I’m getting older, not old but definitely older. It’s the slightly greying harsh reality that for sometime I had side stepped with shorter hair cuts, and longer hangovers. I realised I was no longer a young person in the eyes of the British Transport System when I was buying my train ticket for Wood .This it’s fair to say angerered and saddened me in equal measure, but the full £80 fare, well that just stomped all over my sand castle.
‘Don’t worry Barrett I’ve got an idea, just meet me at the station.’
‘Mick, I can’t use this rail card, the guys … (whispering to avoid a scene) … Asian’
‘How dare you! He is Iranian …you racist!Anyway I knew you would be like that so I brought these.’
He then handed me a the type of black and whiter checked scarf Topman churn out like butter along with the single biggest pair of aviator sunglasses I had ever seen.
‘You, Michael, are an idot’
‘Just get on the train, pretend to be asleep and I will do the talking.’
So we boarded the train, me dressed as an extra from Smokey & The Bandit 2 and Mick with the type of smile that incites unprovoked violence.
‘Wait, I forgot the final piece of the disguise, put these headphones in’
As the piercing sound of generic middle eastern music ripped apart my ear drums and gently reverberated around carriage D of the 6:45 from Paddington, we slowly pulled out of the station.
After a very confused ticket inspector and mildly insulted carriage D we got off the train at oxford and caught a bus to the festival site.
‘I have lost it Mick there is no point in looking for it.’
I had been on site for 10 minutes and successfully lost my wallet with all my money inside and my sunglasses. I was not happy and not in the mood; that’s when the family beside us then pulled out an acoustic guitar and a ukulele.
‘Oh for fucks sake’
I left Mick to apologise to the family for my suggestion that a termination would have been a better option, and went in search of some musical solace.
The first band I saw were Danny and the Champions of the World. Their songs sound like poems to the past, be that their influences, of which Springsteen is clearly one, or the youth of the band members themselves. On songs like ‘Restless Feet’ it’s clear that they are coming to terms that they might not walk like the heroes they thought they had to be.
Next up was the headliner Fiona Regan, who since last seeing him has embraced the more electric and eclectic parts of his record collection. His songs are good, the between song banter was endearing, all of which makes it all the more confusing why Mick saw fit to launch his pint at the performer mid way through his set. Saying that, from knowing Mick there are certain times when you look in his eyes that you know the next 6 – 8 hours you’re basically a psychiatric nurse tracking an escaped patient. This was one of these times.
‘All technology disgusts me. I renounce you Vodafone.’
Mick then threw his telephone into the bonfire, reasoning apparently that his new friends that he acquired roughly 20 minutes ago have convinced him that that the ill’s of the world stem from the corporate powers behind the telecommunications market. I decided that now was a good time to retire to bed and lick my wounds.
Posted In Festivals, Jun 17 2010.
Words - Chris Barrett