Glastonbury & Me
A potted performance history.
I’m just about getting over the fact that I’m not going to be at Glastonbury this year. It’s been such an integral part of my journey over the past two decades and it’s a place I’m so close to that it feels like home to me. Although I’m sure they haven’t quite seen the last of me yet, it’s important that festivals evolve and us old folks make way for a new generation. However the South East Corner has given me some of my all time favourite sets and I have been reminiscing about the many different projects I’ve taken there.
Of course my first time performing at Glastonbury was as a rapper in 2004 when Dark Chunk won the ‘Unsigned Competition’ (now ‘Emerging Talent’) and brought Dregz and I along as guest vocalists. We played on the Dance Stage but that same year we were both part of the Reform Dance group performing an interpretation of the Hare & the Tortoise daily on the Theatre & Circus stage.
That was my last time there as a vocalist. I blagged it in pretending to be a member of Goldie Lookin Chain the next year and then 2006 was a fallow year. I’m pretty certain I was at 2007 but my memory is very hazy as to how that might have happened. 2008 I bought a ticket on the way down there as they hadn’t sold out and 2009 was the first time I was there as a DJ. It was me, Monkey and Stagga (RIP) as Chrome Kids on the Bassline Circus stage in the Shangri La field and the following year we played there again when it moved to The Common. We also had MCs but I get super confused as to which year. Definitely MC Chico, Koast and Dregz joined us at some point and I’m pretty sure Illaman might have as well.
In 2011 I took the Astroid Boys there to play The Hub in Shangri La and also did a solo Chrome Kids set. 2012 was a fallow year but I was back by mistake in 2013. I realised afterwards that they had actually intended to book Matt Tha Hat but had somehow come to me and got Matt The Hat instead (sorry other Matt). We both ended up playing as Big Swing Soundsystem at the Bar of Ideas. At least I think we did, I remember it being super chaotic and running around the field myself looking for CDJs because everyone at the stage was off their tits.
We came back under that name in 2014 and 2015 along with Hypeman Sage as our MC. We played the Heaven stage in Shangri La and those were really great years. In 2014 I had another set as Kaptin’s Not Dead because Chris Tofu refused to write my actual DJ name - Kaptin Is Dead. 2015 I also played with my friend Tony Trombony as the Ibibio Sound Machine DJs. He is one of the founding members of the group and wanted to try that as a side project. He asked me to join him until he’d got on his feet with it. We had fun but being so close to the Pyramid Stage, we could still hear The Who blaring over our set.
In 2016 I did a whole stage takeover of Heaven as AAA Badboy. I had Mungo’s Hi-Fi, Gardna and Kreed, Disorda, Shepdog and Eva Lazarus joining me for that one. Then 2017 Big Swing Sound were back to battle Chris Tofu on home turf at The Clash stage in Shangri La. That was such a fun moment even though he tried to poach one of my DJs Danny Wav at the last minute. Everyone warned me he’d play dirty but I wasn’t having any of that! He also had the late great Nik Turner from Hawkwind on his team and I think Phibes too, though it was Rumpsteppers that really gave us a run for our money that time. It was a close battle and nobody kept score so the winner is anyone’s guess.
2018 was a fallow year but in 2019 I had another clash with my Super Soca Show crew. We were taking on Hiphoppapotamus and Tropical Tea Party and although we were announced as the winners for that one, I was told by a few people that it should have gone to the other side. I accept that might well have been the case. It certainly felt like a tight one and I was drunker than I should have been. That same year I was back in The Common to perform as AAA Badboy between Emily Dust and Daniel Haaksman.
Then of course there was the COVID years, which meant no festival in 2020 or 2021. 2022 I played the Truth Stage in Shangri La and the Greenpeace Field as AAA Badboy. My last time there under that name. This was my first sober Glastonbury, which was made a little easier because I left site early for my good friend Mevs’ graduation show at Goldsmiths. I did came back on Sunday to join the Super Soca Show crew on the Arcadia Bug as part of the Notting Hill Carnival parade around the site. Unfortunately I was suffering from long COVID still and only lasted a couple of hours before having to go home struggling to breath.
2023 I needed a time out. I had festival fatigue really badly and decided to give all of the big festivals a miss. I realise this played a big part in me nearly not being invited back the next year. You snooze you lose as they say. Thankfully at the last minute Stivs asked me to play the Salon Carousel in the Unfairground which I’m very grateful for. Once I was there Shangri La asked me to play before Kneecap so I pulled out a set of Celtic rap bangers for that, St Paul’s Carnival invited me on a panel talk at Terminal 1 and I played a house set in The Glade area which I really really loved doing. I think if I go back again I’d like to either bring a whole Welsh rap contingent or I want to play house there again. I’ve played dubstep, glitch hop, reggae, dnb, electro swing, afro-fusion, soca and various other styles there now, so nobody really thinks of me as a house DJ but there’s still time to change that before the next one in 2027. For now I’m going to enjoy another year off at home with the dogs and maybe watch some of the highlights on the telly.
If you’re there this year then keep an eye out for all of the Welsh acts playing: both Local and MistaFire are at the Blind Tiger in the Unfairground; Lemfreck and Mali Hâf (also at Bread & Roses) on the BBC Introducing Stage; Adjua at Toad Hall, as well as Bed of Roses doing a special show with the Beatbox Collective; Timbali and CVC both at Croissant Neuf; Kelly Lee Owens at San Remo (going B2B with Daniel Avery); Melin Melyn on the Park Stage and Strummerville, Sister Sesh on Scissors and although not music, I have to shout out No Fit State Circus at the Circus Big Top too. I’ve no doubt missed a few people so please do let me know in the comments.
I am still expecting look up while randomly dancing and see it's you at the decks again! YOu are always playing at Glastonbury and I expect you to randomly just teleport in at least for an hour! :)
😍😍😍 we were there during a lot of that! Probably watched you at Heaven as spent loads of time there that year.