My Glastonbury? I don’t think so. I gave up camping in 1980 following a trek through the Lake District which ended with my friend Nick and I checking into a hotel because of the incessant rain. Well, that and the excellent pubs in Bowness. We did have an aberration a few years with a (too) long weekend camping in Burton Bradstock but the 4.00 am bathroom run proved too much for me. It’s not something I shall ever do again. Especially at somewhere like Glastonbury.
But I have done a slight 180 this year. I have no intention of actually going, you understand, but there were some heritage acts I really enjoyed, as well as the stunningly wonderful Tame Impala and the enduring New Order. And if New Order are good enough for Jo Whiley, they are more than good enough for me.
Tame Impala is Kevin Parker’s baby and no one else sounds like them. New Order, despite the absence of Peter Hook, were immense. I loved ZZ Top, too, but the band I enjoyed more than any other was Jeff Lynne’s ELO.
I saw ELO in the 1970s, first when Roy Wood was still in the band. Jeff Lynne was kind enough to play 10538 Overture today which provided Paul Weller with Changing Man (he stole it, basically) and later the joyous Showdown which they played minus Roy Wood again back in the 1970s. I do not love all ELO’s tunes, but I adore some of them. Mister Blue Sky is what the Beatles would have sounded like a decade after they split up but the final song blew me away.
Lynne has genuinely managed to combine an element of classical music with rock and nowhere is it better illustrated than with Roll Over Beethoven. First the classical musicians, almost all female and beautiful, play the opening section from Beethoven’s 5th symphony after which Lynne’s seating guitar brings Chuck Berry into the room. Oh my God.
Lynne himself is so modest, he really is. He’s like a man who has won a trip to play at Glastonbury. He’s also a musical genius. I love the bloke.
Yes, yes – I am always droning on about bands just going through the motions, strolling through the back catalogue, but ELO, I swear, were different.
Luckily, I have so far managed to avoid Muse and Adele and tonight I hope to avoid Coldplay. None of them will ever be as good as Jeff Lynne.
