Glastonbury Greets Glittering Diamond’s Glorious Debut!

 

Sunday 29th June, 2008;

 

Pyramid Stage, Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, 2008; Worthy Farm, Glastonbury, Somerset, England.

 

On Stage; 5.07pm

Off Stage; 6.16pm

Concert Time; 1 hr 09mnts

 

Neil wore; Black Jacket, Black shirt with Gold pattern.

 

Neil Diamond made a stunning debut at the world renowned Glastonbury Festival today, performing a high tempo show in front of a knowledgeable and appreciative crowd that grew by the minute as Neil’s scheduled 5pm slot on the famous Pyramid stage approached.

 

We too were Glastonbury Virgins and arrived in Somerset on Saturday evening, taking up temporary residence in a cheap and cheerful Travel lodge literally just off the M5 motorway at Junction 24 near Bridgewater. It was a latter day “Holiday Inn Blues” residence as we were situated 2 floors above the Burger King, and a fine view we got of the not so new parking lot!

 

However we were just 40mnts drive from the Festival site and it meant that if the weather turned foul we would not be among the thousands of hardy souls braving the mud and rain!

 

In the event, apart from one or two very minor showers the day and evening turned out to be perfect.

 

The tickets we received granted us hospitality parking on site and press access as well as further access to “The Pit” in front of the stage for the purpose of taking photographs. On arrival at the site we negotiated a series of parking meadows eventually arriving at the secured hospitality parking. From there we had a short walk to the press tent where we were checked in and received wrist bands for the press hospitality area. Then we made our way to the press tent at the rear of the Pyramid stage to receive further accreditation for the back stage/Pit access.

 

Having gone through this extensive induction process we then decided to explore the site. Now there will be veterans, I am sure, of many years attendance at Glastonbury and other festivals. So I hope those experienced souls will forgive my feeble attempts to describe our experiences!

 

We started off at the area in front of the Pyramid Stage; quite simply this is the most wonderful outdoor stage I have ever seen. Yes it is probably most accurately described as a Pyramid, a massive silver coloured one at that, but for Neil Diamond fans, try to imagine an amalgam of Neil’s 1976 Australian tour Mighty Mobius tented stage and a Giant Darth Vader helmet and there you have this fantastic stage! We watched the singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan perform part of his set and then, meeting up with Peter McNerney, a long-time Diamondhead and one of our travelling companions for many of the European tour dates, we set off to try to discover the massive site.

 

Quite simply this is a huge melting pot of humanity; hundred upon hundred of wonderfully vibrant stalls offering food and beverages for every possible taste, crafts, wares of every description and some truly colourful, often eccentric, totally crazy, but always friendly characters; an eclectic musical feast to satisfy surely everyone in the galaxy! I wish now I had taken a camcorder, not that I could have operated it, technophobe that I stubbornly remain, but my wife could surely have recorded for posterity scenes that words cannot adequately describe and the human eye must see for itself to truly appreciate!

 

Having stood in line at one merchandise stall to discover, after a considerable wait, that they only had Glastonbury tee shirts and related items, we moved not 100 yards down the colourful bazaar to find brown tee shirts bearing the Jazz Singer logo, but with the legend “money talks, but it don’t sing and dance and it don’t walk” emblazoned thereon. We relieved the stallholder of a couple and continued around the market place watching comedy acts, acrobats, stilt walkers, passing dozens of super heroes and other zany characters, all the time taking in an atmosphere, the like of which I could not recall ever having seen before.

 

We returned to the Pyramid stage to listen to John Mayer for part of his set before we had to go back to the press hospitality area to get ready for Neil’s fast approaching debut!

 

The constantly updated information told us that the weather was in the main going to be hot and dry with only the briefest of showers (very little sign of that mud!); we were also informed that official estimates put the crowd for the entire site at 170,000 for today.  Over 50 stages provided a platform for over 2,500 acts, musical and otherwise, over the 3 days of this amazing event, and here was I, almost exhausted after just half a day!

 

Eventually, along with a huge number of press and photographers we were lined up and escorted via the backstage area to “The Pit” immediately in front of the Pyramid stage and in front of the barriers where the previously large crowd was now of gigantic proportions. Somewhere far behind us we could hear the chants of “Neil, Neeeiiil, Neeeeeiiiiil!” as the atmosphere grew electric. We were issued with obligatory “ear defenders” (ear plugs for the commoners like me!) and told that we could take as many photographs as we wished during the opening 2 songs. As Neil’s full band arrived on stage my wife Jenny began snapping away furiously along with what a seasoned hack told us was “by far the biggest gathering of press photographers at the festival so far”. Then Neil sauntered onto the stage and in that understated way he has said “Hello Glastonbury, are you ready for some music”. Even with our ear defenders the reply was quite audible!

 

Cracklin’ Rosie kicked off the set followed by Holly Holy and still the cameras worked overtime, after which we were ushered from “The Pit” to rejoin the massive crowd, but not before we spotted and (hopefully) fired off a snap of Simon Collister, another huge long-time Diamondhead, who had worked his way right to the front of the crowd, your photo is currently being developed Simon!

 

The Neil did Beautiful Noise, and afterwards told the audience “we are happy to be invited to Glastonbury, we want to do well so we will be invited back” he followed with Cherry Cherry with the band intros included, and then Thank the Lord for the Night time, during which Neil parted company with his jacket again! It was clear that the choice of songs was greatly appreciated by the huge crowd, still tumbling down from parts of the huge site, as yet unknown to us, and I would hazard a rough guess that perhaps 30-40,000 were packed in and around the Pyramid stage, standing room only at this gig!

 

Red Red Wine was the closest Neil got to slowing it down, and this song seemed to be one of the favourites with the crowd who sang along, perhaps not always in unison (who ever is?) but with great enthusiasm! Then, for the only time before a paying audience on this tour (he did sound check it at Southampton) Neil performed You Got to Me.

 

Home Before Dark was next, receiving great appreciation and compliment from many. 2 young ladies just by us, each wearing a top hat and colourful Glastonbury tee shirts and blue jean skirts (I think they were skirts, but they were very short!) chatted excitedly “what a great song” said one” “the best, the best” declared the other. Pretty Amazing Grace was next and again the masses moved in time and then applauded fervently. Neil talked of Hot August Night once more, and there was generous applause from all sides as he launched into Crunchy Granola Suite and thousands watched themselves dance on the 2 massive screens, in between watching Neil on stage and on film too.

 

Done too Soon was progressing really well when suddenly Neil’s microphone cut out. It was out for perhaps a minute or more, during which the superb band kicked even harder and Neil and the crowd clapped along together with Neil shouting “they’re working on it”, As the full power came back Neil shouted “can you hear me” we certainly could and he heard the reply! Ever the professional Neil picked up where he had been cut out, and ran the song to its wonderful conclusion, and how the crowd loved him for the way he overcame the glitches. No way was he going to be “done too soon” today!

 

Forever in Blue Jeans brought about the largest, noisiest sing along so far on this tour and it got louder yet with I’m a Believer. Who would have believed that Neil had just completed 18 shows and numerous TV and Radio performances and interviews before this, he still looked so wonderfully fresh!

 

America was a sure fire winner as the crowd rolled along, and then perhaps understandably, Neil closed out with Sweet Caroline. Again the audience got to sing a couple of the final choruses alone, but with 40,000 who could be alone? Indeed Neil sang “we filled it up with just about 106,000, bless you all”! And there were plenty of “WO WO WOS” though we battled to get our “So Good So Good So Goods” heard, a few joining in, but many of the rest of the crowd around us wondering what in hell we were up to!

 

And that was it! 69 minutes of fast paced fun, enjoyed by so many! And it was heartening to hear numerous comments later, like “so cool”, “what a showman”, “a class act” “the coolest man on the planet”, “where does he get his energy from?” and most encouragingly “he must come back, I have never seen him before and want to see him again, often and soon!”

 

We hurried back to the hospitality area and very soon afterwards saw Neil and his band leave in 2 buses and a people carrier. Unfortunately the buses had darkened windows and the band members could only wave as the bus was head on to the fans waiting, but I think they already knew what a great job they had all done!

 

We did a bit more exploring of the vast site and then decided to make an early escape, foregoing the opportunity to see the other acts on the Pyramid and other stages. We had been regaled with tales of the car parks taking up to 8 hours, sometimes more to empty, and so we made our way, happy, tired, and amazed to our own car park, finding our spot comfortably with the guidance of some of the many stewards that had been so helpful all day.

 

We stopped in the tiny village of Ashcott about 11 miles from the Festival site and enjoyed a quiet and delicious evening meal in the hospitable Ashcott Inn with its friendly host and staff before returning to our “Holiday inn Blues” accommodation, packing up and making the long drive home.

 

And eventually here we are, Home Before Dawn! After a simply incredible experience, our Glastonbury innocence gone forever! How some of those remarkable folk, many of who have been attending for year after year, have the energy to last 3 days is beyond comprehension. We salute every one of them! The organisation, certainly from our brief experience, was top class, and while we don’t expect to become regulars (unless Neil does!) today will live long in our hearts!

 

That’s the end of my ramblings for another tour, I’m sure everyone will be relieved to know, and it has been another great adventure. Now it is over to our friends in America, your turn to follow this remarkable legend and tell us your stories, and we look forward to hearing them all! Have the best of times wherever and whenever you get to see the show, Hell Yeah, you will!

 

Tonight’s Play List;

 

1 Cracklin’ Rosie; 2 Holly Holy; 3 Beautiful Noise; 4 Cherry Cherry; 5 Thank the Lord for the Night time; 6 Red Red Wine; 7 You Got to Me; 8 Home before Dark; 9 Pretty Amazing Grace; 10 Crunchy Granola Suite; 11 Done Too Soon; 12 Forever in Blue Jeans; 13 I’m a Believer; 14 America; 15 Sweet Caroline; WALK OFF

 

Ian Graham.