Office conversation today about first festival experiences. Can you remember what the first festival you went to was? Can you remember which bands you saw? Can you remember what you packed as an essential?
I don’t think I even visited the main stage - which makes me laugh - I was definitely well on the path to music snobdom at that point. I remember seeing:
Soulwax
Bloc Party
British Sea Power
Dogs Die in Hot Cars
Fiery Furnaces
Futureheads
!!!
LCD Soundsystem
The Kills
The Shins
Autolux
Pretty Girls Make Graves
TV on the Radio
I must have seen more than that, but they’ve been lost to my memory. Subsequent festivals definitely involved more alcohol and therefore even less memory though, so, yeah…
I remember packing gas-powered hair straighteners as an essential item - despite the fact I had no mirror to use to do the straightening with. And I certainly did not have a shower in the time I was there. Although maybe the gas powered hair straighteners did me some kind of favour, because I did get scouted by an actual legit modelling agency whilst I was there. Weird times.
Reading Festival 1999, post GCSE, such is the style.
Only went on the Sunday, but saw The Living End, Pitchshifter, Feeder, Silverchair, Terrorvision, The Offspring and Red Hot Chili Peppers (I remember wandering sround, so might have caught someone on the Vans Warped tent, but all I can remember is, it wasn’t Ice-T, might have stood outside listening to Pennywise, I guess? I feel like I was gutted as I’d seen Body Count listed on a blackboard outside the tent, and had obviously missed them.
Drank a lemonade from the lemonade stand near the sound desk.
Glastonbury 2002, would have been 17. Me and my mate Scott got the coach from Plymouth. Think the ticket & coach was £90 and we bought them weeks after they went on sale, none of this registering malarkey.
Saw (not a definitive list):
Ikara Colt
Cooper Temple Clause
Idlewild
Doves
Nelly Furtado
Ash
Faithless
Coldplay (was meant to be The Strokes iirc. Annoying.)
Coral
No Doubt
Rival Schools
The Vines
Charlatans
Fatboy Slim
Dropkick Murphys
Hundred Reasons
Elbow
Belle & Sebastian
Groove Armada
Rod Stewart
Left my hoodie in my mum’s car when she dropped us at the bus station so had to buy one when I got there, cost a tenner and I had it for about 15 years. Really loved that hoodie. Essential item would have been a bag of very cheap dope.
Really bought tickets for The Pixies and they were the highlight of the weekend by quite some distance. I was intrugued to see Bowie, I wasn’t a huge fan at the time but knew it would be a difficult decision choosing to see such a huge influential, once in a lifetime, legacy act over Muse who were touring Absolution and once upon a time I absolutely adored. Alas Bowie cancelled due to illness and I never did get to see him.
I’m sure I saw 20+ bands over the weekend which for about £89(iirc) was extremely good value for money never bettered at any other festival I ever went to.
Definitely saw:
Muse
The Libertines (sans Docherty)
Wu-Tang Clan (a little bit of)
Ash
Funeral for a Friend
British Sea Power
The Zutons
Dogs Die in Hot Cars
Kasabian
The Cribs
Razorlight
The Killers
Stellastarr
The Rapture
Franz Ferdinand
PJ Harvey
Kings of Leon
Pixies
Orbital (bit of)
and
The Strokes
Collapsed Lung
Cypress Hill
Superchunk
Terrorvision
Pulp
Cop Shoot Cop
Stabbing Westward
The Jesus Lizard
Helmet
Rollins Band
Eddie Izzard
Tindersticks
Definitely saw more than that but have very little memory of much else
In terms of what I packed as essential, I spent the week previously rolling spliffs in preparation (roll one, smoke it, then roll two or three more) so had about twenty pre-rolled to take with me
I remember one night was Carter USM, then Wonderstuff, playing their “last ever gig” (for all of about ten years). I remember seeing A Certain Ratio, Crash Test Dummies, Inspiral Carpets (my mate who I went with was a MASSIVE fan of theirs). I spent a lot of time in the comedy tent too - probably the first time I encountered Frank Sidebottom
Reading post A-levels in 2005. Persuaded my parents to get me a ticket from a guy off eBay which somehow turned out not to be a scam.
Picked a terrible camping spot right next to a busy path and didn’t get a moments sleep. Remember turning in relatively early on the first night because we’d never really heard of of the Pixies. Lol.
Can’t remember a huge amount of the bands I saw. Dropkick Murphys, Foo Fighters, some Iron Maiden? Was Marilyn Manson there as well? Saw the Arctic Monkeys on the small stage and left halfway through as the crush was genuinely horrible.
Ate like shit but probably didn’t drink much because it was too expensive. Felt so sick by Sunday evening that my dad came and picked us up.
