How Bristol’s spirit helps shape Glastonbury

Meet some of the Bristol artists, musos, foodies and more who make the annual Glastonbury pilgrimage.

Shona Symons
Artist liaison

Shona Symons began her love affair with Glastonbury as a college student, before going back to work at the festival almost every year since. Now, Shona’s whole family work there. Her husband Steve books the West Holts stage, and daughter Flora works as part of Shona’s team.

“I was at Bristol Poly in 1981 and somebody mentioned this little event going on down the road, so a load of us went from college and that was it, really. I fell in love with the whole thing.

“The Second Stage was always very, very Bristol. The guy running it at the time was heavily involved in Ashton Court Festival, where I was working.

“It was something that you learnt as you went along. Year on year, you get better at doing it and every year you think, ‘what can I do better?’”

“The great thing about Glastonbury is that artists will just have fun, really relax and enjoy themselves, instead of it being just a show where you’re on the road. A couple of years ago [singer/songwriter] Maverick Sabre decided he was going to stay even though all of his road crew were leaving. He ended up staying on a bed in the dressing rooms for three days.”

Tom Paine and Dave Harvey 
Wow! Stage curators

Bristol’s own Team Love, a.k.a. Tom Paine and Dave Harvey, curate Glasto’s Wow! Stage. They’ve since gone on to create their own festival, Bristol’s Love Saves the Day – but continue to return to the muddy fields of Pilton every year.

“I first went to Glastonbury in ’95,” says Tom. “We paid some funny little Welsh man a tenner and I had my mind totally blown by this amazing thing. I don’t think I underestimate how much that set me – set us – on this course to do music, do events, do stages…

“There’s a proper festival industry in Bristol: the Boomtown office, Shambala office, Grade Music Management office, Green stewards and ourselves were all sharing one floor in an office block in Stokes Croft. And a lot of that comes off the back of Glastonbury, because so many people down here work on that event.”

Dave adds: “You’ve seen Bristol during Glastonbury weekend, it’s a ghost town. Everyone is either working there or partying there. Bristol has always had an amazing music culture, disregarding everything else – through the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and now. There’s a new generation coming through with their own musical style.”

Emily Koch
Official Glastonbury reviewer

Emily Koch, from Horfield, built her writing career at Glastonbury, working as a reviewer for the official Glastonbury website. She later landed a job at the Bristol Post, going on to become deputy news editor. Emily is now writing her own novel – but, she says, it was Glastonbury that gave her the writing bug.

“My first Glastonbury review was of a band I didn’t know and haven’t heard of since. The Black Velvets took to the Other Stage on the festival’s opening afternoon in 2005 and I stood eagerly with a notebook in hand, watching their every move.

“I couldn’t believe I was there. I clutched my press pass everywhere I went – not because I was worried I would lose it and not be able to get backstage again, but because I knew I would want to frame it when I got home. 

“Then I ran back to type up my review, before heading out into the mud again to do another review… back to type up… out again to review. You get the picture. 

“Working as a reviewer and in later years as a sub editor on the festival’s official website was a defining moment of my career. I put everything I had learned in those days at Pilton to good use – working fast and finding stories.”

Romany Simon
Pieminister

Romany Simon works at Bristol foodie institution Pieminister, which was started by her husband Jon Simon and brother Tristan Hogg. The company has gone from a humble Stokes Croft kitchen to the shelves of major supermarkets, with ten Pieminster restaurants now spread across the UK and Amsterdam.

The pies have become such an integral part of many people’s Glasto experience that, when Pieminister weren’t granted a stall at this year’s festival, public outcry ensued on Twitter.

“Hopefully they’re listening! We hope to be back at Glastonbury soon,” says Romany.

“We opened a little kitchen in Stokes Croft in 2003, but it was Glastonbury 2004 that changed everything. People just loved our pies – and suddenly, when we got back, our day jobs had changed. We just had this huge audience of people who had us at Glastonbury and it was just a great way to raise awareness of our pies.”

Mike Tobin 
Stage manager

Mike, from Westbury Park, accidentally fell into the role of stage manager at the first ever Glastonbury festival in 1970.

At the time, Mike was putting on gigs in London, as well as managing Bristol band Stackridge (see below). But on Saturday, September 19, he received a call from an old colleague to say that Michael Eavis needed help – and that things at Worthy Farm were falling apart.

Bands who had been booked to play, including headliners The Kinks, didn’t turn up. Mike’s ex-colleague was already promoting another gig in Great Malvern, so he asked if Mike could step in and do something.

“When I arrived, there were roadies and some musicians milling around, but not a lot going on. There were some local Bristol musicians – Ian Anderson, John Turner – who were holding the fort by getting up on stage and playing some music.”

“With my experience of putting on gigs, I just fell into taking over. There were about 1,500 people there, security was one policeman at the farm gate, and tickets were £1. I think I was up for 36 hours, until I eventually curled up on Michael Eavis’ cottage floor.

“Marc Bolan and T Rex, who arrived in a velvet-covered car, ended up headlining. Marc was on his way to a gig in Minehead, heard about the festival and detoured, turned up and said ‘Can I play?’”

 
Sam Bonham
BBC Introducing

Sam Bonham presents the West’s version of unsigned music show BBC Introducing – but, come June time, you’ll find him in the fields of Glasto pushing new and breaking acts, including BIMM Bristol prodigy George Ezra.

“My whole life almost aligns itself for that one weekend. I have a load of mates in the music industry, the broadcast world and the West Country – and frankly, the whole of London descends on Glastonbury for the weekend as well. So it’s a massive party with all my mates and all the things that I love.

“The BBC Introducing stage has grown, as has the expectation of what you’re going to see at that stage. It’s become a key part of Glastonbury. The other interesting thing is that so many artists from Bristol, Somerset and Gloucestershire, rock up and play the smaller stages, and the exposure they get is really important.

“The music industry is there in force. Although there is a lot of choice, a lot of people have secured… I don’t want to say deals, but friends through playing at Glastonbury.”

Miss Radida
Circus performer and aerialist 

Multi-faceted aerial artist Rada Manussen – AKA Miss Radida – has been performing at Glastonbury for the past five years. She’s performed her solo silks act in the Big Top – a very big deal in the aerial world – as well as performing off the fiery inferno-cum-stage, Arcadia.

“It’s not really a coincidence that a town with so much art and variety as Bristol is placed very close to Glastonbury. There is a close relationship between the two. We also have a big influx of famous musicians from around the world coming through Bristol to get to Glastonbury, and they stop off and do little side gigs.

“There’s nothing in the world that comes anywhere close to Glastonbury. There’s just nothing that’s as epic and incredible, and as much of a feast for all the senses.”

Andy Davis
Founder member, Stackridge

Bristol band Stackridge will go down in history as the first band to play at Glastonbury, returning to play the Acoustic Stage in 2008. Andy Davis is the band’s longest serving member, from their formation in 1969 to the present.

“Most people will tell you they don’t remember much about it,” Andy recalls of that 1970 curtain-raiser. “It was a cloudy day. It was all very low-key. We just got into a field and made the most of it!

“I remember there was a lot of chaos backstage, because a lot of the bands that were booked didn’t turn up. And someone said, ‘well somebody better get on stage’ – so we did.

“I don’t know how much of an influence Bristol has on the festival anymore, but back then, if it wasn’t for all the Bristol acts that were rounded up, I don’t know if the festival wouldn’t have reached the end. They needed to get more acts in and allegedly someone ran down to a phone box and dialled around.

“It’s impossible to compare then to now on any level, but overall it’s still Glastonbury. There’s the same vibe running through it. At the time nobody had any inkling it would be on the next year, let alone 40 years later. But it’s still got that friendly West Country vibe – it’s a bunch of old hippies, really!”

Jeffrey ‘Big Jeff’ Johns
Volunteer

Bristol’s most prolific gig-goer, Big Jeff can also be found roaming the fields of Glastonbury. He has worked at the festival for over ten years as a litter picker.

“Volunteering was a way for me to get into the festival. I used to volunteer for Network Recycling, and most of the shifts were done well before any the acts I wanted to see, so I got the shifts out of the way very early.

“It’s a good way to get into the festival as tickets fly out really quickly, and it did make feel good that I was giving something back to the festival.”

Emily Eavis
Glastonbury Festival co-organiser

Daughter of Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis, Emily Eavis now plays a major part in organising the festival each year.

“Bristol is the ‘big city’ for all of us down here in Somerset – a hot bed of creativity.  There is a fantastic community of people who head to the farm from Bristol each June to build a whole new temporary, magical city. And three of our areas – Arcadia, The Common and Silver Hayes – are based in and around Bristol during the rest of the year.”