The Glastonbury Festival of contemporary performing arts is one of the most British things ever. It’s one of the only times in the year that people who have average office jobs or builders in hard hats and high visibility vests can let themselves go and be at one with the music. And it’s not just the music people come to see the arts and crafts are equally, if not more talented than the music that’s on the multiple stages.
Other festivals have tried to imitate it (coughs Coachella) but haven’t captivated the same mystique that Glastonbury has. Considering now every weekend throughout the Summer there is a festival for anyone to go to, this festival stands head and shoulders above the rest.
So, as it’s that time of year again, let’s have a look at one of the most chaotic editions of the festival. In a good way, not in a Woodstock ’99 way. This week The Beat Marches On to 23rd June 1995 when Pulp headlined Glastonbury and Britpop starts to peak.
Pulp wasn’t supposed to be the headliners of the 1995 edition of Glastonbury. That honour was given to The Stone Roses; however, guitarist John Squire broke his collar bone mountain biking in San Francisco about three weeks before the festival and the band were forced to pull out of the slot.
It was a shame that the band had to pull out as they were considered as one of the big influences of the Britpop movement that was in full swing at this time. In fact, Friday night headliners Oasis openly said that one of their influences was The Stone Roses. One of Pulp’s songs that they debuted at their festival set, Sorted for E’s and Whizz, were inspired by seeing them at their legendary Spike Island gig. But the musical Gods taketh away from a band, they giveth to another.
It wasn’t the first time a band pulled out at the last minute, at the first-ever festival in 1970, the Kinks pulled out due to lead singer Ray Davies having vocal problems (although Michael Eaves has his suspicions) and were replaced by an up-and-coming T-Rex, who was still a folk band at this time.
The choice to have Pulp be the replacement was a peculiar one. Pulp wasn’t one of the core bands in the Britpop movement. That moniker belonged to Oasis, Blur and Suede. Although Pulp formed before any of them, their roots in Sheffield go back to 1978, they didn’t have any exposure on the pop charts until 1994 when the single ‘Do You Remember The First Time’ became a modest chart hit, peaking at number 33.
The first single off the next album was different. It was huge. Not just huge but colossal. It became the song of the summer of 1995 and is often called the best Britpop song when the hip magazines unleash their lists. It is of course ‘Common People’. It’s one of those songs that you hear on the radio and you know the lyrics to even though you don’t own the single.
So, when the band hit the stage on Saturday night, the pressure was on, they only had one hit single and a modest hit from the previous album. The Friday night headliners were fellow Britpoppers Oasis, who were at their peak at this time. On Sunday night it was The Cure who are a great live act in their own right too. Before them, they had PJ Harvey, again another great live act. No one knew what to expect.
As soon as the first note from the first song, the modest hit ‘Do You Remember The First Time’, lead singer Jarvis Cocker had the crowd in the palm of his hands. Songs were played from the past the current and from their then-future album ‘Different Class’ Live debuts of songs of the aforementioned ‘Sorted for E’s and Whizz’ and ‘Disco 2000’ Then came the piece de resistance, ‘Common People’ and the crowd went wild. Approximately 100,000 common people sing about common people. It becomes one of those moments where if you were watching TV, you wish that you were there with the common people. The band became legends in that one moment.
The performance would go down in history as one of the great Glastonbury performances. It also was a moment in which Britpop was now in the mainstream, as well as the festival itself. It was shown on TV for just the second time, aired on Channel 4 rather than the traditional BBC channels as it is now. The festival was beginning to lose its innocence.
Over the years, the Glastonbury festival just kept getting bigger and bigger. The capacity started to rise from 80,000 ticket holders in 1995 to 210,000 this year, which isn’t a problem as more people should experience the weekend festival, no matter how big or small. However, it does feel like the organisers are starting to outprice the core fans with weekend tickets now costing £335 compared to the £65 in 1995, £126.56 in today’s money. Despite the 2023 prices they still sold out within an hour.
We are getting stadium-filling artists like Sir Paul McCartney last year and Sir Elton John closing out the festival this year, and fans would pay that amount to just watch those artists, but that’s not the point of the festival. The point is to discover new bands and enjoy the whole experience. It is now becoming the festival your Mum and Dad go to rather than the University leavers go to.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for six years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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The websites used for research were:
1995 | Glastonbury Festival (glastonburyfestivals.co.uk)
Why Glastonbury festival in 1995 was the most ’90s thing ever | Metro News
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