Fact #140144
When:
Short story:
The Glastonbury festival in Pilton, Somerset, England, UK, features Manic Street Preachers, Blur, Paul Weller, Elvis Costello, Oasis, Bjork, Orbital, Radiohead, Johnny Cash. Attendance is 105,000, but the event is marred by several drug-related shootings.Full article:
Emma Forest (journalist) : I didn’t have time for any band after Manic Street Preachers on Friday. They materialised on stage in a cloud of dry ice to the noise of circling helicopters. When the mist cleared, the first thing you saw was the singer running towards the front wearing a terrorist balaclava. It was brilliant because it freaked out all the nouveau hippie kids, down from boarding school for the weekend, out of their minds on LSD.
Grant Lee Phillips (Grant Lee Buffalo) : I recall having a good performance in 1994 which was reviewed by one of the major music papers by television because the journalist couldn’t get a ride to the site. This was the same blistering summer that a gunman opened fire on the public. A real aggressive tension lingered in the air.
Michael Eavis : As if the fire hadn’t been bad enough, while Elvis Costello was on the main stage and Bjork on the NME stage, the doctor came rushing up to me and said five people had just been shot. I couldn’t believe it. It sounded like some American horror movie. The ambulance people got them off the site and into Frenchay hospital in Bristol in forty minutes. I went up to see them and, thank god, no-one was seriously hurt. It had been two drug dealers shooting at each other, but most of the people injured were bystanders hit by ricochets.
Damon Albarn (Blur) : Playing at Glastonbury on a lovely summer evening as the sun set was quite unbeatable, really.
Michael Eavis : 1994 was also the year of our first ever drug-related death at Glastonbury, which was a terrible thing to happen but, somehow, despite all those disasters it ended up being one of the best events we’ve had.
David Waterson (sound engineer) : I was in the Green Field watching a bunch of naked didgeridoo players when this lad came up to the bloke next to me and started shouting at him. He yelled something like “Come on wake up, we’re due on.” and they had a bit more shouting before he dragged him off. I didn’t realise it until I saw them on Channel Four later, but the first bloke was Noel Gallagher and the second one was Liam.
Michael Eavis : Oasis was the big surprise for me. They were very new, and I’d never seen them, so we had no expectations but they took us by storm. I got word during their set that they were great so I jumped on my bicycle and shot over there. They really stood out as stars. They were fantastic. In ’95 though, I was having a pee and Liam was in the next booth. He said, “We’re really scared,” and on stage that year they looked scared stiff, probably because of all the hype that had built up since ’94.
Another musical highlight that year was Orbital who were fantastic. The synchronisation between the music and their amazing light show was pure Glastonbury.
Tweet this Fact
Grant Lee Phillips (Grant Lee Buffalo) : I recall having a good performance in 1994 which was reviewed by one of the major music papers by television because the journalist couldn’t get a ride to the site. This was the same blistering summer that a gunman opened fire on the public. A real aggressive tension lingered in the air.
Michael Eavis : As if the fire hadn’t been bad enough, while Elvis Costello was on the main stage and Bjork on the NME stage, the doctor came rushing up to me and said five people had just been shot. I couldn’t believe it. It sounded like some American horror movie. The ambulance people got them off the site and into Frenchay hospital in Bristol in forty minutes. I went up to see them and, thank god, no-one was seriously hurt. It had been two drug dealers shooting at each other, but most of the people injured were bystanders hit by ricochets.
Damon Albarn (Blur) : Playing at Glastonbury on a lovely summer evening as the sun set was quite unbeatable, really.
Michael Eavis : 1994 was also the year of our first ever drug-related death at Glastonbury, which was a terrible thing to happen but, somehow, despite all those disasters it ended up being one of the best events we’ve had.
David Waterson (sound engineer) : I was in the Green Field watching a bunch of naked didgeridoo players when this lad came up to the bloke next to me and started shouting at him. He yelled something like “Come on wake up, we’re due on.” and they had a bit more shouting before he dragged him off. I didn’t realise it until I saw them on Channel Four later, but the first bloke was Noel Gallagher and the second one was Liam.
Michael Eavis : Oasis was the big surprise for me. They were very new, and I’d never seen them, so we had no expectations but they took us by storm. I got word during their set that they were great so I jumped on my bicycle and shot over there. They really stood out as stars. They were fantastic. In ’95 though, I was having a pee and Liam was in the next booth. He said, “We’re really scared,” and on stage that year they looked scared stiff, probably because of all the hype that had built up since ’94.
Another musical highlight that year was Orbital who were fantastic. The synchronisation between the music and their amazing light show was pure Glastonbury.