…Leaving Manchester around 11pm on Tuesday evening, we arrived on site just as the sun was rising. With a few short hours to spare before the main gates parted, we grabbed a few moments of car-sleep, then got our bags together and headed in.

After discovering a gap in a hedge in the car park, consisting of a ditch covered by a piece of wood, we literally walked the plank and found a neat short-cut to the entrance gate, getting us inside by 8.15am, a new personal best! Having planned ahead, we walked a short distance to the Park Home Grounds area which we had chosen to camp in and picked out our favoured spot from last year. At this point, the sky opened and I had not the time to unpack my waterproofs. Soaked through, I hid under the now erect outer-skin covering of my tent and waiting for the deluge to subside. In a brief gap between raindrops, I inserted the inner-tent section, dived in, and slept for approximately 3 hours, awaking later to find our gazebo was now in place as the centrepiece of our circle of five tents!

The remainder of Wednesday passed quickly, featuring a second visit to the car for further supplies, a stroll towards the Cider Bus (I maintain that it’s a tramp’s drink) and a visit to the Park Area, where I bumped into another friend and headed onto one of the covered bars. Thursday flew by also, and in many ways it is often my favourite day of the festival. The camp is already set up and there’s little to do but explore and reacquaint yourself with the surroundings. The mud was still present and somewhat viscous, but the sun was blazing and we headed, via The Other Stage for food, towards the Acoustic Tent where we settled for afternoon drinks. Later that day we visited the Circus and Cabaret Fields, the West Holts, and eventually back to camp for some rest, tired and happy.

On Friday, the weather turned sour once again. Ground conditions worsened to an extent that they would not recover for a further two days, meaning getting around was much slower and more difficult than previously. However, we ploughed on and I went to see The Vaccines (catchy songs, but possibly the most derivative band I’ve ever seen), Jenny & Johnny (recommended) and BB King (nice atmosphere but, dare I say it, a little bit repetitive). Then: decisions. Morrissey on the Pyramid Stage or a “secret” slot from Radiohead at The Park? I went for Radiohead and in fact managed to slot in the last few songs from Big Audio Dynamite, having got there early. The Park was too full though, really not designed for this kind of crowd. Lack of visibility (no screens) and the volume was too low. However, I actually heard the band more clearly once I’d moved further away from the crowd, where I also witnessed something I’d only previously seen on TV: people throwing themselves face-first down a muddy bank. Were we laughing with them or at them? Who can tell.

Finally on Friday, U2. As with Radiohead/Morrissey, the majority of my camp were watching Primal Scream elsewhere. It was an unfortunate clash, but my aim at festivals is more often to take the chance to see those who I have not seen before. I have to say, U2 were brilliant. 5 songs from ‘Actung Baby’ to start the set, along with Zoo TV visuals for The Fly? Brilliant. They stuck to the hits and most points of their career were touched upon (although sadly nothing from ‘Pop’). No preaching, as they have previously been accused of doing, just a lot of songs you know, played by a tight 4-piece. For a band who “don’t do festivals”, they absolutely knew how to arrange a set for one, something I’m not convinced some of the other big names from the weekend can claim. More on this later.

Saturday? Well, I won’t lie to you, Saturday was a hard day. By this point I had acquired a noticeable limp, which I think came from wrenching my ankle out of some deep mud the previous day. Supplies were topped up from the car, then back over to The Park for Graham Coxon. By the afternoon Pulp has been confirmed as that evening’s Special Guests, but as much as I’d have loved to see them again after so many years, my experience with Radiohead led me to feel that it would have been too frustrating to try and watch them in this setting. Therefore, I moved on. After needing to rest my ankle at camp once again (unfortunately missing a few things in the process) I then made my way across to the Avalon Stage for the fantastic CW Stoneking. I came, I heard, I liked. Next over to the Pyramid to spend the evening with Elbow and Coldplay.

I’ve loved Elbow for a number of years, but I’m not so sure about what they’re doing live at the moment. Fantastic band and certainly pleased the crowd, but I’m disappointed that they have jettisoned all of their pre-2008 singles (big songs like “Leaders Of The Free World”, “Forget Myself” and “Fallen Angel”) and are still drawing almost all of their set from ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’. On the other hand, Coldplay are a band which I often forget how much I actually enjoy. Overall I thought that they were very good, although I don’t think they should have done quite so many new songs at the expense of “hits” without their new album being out yet. At a normal gig I’d say that’s fine, but I don’t think headlining a festival is the place to road-test new material on a crowd clearly so eager to sing along.

Sunday. Hurrah! The mud has dried! Mostly, anyway. The sun hitting a sleeping tent is a heat like no other, so I was awake very early and brewing up on one of my two luxury camping items: a small stove. (The other was a solid-framed camp-bed). Lots to see on Sunday and potentially the best overall day for music: We started with Cold War Kids on The Other Stage (a consistently excellent band), followed by the supergroup that is Jonny. Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Euros Childs (Gorky’s) and now featuring the fantastic Laura J Martin (look her up!), Jonny were a joy to watch. Next up, with the busiest I have ever known the Pyramid Stage, was Paul Simon. I was expecting this to be a highlight, but as with Coldplay I did feel that he hadn’t adjusted his set for a festival. As much as I like the new album, the majority of the crowd didn’t seem ready for it and yo-yo’d back and forth from disinterest to excitement as his better-known songs arrived intermittently. Part of my frustration though, was the difficulty in finding a good spot to watch from due to the dense crowd. Paul Simon was good, don’t get me wrong, but I felt he could have chosen better for the occasion.

The rest of my final evening featured Eels (a highlight, fantastic performance playing from their heavier side), Kaiser Chiefs (always good live) and, since no one had the energy to share my curiosity for Beyoncé, our headliner of choice was the eccentric genius Gruff Rhys. Not wanting to waste our final night, 2 of us stayed out to try and finally investigate the “South East Venues” (read: the weird stuff that the BBC occasionally point at for 60 seconds before showing another song). However, this year has seen the instigation of a new “queuing system” to enter this side of the festival, and with a 30 minute wait-time we decided to write it off. As far as I know it hasn’t changed drastically this year and I’ve seen it before, though it is a pretty fantastic sight.

We were packed up and in the car by 11am Monday morning, out of the carpark by half 12 and back in Manchester early evening. Whilst it’s always sad to leave, with 3 of us in my car the journey back was actually a lot of fun, with a few stop-offs and a fun soundtrack. Overall, Glastonbury was harder work than usual this year - in 5 visits it’s the worst mud I’ve had to face and the issue is not the rain or the dirt itself, it is simply that it slows you down when you really want to get around and take in as much as you can. Still, a fantastic time was had and one of the best things about it was the group I went with. As an experience, I’m not sure it’s really all that like what they show on TV you know.

Roll on 2013.

But it sits better here.

Excellent summary above and I agree with pretty much all of it. A fine weekend despite the mud.

So, my weekend in a nutshell:

Friday

Cocoon (French. boy & girl. Lots of folksy charm.)
Dry The River (Cut above the average indie. To be investigated further.)
Dengue Fever (Blend of America and Cambodia. Excellent facial hair.)
BB King (Some old bluesman or other.)
I Am Kloot (Old favourite, vastly underrated Mancs.)
Mozzer (Used to be in The Smiths.)
U2 (It was wet and I couldn't be arsed moving. So sue me.)

Saturday

Brave Yesterday (Landfill Indie by numbers. Avoid.)
Fight Like Apes (Rowdy, but not as rowdy as I'd been led to believe.)
The Gaslight Anthem (Another old favourite, never to be missed live.)
Graham Coxon (Used to be in some Britpop band, I think. now performing solo.)
The Walkmen (Preppy American Indie. But in a good way.)
Tame Impala (Disappointing live. Stick to the album.)
Pulp (Oh my fucking God. A wonderful, wonderful experience.)
Guillemots (Acoustic performance. More charm and melody than you could shake a stick at.)
Flogging Molly (Celtic Punk on overdrive. Rowdier than a very rowdy thing.)

Sunday

My Tiger My Timing (Synth pop. Very pretty singer.)
The Low Anthem (Pleasant. Which was enough.)
Jah Wobble's Nippon Dub Ensemble (Bonkers. But in a good way. JapDub, ReggaeDub and JazzDub all mixed up together. The bass worked better than those Slimtone belts you can buy.)
Maggie Bell and Dave Kelly (Lovely serendipitous event described in full elsewhere.)
TV on the Radio (More accessible live than on disc. Good fun.)
Eels (Rockier than I expected and a lovely version of Hot Fun in the Summertime that was worth the price of admission alone. And the best band introductions of the festival. And excellent facial hair.)
Beyonce (From the comfort of my tent and in sound only. Started good and sadly meandered after about halfway. She doesn't think much of men, does she?)

The above saw me right. Plans went awry as the weather and chance took hold, and I consciously avoided some bands I'd seen often before, but overall a nice mix of the new and the familiar, the famous and the obscure, the mainstream and the frankly bonkers.

Had a great time and am still recovering, hence a lack of postings from me.

As a little taster, though - here's how Friday morning kicked off for me at the Sensation Seekers Stage...

Didn't quite work out as planned and prevented me from visiting Arcadia and Shangri La etc this year. At 3 am on Sunday morning the signs were still showing a 1 hour wait! I know something had to be done - I got caught in a very nasty crush last year, but when you saw the holding area in Glebeland (imagine an airport queue, but with big metal barriers), it just didn't look right. It also had a knock on effect - the usual firework and fire shows in front of the Blazing Saddles Stage were curtailed and drastically scaled down. This was a great shame.

I think the only way they are going to get round the problem is to have far more late night venues spread across the whole site, to reduce the congestion.