Continued
from the 1970 - 1979 profile....
1981
– Michael Eavis had listened to Mark Simpson’s advice
– to an extent, Glastonbury took it’s first steps
to becoming a comtempary music festival this year. One of the
brightest young bands in England, New Order, were brought in
as an example of this but still put second on that night’s
bill to festival veterans Hawkwind. Hawkwind fans angry at the
changes being made lined up their motorbikes behind the crowd
during New Order’s set and revved their engines throughout.
Wow, bet that was REALLY scary. |
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| Pyramid
Stage '81 (unknown source) |
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The
festival had another new name too, “The Glastonbury CND
Festival”, partly another move to bring the event into a
more modern era. Eavis had realised that the vague old hippy ideas
of “peace” looked outdated when the new Conservative
government’s policies of nuclear defence armament created
more specific issues to focus on. A member of CND already, Eavis
raised £20,000 for nuclear disarmament in ’81, with
CND handling tickets sales. As these political links were established,
the Government and the right-wing media of the time became more
suspicious of Glastonbury. This was the beginning of opposition
to the festival and licence-granting problems that would trouble
the festival for many years to come. Also
on the bill: Aswad, Taj Mahal, Judy
Tzuke, Gong, Ginger Baker, Roy Harper, John Cooper Clarke, Rab
Noakes, Supercharge, The Jazz Sluts, The Sound, Matumbi.
Price = £8.
Attendance = 18,000
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1982-
The first
really wet year, with festival go-ers being greeted by the heaviest
rainfall for 45 years on the Friday! Spirits were lifted by
sets from U2, The Thompson Twins and Gong (who were dressed
in silver foil “as androids”). Also
on the bill: Richie Havens, Sad Café, Roy Harper, Van
Morrison, Jackson Browne, Aswad, Judy Tzuke, Steel Pulse, John
Cooper Clarke, Climax Blues Band, The Blues Band, Talisman,
A Certain Ratio. Price = £8.
Attendance = 25,000 |
 |
1983-
A new law
(the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982))
is passed which requires Eavis to apply for a licence for the
first time. Increasingly worried about the festival's growing
popularity, Mendip District Council set the capacity at 35,000
people. The festival gets it’s own radio station for the
weekend – Radio Avalon. NME describes Glastonbury as “the
nearest thing to the 60’s that 80’s kids have got.”
Also on the bill: Curtis Mayfield, Fun
Boy Three, The Beat, UB40, Marillion, Melanie, A Certain Ratio,
The Chieftains, Incantation, King Sunny Ade.
Price = £12. Attendance =
30,000 |
| 1984
– At a time before environmental awareness had become fashionable,
The Glastonbury CND Festival made the moves of establishing the
Green Fields as a separate area of the site, and used wind generators
to power the festival’s stages for the first time. For many
in attendance, the performance of headliners The Smiths went down
about as well as some “wind generated” in a crowded
lift. Although regarded as the coolest band in Britain at the
time, Morrissey and his band were bottled off stage, the vocalist
later reflected “it is quite strange when you’re singing
to people who obviously do not like you… people are there
to see other groups, it’s quite tricky and that’s
how Glastonbury worked out for us.” (NME, 2003). Also
on the bill: The Waterboys, Black Uhuru, Weather Report, Fela
Kuti, Billy Bragg, Howard Jones, Fairpoint Convention, Joan Baez,
Ian Dury. Price = £13. Attendance
= 50,000 |
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| 1985
– “Grinning Faces in HELL” is how The Guardian
described the nutters that mixed it with the mud, rain and crap
of Glastonbury 1985. Thirty-hours solid rain from Thursday morning
created “brown lakes of liquid mud” and a three-foot
deep sinkhole around the Pyramid stage to suck away reveller’s
tents, boots, cars and will to live. For once the Glastonbury
mud attracted more national media coverage than the political
issues. Those who avoided giving themselves to the swamp were
rewarded with “I survived ‘85” badges at the
gate. On the
bill: Roger Chapman, Billy Bragg, The Boomtown Rats, Echo and
the Bunnymen, The Pogues, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Hugh Masekela,
Working Week, James, The Men They Couldn't Hang, Microdisney,
Joe Cocker, The Style Council. Price = £13.
Attendance = 40,000 |
| Horror
as Shane McGowan realises he's forgotten his best toothbrush,
1986 |
|
1986
– A
police clampdown at Stonehenge the previous year was one factor
that led to a massive increase in the attendance of this year’s
Glastonbury, with lots more travellers than normal arriving at
the site for their summer celebrations. In turn this led to record
numbers of fence-jumpers and “entrepreneurs” offering
other ways of getting into the festival without paying £17
for a ticket. Barrel-Smuggler of Long Ashton, a veteran of 11
festivals, remembers gaining admission through a gap in the fence
- “A black man had cut a hole in it, and was charging people
to go through,” she recalls. “My dad told him: “We’re
going to walk through your gap, but we’re not paying you
anything, right?”" The hapless fence-chopper accepted
the offer and Barrel-Smuggler was soon inside her first Glastonbury,
“the first thing I remember is a bloke walking round shouting
“Acid for sell” amongst a crowd of people
that included a few unconcerned policemen, which was strange.”
Sadly she can’t recall any more details about any of the
other TEN Glastonbury Festivals that she went to (due to being
“too stoned”), so our first-hand Glastonbury reviews
and stories end until 1997 now. Despite the influx of fence-jumpers
and travellers, Michael Eavis raised an impressive £130,000
for CND and other local charities in 1986.… |
|
On
the bill: The Cure, Lloyd Cole, Psychedelic Furs, The Pogues,
The Waterboys, Loudon Wainwright, Madness, Simply Red, Housemartins,
Go-Betweens, June Brides, The Nightingales, Dream Syndicate,
Half Man Half Biscuit, Microdiusney, John Martyn, Woodentops,
Level 42, Fuzzbox, Billy Bragg, Ted Chippington, Ruby Turner,
Black Uhuru. Price = £17.
Attendance = 60,000 |
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1987
– The number of travellers at this year’s event
increased again and caused real problems this year. A convey
of 450 vehicles turned up and demanded free entry, stricter
attendance restrictions imposed by the council prevented the
festival organisers from granting this request, however the
travellers were given their own field outsite of the fence,
and provided with free milk and blankets. They repaid the favour
by rioting, looting festival stalls and terrifying staff. After
refusing to leave for two months after the festival finished,
things came to a head when a band of the travellers cornered
Farmer Eavis in his milkshed dressed in “Satanist gear”
and demanded money. Unsurprisingly Mr. Eavis decided to take
a year off in 1988. Elsewhere in 1987, the Womad Stage was opened
for world music fans. Also, the turqoise-shell-suit-wearing
former Coventry goalie, and self-proclaimed Son-Of-God - David
Icke made an appearance!! The first Son-Of-God to attend Glastonbury
since Jesus in 1971. Our Long Ashton correspondent Barrel-Smuggler
spotted Elvis Costello at a cash-point on the way to the festival,
“he withdrew £10” she exclusively told us.
On
the bill: Julian Cope, Ben E King, Woodentops, Gaye Bykers on
Acid, Los Lobos, Soup Dragons, Van Morrison, New Order, Elvis
Costello, Green on Red, Pop Will Eat Itself, That Petrol Emotion,
Communards, Husker Du, Triffids, Weather Prophets, Felt, Billy
Bragg, Courtney Pine, Trouble Funk. Price
= £21.
Attendance = 60,000 |
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| Left:
David Icke. Below: Crowds desert the Pyramid
Stage in their thousands |
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1989
– The
troubles of two years previously and additional demands by the
licence grantors lead to uniformed police being brought in to
patrol the Glastonbury Festival site for the first time. This
may have been slightly reassuring to Suzanne Vega, who performs
on the Main Stage wearing a bullet-proof vest after receiving
death-threats. An extremely sunny year sees an estimated 100,000
punters turn up, despite the Festival’s licence only allowing
for 60,000. Make-shift illegal raves spring up all over the
site after-hours for the first time. These include a chap on
top of a burger stall with a tape of Chicago house music and
school slide projector, “check out the visuals man, check
‘em out…” he repeats, while displaying two
slides (one of a lion, one of a sunset) on his projector, to
a fascinated crowd. “CHECK OUT THE VISUALS MAAAAAAN!”
Also on
the bill: The Pixies, Donovan, Black Uhuru, The Wonderstuff,
Van Morrison, All About Eve, Youssou N'Dour, Waterboys, Throwing
Muses, Elvis Costello, Bhundu Boys, Fela Kuti, Hothouse Flowers..
Price = £28.
Attendance = 100,000
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Check out CD's by these 80's Glastonbury SuperStars!
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New Order
U2 
Van Morrison
The Smiths
The Pogues
The Cure 
Elvis Costello
The Pixies
