So, here’s The Women’s Room blogging LIVE from virtual Glastonbury, don’t ever say we’re not down with the cool kids….Well, actually, we are sat here on sofas, in a very comfy basement screening room in Barnes watching proceedings on a movie-sized projector screen. This is as ‘real’ as we are prepared to go, being old we are rather fond of our Conran beds and high thread count cotton sheets and come 11.00pm we’re very likely to fall over asleep rather than be ready for the Arcadia dance tent.
Our drug of choice is a very nice chilled bottle of Made In Provence rose wine and we’re tucking into barbied steak and summer pudding. On china plates. This seems a very civilised way of ‘going to’ Glastonbury and avoids all the stuff we no longer have the patience to put up with, such as queues, grubby toilets, mud, rain, pop up tents with nylon sleeping bags and other people. Our virtual festival allows us to hop from one stage to another without having to get up off the sofa and we can control the volume when the heavy drum and base crews (super noisy Pendulum) come on.
The middleagedads present, however, are full of abuse for the BBC coverage, the frequent mistakes in labelling the songs and the odd way everything is repeated. Much unfriendly verbal is hurled at the screen in true grumpy old git manner and they only quieten down when the uber-cool style icon and mother of four Jo Wiley comes on in her brief shorts and tiny top (EVERYONE is wearing shorts with wellies, not something we feel we could have comfortably pulled off if we were actually there.
However, we are thoroughly into our music and totally love the ancient but fabulous Crosby Stills and Nash, the nerdy looking Passion Pit and really start to show our age when we realise that our hosts (Ros and Nick) know Florence and the Machine’s dad and remember when she was born. It is reassuring to see Bruce Springsteen looking deeply cool again at nearly 60 and last night we were wowed by Neil Young, who looked more like a crumpled up old school janitor than the major rock star he is. He sounded magnificent and the oldies well hold their own against the young crew. Will we go for real next year? hmmm, perhaps if we can book into Babbington House….
Recommended for updating the playlist:
Fleet Foxes
