HW: Glastonbury 1981

[XXX]

Hawkwind did play last. New Order played before us and over ran. We did
40-60 minutes of our set before the curfuw kicked in. We were asked very
nicely
by both Michael Evis and the police who were back stage if we would finish
or else Michael risked heavy fines. The laser display and the fireworks
were ours we had some lasers during the set but were saving the best until
the end and the fireworks never had a chance to happen. Don't know what was
in
that cider...............!!!!!

Hawkwind

----------

>
> Assuming that the statute of limitations is up, I could admit the truth.
>
> It was our first Glastonbury and we'd cycled there from Stonehenge where
> Hawkwind had played the night before to a rather small audience and had
> chatted to us after the gig.
>
> We bought a large flagon of cider from the back of a farmer's wagon and
> this turned out to be rather lethal. Hawkwind were in fact on before New
> Order and we made our way down to the front of the metal Pyramid Stage.
> Early in the gig Brock promised Silver Machine for the encore with some
> lasers and fireworks.
>
> Unfortunately at the end of the set the organisers announced that there
> was a midnight curfew and New Order would have to begin setting up
> immediately and therefore there'd be no Hawkwind encore.
>
> Unsurprisingly most fans believed that sufficient chanting of "Hawkwind"
> would disabuse them of this outrageous notion and a goodly amount of
> this can be heard at the end of the audience tape of the gig. Perhaps
> unfortunately I banged the now almost empty cider flagon on the sheet
> metal of the Pyramid Stage to punctuate the chant. This produced rather
> a tasty booming noise which wasn't lost on the rest of the fans at the
> front and they started banging their bottles onto the metal by way of
> percussional accompaniment to the chant. This made an even more tasty
> booming noise. It was all pretty good natured.
>
> The problem probably arose because the band, organisers and perhaps even
> security were inside the pyramid and this must have been similar to
> lying in a biscuit tin with someone banging on the lid.
>
> By the time around 20 security types had congregated to discourage this,
> we'd reached a vantage point up the hill a ways, attracted by someone
> playing "Blake's New Jerusalem" from a speaker powered by a small truck.
> As far as we could see, the "riot" amounted to the security types
> rushing the front of the stage and pushing folks back so that they
> couldn't bang on it. I daresay it's possible that some punches were
> thrown in the melee but I doubt it could reasonably be classed a "riot".
>
> Of course they never did play Silver Machine, never mind a twenty minute
> version of it.
>
> In the end New Order did a very good set and the lasers did look quite
> good once it was dark. I remember them playing off a large electricity
> pylon a little ways off from the campfire we'd adopted at the invitation
> of the Tim Blake fan.
>
> The most trouble I remember that year was someone throwing something at
> Ginger Baker which drew blood from his nose, and some idiots who trashed
> and set fire to the only semi-reasonable toilets on the site.
>
> FoFP
>
> P.S: I think the Glastonbury Programme is still available from the
> organisers. See www.glastonbury-festival.co.uk