Stevie Wonder at Glastonbury-just the best party ever!
Waiting for Stevie as the sun goes down.
As
it got closer to ten o’clock it became darker and darker and the crowd filled
up even more. Chinese lanterns were floating over the crowd, rising higher and
higher in the sky until they became mere faint specks of orange light, drifting
out of sight. It was a magical scene, although I was relatively uninterested in
Stevie Wonder arriving on stage.
How
wrong I was.
Spot
on at ten o’clock the lights on stage burst into life and there he was with the
tightest band ever. From the get go the whole crowd, and by that I mean
everybody there, was wholly captivated. We were seeing something truly special.
He came on stage playing for the first song, a keyboard/guitar-y thing hanging
from his neck and within a minute, probably less than that, there was bopping
all around, singing and big smiles.
Even at the top of the hill, looking around
at every face I could see there was a collective sense of joy and happiness. I
looked across at Amy and Sacha and gave them the big thumbs-up. They grinned
back at me
“This is just brilliant!” shouted Sacha, nodding her head to the
music.
Amy, dancing like a loon, “Its so boss!”
Hit after hit followed.
Bang.
Bang. Bang.
It’s incredible to think that he has so many great songs in his
repertoire. What was just as impressive was the way he put it all together. It
was like the perfect compilation, structured in just the right order. Started
off with a massive entrance, took it up a notch and just kept it going. Maybe I
could ask Stevie for a bit of advice for my next compilation.
Everybody
loves Stevie!
When
he sang and played a snippet of Alicia Keys’ New York, announcing it as “his
favourite song in the last year” the 100,000 plus of us went collectively ape,
but to then morph into “Living in the City” and then Michael Jackson’s “Human
Nature” was an act of genius.
However, to then follow that with “Uptight”, “For
once in my life” and then “Fingertips” was something of Einstein-like
proportions. Higher and higher! Hadn’t even reached “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”,
“Sir Duke” or “Superstition” yet!
Which, when they turned up, were beyond
perfect. During “Superstition”, he shouted to us all to scream at the end of
the first verse, the loudest roar came from the crowd. It was like the Ride of
the Valkerie’s scene in Apocalypse Now-all the (few) hairs I had stood up on
end. I must admit that a tear came into my eye. Somewhere deep in the crowd a
flare was going off but unlike the atmosphere at Muse the previous evening
there was no sense of threat, no undercurrent of unease.
Just the best party
ever.
Get your flares on.
This is an extract from "Turn Left at the Womble- How a 48 year old Dad survived his first Time at Glastonbury", my first book (of three) about going to the best festival there possibly could be!
They are all available here either as Kindle e books or in paperback;
There may well be another book on the way after this years festival...watch this space!
