in it and keeps the ones who will. It has its own natural selection process and keeps the ones who connect with it will give their all to it. And they stay for the duration. And then they come back the next day. By day 3 I know a good chunk of the people on the floor and we are start to interact and become friends and dance together. We know we feel the same. We see it in each other’s eyes.

I have made friends on the floor at every Despacio. And at each new one I always run into people from previous events. A guy came up to me at one point who I met at Sonar and we hug like 0ld mates. By day 3 I am hugging people I met on day 1. We are all now together as one.

In some ways it is a little bit pointless talking about Despacio unless you have experienced it first hand. If you were there at the weekend you will know what I am talking about. You have probably been banging on about it to everyone ever since just like me. It is very easy to become a Despacio bore because you want people to know how spectacular it is but until you actually go you will never really know what we are talking about. If you are at Coachella this weekend do whatever you can to get there and drag everyone you know to it, they will definitely not be disappointed. The only downside is that it will make everything seem shit by comparison. You have been warned.

To read my review of the very first Despacio please click here

To see film from lovebox please click here

Despacio will next be appearing at the Panorama festival in New York July 22-24 – do whatever it takes to get there…I will be.

13/02/201613/02/2016

MASSIVE ATTACK – live review

i am in front of stage watching The Young Fathers at Brixton Academy, they are captivating, they have their own sound and feel fresh, new. exciting. I’m in. I start to think they might be my new favourite band. I feel like a teenager again which is kinda fitting as I have been coming to this venue since I was an adolescent. Brixton is my musical mecca…just without the kneeling…although I have ended up on the floor of the mosh pit on several occasions and did find myself both on my knees and praying (that someone wouldn’t stomp on my head).

Despite my enthusiasm for the Y.F, I am here to see Massive Attack as is everyone else. I look around the crowd and can’t believe how young they are. M.A have been around for a long time but this is not just their old school die hards come to see them, this is the new generation of fans. It seems incredible that they have stayed relevant for so long but half way through their opening track ‘Battlebox’ I realise why…they sound like ‘now’. Their music pulsates with today’s vibrations – the audience connect as only they could to a voice that reflects the current chaotic & insane world that we live in.

As the visual LED system starts to reel off medicines and their costs and it is very clear from the beginning that M.A want us to think, not just feel. This is not just a sensory experience. They don’t just want our bodies moving, they want our minds too. In their 2nd track United Snakes we see flags interspersed between each other and corporate logos, their rapid interchangeability says it all.

We are not allowed to drift into escapism. M.A want us to stay on course. This show is not designed for us to escape the horrors of modern living but instead to reflect upon them. It is is intense and powerful. M.A have been collaborating with UVA (who create and design their light show) for years and it is a perfect symbiosis. The music and visuals hit you as if they are one entity and deliver an incredible sensory experience.

Whether it is from the barrage of Matrix style 0s & 1s cascading across the screens in “Futureproof” or the myriad of google searches on display during “Inertia Creeps”, we witness a perfect manifestation of what it is to live in the age of information overload. Intense, stimulating, overwhelming. This is not ‘light’ entertainment. The crowd know this. This is why we are here. Detractors of the band say they are too sombre, too serious, but we live in a world of endless froth, who needs more? There is enough meaningless shite out there. This is something else. This is eyes wide open. The world needs Massive right now. To remind us how apathy and avoidance are allowing all those with evil intention to continue unabated. What is extraordinary is that they manage to be political without being preachy which is a feat all in itself.

M.A do want you to have a good time, but they also want you to have a conscience. We currently live on a planet where there is just too much awful shit to ignore, we can’t keep pretending its not happening. This is their way to engage us, to get us angry, to make us act. Horace Andy performs an incredible rendition of “Girl I love you” to the backdrop of Giles Duley’s poignant photographs of refugees and the crisis world they inhabit. It has more impact than a 1000 news bulletins. We are reminded this ‘thing’ is not going away. We cannot just ignore it. We cannot just turn our backs on these people and bury ourselves in the trivialities of our own lives. If this all sounds too heavy for a gig, it isn’t. It is hard hitting but it does hit the spot. The crowd cheer. They are absolutely in support. I also saw them perform this gig in Copenhagen a couple of days later and it takes on even more resonance in Denmark with the recent invasive laws they have passed regarding refugees.

(anyone speak danish?)

The band themselves sound incredible. Even though they have built their reputation on producing seminal album after seminal album (this is a music review btw so I have to say ‘seminal’ at least once, so I thought I’d chuck a couple in and get it out of the way) it is in fact their live act which has developed so much over the years and they now produce a musical intensity that is truly arresting.

From slow grooves that creep up on you and lure you in to powerhouse crescendos that take the roof off, you are utterly absorbed. I can feel the bass beat deep inside my chest, reverberating through my heart, pumping it in time to a new beat.

And yet, despite their status as one of the biggest bands in the country this is not about the band. There is no showboating. This is not ‘look at me’ music designed for adulation. They remain largely hidden in the shadows, acting as a soundtrack to the experience they are delivering. It is their guest vocalists who are all given the spotlight. This is clearly how they want it, especially 3d, aka Robert Del Naja, who quietly orchestrates everything they are and do with very little fanfare. I actually saw them perform a live soundtrack to an Adam Curtis film which they performed behind a bank of projector screens, completely unseen and maybe that was ideal for this slightly reluctant super group.

But M.A is more than just a band. It is very much a collaboration. A working collective guided by the gentle hand of Del Naja. Martina Topley Bird, a long term collaborator sings on several tracks, her heavenly voice swirling through the crowd and lifting us up, especially on ‘Teardrop’ which culminates in her hitting a note accompanied by an explosion of light so full on it creates an impromptu burst of applause from everyone present and literally makes your hair stand up on end.

The aforementioned Horace Andy, the coolest OAP ever, is introduced by Daddy G as having ‘one of the best voices on the planet’ & indeed kills it on ‘Angel’, raising the intensity even further . Azekel sings on new track Ritual Spirit and his voice is truly beautiful. Deborah Miller, another powerhouse vocalist sings “Safe from Harm” with so much feeling you cannot help be moved as the LED lists off religious shrines and relics that have been destroyed by ISIS.

They come back on after the encore with ‘Take it there’, also off their new EP and its a glorious haunting song, digging its claws deep into you. After the anger and frustration channeled into the bulk of the set they return with this vision of hope. A way we can work together to make the world as good as it could be. Through compassion and co-operation, we can be so much better. M.A , a unit of talented individuals who all work together to create something greater, are a shining example of this.

This is followed by two tracks featuring The Young Fathers who are welcomed onto stage as if Massive are indeed their proud fathers. This is what they do. They nuture & foster talent. And it has to be said, Y.F & M.A are a great fit together and both “Voodoo in my blood” & “He needs me” are stunning songs with a big impact. And then I realise that they have basically played three new tracks as their encore. No-one does that. Ever. It is bold but they have confidence in their new material and rightly so. What is amazing about their set is that all their music, whenever it was created, both new and old, all blend seamlessly together. It all feels like one thing which is astounding considering they have been recording since the 90s but yet it is not a sound that has stagnated. It has evolved and progressed and is still doing so. And hopefully it will continue for many years to come.

The gig ends with a plea to donate to the refugee crisis via UNHCR with more evocative images from Giles Duley. It is not a downer. The crowd roar in support. We have been galvanised. The message on screen states: We must remember. We must act….and we will. If you want to do so you can donate by clicking on this link.

As we walked back to the tube after the gig we stop to pay our respects at the Bowie memorial. From one great british institution to the next. In Bowie’s absence we will need Massive more than ever to help guide us towards what is right. What is necessary. And to blow the shit off the roof.

(if anyone wants to see some more pics of the band here is a gallery from the gig they did to 80,000 people in Paris last year – please click here)

06/02/2016

BOWIE MEMORIAL – BRIXTON

11/01/201611/01/2016

#MYBOWIE

he was my absolute hero and I am far from alone in that, but now we will have to be the people he gave us the courage to be without him…bye bye beautiful brilliant bowie, there will never be another like you & I wouldn’t be me without you…we all owe you so very very much x

16/09/201530/09/2022

Despacio Jungle Roundhouse

Me and my camera in the greatest party on earth, my Despacio, my happiness

Despacio returned to The Roundhouse at the weekend for three more nights of magnificence. I have probably banged on about how amazing it is enough already on this blog but if you were there, you will not need to hear my words. For those of you who weren’t I really can’t begin to describe or do justice to the incredible atmosphere of positivity, happiness and love it generates in everyone who experiences it so I will just shut up and you can just look at the pretty pictures.

To see the full gallery please click here

11/09/201511/09/2015

#MYLDN (602)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

To see the full Notting Hill Carnival gallery please click here

There were two things at this year’s Carnival that have significantly increased on previous years and that is the mass indulgence of balloons (nitrous oxide) and selfies. It seemed everywhere you looked someone was doing a balloon or a selfie and on some occasions, as in the instance above, both at the same time. I was going to name them ‘belfies’ but that’s already been taken (bottom shots apparently) so I think I will have to go with “ballofies”. (yes I am slightly trying to make #ballofies happen)

It is quite staggering how much both activities have increased in the last year alone but especially selfies. As I looked back through the crowd shots I had taken there was barely a single picture where someone wasn’t taking a selfie of themselves or their group, often repeatedly. I then looked back at the crowd shots from just last year’s Carnival and it was markedly less which just shows how its presence in our lives is spreading.

There was a time, not that long ago, when it would have been considered really naff, narcissistic and very uncool to stand there and take multiple shots of yourself. Why it is no longer considered so I really do not know. Its out of hand. Its happening way way too much. It needs to stop.

As for the balloons. their use is also slightly out of hand. Its only being done because its legal and even though its mostly harmless it can actually kill you as it works by pushing all the oxygen out of your lungs which apparently you need to breathe which apparently is quite useful for staying alive. This means it is technically more dangerous than most of the illegal recreational drugs the youth are being “protected” from.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Well, actually the same news. BBC future just published an article yesterday about people’s obsession with taking their own picture and commissioned several of my photographs to accompany it. Here it is if you want to see: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150901-are-you-taking-too-many-pictures

10/09/201510/09/2015

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

09/09/2015

#MYLDN (600)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

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08/09/201502/09/2015

#MYLDN (599)

Me and my camera back in my home town, my capital city, my london

07/09/201502/09/2015

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Me and my camera back in my home town, my capital city, my london

27/07/201527/07/2015

#MYLDN (590)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london – well,ish. I was actually in Cambridgeshire, in a field, knee deep in mud.

bit late today, sorry, I was at the Secret Garden Party being chased by a giant..umm..rabbit thing.

24/07/201524/07/2015

#MYLDN (589)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

To see the full Despacio gallery please click here.

Despacio returns!!

(For those who don’t know: Despacio is a sound system created & curated by James Murphy (LCD sound system) & 2manydjs (Soulwax). It is the best in the world

On the first day it began at Lovebox I was hesitant about going in and wondered if maybe it was finally losing its magnetic hold on me but as soon as I hit the dancefloor I remembered why I had been avoiding it..once I am there I do not want to leave. Everything else can wait. Some of my happiest moments on earth have been at Despacio and that is not an exaggeration of any sorts. It is a complete and fulfilling experience which generates happiness and well-being amongst those fortunate enough to witness it. It is a Love Machine. It was built with love and it produces love. We live in dark times. The world needs Despacio. It is a beacon of hope for how humanity can be: together as one, in harmony with each other, connected by the music, bonded by emotion. Sound over the top? I’m sure, but what can I say? That’s how it makes you feel.

When you are in Despacio you dance with strangers. You form a circle. You muck about, have a dance off, embrace. When you make eye contact you do not look away, you smile, from ear to ear, you know how each other is feeling. It makes you include one another. It makes you be a good human being. It makes you appreciate the beauty of existence. You don’t want it to end. Life makes sense inside Despacio. And the music is phenomenal. The 6hour set driven by the inspired vinyl selections of 2manydjs and james murphy takes you on the most incredible journey, building and building to the ultimate crescendo. And the sound will blow you away. It is unlike anything else that exists anywhere else on the planet. And the only way you can experience this is to see it and hear it in person.

Its coming to the Roundhouse in September. Tickets went on sale this morning, if you can get one, get one. http://gigst.rs/despacio

Here is a video I shot over the weekend:

23/07/2015

#MYLDN (588)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

This was lovebox at victoria park on the Saturday..

this was citadel at victoria park on the sunday

Lovebox used to run for the whole weekend but for some reason this year they did 2 days of lovebox and then the 3rd day was called Citadel.

On the friday & saturday Lovebox was a bit of a wild affair. the largely 18-21 inner city demographic seemed hell bent on getting properly wasted from the off. And they did. They demonstrated the wild spirit of youth and even though it got a bit messy it gave me hope for London. No matter how expensive and exclusive it becomes they will never be able to crush the diversity and the energy that fuels this city.

To see the full lovebox gallery please click here

On the Sunday it turned into a completely different festival. same location. same promoters. same stages and food trucks but was now called Citadel and was a totally different line-up and as a result a totally different crowd. Lovebox had the likes of Snoop Dogg, Rudimental and Cypress Hill and consequently generated an urban racially mixed largely working class crowd whilst at Citadel the singer songwriter Ben Howard was headlining and consequently attracted a very white middle class relatively sedate audience. I was there all three days (because of Despacio – see tomorrow’s post) and it was so weird coming into the same location which looked exactly the same but the people couldn’t have been more different from the previous two days. The queues for the smoothies was now longer than the queues for the bar. There was more eating going on than drinking. It was a very family atmosphere. Children were running around and getting their face painted. And as you can see above they were playing croquet for god’s sake. If they had had mallets and Lovebox there would probably have been bloodshed.

What was fascinating was how a change in music could utterly change the demographic of the audience. It really felt like a class divide and made me realise how the art we consume and the culture we come from are interlinked and intertwined, to such a degree we aren’t even aware of it.

It feels music festivals are going the way of Citadel. Calmer, more family friendly, more food orientated and it feels less and less about the music….and in all honesty I am not very happy about it. Festivals should only be about music and getting loaded and having a wild time. That is what they are there for. They are there so we can all let off a bit of steam so we can deal with the rest of the shite. The festival Grinch has spoken.

22/07/201522/07/2015

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

we live in a world of short shorts. Even the guys are doing it now. Lovebox was quite a display of minimalist material ensembles from both the geezers and the birds. A case of ‘if in doubt, make sure its out’. I’m sure that some morally righteous people will be saying that the youth are denigrating themselves and should show more decorum and less flesh but the peacock parade is the catalyst for how the human race procreates. It has always been this way. Its not fashion and its not a degradation in values. Its just biology. Business as usual. If there was no mating rituals most species would not be on Earth.

21/07/2015

#MYLDN (585)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

10/07/201504/08/2015

#MYGLSTO’15 – Pt V

Me and my camera on the festival circuit, my adult playground, my glastonbury

Every conceivable genre of music and its corresponding crowd are represented at Glastonbury. Whatever you are, whatever you listen to, you have your own corner. Techno ravers, heavy metallers, retro revivalists, rock bashers, drum & bass nutters, gypsy queens, disco freaks, pop tarts, acoustic airheads, square dancers and everyone in-between are all present and correct (well, not so correct). Despite their apparent differences they all have one thing in common, all they want to do is dance. That is why we are all there. To rock out from dawn till dusk till dawn.

Wherever you go, whatever time of day or night, whether you are at a tent, a main stage, in the middle of a wood, Bez’s acid house or at the Strumpets & Crumpets food stand, there is always dancing. Sometimes there are thousands of people busting their moves, sometimes a few, sometimes just one. But they are always giving it their all. And one dancer at Glasto is worth 50 anywhere else.

Seeing people dance (and dancing myself) is probably my favourite outdoor activity on Earth. It is the ultimate celebration of life and to watch people’s chosen tunes course through them, filling them with energy & expression is just glorious. When you dance to your desired music you feel connected to the inaudible rhythm of the universe. Glastonbury facilitates this better than anywhere else I have ever been.

To see the full Glasto gallery please click here

09/07/201504/08/2015

#MYGLSTO’15 – Pt IV

Me and my camera on the festival circuit, my adult playground, my glastonbury

Sometimes to understand the whole you have to examine a slice and this random woman featured above is the perfect example of the glorious gusto which Glasto creates. This was an incredible display of what can only be described as part experimental dance, part shakin’ her thang, part freak out. Whatever it was, it was uncontrollable, uninhibited & quite unbelievable to watch as she gave her all on the floor of the Deluxe Diner as people sat around and ate their lunch. This is what Glastonbury does to people. The festival hadn’t even properly started yet. This was on the thursday. At At 3 o’clock in the afternoon!

But this is where Glastonbury is weird. At most festivals it takes people a couple of days to get into the swing of things. At Glasto people are full on from the off, they arrive and they go immediately hells bells. They are wilder, more fun and far more ready to give it their all from the moment they get there than anywhere else on the planet. I don’t completely understand how no-one seems to need a run up. My own personal theory is that decades of positive energy left on site from all the previous festivals hangs in the atmosphere and infiltrates everyone on arrival. I’m not sure what else can account for the instant exuberance that the Glastonians demonstrate.

After the wild woman finished her routine she calmly sat back down with her friends as if nothing had happened. What sealed her in my mind as a true representative of what is great about Glasto is that she had written on her arm with a sharpie “Friday, 3pm, Bandstand” which I took to mean that she anticipated getting utterly wasted before then and the only way to guarantee her arrival at a designated meet point for a gig or to hook up with friends was to scrawl it in indelible ink on her body. That way, the reminder would always be there for her or for anyone who happen to stumble upon her in the following 24 hours. Genius.

08/07/201504/08/2015

#MYGLSTO’15 – Pt III

Me and my camera on the festival circuit, my adult playground, my glastonbury

Glastonbury with mud is hard. Its gruelling, knackering & 100% slog. Glastonbury without mud is easy. Its enjoyable, relaxing, 100% do-able. The difference is extraordinary. If the sun is out it is blissful. You can lie out, you can sunbathe, you can sit wherever you want. Your journey times are magnificently manageable. If it has been raining you cannot sit down..anywhere. Every step is arduous and it takes a debilitating amount of time to get from A to B. This year it barely rained. It was hot, both day and even at night. I have never been there when it has been warm at night. It was like being on holiday.

The only downside to hot weather at a festival is that you have to vacate your tent by about 8.30/9am as it is just too damn hot to tolerate. After that you have to be out and if you don’t want to cook yourself for 8 hours straight you begin the process of shade chasing. Glasto is pretty wide open. There is not a lot of shade anywhere, apart from the music tents and the bar tents, which means you start your festivities early. And as there is always somewhere to being having fun your party hours get longer and longer.

As the festival goes on you end up staying out later and later until by about day 3 (which was thursday in our case) you end up back at your tent after the point when you need to leave it. You end up taking naps in random places. One afternoon we had an impromptu kip in the middle of a gig and woke up to people taking pictures of us passed out as the music blared. Fortunately I am untaggable (for these kind of reasons) but if anyone has a pic of an unconscious couple on a bed in the bimble inn next to an empty pizza box please get in touch…

07/07/201504/08/2015

#MYGLSTO’15 – Pt II

Me and my camera on the festival circuit, my adult playground, my glastonbury

There are about 200,000 people on site at Glastonbury including punters, performers and crew and a huge chunk of them dress up in outlandish outfits. It feels that most are just doing it whilst they are in a safe haven where anything goes, an opportunity to release the more flamboyant aspects of their personality which remain largely hidden in their normal lives. At Glasto no-one is going to bat an eyelid. Pirate, cross-dresser, giant banana, no-one gives a shit. Its quite funny to watch as the days go on and as the Glastonians (is that what they’re called? they are now) feel more and more liberated how their outfits get more and more outrageous and provocative. As the grip of the real world loosens so does their inhibitions.

A smaller minority of revellers look like they have come as themselves, vaudevillian circusy travelling tinker types and aren’t in costume, they are like that all year round. There used to be many more in this category but as the festival has become more mainstream and more expensive the representatives of an alternate society has decreased dramatically. The organisers of Glasto used to give out thousands of tickets to performers, circus folk etc to add to the atmosphere but at £250 a pop someone got out a calculator one day and worked out how much money they were losing to potential purchasing and that was the end of that.

But regardless of whether you are a libertine tourist or a 365 festival freak Glastonbury encourages this freedom of expression. It is an opportunity to rid yourself of the shackles of normality and to express yourself as you see fit, without fear of recrimination or judgement. This is always a good thing. It is in fact a beautiful thing and should always be celebrated, even if you will shortly be back in your office, in your work suit, trying to scrape off a bit of glitter that escaped first inspection.