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Continued
from the 1981 - 1989 profile....
1990
– The relationship between Festival organisers and New
Age Travellers deteriorates completely as fights break out between
the two groups when travellers turn up without tickets and squat
outside in a field. The problems for the organisers are heightened
by the Happy Mondays who turn up with their own laminating machine
and forge 200 backstage passes for their dodgy mates after their
requests for this number of legitimate passes are turned down.
The Mondays then reportedly managed to clear 50,000 people from
the Pyramid Stage after their first two shambolic songs. Now
called “The Glastonbury Festival for Contemporary Performing
Arts”, the event raises £100,000 for CND who are
benefactors for a final time. The festival takes another year
off in 1991 while Michael Eavis “assesses the festival’s
reputation.” Also on the bill:
James, Adamski, De La Soul, Sinead O'Conner,
Ry Cooder, Aswad, The Cure, Lush, Pale Saints, Galaxie 500,
Del Amitri, World Party. Price
= £38. Attendance = 70,000 |
| 1992-
Greenpeace
and Oxfam become the main recipients of Glastonbury fund raising
this year after CND collapses as a political force at the end
of the Cold War, and the two groups share £250,000. A
wicker man is burnt for the first time this year (perhaps a
cheeky attempt at annoying the newly arrived Greenpeace campaigners,
a plan revived some years later by some people we know!) 1992
also marked the debut of the Jazz World Stage.. Also
on the bill: Lou Reed, Tom Jones, Blur, The Orb, Shakespear’s
Sister, Television, The Fall, Curve, Primal Scream, The Levellers,
PJ Harvey, Carter USM, James, The Breeders, Billy Bragg, Van
Morrison, Kitchens of Distinction, Spritualized, The Shamen.
Price = £49. Attendance =
70,000 |
| 1993-
A great year
for “fire” bands as Porno For Pyros, Midnight Oil,
and Hothouse Flowers all play. By now the festival has most
of the stages we know and love today. The Cabaret and Comedy
tents, Cinema, Green Fields, Kidz Field and markets have all
been established. During an interview with Channel 4, Pete Wiggs
from St. Etienne wets himself live on TV from Glastonbury ’93.
This doesn’t stop Channel 4 giving the festival full TV
coverage the following year. Also on the
bill: Rolf Harris, Verve, The Velvet Underground, Robert Plant,
The Black Crowes, Alison Moyet, Lenny Kravitz, The Kinks, Van
Morrison, Galliano, Belly, Teenage FanClub, Suede, Dodgy, Verve,
Jamiroquai, Ozric Tentacles, Stereo MCs, The Orb, Back to the
Planet, Mega City 4, Lemonheads, Spiritualized, Transglobal,
James Taylor Quaret, D-Influence, Roy Ayers, Omar, Urban Species,
Eddi Reader, Sharon Shannon, Lindisfarne, Blues Band, Nanci
Griffith, Donovan, Rage Against the Machine.
Price = £58. Attendance =
80,000 |
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1994
– On the Eve of “Brit-Pop” getting huge and
taking over the world, a host of bands that would soon become
massive play this year’s fest, including a brilliant hat-trick
of Oasis, Blur and Radiohead in-a-row one afternoon on the festival’s
NME-sponsored second stage. “It was like the Champions League”,
commented Colin Greenwood from Radiohead later (www.bbc.co.uk).
The Pyramid Stage burns down just weeks before gates open and
is hastily replaced by a non-pyramidical version. The Manic Street
Preachers begin a run of irritating Glastonbury appearances by
announcing “they should build some bypasses over this shithole”
during their slot, which left many wishing someone had built a
wall, and not a bridge, at another location in Britain to keep
tossers like them out of Somerset! A
blisteringly hot Glastonbury that raises over a quarter of a million
pounds for various local and international causes is overshadowed
by the first ever death at the event (drugs related), and a shooting
incident. |
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Thankfully, the Manics are involved in neither.. Also
on the bill: Johnny Cash, Ride, Rage Against the Machine, M People,
Saint Etienne, Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart, Lemonheads,
Nick Cave, The Levellers, Paul Weller, James, World Party, Spin
Doctors, Elvis Costello, Galliano, Mary Black, Tindersticks, Peter
Gabriel, Beastie Boys, Boo Radleys, The Pretenders, Echobelly,
Chumbawamba, Pulp, Spiritualized, African Headcharge, Transglobal
Underground, Senser, Björk, Orbital, Urban Species, Loop
Guru, Outside, Trash Can Sinatras, Tom Robinson, Oyster Band,
Man, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Mary Black, Gallagher and Lyle, Andy
White, Glenn Tilbrook, Bootleg Beatles, The Dharmas, Ed Alleyne
Johnson, K-Passa, Blind Melon, L7. Price
= £59. Attendance = 80,000 |
| 1995-
Held amongst
the heady days of British guitar bands dominating the pop charts
and newspaper front-pages alike, and aided by extended Channel
4 coverage, this year’s Glastonbury found itself in the
public eye more so than ever before. It would also prove to be
the making or breaking point of many of the big “Brit-Pop”
players’ careers. Friday night headliners Oasis strutted
around like they owned the farm during the festival’s first
day, Liam ran around meeting and greeting various scattered musicians
and trying to pull Justine from Elastica (the girlfriend of arch-enemy
Damon from Blur). Oasis also had an unlikely new friend –
Robbie Williams, still a squeaky-clean boy band poser with Take
That at the time, although he was sacked from the band shortly
after his festivals antics of clowning around and getting wrecked
to impress the Gallagher brothers. The Manc band were won over
for a while though, Williams even joined them onstage during “Shakermaker”
for some drunken dancing, however they soon got bored of his monkeying
around and spent the next few years publicly slating each other.
The Saturday night headlining slot was supposed to be filled by
The Stone Roses, a big chance for them to prove that they were
still any good after just releasing their first new album in five
years, but they pulled out days before Glastonbury after John
Squire broke his collarbone falling off a bike. |
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Pulp
stepped in at the last minute to save the day, but there were
doubts about just how pin-stripe suited Jarvis Cocker and friends
would go down with a load of angry Roses fans. Their performance
was a massive success however, with new song “Sorted for
E’s & Wizz” providing the weekend’s anthem
with the opening lines of “oh is this the way they say the
futures meant to feel / or just 20,000 people standing in a field?”
Pulp’s career rocketed following the gig, while the Stone
Rose’s no-show sped up their sad demise and they split-up
just over a year later. The influence of Glastonbury on the music
world had become massive. Elsewhere in 1995 – Supergrass
arrive in a helicopter wearing Stone Roses masks to further confuse
any tripping Northerners present. A naked George Best look-a-like
dances on stage with Elastica. Evan Dando from the Lemonheads
misses his slot on the Main Stage due to being hammered, but spends
the rest of the Festival performing on top of burger vans and
through the backstage fence to try and make it up to fans.
Also on the bill: Simple Minds, PJ Harvey, The Black Crowes, Page
& Plant, Jamiroquai, The Cure, Orbital, Lightning Seeds, Goldie,
Dodgy, Elastica, Sleeper, Supergrass, Shed 7, The Verve, Ash,
Prodigy, Menswear, Skunk Anansie, The Shamem, Incognito, Akasha,
D-Influence, Red Snapper, Freak Power, Ultrasound, James Taylor
Quartet, Gil Scott Heron Eat Static, System 7, Darren Emerson,
Plastikman, Fluke, Carl Cox, Massive Attack Sound System, Portishead
(for those who were lucky enough to actually get inside the tent),
Billy Bragg, John Otway and The Big Band, Difford and Tilbrooke,
Mike Scott, Nick Lowe, Banco de Gaia, The Dharmas, Steeleye Span.
Price = £65. Attendance = 80,000 |
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Check out CD's by these early 90's Glastonbury SuperStars!
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Happy Mondays
James 
The Orb 
Manic Street Preachers
Oasis 
Blur 
Pulp 
The Verve
