Two comperes on the magic of Theatre & Circus.

0:00Miguel Hello and welcome to GlastoCast, the unofficial Glastonbury Festival podcast. It's Miguel here, and oh my, we have a fantastic episode for you today. Jessi had an amazing chat with 2 compères for stages in the Theatre and Circus fields at the festival. Sadly, I couldn't be part of the interview, but it was fantastic to edit and listen to all the amazing stories shared about this area, which contributes so much to the Glaston magic. I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did. So let's get on with it.

0:59Jessi Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of GlastoCast. It's a really exciting one I've got today. It's all about Theatre and Circus, which is just a fantastic area of the festival. But I just wanna first start by saying, um, it is just me today. Miguel, uh, was unable to join at this time, and we've had some fun trying to get all diaries together, and these two are obviously two very busy people. But so you've just got me today, but I am joined by 2 fantastic compères, both from the Theatre and Circus area of Glastonbury, and they've both been doing it for a number of years. So I've got joining me today, I've got Ed Peachey and Paddy Bramwells, and I'm just super excited to have you both. Hello!

1:42Paddy Bramwells Good morning!

1:43Ed Petrie Hello!

1:44Jessi Yeah, it's always interesting doing these on Zoom, you know, over, over online, isn't it? Because you're like, do I go first? Do you go first? Lovely to have you both.

1:54Ed Petrie Oh, well, Paddy should go first because he's much older than me.

1:57Paddy Bramwells I am, I am incredibly old. And also, I mean, you do have the problem of, of 2 compères who, uh, basically will talk over anything at any point. So it will be just people interrupting each other all morning.

2:09Ed Petrie I don't know what you're talking about.

2:12Jessi I was gonna say, I wonder, like, uh, you know, it's basically your job to talk, isn't it? That's what a compère is, is to just keep keep everything moving and keep talking and keep people interested. So yeah, this is going to be a fun one. I love it. Speaking of Paddy being super old, how long have you both been working in the theatre and circus fields? Let's start there. I think that's a good place to start.

2:31Paddy Bramwells All right, as I'm the oldest, I will go first then. So I started— I originally performed at Glastonbury in 1986 as part of a double act and then came back in— and this is where it gets hazy— in '88. I believe, comparing a tent called the Mum and Dad Tent back in 1988. And then in '89, I started comparing the Outside Circus Stage, which was, at that point, it was a bit of a plank on the side of a field. And I'd actually said to my wife the year before when I was doing the Mum and Dad Tent, if they ever asked me to compare that stage, just tell me to say no. And when Bella— seriously, because it looked awful. It looked like this forlorn bit of wood next to a hedge, you know, that nobody went to. And when, um, uh, uh, Arabella asked me all those years ago, I actually said, I'll get back to you, and put the phone down on her, which now seems just a bizarre reaction to kind of go no to Glastonbury, you know. But yeah, so that's how long I've been there.

3:36Ed Petrie And he's still there. He's still on the same estate.

3:39Paddy Bramwells Yeah, I did for a few years as well, for about 10 years, maybe more than that, because time does compress. Um, I also compared the Cabaret tent as well, up until about 2 years ago. So I've done that for about, probably about 15 years or so. Um, maybe, maybe more. I don't know.

3:54Jessi It's all a bit of a haze, isn't it? Especially when you've got to add in fallow years and things like that. You're like, hold on, how many times?

4:00Ed Petrie Yeah, I had to go through all my photos on iPhoto to try and work out when I started, because it was all pretty hazy for me as well. And I started in 2004, apparently.

4:09Paddy Bramwells I, I was thinking the other day about when it was that, um, we talked about the gig and I, uh, sort of got you in contact with them. And in my head, oh, it's just a few years ago. He said in 2004. Oh, okay.

4:21Ed Petrie Yeah, nearly 20 years ago. Yeah, I did a, uh, I was doing a night that Paddy used to run in Camden called the Purple Turtle, and I just happened to be lucky enough that that night he got a text from Arabella Churchill, who ran Theatre and Circus, asking if he knew any MCs. And it was a particularly sparsely attended evening, I seem to remember. There'd been about 9 people in the crowd, so everyone who'd been on that night had had to like prove their mettle a bit and, uh, you know, were obviously capable of dealing with, uh, whatever life threw at them. So yeah, that's how I ended up. It was just serendipity really. And I ended up on a stage called— it was called the Dance and Fire stage at that time.

4:59Paddy Bramwells Yeah. And the reason why, um, I asked, uh, I put, you know, I said to Ed, oh, do you want to do it? Is because I had recommended people before in the past to them when they said, oh, do you know any other compares? And I'd got it really badly wrong because I thought, oh, anybody, you know, anybody who's got enthusiasm in their bones will be able to compare. And I'd kind of hadn't realized quite how difficult it was. And, you know, I don't want to sort of blow Ed's bubble, but he, you know, he was very— he's very obviously somebody who could cope with that. And he— you are, Ed.

5:34Ed Petrie Thank you.

5:34Paddy Bramwells The only compere that I recommended who's lasted. So well done.

5:41Ed Petrie Yeah.

5:42Paddy Bramwells Oh, everybody else I recommended just, you know, crashed and burned quite quickly because it is quite challenging.

5:47Ed Petrie Yeah, I did see one. Well, you did recommend 2 of us actually. And I did see that the other person you recommended in tears, he was actually in his tent crying on the last night. It was a particularly wet one and he just said, I hate it here and I want to go home.

6:04Jessi Amazing. I think even most of us ticket holders have had that moment. If we've been going to Glastonbury for a number of years, we had that moment where like, why am I doing this to myself? I'm covered in mud. But I think, yeah, the fact that, you know, you've come there to be employed and everything. So at least you've got one success story, Paddy, and that's in Aid. I guess 20 years is pretty, pretty impressive. Almost 20 years, but getting there. I would say, yeah, actually, Ed, so you said 2004 and then we've got 1980. What did you say, Paddy? '88 or '89. '88 or '89. I hate to depress you, but '89 was the year that I was born, so that's impressive. Been doing it all that time. Um, yeah, I, I guess my first question, my main question would be, uh, and you've sort of talked a little bit about it already by mentioning the different stage names that obviously to me are alien, having only been for 11 or 12 Glastonburys. I cannot count now. But, uh, what, what would you say the sort of main ways that it's changed? I know you mentioned Arabella Churchill, and obviously she was one of the starting people of the Theatre and Circus fields. I just wondered if you had any stories of what it was like back then and kind of the major changes to now.

7:07Paddy Bramwells I think for me, one of the biggest changes is when the whole Theatre and Circus thing started off, it was very ramshackle and it was quite small, and the quality of the acts was not always great. And that's got better and better and better over the years, and they've got really, really, really good at adding more more amazing kind of acts to Theatre and Circus. And just the size of it. I mean, it really was one field back when I started and there were about sort of, you know, maybe 2 or 3 things to watch on it. Whereas now, I, you know, and it has been for many, many years now, I think it is basically the thing that makes Glastonbury such a brilliant festival because music you can get in any festival at all. But Theatre and Circus, I think, is very, very special in that way.

8:00Ed Petrie Yeah, I totally agree. If you watch the Julian Temple Glastonbury film, about half of it is Theatre and Circus because it's so, it's so visually enriching. He just stuffed his film with, uh, walkabouts and circus acts and things.

8:15Paddy Bramwells Yeah, it is.

8:15Ed Petrie Which I was quite proud of.

8:17Paddy Bramwells Yeah. And I think the thing is, if you, you, you know, you see brilliant acts at Glastonbury in terms of music and stuff, and there are so many different music stages. But pretty much any band that you see at Glastonbury, you can see anywhere else. Pretty much everything that you see in theatre and circus, you won't see anywhere else unless you happen to go to a particular performing arts festival or, you know, a particular out-of-the-way theatre. You're just not going to see it. And also, it's— you're not going to see it in the same way as happens at Glastonbury. Glastonbury has an effect on performers and audience which is extraordinary. And when it really kicks in, you get things happening there that would not happen in any other environment. And it's— that's why I go back every year, um, for that, you know, that, um, Glastonbury moment idea, the one thing that you just go, oh, that was amazing. Oh, that's, you know, I'll sit on that for the rest of the year.

9:10Ed Petrie Yeah, there is a magic about it. Like, I, I, I'm somebody who needs their sleep normally, and somehow I can stay up until 4 in the morning and then be on stage at 11 o'clock the next day and I'm full of energy for the whole set. You know, I'll be on stage normally from about 11 in the morning till about 3:30 in the afternoon and I never flag for the whole 3 days. And I don't know where it comes from. It's just this sort of superhuman strength to power through. It's very special.

9:36Paddy Bramwells Yeah, we get fed by the audience basically, don't we? I mean, the energy you get from an audience at Glastonbury and the kind of mindset you get from an audience at Glastonbury is such good fun. Because people are there specifically to have fun. And if you grab them in the right way, they just go, right, I'm going to sit in front of you. I'm going to sit in front of you and I don't care what you do. I'm quite happy to ignore the fact that there is a massive performing arts festival happening around me and I'm going to watch your weird little stage and I'm going to sit here for 2 or 3 hours and just forget all the big acts and all that kind of thing and just go with the kind of madness that's going on here. which is just brilliant.

10:14Ed Petrie And was it always like that, Paddy? Because when I started, I started the year, I think it was the year after the fence went up, and there was lots of crusty people wandering around going, oh, it's not like the old days.

10:23Paddy Bramwells I'll tell you what, the year that the fence went up, it became, that was a weird year. It was, imagine if, the only analogy I can think of is the year that the fence went up, it's like you'd had a house and you'd had lots of people come into your house, so you'd built rooms on your house and built big things on your house and everything. Then you put a wall around your house and realized there only 3 people there. And then all the wall going up and broadband changed the nature of the festival quite a lot for a couple of years, just for a couple of years. Because the one thing about Glastonbury that's different to all the other music festivals is that Glastonbury didn't used to publish its lineup. Nobody went to Glastonbury to see a specific band. You just went to Glastonbury for Glastonbury. And then when the wall went up, And broadband happened and Radio 1 got involved. People started going there for it, for, uh, specific bands, etc., etc. And it took a couple of years to reset itself, but I think it's back to that now. I think it's, it still has that, that wonderful element of, you know, anything can and will happen. Um, I think it was possibly more back in the day, but we always think about the good old days, don't we? Oh, you know, when I used to do it, it was marvelous.

11:38Ed Petrie Yeah, that's true.

11:40Jessi Yeah, I think, um, it's definitely, you know, people are buying tickets and then they're not too bothered about the headliners, but you do get those grumpy people when the headliners are announced. And then they're the sort of people that, uh, you know, me and Miguel say this all the time, they're the sort of people that we go, you shouldn't be going. If the only thing you care about is who the festival headliners are, then you shouldn't be there. As far as I'm concerned, you don't deserve a ticket.

12:02Ed Petrie Oh, in Theatre and Circus, we look on those with pity when they're walking around with their lanyards trying to work out Just walking between the Pyramid Stage and the Other Stage for 3 days.

12:11Yeah.

12:12Ed Petrie I've had years when I, when I was there and I, and I haven't set foot near the Pyramid Stage or the Other Stage. Not, not deliberately. I've just got to the end of the weekend and gone, oh my God, I never went there because there's so much else going on.

12:24Paddy Bramwells Absolutely. I only went to the Pyramid Stage when, uh, my kids started coming to the festival and dragging me along. Um, and then, you know, they would go, oh, let's go and see this person or that person. I'd go along and stand there and go, yeah, well, right, okay, can I go now?

12:38Miguel Yeah, can I go back?

12:40Ed Petrie Back to the good bit. I know people who've never— this is genuinely true— I haven't seen him the last couple of years actually, but you might know who he is, Paddy. He used to sit on a sofa outside the beer tent in the Theatre and Circus backstage, and he'd never actually been in the main festival. He refused to get in there.

12:57Paddy Bramwells That is so that we basically, we have what's called a big place called the Green Tent, which is a bar for all theatre and circus performers. And that is our festival. And, you know, lots of us go just to hang out with your circus performers, cabaret performers, theater performers, and you go for the social.

13:18Ed Petrie Glen Tilbrook, he's always there, isn't he? Glen Tilbrook.

13:21Paddy Bramwells Yeah, Glen Tilbrook, who keeps his career going just by playing in that tent. And it's brilliant.

13:28Jessi And, you know, you can spend the entire weekend there and not actually go and see The green room you were mentioning, uh, that was the one place I wasn't allowed to get into last year. So I was— I, I've been, um, in Greenpeace's crew last year, and, and now I'm going again this year, um, uh, with a crew wristband. And I was told that the Theatre and Circus crew bar is the one that they're very strict about. You have to be one of the T&C area, you know, performers.

13:56Paddy Bramwells It's very exclusive, you know.

13:58Jessi Very exclusive. Exactly. The one place I couldn't get in, and it obviously made me want to go there more than anything.

14:04Paddy Bramwells Yeah, you know, you don't, you don't, you know, you, you need to be special to sit on those really old sofas and knackered old things and, you know, um, yeah, and kind of, you know, talk about the old days, uh, endlessly, or yourself endlessly, because that's what, uh, ill performers' topic of conversation is. That, you know, if we can talk about us, we're very, very happy. And you've got to be special to be in that union.

14:28Ed Petrie We're here right now.

14:31Paddy Bramwells Yeah, absolutely. Now, like any bar you're not allowed in, it's always a disappointment when you actually get in there and realize it is just another bar.

14:38Ed Petrie Yeah, don't tell them that.

14:41Paddy Bramwells I'm keeping them uninterested, Ed. It's double psychology. That's what it is.

14:46Jessi Amazing. You know, I'm still going to try this year. I might actually have the balls to actually go up to it because last time I didn't even try. I think this year I might attempt it and just wait to get turned away, but we'll see.

14:58Yeah.

14:59Jessi My sort of next question would be, and Ed, you sort of alluded to it in saying, you know, you get up at 11 and you, and you power through till half 3. Um, but I, I guess I wanted to hear from both of you what being a compere sort of involves. Um, yeah, we've touched on it. Uh, and it, and did you say that you just do 3 days or are you doing full 5 days? Just, just a little bit more info about what you actually do, I guess. Would be excellent.

15:25Ed Petrie I think both of us do Friday, Saturday, Sunday, don't we, Paddy? Yeah.

15:29Paddy Bramwells Yeah, so our stages aren't open on the, uh, the, the what's now become the 2 extra days. They have what's called the risers, um, uh, are on there, and that's where you get, uh, the street performers having their best 2 days now because basically the rest of the festival is shut, um, or, you know, not, not happening. Um, and so everybody pours into Theatre and Circus. But yeah, now me and Ed, we work the Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And our job is, and it's a particular Glastonbury skill, our job is to basically try and create and keep and rebuild and sustain an audience in an environment where there are a million other things to go and do. And just to try and play as much, you know, with them and come up with every year, try and come up with something else that, you know, is going to be sort of interesting and fun and mad for the audience. And when it works, it's brilliant. It's absolutely brilliant.

16:28Ed Petrie Yeah, it's basically our job is to stop people walking away. And it can be anything from a couple of minutes to 15, 20 minutes changeover. Some of the stages I've done, I've even done on one really regrettable occasion, an hour.

16:44Paddy Bramwells I've done that as well.

16:46Ed Petrie Yeah. Yeah, that was, that was tough. I'm not gonna lie.

16:49Paddy Bramwells I was lucky the first time I had to do a really long stint like that was in the early days when audiences were much more prone to going, all right, we'll just sit here. Because in the early days, everybody in your audience pretty much was smoking a spliff and they were very happy to just go, right, I'm here, I'm skinning up. I think I'll just stay where I am and I'll just watch you and we'll see what happens. Yeah, it's harder now.

17:19Ed Petrie Also, I'm physically incapable of going anywhere else.

17:22Paddy Bramwells Yeah, I used to have this routine where I referred to Glastonbury's unofficial name because, you know, the official name is the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. And I said, you know, in reality, it's the Glastonbury Festival of Different Things to Sit Down and Skin Up in Front Of. And that's just how people plan their day. You know, they go, all right, I think it was Bliff. Oh, I'll sit down in front of this. And that was that, you know, for the next 2 hours. Um, and it used to be— nowadays it's harder to keep them. It is because there is so much going on. Um, yeah, and it can be very hard work, but it's joyful. It really is.

17:55Ed Petrie Yeah, I think of the, um, my incident where I had, had to fill for an hour and I had a really full field as well. And I kept— I managed to keep most people there for at least half an hour and then they all started to drift off. By the end there was just 2 people left sitting in the middle and Cordless mic. I was able to walk up to them and go, why are you still here? And they both said, oh, we're on mushrooms, we can't move.

18:18Jessi Amazing.

18:21Paddy Bramwells Yeah, I think my wife actually watched part of that. Um, was that your badger?

18:26Ed Petrie Um, uh, oh, that was it. Yeah, that was a rat. Well, that was the— I think that was the probably the year I invented my Glastonbury animal game where—

18:32Jessi Which is? Come on.

18:33Ed Petrie Yeah, I just get people to pit different animals against each other and And I just, and I always say, we all know the rules, don't we? And everyone goes, yeah, obviously there are no rules. But yeah, and then that was, uh, yeah, weirdly I ended up, I ended up with a field. I was, I was doing the evening shift that time and, um, and the whole field was full of people. I don't know where they came from and they were all screaming the word badger, having the time of their lives. And I just didn't understand what was going on, but I rolled with it. And then I brought on the act, the act came off and then they were all still there screaming badger. That was probably my Glastonbury highlight.

19:09Paddy Bramwells That's the thing that can only happen at Glastonbury where the audience take over in that way. I mean, I've got a favorite one which was where the audience have decided that basically what's happening is more important than reality. We had one year at the Outside Circus stage where our seating had been condemned. So we had— I don't know what was wrong with it, but they took it away. Either very early on the Friday or before we even started. So we had literally just, we had no bleacher seating, it was just flat there. And I used to do a thing where I hid in the audience and did people's voices as they were walking past. And this one particular year, I challenged myself to try and do a voice in somebody's head and then get them to go onto stage and perform. And so basically, I was hidden in the audience, I picked this guy who was walking past, and I used to sort of describe the way they looked so they would suddenly hear them being described and they'd realized it was them. And I came up with this idea that this guy, I said, put this voice into his head going, I am the spirit of the Outside Circus stage, blah, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, I said, oh, if I walk towards the stage, the audience will go mad. And the audience are really into this and they go absolutely insane with applause. He gets up on stage and I'm about to try and get him to do something. And one of the stage managers, a guy called Big Will, called that because he's big and his name is Will. We're very imaginative back there. He comes up to me and he goes, Paddy, Paddy, Paddy, an ambulance needs to get past and the audience is blocking the ambulance. Because it was a beautiful, lovely big audience that day. And so instead of me going, all right everybody, we gotta move in, you know, because I'm a bit of a dick, I went in his voice, oh, because I'm the voice of the outside circus stage, I know an ambulance needs to go past. So when I raise my arms, you're all gonna stand up and when I beckon you in, you're all gonna move forward. And then you're going to sit down again and the ambulance can go back, can go past. Everybody in the audience got what I was trying to do apart from the guy who was on the stage and he looked really blankly. So I repeated it. He still looked really blank and the audience is shouting in, raise your arms, raise your arms. None of them are standing up. None of them are getting out of the way of the ambulance because they can't do it until he raises his arms. There is somebody dying in the back of this ambulance, but no, we have created the theatrical thing and it must carry on. And they yelled at him and yelled at him until he realized, and then they followed his signals, stood up, moved in, and sat back down again so the ambulance could get past. And I thought, that is just brilliant. I, you know, by then I was in no control of it whatsoever. The audience had completely taken over.

21:40Ed Petrie Yeah, those are the best moments when the audience are creating their own little world.

21:47Paddy Bramwells Yeah, that's fantastic.

21:48Jessi I think like, I I was going to say that I, I feel like what you mentioned right at the beginning was that, you know, the artists that play at Glastonbury, yes, okay, there might be someone that hasn't played in a while and, oh, it's exciting, but you're right, they could be playing any field, any arena, anything like that. There is something special about Glastonbury, but, you know, you can see a musician anywhere. I think for me, the, the moments that I remember over the years from Glastonbury. And it's those mad things that, you know, 6 months later you'll be at a dinner party and somebody'll be like, so what's Glastonbury like? You'll be like, do you know what, I was walking through this field and some seagulls like chased me, and then I ran into a tent, and then they pinned me to the ground and started shouting that I was a chip. It, it's, it's, it's the stuff that happens in T&C that are those little things that you say to people afterwards and they go, what? And you go, yeah, Glastonbury's a bit mad, you know.

22:43Ed Petrie And those— And that is In case anyone hasn't been to Theatre and Circus area, that is a genuine thing that happens.

22:48Jessi Yes, that is. I haven't been chased myself, but I've seen the seagulls like literally pick on someone and run away.

22:55Ed Petrie Maybe we should explain what the walkabouts are because they are, they're, they're a big part of Glastonbury. They're always in the, in photographs, in newspapers and things like that. No one ever, no one ever really seems to explain where they come from.

23:06Paddy Bramwells Yeah, they are, they are brilliant. The walkabouts have really, really, uh, developed since I first started. When, when I first started, you had Uh, possibly 2 good walkabout acts. One was an emu, which was a guy literally in a big shaggy costume who was bent double with his arm stuck out from the top as the neck, and he would walk around being led by somebody else. Um, but most of the walkabouts in those days were just sort of people wandering about in a vague bit of costume, um, which they'd put together to get a ticket for the festival. But over the years, uh, we got people like the Natural Theatre Company, The Seagulls, the Tea Ladies who have been at Glastonbury for years and years and years. And these are people in a particular character. They're normally in a group. Sometimes you just get them in pairs and they walk about in a totally different reality to the one that you are in. And then what they do is they force you to become part of their reality and they are brilliant.

24:03Ed Petrie Yeah, I'm a big fan of the Masters of the Kazooniverse who are a marching kazoo band. Who started the year after me. And they were a bit like Paddy just said, some of them were actually friends that I went to university with. And I think they might have seen me comping the year before and wanted to get in on it. So they pitched themselves as a marching kazoo band, bought loads of like big band outfits from Nashville, I think it was. And they just play pop hits on the kazoo. And they've got on Radio 1.

24:33Paddy Bramwells The BBC.

24:35Ed Petrie Won TV coverage every year. I'm like, I don't believe this. You're doing Eurovision tonight. Genuinely, they are like, how, how, how has this happened?

24:47Jessi Amazing.

24:48Ed Petrie The power of the walkabout.

24:48Paddy Bramwells Yeah, they are fantastic.

24:50Jessi That sounds like they were some of the guys sitting down, skinning up and chatting and going like, do you know what we should do? Start a kazoo band.

24:56Ed Petrie Exactly. Well, that's the magic. You can, you know, if you have a good enough idea, you can, you can get in on it.

25:02Paddy Bramwells And also, it doesn't even have to be that good an idea, as long as you come up with an idea which is just ridiculous and then go, right, yeah, let's just actually, let's go for it fully. It can work really, really well. And there's been some brilliant ones over the years, just some really, really strange things. And that's what one of the things I love about Theatre and Circus is you get performers doing things at Glastonbury that they wouldn't do anywhere else because You know, if we start talking about street performers there, what they do is very, very— that's what they do for a living. And what they do is controlled by the fact that it has to have a result in that they will have to get paid for what they do by an audience, by a festival, etc., etc. Whereas at Glastonbury, there is an element where you are allowed to fail gloriously. And so you get people creating things that they don't do outside Glastonbury because nowhere apart from Glastonbury will it work. I can remember years ago seeing a performer juggling with one ball and guttering taped to various parts of his body, and basically he rolled the ball through the guttering around his body, and I was transfixed, wetting myself with laughter every day when I watched him on the Outside Circus stage. I haven't seen him before or since. He was just— nobody could explain, you know, what was— what the point was or what— I can't even remember what the finale was. It was just a man with guttering on his body. It was fantastic.

26:33Ed Petrie I've heard, I've heard of a walkabout and I, I still, I still don't know whether it's an urban myth, but I've heard about a guy and he's employed just to walk around and try not to slip on a banana. He has a banana skin, he puts it on the ground, and then he says, he says to the people standing around, oh, I better, I better make sure I don't slip over on that banana skin. And Builds it up as this big thing and then walks towards it, doesn't slip on it, and then everyone around just spontaneously applauds.

26:57Paddy Bramwells I, I think that sounds familiar. Um, it might have just been a bloke one year just doing that.

27:04Jessi Yeah, it sounds like you basically need 100% commitment. You think of an idea, even if it's a shit idea, you go, you know what, I'm going to commit to this 100%, uh, and it will, and it will land at Glastonbury where it might not land somewhere else.

27:20Paddy Bramwells Yeah, absolutely. And that's the great thing, that the, the brilliant, brilliant thing, uh, about Glastonbury is you have a relationship with the audience which you don't have anywhere else. In, in any other performing, uh, uh, venue or idea, the audience comes with an expectation and they go, right, you must entertain me now. That doesn't mean that audiences are horrible, but they just go, right, you're going to entertain me and I, I've got an expectation of the way you should entertain me. At Glastonbury, people go, oh, look at that! Oh, that'll do. Let's watch that thing. What is it? I don't know. It's a woman dancing in a cage on top of a crepe van. That'll do. I'm going to watch that now. And it's brilliant in that way. And it all comes down to the original vision of Arabella Churchill all those years ago, just kind of going, let's put on something that is incredible and different and weird. And not have that kind of commercial, I don't know, contraction of going, right, we're only going to book things which are utterly brilliant. Now, that doesn't mean that they book rubbish. They book brilliant, brilliant things. But there is that beautiful element of freedom within it where it's just like, yeah, come and have fun, come and do something wonderful. And the audience are just like, yeah, we'll watch that. That's fine.

28:40Ed Petrie Yeah, it's quite, um, is it, is it, am I right in thinking that it was, it was Arabella who set up the second festival and it was basically the Theatre and Circus?

28:50Paddy Bramwells Yeah, so basically what happened is Michael Eavis, um, having, I think he got in, he, he sneaked into, it was either a folk festival in France or in England. I could never, the story seemed to change. He thought, oh, that's a brilliant idea. I could, I could make money on my farm. So he did the very first one. And lost, uh, lost the money. Uh, T-Rex were literally paid by the cows, um, on a monthly basis after the festival. They literally paid T-Rex because he said, look, I haven't got any money left, guys. I didn't know you had to actually rent speakers for a festival. And it was when Arabella Churchill and— oh, I forget the other guy's name, it's really annoying. Um, she had basically come into her inheritance And because she reacted against her own upbringing, which was this very, very kind of conservative, she was one of the Churchills, she wanted to do something different with the money. So they went to Michael Eavis and said, if you do Glastonbury for charity, we will fund it. And so the second festival, which happened, I think happened 2 or 3 years after the very first one, was basically, right, we will, you know, it was still a pop festival, but it was, right, we're going to have a big sort of theater or circus area in it. And that's why that's been carried on so big ever since. And if you know, we've got the Arabella Bridge, you know, which is like the permanent memorial to her there. And everything that happens there is because of her original vision and her ongoing push because she was absolutely amazing. You could tell she was a Churchill even though she was married to a hippie. I used to, in the old days, you had to send a letter. She would ring me up and she'd go, are you coming? Right, send me a letter. You're like, all right then. All right. And every now and again, I'd ask for a pay rise and I kid you not, I would write the letter and I would say, this year my fee is, and I would leave a gap And it would take me 2 or 3 days to get the courage to add the figure that I want to pay, which is usually about £15 more than the year before because she was such a powerful woman. And literally on her deathbed, she was basically telling people to fuck off if people were coming to her with unreasonable demands. She was still organizing the festival.

31:17Jessi Yeah.

31:18Paddy Bramwells Just a fantastic, fantastic woman. Absolutely brilliant. We all owe her so much. We really do. And the whole festival culture in this country owes her so much because if you look at all festivals nowadays, they all try to be a version of Glastonbury and they all try to be the version of Glastonbury, which is the slightly alternative hippie performer side. And that all comes from her.

31:44Jessi I still find it mad. You know, I've, I've read obviously a lot about it and then just hearing you speaking about her there, Paddy. Like, I, I still find it mad, the fact that you say she was still definitely a Churchill, do you know what I mean? Oh God, yeah. This, this sort of— it's in my brain, it like does not compute, you know? Like hippie theater, like, you know, madness versus, you know, strict, bossy conservative, get shit done. That's what I mean. It's crazy, isn't it?

32:13Paddy Bramwells Yeah. The thing I always loved about Bella, I mean, she terrified me and I loved her in the, you know, equal amounts. Is that, um, you know, that if she was putting on an event and the venue that she was putting on the event burnt down, she wouldn't see that as a problem. She'd just see that as an opportunity to put the event on next to the burnt-out venue. She had that kind of force of personality and character to her. She was brilliant.

32:37Ed Petrie There's still a big picture of her in the office, isn't there? When you get into the, go into the porter cabin, her spirit still looms large. Yeah, and her husband Haggis, who was genuinely a juggler, who I think she met at the festival, didn't she?

32:50Paddy Bramwells Yeah, she did.

32:51Ed Petrie Yeah, yeah, yes. He still, he still runs T&C now, and he, and he, and he's, he's kept it all, uh, he kept the spirit alive.

32:56Paddy Bramwells Yeah, he— oh yeah, he— I mean, bless him, you know, he works his, his absolute arse off to make sure it is brilliant every single year. But yeah, no, I remember when we had her memorial, they, uh, in, um, Glastonbury Town Hall, they took— you know, in all town halls there used to be a picture of the Queen. There'll be a picture of the King now, but they replaced the picture of the Queen with the picture of, of Arabella that's in the office, which I thought was really fun. Yes, she is our queen.

33:20Jessi Amazing. What was her husband's name? Sorry, Ed, I think there was like— I didn't quite hear it. Haggis. Okay, cool. And he was a juggler?

33:28Paddy Bramwells Yeah, he still is.

33:30Yeah.

33:30Jessi Still is?

33:30Ed Petrie That's incredible. You'll see him zipping about on a Segway on the Wednesday and the Thursday as they're setting up the festival. That'd be Haggis.

33:39Jessi Right, I'm gonna come and have a look, I reckon. I'll see if I can spot him. That's That's wicked, and he's still involved as well. That's amazing. Yeah, I love, I love hearing all this.

33:47Paddy Bramwells Yeah, there's the, the great thing about, uh, uh, Glastonbury for me, and it comes from sort of Bella Down and Haggis, is, uh, not just the fact that the festival is brilliant. This fact that the reason why the festival is brilliant is the, um, stage managers that we work with, the backstage crew at Glastonbury. And this goes to pretty much any stage, especially in theatre and circus, are just the most amazing, capable, patient, fun-loving people. They are quite incredible. And occasionally you kind of, you have to remind performers that they should actually be really, really nice and polite to these people because the reason why it's brilliant and the reason why we have such a good time and the reason why for us the festival is great fun is because of the work that they all put into it because it is It's amazing how hard they work. You know, we, we, me and Ed kind of go, oh, we've done it, you know, 4 hours. Oh, we're tired. They're on like 12-hour shifts and things, you know what I mean? And they are brilliant.

34:48Ed Petrie Oh yeah. No, the hours they put in are absolutely incredible, but they still, but they still manage to, um, they still manage to get up to places like Shangri-La and tell you what's been going up there at 5 in the morning.

34:57Paddy Bramwells Yeah. Oh, they can party, those people.

35:00Jessi Yeah. 12-hour shift followed by 6 hours of party followed by 5 hours of sleep. Go again.

35:06Paddy Bramwells Yes. Oh, they are, they are Quite, um, they are quite astounding in the energy they put into both, um, yeah, working and having fun. But their work—

35:17Ed Petrie oh, sorry, I talked to—

35:18Paddy Bramwells I'll just say their work never slacks, do you know what I mean?

35:21Ed Petrie And then if you want to see that, because, because, because Theatre and Circus, I always think, is the best place to be late morning, early afternoon, there's so much going on. But it's also worth getting there at night because they, they have a tradition of having these amazing fire shows. So not, not only are they having to deal with all the acts during the day, the crew are then, they've then got people whirling paraffin around their heads and stuff in the fields. Um, there's like giant grasshoppers with fire shooting out of them. Um, it's, uh, it's, it's really worth checking out.

35:52Paddy Bramwells Yeah, I remember one of the early fire shows, which, oh, I can't remember, there was a heavy metal juggling kind of act and I can't remember their name. And years ago they did the late night fire show as this kind of gothic opera, heavy metal gothic opera, which was both startlingly visual and brilliant and also cringeworthy. It was so written in a kind of heavy rock overdramatic melodramatic way that you had this incredible visual stuff and then some of the worst writing you've ever heard. Amplified massively over the top. So your brain was having to cope with something brilliant to watch while also something awful to listen to at the same time. Oh, it was fantastic. But now they just, they, they go, there's a big spider, we'll set fire to that. That'll work.

36:45Ed Petrie Also, I'm amazed that I've never seen any, anything that wasn't supposed to be on fire on fire.

36:51Paddy Bramwells No.

36:52Ed Petrie I've never seen an accident.

36:53Jessi I, I was gonna say, this sounds like The health and safety nightmare.

36:57Ed Petrie You would think so, wouldn't you?

36:59Jessi People flying around doing trapeze during the day, and then in the evening it's, right, let's get the paraffin out, you know?

37:06Paddy Bramwells Yeah. Oh, it is. It's weird little things like that where you, when you're queuing up to get your wristband backstage at ours, you have all the acrobats and people who do really dangerous things going, I can't wear a wristband. I cannot have something on my sleeve. I will die if I have something on my wrist. I need to put it on a belt or something like that. You know, there's all these weird There's, you know, me and Ed stand there and we talk and we talk, you know, whatever comes into our tiny little heads. And we, you know, we do that for hours on end. And then you get the opposite end of the spectrum where you've got highly trained, highly skilled people doing incredibly dangerous things. And us just going, oh, look, hello everybody, come look at me. I'm going to stand here for a while.

37:51Ed Petrie Yeah, some of the acts have very little respect for me.

37:54Jessi I guess that's part of the job though. That's kind of, it's kind of what you're signing up for is like, yeah, I'm here to introduce you and get people interested. But actually, yeah, brilliant.

38:06Paddy Bramwells I once, so I once had, uh, there was a guy who did a strongman act, um, who, oh my God, he was brilliantly awful. And at the, on the 3rd day, he, if I heard right, he said, I have been practicing talking like what the compère does.

38:21Jessi Erasic.

38:22Paddy Bramwells That was my inspiration.

38:23Ed Petrie Also, another thing I love about the stages I've done, so, because the, the ones I've done have had different names over the years. So it started off as the Dance and Fire stage, then it was the Saddleback stage, then it was a Summerhouse stage. And it was always a weird eclectic mix of different things. So we had contemporary dance and like live art going on with people painting pictures upside down and spinning them around and stuff. And one of the things I used to love was just watching the physical deterioration of some of the acts throughout the weekend. We'd have breakdancers who On Friday, we're just completely blowing everyone away. And then after, you know, having done about 15 breakdance sessions in various places around the site, by the last day, they all had strapped up ankles. They could barely stand. So, uh, yeah, I always enjoy pointing that out to people, people before and afterwards.

39:09Paddy Bramwells Yeah, there's also the, especially back in the '80s and stuff where a lot of the performers were having the same kind of party as the punters. Is that the effect on the Sunday when basically they've just come from partying all night long and they're about to do a 40-minute juggling act where they can hardly see their hands, let alone make them work. That has always been hilarious. I did have a very good juggler, brilliant, brilliant juggler who used to end his show by juggling on a freestanding ladder. For anyone who doesn't know what that is, it's literally a ladder. And you have to climb up that the ladder isn't balancing against anything. You balance the ladder.

39:50Jessi I've seen this.

39:50Paddy Bramwells Yes. Well, he actually forgot his finale. He literally came on stage with the ladder, did everything up to the ladder, got a massive round of applause just before he was going to do his finale, picked up the ladder and walked off stage.

40:05Ed Petrie So they say security, it's just my security ladder.

40:11Jessi Yeah.

40:11Ed Petrie Security plank here. Just take care of it, Rogan.

40:14Paddy Bramwells It was fantastic. Yeah, and you know, I don't want to mention names, but there was a very famous juggler who goes all over the world, and watching him on a Sunday sweating copiously, literally everything that he'd imbibed over the weekend was pouring out of his skin as he was desperately, desperately trying to hold his show together, was just a joy to watch, absolute joy to watch.

40:38Ed Petrie Have you ever, because I normally make a point of paying a little pilgrimage to Paddy, to his stage, to Thank him for getting me in all those years ago. And, um, has there ever been a Sunday where, where both of us haven't nearly lost our voice?

40:53Paddy Bramwells Oh God, no. It's just by the end of the weekend, I am a wreck. And as I get older, I am more of a wreck. You know, when I first started, you know, performing at Glastonbury, I was in my 20s. I was young, I was energetic, you know, oh, just I had the energy of an atomic power station. Now I have the energy of an old man. And by Sunday it is just a croaky bloke, you know, going, hello everybody. Yeah, yeah, it is.

41:26Ed Petrie Yeah, because that's what happened to me as well, because you have, because obviously you've got all the, all the comp airing, but then also just all the involuntary shouting you do at other acts to cheering them on and things.

41:38Paddy Bramwells And just the constant talking to everybody because, you know, as I said, it's a massive social event for performers, Glastonbury. It is the biggest social event of the year. You know, there are— you will meet people at Glastonbury that you only see at Glastonbury just because of the nature of your sort of performing life. And especially for me because I, you know, sort of semi-retired from performing now. You know, there's very little I do now. I teach theatre nowadays, And so for me, it's just like, hello mate, hello mate, hello mate, hello mate. And that just goes on for, you know, 4 days. And at the end of it, you wonder why you can't actually talk. And then I have to go, you know, sort of, you know, drive home on the Sunday evening and then start, on the Monday rather, sorry, and then start teaching again on Tuesday to students who are looking at me going, why doesn't he seem to know what he's talking about anymore? It's brilliant.

42:26Ed Petrie I bet they're asking for their tuition fees back that week.

42:31Jessi Yeah, I think most people who, you know, who don't book the Tuesday off, which I, I now have to, you know, speaking of age, like, I know I'm not that old, but like, I used to be able to get home on the Monday sort of by lunchtime, sleep it off in the afternoon, go to work on Tuesday, and nobody would know any different. But now, honestly, I, I like work from home is a blessing because on the Tuesday and the Wednesday I look like death and As you were just saying, sound like I can't, there's no, for me, if I get to the Saturday of Glastonbury and I'm still making noise, like if people can still understand what I'm saying when I'm talking, then that's a, that's an anomaly. I don't know what it is with me, but I lose my voice every single time. I do a lot of chatting, but luckily it isn't my job. So, well, amazing. I'm loving all these stories that you both have of Various, you know, acts that you've had or things that you've seen, things like that. But I guess my question is, have you had any like particularly disastrous moments over the years? Has anything gone completely wrong?

43:36Ed Petrie Well, I had, I had a fellow competitor. So there was 2 of us doing the stage. And it was in the day when, when the stage I was doing, it was called the Saddleback Stage. And it ran from 11 in the morning till 1 in the morning. So 14 hours. And my compère, who was a guy who just started that weekend, he just disappeared. He just decided he'd rather be at the Pyramid Stage or something. And so I had to do a 14-hour shift.

44:01Wow.

44:02Ed Petrie Oh yeah, that's, um, yeah, which was pretty hard going. But I think that was the bad— that was the Badger year. So I sort of, uh, I hit like a low point around 6, 7 o'clock in the evening, and then, and then, and then, then my second gear kicked in. And I remember I had a really great night, probably one of my favorite, favorite times on the stage.

44:21Paddy Bramwells I think for me, I'm trying to think of an absolute disaster. Um, there was a— there was one year where I decided that I was going to only do brand new material because I had material that had grown up over years of Glastonbury and it was specific to Glastonbury. And I decided one year I was gonna ditch all that. I was going to get creative again and I was only going to do new material. Don't do that.

44:49Ed Petrie Have you mania?

44:50Paddy Bramwells I know. Well, I'd never again because that year I did my first new gag just before, uh, uh, um, bringing onto stage the last act on the Sunday. And I had been completely dull for the whole of Friday and Saturday. And most of Sunday until I discovered one new gag literally on my last bit of speaking of the festival. And it was like, right, I am never going to do that again. I'm getting all the old stuff back out the bag.

45:20Ed Petrie Because I've got stuff I just do at Glastonbury. I don't do it anywhere else. So I tell myself it's tradition.

45:27Paddy Bramwells Yes. Oh yeah. Well, I've never made that mistake again. It was, it was just, uh, it was just insane. Um, although last year I did come up with a brand new routine, which is lovely, and I'm going to do that again. It's all to do with all using tennis balls and things, which considering that I am not a prop performer, um, it was the most props I've ever bought in my entire, you know, 30-odd years or 40 years of performing. So yeah, that was cool. But yeah, no, I can't think of, I can't think of disasters. I know we've had—

45:55Ed Petrie What about, do you, um, I remember that I used to get quite a few naked people walking through.

45:59Paddy Bramwells Oh, oh, hang on. Oh yeah, sorry, I did have a several years running disaster, which was in the early days of the Outside Circus stage, we used to get a bunch of kids who would plonk themselves in front of the stage on the Friday and spend the entire festival there. And the way our stage is—

46:19Ed Petrie I remember them.

46:20Paddy Bramwells Yeah, I remember them in my day.

46:22Ed Petrie They did do that.

46:23Paddy Bramwells Yeah, they're horrible. And the lineup of the stage is the same every day. So by the second day, they knew everybody's punchlines. And by the 3rd day, they're doing everybody's punchlines. And in those days, the stage was quite low as well. So if a juggler put all their equipment out, these kids would climb onto the stage and throw the juggler's equipment around. And they were absolutely vile. By Sunday, they would make performing on the outside circus stage quite depressing at times until we had a wet year. Uh, where we couldn't perform at all. It literally, the whole weekend was, uh, rained off on our stage. And they all came back the following year, but they'd all grown up a year and realized they weren't interested anymore and left. And it was just one of the loveliest sights I've ever seen, seeing these kids kind of arrive and go, ah, no, can't be arsed. Let's go and steal some things instead.

47:22Ed Petrie That's another thing I've always always really enjoyed about theatre and circus is you're allowed to be so rude to the children. Everyone loves it. The children seem to love it as well. And the Kidzfield is just up at the back. So you get a lot of families hanging out. And, um, yeah, I've always, uh, I play competitions and things with the audience. I never let the children win.

47:42Paddy Bramwells Yeah, I think that's brilliant.

47:45Ed Petrie Make it a point of principle.

47:47Paddy Bramwells Not many places you can do that.

47:49Jessi You're learning lessons with me. No winning here. 'Cause you're a kid.

47:53Ed Petrie Yeah, I'm an adult. I'm better than you. Yeah.

47:56Paddy Bramwells I once, I think it's possibly my proudest moment on the Outside Circus stage. I once caused a Harry Potter riot where, and it's still, yeah, exactly. Just those words, a Harry Potter riot. So it was the year that one of the Harry Potter books was coming out the weekend of Glastonbury, and the rumor was that a character gets killed in the book. And it was the one where one of the characters, one of the slightly minor characters dies in that— Oh, Goblet of Fire.

48:25Ed Petrie That's it.

48:27Paddy Bramwells That's it. Goblet of Fire. And this year we had this particular group of very lovely middle-class children in front of the stage whose mums and dads had told them how special they were all their lives and nobody had ever told them to shut up. And they'd taken it upon themselves that They needed to talk to me and the acts in, you know, and tell us what we were— what was wrong with us. And so I just said to them, look, if you carry on doing this, I said, I have read the Harry Potter book because, you know, I'm in the industry. Yeah. Like, yeah, you know, um, I know who dies and I'll say who dies. And they were like, oh, they carried on talking at me. So I said, right, uh, this is what's gonna happen. You are gonna get home, you're gonna read the book. Hermione dies and it's Ron that kills her. And I kid you not, we had 30 Jemimas and whatever throwing everything they could find at me onto the stage. I mean, literally, there was no litter left in front of that stage. It was all on me or on the stage. There were children being led away in tears. One of my friends said she heard this mum going, I think he was joking, lovely. I think he was joking. Don't worry, it'll be all right. The stage crew had to come on and sweep the entire stage because we had the, um, uh, the Black Eagles, who were a fantastic African acrobat group we used to go all the time. They were coming on next and it would have been literally life-threatening for them to be on that stage. Oh, it's brilliant.

50:02Ed Petrie If you've seen Julian Temple's Glastonbury film with the, with the riot, with the, the police being thrown around the place, that's, uh, it all started there, the Harry Potter riot.

50:15Jessi Amazing. I just, yeah, I'm just imagining all these like Tarquins and as you say Beatrices and whatever. Yes.

50:22Paddy Bramwells They were so upset with me. They were so upset. Bless them.

50:26Jessi Fantastic. I've got a few more questions for you. Um, and this sort of leads on from, well, lots of things that you said, but you've talked about some of the memorable acts that you've had on your stage, but is there any others that you'd like to mention? Any other you know, unique things that you've had on your stage that have really stuck out to you?

50:46Paddy Bramwells I mean, that's tricky. There's been so many, um, for me. As I said, the, the, the, the, the man juggling with guttering, uh, was glorious. I mean, on my stage, um, the Outside Circus stage, it's populated by, uh, mainly street performers. So the thing is, you get every single one of those performers are in incredibly good at what they do because they have honed their skills over the years working streets all over the world. And so they're very, very, very good at what they do. So, you know, I could name hundreds of them that are brilliant. It's more of a case, I think, of, you know, we've had some amazing aerial acts that have been attached to our stage and, you know, by our stage. I think it's more a case of of things that have happened to performers that are out of the ordinary. I can remember, um, there's a brilliant performer called Great Dave who's, uh, a juggler, uh, does a high unicycle act. And one particular year he had his unicycle in his car over the weekend, and it was a very, very hot Glastonbury. And his— what he hadn't realized was that his— the tire on his unicycle was melting in the back of his car. And he had got to the finale of his show and he was on this 8-foot unicycle. Oh my God. And he's juggling. And I noticed that none of the audience are looking at him juggle. They're all looking at the bottom of his unicycle, every single one of them. And I looked and basically you could see the inner tube coming out of the bottom of his unicycle like a big growth.

52:18Ed Petrie Yes.

52:19Paddy Bramwells Just growing and growing. And the whole audience, he's up there, you know, he's juggling 5 clubs, 8 foot in the air, you know, this is, and nobody's watching. And you just saw him notice, look down, and then this thing burst. And you just saw this guy just topple sideways off. It was brilliant. Not for Dave, you know, it was a dangerous moment, but we did laugh. It was lovely.

52:42Ed Petrie Yeah, I'm, I'm, uh, so my favorite act on my stage, um, so my, my stage isn't going to be there this year. I'm going to, I'm actually going to be, because they very kindly said to me years ago that I had a job for life. So I'm going to be in the circus big top comparing this year. But on the Summerhouse stage, we used to have an act called Liquido, Lord of the Lobsters.

53:02Paddy Bramwells Amazing.

53:03Ed Petrie And he was, he sort of, he's like a sort of cult figure and he sings kind of calypso songs and pretends to be a lobster. And over the years, people from Glastonbury, they come from all around with lobster hats and people turn up especially just to see him. And no one's ever quite sure whether he's taking it seriously or not. And even I've had many chats with him backstage. He's a lovely fella. And I just can't tell. He's got an— he's got a manager who follows him around all the time.

53:31Paddy Bramwells Yep.

53:31Ed Petrie And, uh, never— I've just never been able to work out whether it's ironic or not. And then— and I just love it for that. He's like an endless puzzle to me.

53:38Paddy Bramwells That is his life. He is the lobster.

53:40Jessi That is his whole life. I, I, I think I've— I don't think I've seen him at Glastonbury, but I think— so I run a, a Facebook group as well that's like about UK festivals, um, and I remember, I remember somebody posting his videos about, yeah, Lord of the Lobsters.

54:00Ed Petrie Yeah, Lakito, Lord of the Lobsters. You have to track him down, see if you try and find him this year. You will not have seen an act like it.

54:07Jessi Okay, I think I've seen— because I'm sure I've seen these YouTube videos of him talking, and same, I was like, is he— is, is this serious? I don't understand. Okay, right, if he's there this year, I'm gonna come watch that.

54:17Ed Petrie And what's it—

54:18Jessi what's—

54:18Ed Petrie where's— when you get out in the crowd, because I get out in the crowd and I start doing all the dancing, and, and I'm not sure how many of crowd are doing it ironically either. I think it might, I think it might be a genuine cult. I think in 10 years' time he might have taken over the country.

54:30Paddy Bramwells Yeah, people do turn up, don't they, with claws. They have the big, um, sponge claws on their hands, um, which they've obviously brought to Glastonbury with them.

54:38Ed Petrie Yeah, especially for him. And you got to think carefully when you pack for Glastonbury, you know, you got to be very selective about what you bring.

54:43Paddy Bramwells Yeah, it's brilliant.

54:45Jessi I do think that sometimes, like, when I see people wearing things walking around the site, I'm like, you Carried that for— I know how long you've carried that, you know, probably what is the best part of like 1.5 to 2 miles while carrying loads of other things. It's always very impressive to me.

55:00Ed Petrie Like, what do I need, shoes or a lobster hat?

55:02Jessi Yeah, what's more important?

55:05Paddy Bramwells Yeah, I have to admit, I mean, that's the, you know, the— we don't have many luxuries. Obviously we have the green room bar, which you're not allowed into because it's, you know, You're not special enough.

55:16Ed Petrie It's good in there.

55:18Paddy Bramwells It's amazing. The one luxury we do have is that we get to park relatively near to where we're camping. So, you know, we don't have that massive great, you know, and also the performance campsite is, there's only 12 tents on your, you know, just outside the front door of yours rather than the thousands. So, you know, it is as packed as the punters camping, but it is just slightly more luxurious in that way. So that I could not come to Glastonbury as a punter and go through all that work before and after the festival just to kind of get myself settled, you know. No, it just seems like—

56:01Ed Petrie Yeah, I've never actually experienced that because I've only ever worked at the festival. It was— I'd never actually even been to a festival until you got me in there.

56:07Paddy Bramwells Well, I came to Glastonbury in 1985 as a punter. And in those days, you literally, you parked at the top above the pyramid next to the farm and walked maybe 20 yards to where you camped, you know, and that was enough. And that was the first big wet one as well. So that was, yeah, I actually spent a lot of the time sat in my car in 1985 with my mate watching the rain hitting the windscreen of the car, just listening to Radio Avalon. But yeah, it's, you know, nowadays, you know, you're parking Um, it's like, um, Ryanair, you know, you're actually not in Glastonbury when you park your car, are you?

56:46Jessi Yeah, we talk a lot about that on the podcast because, yeah, both me and Miguel have been doing it as punters for, well, I think Miguel was about 7 or 8 Glastonburys and I'm a few more than that. And, you know, we've done the set off from London at midnight, arrive on site at 4 AM, wait until gates open at 8, lug your stuff in. And I like to take the kitchen sink as well. I've done that many, many a time, but I had my first experience last year of driving my campervan into Greenpeace crew. So it was, oh no. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I understand the, the, the crew luxuries now. That does, does make a hell of a difference not having to do those back and forth. So, so yeah, there's like, 1985 sounds interesting.

57:25Paddy Bramwells It was very, very different. It was, yeah, there were 2 stages, uh, then as far as I remember, um, and enormous amounts of mud. And basically you just watched— you were just at the Pyramid Stage. That's pretty much it for the whole festival.

57:38Jessi Great. Um, well, thank you both. Honestly, this chat, I could probably talk about this with you for hours. Um, but I would sort of like to wrap this up with, you know, there are a lot of people who go to Glastonbury and somehow the only experience they have of T&C is walking through at 11 PM on the way to the Southeast Corner, and they go, oh wait, hold on a minute, there's some stuff here, maybe I should come back here. Um, and, you know, they forget, or this, that, and the other. I, I guess I'm trying to ask you to help me sell the theatre and circus field to any listeners. Um, the, the, the first question would be like, what are the best bits of the field that people might not know about? So rather than, you know, the Big Top and things like that, is, are there any like little bits that are unmissable to you?

58:24Paddy Bramwells Well, that's tricky because the, uh, I mean, the Big Top is amazing. And outside Circus Stage is brilliant. And, you know, people who come can see both me and Ed because we're obviously the best things. Um, you know, forget everything else, you just want to see blokes talking. Um, but it's just the whole—

58:40Ed Petrie White, white, white blokes.

58:42Paddy Bramwells Yeah, white blokes talking.

58:43Ed Petrie White middle-class blokes.

58:44Jessi That should be the name of your next act, White Blokes Talking.

58:49Paddy Bramwells Um, it is, uh, I think just, just the whole experience of it is so outside your experience. You will have more fun and do things differently there than you will anywhere else. And yes, you know, pick 2 bands a day, go and watch maybe, you know, 2 bands a day and the rest of the time, get rid of your program and just wander about and see what happens. I do, I feel really sorry for people who timetable their Glastonbury festivals. You know, they are missing the point.

59:25Ed Petrie Do not, do not schedule Glastonbury, otherwise you will miss out on so much because it's just, yeah, Theatre and Circus, there's so many nice little surprises. Even I, I mean, I, I get there normally on the Wednesday and, um, last Glastonbury there was a whole little corner that even I didn't know was there and I was working there. Yeah, I stumbled across it. Rimsky-Korsakov's Yard up in the corner. I was like, oh wow, this is amazing.

59:48Paddy Bramwells I was just about to say Rimsky-Korsakov's Yard. I'm going to spend a lot of time there this year. Uh, because it's getting bigger and bigger and it's absolutely fantastic. And I know Chris Lynham is doing, um, a show there which I haven't seen him do.

1:00:00Ed Petrie Uh, so he's an alternative comedy legend.

1:00:03Paddy Bramwells Yeah, um, he is, uh, he's absolutely brilliant. Um, yeah, so I'm, yeah, I'm going to spend a lot of time in Rimsky's Yard, uh, this year.

1:00:11Jessi What is Rimsky's Yard? A bit more description.

1:00:14Paddy Bramwells You can imagine a junkyard, uh, of Phantasmagoria, I think. It's, if you can imagine a kind of what you'd expect from an eccentric Victorian inventor who only creates things from rubbish, creates music.

1:00:34Ed Petrie And eats psychedelic mushrooms for breakfast.

1:00:37Paddy Bramwells Yes. Yeah, it is incredible. I mean, if you boil it down to one thing, He has a piano which he plays while cycling along. Um, so his piano moves along the ground. He's, he is sat playing the piano, uh, cycling like you would on a bicycle, except the piano is going sideways, not, not— do you know what I mean?

1:00:59Jessi Yeah, I've seen it.

1:01:00Paddy Bramwells Um, and then that is the, uh, the least interesting, uh, of everything that he does. And that's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and it's, yeah, it's, it's an incredible visual an aural, um, experience. Brilliant.

1:01:16Ed Petrie I mean, my— yeah, I mean, I, I always think people should check out the Astrolabe, which is the theatre tent, because there's all sorts of weird stuff going on in there. And, um, and, and people pop up in there you wouldn't expect, like Jonathan Pye's been there a couple of years. Um, and the Cabaret Tent is obviously brilliant because you'll see all sorts of comics who are— they're doing it for their Glastonbury ticket, so the level is very high of what you're going to see there.

1:01:38Paddy Bramwells Yeah.

1:01:38Ed Petrie And I don't, I don't know if it's still going or not, but I was a bit— I was a big fan of the Minuscule of Sound, the world's smallest nightclub, which I think you've You could fit 2 or 3 people in.

1:01:46Paddy Bramwells Mini School of Sound is legendary.

1:01:48Ed Petrie I went in there once and I had, I had such a funny time, but, um, I was quite drunk and I can't remember much about it.

1:01:55Paddy Bramwells Uh, for late night, if you want, uh, late night, Mavericks, um, tent is amazing because you see in Mavericks, you see a mixture of, uh, all the acts are really short. They're about 7 minutes long. Uh, there is a cocktail bar on the stage inside a caravan. And you get acts who are brilliantly polished and professional and marvelous, and then you get people doing weird, experimental, strange, and always, always hilarious things in there. So that's really good. So Mavericks, which is opposite the Cabaret Stage, and that's brilliant as a late-night venue. It's fantastic.

1:02:34Ed Petrie And do make sure you check out the late-night fire shows because they are really good.

1:02:39Jessi Yeah, okay, great. I, I had sort of forgotten how many bits there were.

1:02:44Ed Petrie Oh, it's a festival in itself, it really is.

1:02:46Jessi Yeah, 100%. Um, so yeah, I'm gonna make sure I spend more time there myself because I, I really liked that, um, both of you kind of aligned with— that's something we've said on this festival— sorry, on this podcast many, many times before— that pick 2 bands and then the rest of it just walk around and go, that looks cool, or that sounds great, I'm gonna spend some time here. So great to hear you say the same, because that's what I always say to people as well whenever they ask me. Or you can always tell the Glastonbury newbie who's the guy who's going, right, at 1 o'clock I'm going to see this band, and then at 2 o'clock I'm going to see this band. You're like, no, you're not. You're just not. Yeah, anyway, yeah, great. Um, is there anything else you want to— wanted to tell me about, or anything else about Theatre and Circus you want to let me know about before we finish up?

1:03:31Paddy Bramwells There's probably tons, to be honest. Just, just, you know, audience, if you're listening to this and you're going, all right, yeah, whatever— no, don't go, oh, whatever. We know what we're talking about. Um, go to Theatre and Circus. Spend your days in Theatre and Circus. Um, any bands you want to see, you can go on YouTube and watch them, and the experience, unless you're down the front, will be pretty much the same. I've seen Velvet Underground at Glastonbury, and I was halfway up the hill, and it was a bit like, all right, I'll wander off now because I've seen Velvet Underground, you know what I mean? But if you see a live, uh, uh, act in Theatre and Circus. It will be something completely different that could literally change the way you think about life. I once met an athlete in Glastonbury, uh, and I got chatting to this bloke, totally random bloke, and he was saying, I have spent my life sprinting, right? That was what he did, sprinting. I have come to Glastonbury and this has changed everything. I am not going to sprint anymore. I think his trainers would've been very— yeah, he'd just gone, what have I been wasting my time doing? I've been all of my life, you know, he was kind of on the edge of being, you know, sort of someone who would be, you know, heading for, you know, European meetings and Olympics and that kind of thing. And he just went, why have I been wasting my life on this one tiny, tiny thing when all of this life experience, and that was from theater and circus.

1:04:54Ed Petrie Yeah.

1:04:55Paddy Bramwells Yeah, it's brilliant.

1:04:55Ed Petrie This is what I always do with my comp ticket that I get. I bring somebody who's never been before. And so the last person I brought was a friend of mine from Sheffield called Johnny, and he spent the whole weekend just wandering around going, I can't believe the scale of it. And he was completely bowled over by Theatre and Circus, and he spent most of his, most of his day in there, you know, because it is awesome.

1:05:19Paddy Bramwells Yeah, yeah, it's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

1:05:21Jessi Yeah, you're both making me feel guilty because I think the last couple of Glastonburys I haven't really— I've been in and I've stopped and I've watched one thing for, as you say, like up to 15 minutes that might be happening outside, but I haven't properly got stuck in.

1:05:32Paddy Bramwells That's why we don't let you into the green room.

1:05:34Jessi Yeah, that's what it was.

1:05:36Ed Petrie You're never getting in now.

1:05:38Jessi Yes, I've admitted it. Oh damn it. No, I was planning on saying that I'll come down and spend a lot longer there, so maybe I can, I don't know, Uh, get down there, interact with one of the walkabouts that make it look like I've actually, you know, some sort of fake paint on my face or something, and then I'll be able to get let in. Who knows?

1:05:58Paddy Bramwells That's a strict dress code as well, so, you know, just, yeah, I warn you.

1:06:01Jessi Oh, I'm always fabulously dressed, both of you. That's something that I always am.

1:06:05Ed Petrie He's not lying either because you always wear a tailcoat, don't you, Paddy? Genuinely, when he's comping, that's what he wears.

1:06:14Jessi Proper tails and everything. Look at that.

1:06:16Paddy Bramwells No, I wear a very sweaty 3-piece suit, which— yeah.

1:06:21Jessi Oh, wow.

1:06:21Paddy Bramwells Yeah. And this is, this is what's— I'll tell you what, this is what's lovely about Theatre and Circus. Last year, I, um, uh, just before the festival, I got my suit out, which I wear on that stage, realized that the trousers had completely, um, uh, sort of dissolved, went and bought another suit, got to the festival, realized that, uh, that my belt wasn't, uh, quite big enough to hold the trousers up. And I was moaning about this to my audience because I tell them everything. And 2 people sat in the front, were having a chat, and I went, excuse me, you know, why are you having a chat while I'm talking to you? And the female half of this couple went, oh, I think his belt will fit you, and I'm persuading him to give you his belt. And we swapped belts. And literally the belt I wear for my costume at Glastonbury was given to me by a member of the audience. Isn't that weird?

1:07:10Ed Petrie That sums it all up, I think.

1:07:12Paddy Bramwells Yeah.

1:07:12Jessi I love that she was having to persuade him, like, go on, darling.

1:07:17Paddy Bramwells He was quite happy, happy to do that. And his belt looked very similar to mine. It was just bigger. So yeah, it was fantastic.

1:07:24Jessi Brilliant. Thank you both. Um, honestly, it's been a great chat, and I, yeah, could have carried this on for a long time. Um, but I think some of the stories you've told have been amazing, and you've definitely inspired me. As I said, to spend more time in T&C. I do always tell people about it and say to get down there, but I personally have been slacking. So I'm going to make sure that 2023 I log my hours, let's say, and I'll be down there and having a good time.

1:07:50Ed Petrie Pitching some good walkabout ideas.

1:07:52Paddy Bramwells Yeah, and you could join.

1:07:55Jessi You know what, I do think about that.

1:07:56Miguel You should.

1:07:57Jessi I, I think I could be a good walkabout.

1:07:59Paddy Bramwells Absolutely.

1:08:00Jessi Although I'd be very, very difficult. The thing I'd find difficult staying in character the entire time. I know that at some point I'd burst out laughing. That's my problem. And I do admire the dedication of the people down there, even with— no matter what is thrown in their face, they do not break character. And that is something that I would—

1:08:18Paddy Bramwells Yeah, I'd like to give a quick shout out to the Arctic Explorers, uh, Walkabout, who I absolutely love, who are in full Victorian Arctic gear with icicles hanging off them, um, who go around. Yeah. And it doesn't matter how hot it is, they are in so costume. They are absolutely brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Sorry, they should have got a mention and they have now.

1:08:39Jessi No, no, that's great. That goes back to that 100% commitment.

1:08:43Ed Petrie See them sooner rather than later because they will die of heat.

1:08:46Paddy Bramwells Yeah, yeah, they will. And go and say hello to the tea ladies because they have been there longer than the actual festival has itself and they are fantastic.

1:08:54Jessi Great, thank you both. It's been absolutely lovely to have you and yeah, I I might try and— well, I'll definitely pop down to your stages, and if I wave at you, please don't shout me out too much in the crowd.

1:09:07Paddy Bramwells You know that's going to happen.

1:09:09Jessi I get— I know, I know, I get very embarrassed when I get picked on by, um, compères or the like, or comedians or anything like that. I'm always like, oh God, not me. Um, but if you, if you want to, feel free, and you can see me go bright red in the face, which I'm sure is probably exactly what you'd like to see.

1:09:25Ed Petrie See you at the circus big top.

1:09:29Jessi Yes, see you then. All right, thank you both. It's been brilliant speaking to you.

1:09:32Paddy Bramwells You're very welcome.

1:09:33Jessi Cheers.

1:09:34Ed Petrie Thanks, Jessi.

1:09:34Jessi All right, see you at the festival.

1:09:37Bye.

1:09:37Miguel Wasn't that fantastic? Thank you so much for listening to GlastoCast. And before we conclude this episode, we want to share some of your incredible Glasto stories. Thank you so much for everyone who contributed, and until next time.

1:09:55Hello, GlastoCast. Um, my name's Philippa, just giving you some input for your pod. Um, so, uh, this will be my 11th Glastonbury. Um, I didn't get to go last year because I didn't get a ticket in 2019, so obviously that was rolling over from COVID So it's been— 2017 was my last one, and in that time I've had a baby, so I'm not quite sure how that's gonna go. I'm excited though. Yeah, I Just pumped to get back on the farm. Really excited, going with a great group of people, looking forward to just seeing what changes have happened. Oh, just that Wednesday afternoon cider on the hill. Can't wait. Headlining-wise, I'm pretty happy with who's going to be on. I'd like a couple more smaller acts for the dance areas, but I guess we'll have to wait for TBAs. But yeah, super pumped, super excited. Love the podcast.

1:10:49Hi, GlastoCast, this is Harry from Salford. Um, 2023 will be my 4th trip to the farm. I'm feeling incredibly lucky really, um, as this will be the 2nd year on the bounce that I've secured tickets in the resale. Shout out to Hannah to Canada for sorting me and my girlfriend out. I'm hoping to see that Chemical Brothers get the opportunity to make up for their last-minute cancellation due to COVID last year. I know that they've said whilst they won't be playing live They have said that they might be going, so fingers crossed we get a DJ set. And I'd also love to see Pulp get slotted in, either as a secret set or as a sub-headliner. I think that'd be pretty special. I love the pod. Cheers, guys.

1:11:26Hi guys, my name's Ali. This year will be my 8th Glastonbury, and I'm so excited. I love listening to the podcast, and I'm so excited for the new episodes. Last year, my boyfriend and I didn't have tickets, and we were so gutted. Really wanted to see Paul McCartney because we're such big fans, and we were planning to watch it at home on the projector. Um, but I actually ended up winning tickets to the festival the week of, and little did I know that my boyfriend was planning to propose that week. So, it was just the perfect timing, and the night before we set off, he proposed, and then we just set off to Glastonbury and had the best weekend ever. And we got really close to the front to watch Paul McCartney. It was very surreal after thinking we'd be watching it from our living room. Yeah, I can't wait for this year, and I'm really excited to see Lizzo. I saw her set on the West Holts in 2019, and she was amazing. So, I know her set's going to be incredible this year, and I can't wait.