Fact #140158
When:
Short story:
Glastonbury Festival, at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset, England, UK, features Bob Dylan and The Foo Fighters.
Full article:
Dave Henderson (publisher, Select magazine) I’d gone to meet Michael at the farm to see if we could be involved with the festival. It was a jovial conversation which ended with him asking what value we could add. We’d discussed that we could improve the programme but then I blurted out that we could deliver a daily newspaper and give it away onsite each day, having no idea if this was technically possible in those pre-wi-fi days. The idea was to produce it on site and update people of the many Glastonbury changes and hidden happenings. We shook on it and I went back to London to see if it could actually work.
On site the elements were against us. Our Portakabin was in a small lake on which straw had been deposited, and it was torrential rain, so we looked like a bunch of sodden Catweazles. Worse still, the power continually outed. The electricians eventually gave up and said we should just flip a switch on the fuse box with a screwdriver when it went off. Standing in a foot of water with rain dripping off my nose I did wonder if an association with Glastonbury was worth it.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Audience magazine, June 2010)
Jill Furmanovsky (photographer) : I saw that Dylan was coming to Glastonbury and Wembley and asked his manager in a letter if I could photograph him? And I didn't hear anything but I'd left it very late. It was early June 1998 that I wrote the letter and Glastonbury was three weeks later. But I felt very strongly that I must try and photograph Dylan.
I bought tickets for Wembley and I arranged press accreditation for Glastonbury. I was determined to hear him. I didn't even realise that he had a thing about being photographed. I thought he was just like one of those big artists that gave you three songs to shoot and then chuck you out. I didn't know anything more. I went to Glastonbury on the Friday and it was so appalling weather I left. I thought - forget Glastonbury. I'll go to Wembley. But then by some strange chance my tickets went astray. So I had to return to Glastonbury or not see him at all. So I went back to Glastonbury on the Sunday. I felt like the worst idiot ever with heavy cameras and Wellington boots, no backstage pass, just a ticket to this disaster area which was Biblical. I felt so puzzled by my own behaviour.
When I got to the backstage area I was allowed into the BBC area because I'm friendly with John Peel and Jools Holland. They made me tea and stuff. Dylan had been rescued by Michael Eavis, and I photographed them arriving. He went into the artists' dressing room area, which I didn't have access to. But it bordered onto the BBC area and through the fence in the Pulp dressing room was my mate from Oasis, the bodyguard who was off the road with Oasis and was in there with Pulp. We greeted each other and he said to come over and walked me in. I had to put my cameras away, but I had my book, The Moment, with me. I was wanting to give it to Dylan if I could.
And Dylan walked past us as we were chatting. And as he walked past I pulled out my book and gave it to him saying that I'd like him to have my book. He took it very graciously, a photography book, thank you, and he smiled and he went off with it to his Portacabin in his Wellington boots in the mud. I thought fantastic, at least I've done that.
And then he emerged a few minutes later with an unlit cigarette in his hand and he said 'Did you write me a letter?' So I said 'Yes.' He seemed to have heard of this letter. I think he might have recognised my name because he's one of these people who knows what's going on and my name has been around for many years. And then he said, 'I could do with a good photographer.' And I thought, 'You certainly can.' Any one who has seen Time Out Of Mind knows what I'm talking about. Most of his visual stuff is terrible because he controls it. So I told him that I wanted to take some pictures and he said, 'What, here? Now?' and I said, 'Yes.' And he said, 'OK'.
I wasn't nervous. I wasn't even surprised because it almost seemed like destiny that we should have this chat. We were talking away. I think he does do this. I've seen him subsequently with other people. Once you're talking to him in an ordinary way he's quite happy to chat. He likes that.
Anyway, we talked and then he said I could photograph him. He asked if he could see the pictures and I said yes and then he wanted me to take him round the site which I didn't recommend obviously. And then I went to get the cameras and nearly got thrown out because I didn't have a backstage pass but Dylan's people had been told by Dylan that I was coming so I went on the stage with him. I took the pictures. Even his bodyguards couldn't believe this was going on.
Nick Cave : I was standing in the mud backstage, and I looked up, and there was this old guy making a beeline across the muddy field, and I thought, "Oh, here we go." And when he reached me he said, "I just wanted to say, I really like what you do." And it dawned on me that it was Bob Dylan. And then we stood there in the mud saying nothing, and I thought, OK, one of us should really go now. (Source : interview in Daily Telegraph, June 21, 2007)
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On site the elements were against us. Our Portakabin was in a small lake on which straw had been deposited, and it was torrential rain, so we looked like a bunch of sodden Catweazles. Worse still, the power continually outed. The electricians eventually gave up and said we should just flip a switch on the fuse box with a screwdriver when it went off. Standing in a foot of water with rain dripping off my nose I did wonder if an association with Glastonbury was worth it.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Audience magazine, June 2010)
Jill Furmanovsky (photographer) : I saw that Dylan was coming to Glastonbury and Wembley and asked his manager in a letter if I could photograph him? And I didn't hear anything but I'd left it very late. It was early June 1998 that I wrote the letter and Glastonbury was three weeks later. But I felt very strongly that I must try and photograph Dylan.
I bought tickets for Wembley and I arranged press accreditation for Glastonbury. I was determined to hear him. I didn't even realise that he had a thing about being photographed. I thought he was just like one of those big artists that gave you three songs to shoot and then chuck you out. I didn't know anything more. I went to Glastonbury on the Friday and it was so appalling weather I left. I thought - forget Glastonbury. I'll go to Wembley. But then by some strange chance my tickets went astray. So I had to return to Glastonbury or not see him at all. So I went back to Glastonbury on the Sunday. I felt like the worst idiot ever with heavy cameras and Wellington boots, no backstage pass, just a ticket to this disaster area which was Biblical. I felt so puzzled by my own behaviour.
When I got to the backstage area I was allowed into the BBC area because I'm friendly with John Peel and Jools Holland. They made me tea and stuff. Dylan had been rescued by Michael Eavis, and I photographed them arriving. He went into the artists' dressing room area, which I didn't have access to. But it bordered onto the BBC area and through the fence in the Pulp dressing room was my mate from Oasis, the bodyguard who was off the road with Oasis and was in there with Pulp. We greeted each other and he said to come over and walked me in. I had to put my cameras away, but I had my book, The Moment, with me. I was wanting to give it to Dylan if I could.
And Dylan walked past us as we were chatting. And as he walked past I pulled out my book and gave it to him saying that I'd like him to have my book. He took it very graciously, a photography book, thank you, and he smiled and he went off with it to his Portacabin in his Wellington boots in the mud. I thought fantastic, at least I've done that.
And then he emerged a few minutes later with an unlit cigarette in his hand and he said 'Did you write me a letter?' So I said 'Yes.' He seemed to have heard of this letter. I think he might have recognised my name because he's one of these people who knows what's going on and my name has been around for many years. And then he said, 'I could do with a good photographer.' And I thought, 'You certainly can.' Any one who has seen Time Out Of Mind knows what I'm talking about. Most of his visual stuff is terrible because he controls it. So I told him that I wanted to take some pictures and he said, 'What, here? Now?' and I said, 'Yes.' And he said, 'OK'.
I wasn't nervous. I wasn't even surprised because it almost seemed like destiny that we should have this chat. We were talking away. I think he does do this. I've seen him subsequently with other people. Once you're talking to him in an ordinary way he's quite happy to chat. He likes that.
Anyway, we talked and then he said I could photograph him. He asked if he could see the pictures and I said yes and then he wanted me to take him round the site which I didn't recommend obviously. And then I went to get the cameras and nearly got thrown out because I didn't have a backstage pass but Dylan's people had been told by Dylan that I was coming so I went on the stage with him. I took the pictures. Even his bodyguards couldn't believe this was going on.
Nick Cave : I was standing in the mud backstage, and I looked up, and there was this old guy making a beeline across the muddy field, and I thought, "Oh, here we go." And when he reached me he said, "I just wanted to say, I really like what you do." And it dawned on me that it was Bob Dylan. And then we stood there in the mud saying nothing, and I thought, OK, one of us should really go now. (Source : interview in Daily Telegraph, June 21, 2007)