Kaptin Barrett on a line-up worth getting excited about.

0:00Jessi Hello and welcome back to GlastoCast, the unofficial Glastonbury Festival podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back. Uh, it's been— wow, I think we did one of these in 2020 or maybe 2021, but it's been a really, really long time since our last podcast. But we're so excited to be back. The festival is this year. We actually have some excitement. We are through and out the other side, or at least, you know, for the most part. We have festivals to look forward to. I'm here, of course, with the lovely Rob.

0:40Rob Oh, how are you doing, Jessi? That's a voice I haven't heard in a long while.

0:44Jessi I know, it's so good to hear your voice. Oh my God, brilliant.

0:47Rob Thank you very much. So much has happened, hasn't it?

0:50Jessi Oh gosh, yeah, we're going to get into that in a second, but And Miguel, of course, is here as well.

0:54Miguel Hey Jessi, hey Rob, and hello everyone. It's really, really good to be back.

0:59Jessi Amazing, so good to hear both of your voices. Um, I know I've said this already, but obviously it has been a really, really long time. Later on in this episode, we have such a fantastic guest. I'm so excited to speak to him. His name is Captain. Uh, he is the lead booker or head of music at Boomtown. He just knows everything there is to know about amazing bands past, present, and future. So he's gonna get us super excited about the lineup, and I can't wait to speak to him. I thought we'd, you know, start today just by checking in with each other. Like, I know we've kind of kept in touch on text and stuff and been somewhat catching up, but it'd be really good to hear it from you guys. Like, what's new? Maybe did you go to any festivals last year? I know it was still, you know, some went ahead and some didn't. Were there any that you managed to get to? anybody go to Worthy Pastures? Spoiler alert, I did. I'll talk to them about that in a minute. Um, but yeah, just what's new? Let's go to you, Rob. Come on, I know you've got some big news.

2:00Rob So yeah, I've got massive news really. So I've, I've got a son now. Yeah, a little 8-month-old. He's, uh, wiggling about downstairs at the moment, keeping me well occupied. He's brilliant. I absolutely love him to bits. But in terms of music and festivals, I've been well out of the loop. So I've I've not really kind of done anything like that. It's all been very much family focused for me. So yeah, I think, well, if he's at 8 months old now, so it was probably 18 months ago we found out, something in and around that. Probably can't be far off the time when we were talking about the last iteration of Glastonbury, which was going to be— was it, wasn't it? And we were talking about podcasts and stuff. And then, yeah, then obviously that changed. Then that changed for me. So yeah, honestly, since then, guys, I've been massively out the loop. So I'll be certainly looking to hear what you guys have been up to, to keep me up to date of what's been going on.

2:50Jessi Oh, bless you, it's so cute. Rob, you've— Rob has kept this so quiet. Yeah, he's— he literally surprised us with this and went, oh, by the way, this happened. We were like, what?

3:01Rob I know, I know. Well, I say I keep— obviously, you know, guys know I'm on social media, but I keep it sort of private with regards to that. So yeah, it was a big surprise for you, and I must admit I did enjoy telling you, and your reactions were priceless as well. So that's brilliant. Yeah, he's amazing. He is absolutely amazing. And give it You know, a few years, I'll make sure he gets his first Glastonbury sooner rather than later. Oh, a few years? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, we've got kind of other family stuff that's probably going to go on for a while, but—

3:32Miguel I'm just joking. I think you should just come bring him next year already.

3:37Rob Oh, mate, if my rucksack starts wriggling, you'll know why. It'll probably be followed by a few phone calls. Yeah, it's not a very happy mum at home.

3:48Miguel A hand will come out of your bag asking for snacks.

3:53Rob Exactly.

3:53Jessi Oh, it's so cute. You've got a little mini me. I mean, what a thing to come out of the pandemic with. Not that I'm saying that was the reason, but yeah, so cute. You've got an excuse for not having been to any festivals or any gigs. I'll give you that.

4:04Rob Absolutely. Yeah. And don't get me wrong, I've been busy, but yeah.

4:08Miguel But Rob, have you continued your DJing project?

4:12Rob Do you know what? Every now and again I do. And actually, it's quite funny. My sister bought me a t-shirt that says the original on it, and he's got one that says the remix. So I try and get him involved. So yeah, yeah, he's good. He's going to be the next budding DJ in the family for sure.

4:28Jessi We saw a few, uh, that was one thing in like lockdown 1, Rob did a couple of Twitch streams with a few of our Twisto mates with from his Rob is a DJ personality.

4:38Rob That's it.

4:39Jessi DJ Monica. Um, yeah, so hopefully you'll be bringing that back and then yeah, you can get, you know, a little mini me to help you out as soon as he's around.

4:47Rob That's it.

4:48Jessi Available.

4:48Rob And then you guys can come and see us on, uh, On stage somewhere.

4:52Jessi That's a question. If your DJ was going to play at Glastonbury, what stage do you think he'd play at? Your DJ. I mean, if you—

4:58Rob sorry, God. Me? I think I've been asked this before and I always say Glade because it's sort of my favorite sort of DJ dance arena-y little bit. It's just the perfect balance there. I absolutely love it. So yeah, if anyone from Glade's listening.

5:11Miguel The thing is as well that livestreams are so lockdown 1 now.

5:17Rob I know.

5:18Miguel Who even does that still?

5:21Rob That's it. All that equipment I bought and cameras and yeah, they're gathering dust now because people are actually going out again, which, don't get me wrong, is absolutely fantastic. Could not be happier to be planning this and doing the podcast, getting ready to go because it's not far away now, is it?

5:42Jessi Yeah, it was a very professional setup, I have to say, Rob. you know, you and your cameras.

5:46Rob I don't do anything by half.

5:48Jessi No, no, it was very good, very good. I loved it.

5:51Rob Excellent. Yeah, so that's, that's me in a nutshell. Yeah, cool.

5:55Jessi And Miguel, how about you? What have you been up to in the past, God, 3 years? What's been going on?

6:00Miguel Well, uh, so much happened and so much didn't happen. Uh, the, the most recent change is that I moved all the way across London, so now I live in West London.

6:11Jessi West London. Ooh, I don't know how I feel about that.

6:13Rob West London. In the West Side.

6:14Miguel It is a big change, which I thought I would never do. It's just a matter because since many, many months I've been working from home, so we moved closer to my partner's job. So she's been doing like this whole journey during the pandemic, which wasn't great. So now she can walk to work. Now the journey is to go back east to go to some events and to meet our friends, but it's fine. I'm just excited to be going out again. I haven't done much in terms of festivals. I think the first big event I went out is I went to a gig in Alexandra Palace, and that was really, really good actually. It was Glass Animals. It was a really good welcome back gig. I also went to some festivals. I went to some festivals in Victoria Park like you always do, and I went to Wide Awake Festival, which was on their first edition. And it was quite interesting to have that new festival and happening again this year. So probably going to be going there. But I guess in terms of live music, of course, we're going to jump into this. I also went to Worthy Pastures and that was very interesting and I'm sure we're going to talk about it, Jessi.

7:26Jessi Yeah, yeah. I was going to ask you about that because I know that you went and obviously I don't want to spend too long on that in this episode because, you know, I think we all saw the website, we all knew what it was. And, you know, I think anybody Glasto obsessed would have If they didn't go, they would have sort of known that it was— I'm doing air quotes, but you can't see— just a camping situation.

7:47Miguel Yes.

7:47Jessi But yeah, I went as well, and I really enjoyed it. Like, I really do hope that in fallow years of the future— obviously, I'm hoping that there's not a fallow year for a long time now— but that, you know, the next time they have a fallow year, I think it would be really nice to have that campsite back again. you know, for a Glasto nerd like me, it was so nice to go and explore the Pyramid and like walk up to the Stone Circle. And there was, there was nice things to do, good food, the tents were lovely. But the only thing, and I think Miguel, you're probably going to agree with me, but the only thing that was sort of missing for me was like even a tiny bit of live music.

8:24Miguel Yeah.

8:25Jessi I'm not talking about full-on, you know, I'm not talking about Coldplay playing to like 200 people, but, um, you know, not that I would like that anyway. We all know how I feel about Coldplay. But just some like local Somerset bands or something, or even like karaoke. The, the one thing I know, it was I think licensing and also, you know, the hype around Glastonbury. Like, of course, if they said there was going to be some bands, people would go, oh my God, I should get a ticket because someone big will play. But yeah, it, it had a distinct lack of music is all I'm saying, is that in the evenings when you were going to the Goose Hall Bar and having a pint, it just felt a bit like Oh, it'd be really good if there was a bit of music now. But how did you feel about it, Miguel?

9:06Miguel Yeah, I think it's exactly what you said. I think when they announced, there was this question, how's this going to work? Even though they are saying it's family camping, it's not really going to be family camping, right? People are going to go there and, I don't know, go wild. I think I, at least I had this feeling. But when you get there, it was exactly what they promised it was going to be. And it was still amazing. Of course, it was a great opportunity to experience the farm in a different capacity.

9:32Rob I went with my partner who's never been Glastonbury.

9:34Miguel So, and now of course she's going in June, so she's gonna have this experience right away on her first edition.

9:40Rob You're gonna make sure she listens to the podcast?

9:43Miguel Yeah, I'd be suggestive, but I don't think she has ever listened. She said, I'm just gonna be with you, I don't need to listen to any podcasts.

9:53Kaptin Barrett Which is fair enough.

9:55Miguel And of course, when we were there walking around Worthy Pastures, It was quite funny, I think, in the beginning, because you get dropped right in the middle. It took me a while to find my bearings. Wait, this empty field is The Glade?

10:09Rob Oh, is that because all of your normal reference points were missing?

10:13Miguel Exactly, exactly. So it took me a while to kind of understand everything, and then of course I was pointing, oh, this is where this happened, this is where this always happens.

10:21Rob Did you go to the areas you knew would be backstage?

10:23Miguel Yeah, I wondered. That's a good question. I wish I had thought of that when I was there. Am I backstage? stage somewhere right now. Did you do any, any of the activities? I kept looking at the bin painting, but then everyone was just so amazing, like from the kids and to the adults, and like, I'm not gonna get a bin and do stickmans.

10:45Jessi Yeah, bin painting was the only workshop that I actually properly did. But as you say, like, I was like, yeah, this is right up my alley. I'm gonna be amazing. My bin is gonna be beautiful. But you start and I'm like, God, where did my GCSE art go! I am rubbish. But no, it was good fun anyway. And Hank the Bin, as he's affectionately known, as in, you know, Hank the guy who's always been in charge of the bin painting for years at Glastonbury, he was brilliant. Like, just sitting in his vicinity and hearing his stories was nice enough for me while I was attempting to paint this bin in a bad fashion.

11:25Rob Will your bin make it to the festival, or is that—

11:27Jessi No, they did I thought that, but they did say that it will be used for Worthy Pastures, but then they're going to repaint them before the festival. So, I mean, which is fair enough. But, you know.

11:39Rob Did he say that to everybody or just you about yours? Just me.

11:43Jessi It was written on a sign, so I hope it was for everybody, but I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a good pile and a bad pile and mine made it onto the bad pile.

11:53Miguel But it was an opportunity to explore the surroundings. I went up the Glastonbury Tor and that was magical. I went to Wells, Cheddar Gorge. So I did explore the area around the farm. So it was good to learn more about Glastonbury town itself, all the legends. And I don't know, I guess for someone who's been going to the festival for so many years and it's a festival that's quite connected to all this, the— well, for the location where it happens. So it was good to learn more of that and actually be there on top of the tor and etc. So it was really, really valid, to be honest.

12:30Jessi I agree. I like, I really, I feel like I needed to be in that field. I was, I was so excited to go, and we were there for 3 nights and it was super chill. Like, we didn't— well, you know, we had some beers in the evening, but I think most evenings we were in bed in our tent by like 10:30, do you know what I mean? It was very much a, a chilled camping weekend, but really enjoyed it.

12:51Rob So there wasn't a naughty corner?

12:52Jessi There was no naughty corner. We did have a speaker one night. We took our little mini speaker, like a mini-rig size speaker, kind of down to Williams Green, which was like the communal area. And then, like, you know, we put some disco on and then, like, a few people sort of came and sat near us and then the kids were dancing in the middle and stuff. So we did do that and that was quite cute.

13:14Rob How would you say the kind of footprint scale sort of size was compared? It's basically minus the car parks, obviously.

13:23Jessi Yeah, it kind of goes all the way up from, uh, the top of Big Ground, but you can't camp on Big Ground. So like, that's kind of the, the area that you can go and explore. So where, where Worthy Farm is, it kind of goes down across to the Pyramid and then down all the way to the Green Futures Field. So it includes like what would have been West Holts, um, yeah, the Acoustic Field, Avalon, Glade, all of those ones that are kind of on the Looking at the map, the east side, I guess. Miguel, you sound like you're going to tell me Avalon.

13:55Miguel No, no, no, I was gonna say, and also the Stone Circle. So I feel like, I feel like you've got it covered.

14:00Rob I thought when you said east side, it might bring back memories for Miguel because obviously he's—

14:05Jessi East side is the best.

14:07Rob He's moved.

14:08Jessi Yeah, of course, Stone Circle was there as well. So there are like certain ones of those fields that are camping, ones that are parking, but, you know, the tents were super spaced out like that. You never had to queue for anything. It was Like, really relaxed and really lovely, and there wasn't that many people, and it was— yeah, I think it definitely could be scaled up a bit for a fallow year, like a tiny bit when we don't— at the time, you know, it was very like social distancing on-off, you know, are we doing it, are we not doing it kind of thing. So, you know, it was— there was still— you could see that they were thinking about social distancing when they put it in place. But yeah, I would love to do it again, but the problem is, is if they say there's going to be some music, there's always going to be people thinking that there's going to be a secret set from Fatboy Slim or something. You're just saying, yeah, yeah, when you're just saying, no, actually we've just got some local Somerset bands to come and entertain you in the evenings. Do you know what I mean? But I would 100% do it again. I think— I thought it was lovely.

15:02Rob Was Chris Martin there?

15:04Miguel Yeah, I was going to say it was valid just to be under the Pyramid Stage and to do a massive photo session there.

15:12Jessi Yeah, I love that. You can tell the Glasto nerds like that were walking around the field because they were all You know, taking a picture next to a bin, taking a picture next to the, uh, signpost, you know, uh, one that's in Williams Green and stuff. They were like finding all these tiny little bits of Glasto and taking a picture next to them.

15:32Rob Excellent. I love that. I love that.

15:34Jessi Yeah, it was lovely. And we spoke to some nice people. We— I just went, me and my, um, boyfriend as well. And like, yeah, it was lovely. I would definitely go again. But it was very, very much chilled. Like, chilled is— was the optimum word, I think.

15:46Miguel But, and what else you've been up to, Jessi, then?

15:48Jessi Well, I sound like I've been up to more than both of you. Um, not that— God, that sounded bad.

15:54Rob Sorry, I don't mean to be—

15:58Miguel I must say, you guys, super boring.

16:01Jessi Yeah, you guys have been doing nothing. No, no. Um, I, I just mean that last year, I, you know, me being me and, and the festival obsessive, not just Glastonbury obsessive, I of course had already been deprived of festivals for one year. So when last year there were a couple that, you know, managed to go ahead in some way, shape, or form, I just made sure I could be there. Obviously, you know, just to clarify, being very careful and testing before and after, etc., just so everybody knows.

16:28Rob Of course.

16:28Jessi But yeah, I, I did, um, Valley Fest last year, which is also in Bristol— or near Bristol, sorry. It's actually between Bristol and Glastonbury. It's by the Chew Valley Lake, or Chew Magna. That was really, really good fun. That was my first kind of full-size— I say full-size, it was 10K attendees, but still more full-size than some of the smaller things that I've been to. And that was really, really amazing. I hadn't been there before. I was really impressed with it. I hope I'm gonna go back this year. I've just got to try and work out if I've got enough time off for it this year. Um, but yeah, really, really impressed with Valleyfest. Um, I did Shambino, which is the sort of baby version of Shambhala. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, Shambhala kind of decided semi-last minute that they were going to do a, you know, much stripped-back kind of baby version of Shambhala that was only 5K capacity rather than the usual sort of 20-25, I think it is. Um, and that was super cute as well. It was on the same site but kind of half the size. They didn't have a main stage like Chai Wallahs, who you might know. They were the main stage as such. Um, but we all got to dress up in our you know, glittery finest again and be in the field. So that was lovely. Yeah, so I managed to get to a couple last year, which is really, really nice. Obviously none comparing to Glasto, but I made the most of the summer. And I guess my only other life update is, I think I mentioned it on the podcast with Greenpeace, but I, you know, I have a long-term partner now and I have a dog, which is nice. So my life now consists of taking my dog out on the weekend. She's called Merida, or Merry, like Merry Christmas is how we call her.

18:03Rob Amazing.

18:05Jessi And she's a tiny fluffy Pomeranian and she's brilliant.

18:07Rob Ah, lush.

18:08Jessi But yes, that's my sort of, you know, your new life is nappies, mine's not quite the same, but mine is, you know, dog walks in the morning and the evening. But yes, I know I've had, I've, I've had a, you know, I've met— I've made the best of it, um, as such. But let's move on to the next bit and, and, you know, really talk about what we're here to talk about. Glastonbury is 3 months away or less. April, May, June. Yeah, 3 months away after waiting 3 years. Uh, you know, we had—

18:53Rob Does it feel like 3 years? I can't decide because I think now I'm getting excited about it, it doesn't really feel like 3 years anymore, whereas before it felt like 10 years.

19:03Jessi Yeah, I'd agree. But I mean, think about it, we got our tickets in like October 2019, man. That was so long ago.

19:11Rob And there are some people that literally just got them last week, aren't there? So that's a completely different scale. Yeah.

19:16Miguel I was gonna say that that process ended just recently with the resales.

19:20Jessi Yeah, it was just last week that we had the resales, and I know that all 3 of us were trying to get extra tickets for friends.

19:26Rob Were you successful? I was as successful as always, so no, I didn't even get a screen.

19:31Miguel But yeah, we had 4 groups and we got, uh, 3 of them inside. I called that a success, really.

19:36Rob Oh, as in general it was a success, but, you know, my contribution was as minimal as ever. I see.

19:44Jessi I'm gonna check that. So yeah, your friends did get in, but you were not responsible for that?

19:49Rob That's right. Yes, I can't take any of the kind of credit for it.

19:52Jessi Yeah, we were pretty successful. Um, we had 3 groups and we got 2 of them kind of while tickets were still available technically, and then You know, some of us started getting the sold out screen and everyone started panicking. And there was just one group, bless them, that didn't get in. And, you know, of sort of over the, you know, whole sales, we have about 30, 35 of us to get. And this is one group of 3 that we didn't get, and we all felt so sorry for them. But literally in the last second, not even when there was some flickerage of coach packages like half an hour later, we actually managed to get the last team in and we got— she said, my friend Amanda, she sent that confirmation screen and we were like, yes, 100% success rate, get in! So it was a good moment for us.

20:41Miguel Yeah, that was an interesting one this year, this sort of secret coach resale released just after the general sale. Yeah, we managed to get one person in after he lost all hope, someone who's been to, I think, 15 or so festivals and couldn't get a ticket. So he was devastated. And then suddenly I saw you— Jessi sent me that this was happening. There's some Coach tickets back. And then I sent him the link. I sent him the link and he was able to book it. So yeah.

21:09Rob I think that must have been quite random because when I saw the message, I couldn't— well, not that I can ever get a screen, but I couldn't get into that. So that was quite a strange one. I think maybe that was just, you know, he must have done the right thing at the right time and the Glasto gods were looking down. And said, yes, this is your time.

21:27Jessi Well, that's it. I, I just got a message in our group message at like probably 37 minutes past 9 or something, like after half an hour when we'd all gone, right, we've got all our tickets. We were all, you know, making a cup of coffee and congratulating ourselves, and then we got a message in the group going, is there anybody else needing a ticket? My friend just got a coach ticket just now. And I was like, excuse me, what? And then she sent the link and I tried it and I was able to go in. So then I just messaged, as I said, I messaged Miguel and he was like, oh wow, amazing, and then managed to get his friend in. So yeah, it was obviously like they, I don't know, had a couple of spares, but they couldn't tweet about it in case anybody just crashed the page or whatever.

22:05Rob Oh, it wouldn't have worked, would it? Because it would have just fallen to pieces.

22:09Jessi Yeah.

22:10Rob It's just the curious few that lucked out.

22:13Jessi Yeah, the few that just wouldn't give up. They just kept checking and there it was.

22:16Rob I refuse to give up.

22:18Jessi Yeah, but anyway, I mean, the good news is we've all got tickets, we're all going on our way. Um, as I said, we've got 3 months till the festival. I guess before we get our guests on and get talking about the lineup, I just wanted to hear from each of you, like, it's obviously— it's been so long, and I'm not going to say that again, that's the last time I'm going to say that— but is there like one particular thing that you're really looking forward to? Is there like a, a small moment that you're waiting for, or like I don't know, do you think you're gonna cry going through the gates or something like that? I don't want to put words in your mouth, guys, but Miguel, let's go to you first. Like, is there something that you're really, really looking forward to? Just a little Glastonbury moment?

22:56Miguel Uh, well, I always kind of cry when going through the gates. No, it's when the bus starts going up the hill and then you see the first flags. That's when you kind of— I feel a strong emotion.

23:09Jessi Oh, you get the tug on the heartstrings.

23:12Rob Yeah.

23:13Miguel And then I—

23:13Rob Goosebumps.

23:14Miguel Yeah, exactly, because I need to hold back some tears. Other than that, I think I've been going for so long now, and then these days I just enjoy having my friends coming together. Most of them are still at the beginning of their journey, so for me it's just always nice to just come together with them, see them find their own way around the festival. There's always someone coming for the first time, so see that person getting amazed by by everything. Something silly to say maybe, but from these days for me it's more about that, to be honest.

23:45Rob Excellent. There's nothing wrong with that, mate.

23:48Miguel Yeah, I feel like I've done a lot, of course. And again, I would love to repeat all the things that I like to do, go up the sign. I think in the end Wednesday and Thursday are days that are really good for me because we always do the walk around site, and then that's when you see everything again, and then you explain to them. And also I like to explain because then please go on your own, don't, don't stop following me, you know. Now I'll go do my own thing.

24:14Rob Spread your wings. Well, those first 2 days, that's what it's about, isn't it? Because the music's kind of— yeah, well, the main music kicks in on the Friday. So, and I always say this about TV shows sometimes where I get kind of jealous of people who get to see a show or a film for the first time because I loved and I remember that. So, but when you take somebody with you to Glastonbury, especially for the first time— my friend's joining me this year, it'll be his first Glastonbury— you get to that thing, don't you? Because you see them and they're you know, finding it all, finding their way, experiencing it for the first time, which is great to see. But then doesn't it just remind you of your first time and it brings it all back, doesn't it? Exactly, exactly that.

24:52Jessi Yeah, I love seeing like people's surprised faces when, you know, particularly if they've, you know, heard one of us talking about it, we just gush about it and go, oh, it's just the best place in the world. And then, you know, they get there and what was it, Miguel, you've said, you know, your friend said, I get it now. Like, that's exactly it.

25:08Kaptin Barrett Exactly, exactly.

25:08Rob I get it. Well, people know it's a big festival, but I don't think you can really understand the scale of it until you get there.

25:14Jessi Oh yeah, no, and you see it, guys. It's, it's basically a city that's erected for a weekend. Yeah, that's what I said. Um, how about you, Rob? Have you got any— I know you've just sort of spoken a bit about it, but is there any, like, you know, I was gonna say for me it's kind of cracking the can open after I've put my tent up, but I actually have— I'll be doing something different this year, but I'll explain that in a minute. But how about you, Rob? Is it—

25:39Rob is there a moment Or picking up the already open can that I started before I put my tent up. Usually the case. So for me, I guess, so my first Glastonbury was 2022— sorry, 2002. So this will be my 20 years since my first Glastonbury. So that's pretty big, especially as it was supposed to be the 50-year anniversary, wasn't it? But obviously that's slightly gone past. But this one is my 20-year anniversary of my first Glastonbury.

26:04Miguel Ooh.

26:06Rob pretty much everything's kind of focused on that for me at the moment.

26:09Jessi I love it.

26:10Rob You know, I'll be thinking a lot about what it was like on that first day. Like, it literally must— it must be half the size. It can't be far off what it was then. And remember, that was— I've spoken about before how that was the first year following the fence, so it was quite— there wasn't as many people as there certainly will be this year. So I'll be making a lot of comparisons about that, and I'll, you know, I'll have my friend there. It'll be his first Glastonbury, and we're really good friends, so we'll probably spend a big old chunk of the time together. But obviously, you know, I will encourage him. I'll say, as per Miguel's advice, mate, you need to go and, you know, find your way around a bit. But yeah, just, yeah, give me some peace. But no, no, I think, yeah, that's definitely it. That's what's given me kind of the, the most goosebumps, I think, at the moment. Just even this conversation talking about it. And actually the realism that, that we're going to be going again soon. And people who have got their tickets, whether it be 2019 or just in the festival that are listening to this, they won't yet understand if it's their first time, but it really won't take long until they get it. I get it.

27:16Jessi They get it now.

27:17Rob They get it. Exactly. And they'll understand how people can be so obsessive over it as well, because I think once you've been and you become one of the obsessives, then it all makes sense, doesn't it?

27:29Jessi Yeah, I completely agree. And I think you know, my year this year is going to be hopefully super, super exciting for me because for the very first time I am going to be able to go into the festival before the festival starts.

27:44Rob Jealous.

27:45Jessi My boyfriend, uh, does the lighting for the Greenpeace stage, and so he will be there from the Friday before working. Uh, I'm joining him on the Sunday night. We're going to be in Betsy, my campervan, in the Greenpeace crew field. So not only am I going to be campervanning for the first time, I'm going to be on site for a good 3 days before—

28:08Miguel Wow.

28:08Jessi Before people come in. So I'm so excited about this. I'm not going to be literally resting on my laurels, by the way. Like, Ben has, you know, because I have a festival ticket, he, he wouldn't have been able to get me in If I didn't already have a ticket. So he's managed to get, you know, he's managed to sort of get me, uh, you know, into the crew area.

28:30Rob Priority access.

28:31Jessi In exchange for— yeah, basically, I, I basically have to help out with like painting the Greenpeace area. Um, I'm going to be helping out with cooking as well. So they're putting me to work. Earning my keep. Earning my keep, exactly. But I get to get there before, which I'm so excited about. And it means that I'm saying it now on the podcast, so I have to do it. I will go to the sign this year because I'm going to be there before everybody gets there. Does it count if you go before? Well, maybe I'll have to go twice, but everybody says—

28:59Rob I suppose I better go up the ribbon tower then, hadn't I?

29:01Jessi Yeah, you better. I think like my worker friends have always said, like, it's kind of a thing that everybody goes up the night before on the Tuesday night, you know, to watch the sunset from the sign, uh, on the night before whenever, you know, to see the empty fields before everybody comes pouring in. I'm just gonna tell you both now, like, I am gonna cry a hell of a lot Um, I think definitely, like, I'm gonna go and watch the gates when they open, and then I think I'm definitely gonna cry then when everybody comes pouring in. I will have cried a number of times before then. Um, but yeah, amazing. So I'm just— I'm so excited. And I'm—

29:32Rob Will you spend the whole time in your camper van, do you think, Jessi? Sorry. Or do you think—

29:35Jessi Yeah, I'm not— I'm not gonna put up a tent and go and go with my mates, you know. I'll— I'll be interested to see how it fares.

29:42Rob That'll be very different for you, won't it?

29:44Jessi Yeah, for sure. Yeah, as you know, like, I normally have a big campsite set up of around 15 tents, you know. I'm normally the one who organizes all of that. Um, some— quite a lot of my friends are coming coach this year. Like, you know, quite a lot of them kind of went, well, anything I'll do, I'll get coach. But it means obviously they have very strict arrival times, you know. Like, they won't necessarily be on site at 4 in the morning like we normally are. So, you know, I'm kind of taking a step back from my, uh, organizational arrivals mode, and I'll be interested to see how my friends fare, you know, kind of without me to steer them. But I think they've got a bit of a plan going. I think there's going to be a couple of them that are going to take the main group of tents and they're going to try and get the same sort of spot, um, that are driving. And then those that arrive by coach, they're either going to try and put a tent near-ish by, you know, in the field but on their own, and then they can walk over and spend the mornings with us.

30:38Rob Yeah.

30:38Jessi I don't know. But yes, I will be in the camper van and I'll just have to walk up and see them, or I'll You know, be maybe getting them a shower token for the Greenpeace showers.

30:48Rob No, I'm joking. Okay, bribes accepted.

30:52Jessi Bribes accepted. Um, but yeah, no, I'm super excited about it. And you know, that was one thing I was gonna say. I think I mentioned this before, but, um, just as a funny little anecdote, uh, my boyfriend and I will have been together 2 years, um, by the time Glastonbury goes ahead. I think he's pretty serious. But I met him on a dating app, and the reason I said yes to him on the dating app is because it was Hinge, which allows you to have little comments or questions that you answer, and it said, you should comment on me, or you should like me, or you should swipe me if you like. And he put, disco in Glastonbury, and then he had a picture of him at Glastonbury, and I was like, Sold! Tick!

31:37Rob Swipe!

31:39Jessi So yeah, so there you go. And then, you know, that was the start of a beautiful thing. Here we go. And now we're actually going to our first Glastonbury together, so I'm very— he's done 11 Glastonburys, the same number as me, but he's been working quite a few of them. He's only done a couple as a punter. Yeah, I'm just so excited. So that's my little news update, I guess, and excitement for Glastonbury all in one.

31:59Miguel I don't know if that happens with you guys, but there's sometimes when you're out and about with your days and you're meeting your friends at the pub or for dinner, and you start hearing yourself and you realize, oh my God, I'm so stupid. I'm— am I really talking about Glastonbury again? People must hate me.

32:13Jessi Yeah, honestly, like, actually, this podcast is like a really good, um, like therapy method for me because I can get it all out in kind of one place, you know, like an outlet. Exactly, yeah, therapeutic outlet. And then it means that my poor friends don't have to listen to me bang on about it anymore. I mean, honestly, us 3, we could just go on about it forever, couldn't we? But, uh, on that note, let's actually get into the meat. I mean, I can't believe, you know, we're already quite far in, but this episode we do actually have like a really great main segment for this episode. We know that the lineup came up— came out about 3 weeks ago, and, you know, we— there were mixed reviews of it. I'm pretty happy with it, but as we all know None of us are really that bothered about the lineup. We go to Glastonbury for other reasons, but we really did want to talk about it, any kind of musical discoveries we've had for over the past couple of years. But I will say is that when we had a chat, me, Miguel, and Rob, a couple of weeks ago after the lineup came out and we talked about doing an episode, we all very quickly realized that we do not have the musical knowledge really to comment properly on the lineup. You know, we know a few of the big names.

33:27Rob Yeah, not to give it justice. Yeah, exactly.

33:29Jessi Yeah, not to give it justice. Exactly, Rob. We know a few of the big names, we know a couple of the smaller names, but there are so many on there that, you know, we kind of go, who's that? So yeah, because of that, we thought we need to get an expert in here, and I'm super excited for our guest, who I'll intro in a second. He is an encyclopedic knowledge of music is known for his Spotify playlists. He creates, you know, pick any genre and he will have a Spotify playlist of over 100 tracks on it, I promise you.

33:59Rob A musical curator.

34:00Jessi Yeah, he's a musical creator, he's a DJ, he hosts a radio show. So yeah, we have got the knowledge basically, and he's going to come in, speak to us, and tell us who we should be excited for. So let's get him on. So yes, hi everyone, we have got an awesome guest today. His name is Captain Barrett, and as I said, he has got one of the best music knowledges, well, of anyone I've ever known of or met before. He knows all genres spanning through the ages. It's basically his job to keep up with music. By that, his job is head of music aka the lead booker is what I would normally use, um, for one of the UK's biggest and most eclectic festivals, which is Boomtown Fair in Winchester. Anybody who knows me knows that that's, you know, bar Glastonbury, that's probably one of my favourite festivals. Like, I've been to 7 or 8 Boomtowns and I absolutely love it. But he's also lead booker for one of the smallest and friendliest festivals, which is called Big Love Festival, uh, in Wales. Also had a mega lineup that I've been meaning to go to. So, um, yes, another great one there for you to check out. He hosts his own radio shows on Swoo FM and Ujima and is also a DJ. You may have heard of him, seen him on some lineups. His DJ name is AAA Bad Boy, and as I mentioned, his Spotify playlists are totally legendary. So we've got him here today basically to tell us who we should be excited about on that 2022 Glastonbury lineup. Hi, Captain! Uh, I've given you a bit of an intro there, so I hope, I hope you approve. Um, But maybe you just want to say hi.

35:42Kaptin Barrett It's lovely, thank you.

35:44Jessi Brilliant, brilliant. Do you want to let me know in your own words who you are and, you know, how you're involved in the festival world? Maybe what's your history with Glastonbury, that kind of thing?

35:51Kaptin Barrett Yeah, sure. I gotta shout out, uh, my partner in crime on Boomtown as well though, James. Uh, just, uh, yeah, we kind of share most of the programming between us and we do the Radio Boomtown on, on Swoop together as well. So big up, big ups to James every time. Um, but yeah, so Glastonbury was kind of my, I guess, entry level, as it is for a lot of people. So I started going when I was very little. '82, I think, was the first year that I went. Back then I was on the gates, so you didn't have any of this big security or anything. Like, you literally just had to get past me, little, like, 6-year-old me or whatever. And it was great. I loved it. I saw bands like, I think I saw probably Black Kahuru and Aswad, people like that. And then I didn't go for a few years. I went a couple of times in the '80s and then I didn't go in the '90s at all until 1999. And by that point I was like straight up hip-hop and dancehall. And there was a big hip-hop lineup that year. It was like Jurassic 5, Oza Matley, Supernatural. Ah, so many. The Roots were playing. So we went that year as well, check out some hip-hop. And then it wasn't until 2004, and basically I was in a band called Dark Chunk, and we won the Glastonbury Unsigned contest, which is still happening. So if you're in a band and you want to get into festivals, honestly enter that competition. I can't tell enough people, it's magical. And so we won a slot on what used to be then the dance stage. So there was none of this kind of like Silver Hayes or anything like that. It was the dance stage. And so it's probably us and like, I don't know, Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim and people like that. But we— so after that, it was that year, and I can't even go into half of the things that happened that year, but it was basically like, okay, from that moment I realized that festivals is what I wanted to be doing. So, and I think I've played every year since. So that was the kind of end of my career as a rapper. But, but I've been there as a DJ for most years since then under various guises.

38:08Jessi I love that. I didn't know you were there as a rapper. That's so cool. And that you did— you won the unsigned competition. That is so cool. Didn't know that. I'm loving this. I'm learning so much.

38:16Kaptin Barrett Yeah, so I played there as a, a, um, a DJ a few times. Well, most years since then as AAA Bad Boy, as Captain, as Chrome Kids alongside Monkey and Stagger. And then, and then basically actually from that I got I went to the first Bestival, which was in 2004 as well, and that kind of cemented the fact that, right, okay, we need to be doing festivals. And then myself and a guy called Matt took an inflatable church to the second Bestival and for many years after that, and we did lots of other festivals, and that was kind of entry level really. And that's how I met loads of people, was through doing the church. That's how I met Lack and Chris from Boomtown. I think I met James that year. Robin from Shangri-La, loads of people actually.

39:05Jessi Amazing. I love the inflatable church.

39:07Miguel I was going to say, so your top tip is take an inflatable to the festival.

39:11Kaptin Barrett What's that? Top tip? Yeah, yeah.

39:14Miguel Your top tip.

39:14Kaptin Barrett If you want to get into festivals, just find a massive inflatable something.

39:18Rob Yeah.

39:19Miguel And if you cannot play, which is my case, I think I know what I'm going to be doing this summer then.

39:24Kaptin Barrett I love that. It's still going actually. I don't have anything to do. of it anymore, but, um, but there's a couple still doing the rounds.

39:32Miguel Uh, and, and, but, and speaking more about your role at Boomtown, can you tell us, uh, what you do with the Boomtown Fair?

39:39Kaptin Barrett Yeah, so, so myself and James kind of oversee the whole lineup and book most of it. Uh, it used to be more of a split, like I'd book most of the bands, James booked most of the DJs. It kind of still is that, but, but we're a lot more, um, spread them out between us, and we still got a team There's still, you know, the A-Rate guys and The Last Gang in Town and people like that that kind of help out. And you still got Tribe of Frog with the psytrance. And so, yeah, but, and of course, all the street venues and things like that who kind of tend to program in-house. But we do the large kind of brunt of it and basically just sort of look after the music, all sides musical. Yeah, Boomtown.

40:22Miguel How do you even start building a lineup so diverse like Boomtown? Like, what were your goals when you were setting up? When you start the lineup, what— this lineup, I want it to be what?

40:32Kaptin Barrett Well, a lot of the time you kind of start with the year before and be like, right, how do we better that, you know? And yeah, you kind of always want to do better. Um, yeah, but you also, you know, you got to kind of take your ego out of it a little bit as well and be like, right, What's the best for everybody? And there's— do you know what? There's like in the world, I'd say that, you know, there's so much great music, but there is a limited amount of artists who can do the job of really kind of just delivering an awesome set within budget.

41:08Rob Mm-hmm.

41:09Kaptin Barrett So then you kind of look at like, A, you go back to the people that you haven't been able to get that you really wanted. You see who's Who's touring. And, and it's just about, it's just about who's the right vibe for the right time, you know. And there's, I mean, there's so much more to it than that, you know. You need to be mindful of things like clashes and stuff like that. But essentially, it's, it's who's the right act for the right time. And then you kind of see who's around. And generally, I think, I think, you know, once you cast your net out wide and limit it in, you, you just seem to get the right people. I don't know, it just seems to work out. And you don't always get the people that you want, but, you know, to paraphrase a Rolling Stones song, you know, you tend to get the ones that you need.

41:57Miguel So, that's great.

42:01Jessi I love that. I love that you say, you know, be mindful of clashes. I'm sure anybody who's been to a festival will go, no, they don't be mindful of clashes. But it's funny, I spoke to someone about this and they were like, no, You have to have some clashes, otherwise the entire festival tries to go to one stage at one time. I was like, oh yeah.

42:17Kaptin Barrett Yeah, it's— I, I hate doing it. It's heartbreaking. But sometimes you just have to, just for safety's sake, you know. Um, but, but sometimes, you know, sometimes you really like, okay, we can't clash these 2 acts, uh, because— but mainly because everyone will go to one more than the other. If it's a 50/50 split, then you're in danger. There's probably going to be a clash.

42:42Miguel Do you have a process? You start putting names on the board and you start moving around, or is it about negotiating with the artists as well about set times?

42:50Kaptin Barrett Oh, so my world most of the time is not that rock and roll, it's spreadsheets. It's so many spreadsheets and you just kind of stare at them for a long time. I don't know, a lot of it's instinct. You're just like, okay, let's put these— you put a load of names in that you want and then you just move them around until they feel right, I guess. And then once they feel right, then you have to kind of— you, you have to actually think about it and be like, okay, does that actually work? Can we put them on at that time? And then it's negotiation, you know. Like, at Boomtown, one of the things that we, we prefer to do is, you know, like at a festival when the first band comes on and they're playing to like 3 of their mates.

43:31Jessi Yeah.

43:33Kaptin Barrett And like, that's not really doing anyone any, any justice. So it's always nice to put on a headliner or sort of bigger artist Or one that, you know, at least more— a lot of people will know, on nice and early. It means the stage is busy from the start, it means everyone's up and out and excited for the rest of the day so that then the second band have a better gig and etc. So, but it's really hard to convince someone of, you know, stature to play an early set. So that's a negotiation that continuously happens. I think we're pretty good at it, you know. I've got, I've got plenty of videos that I can send people now and be like, look, it works, I promise you.

44:15Jessi I love that. And I, I guess, Capsule, like, what would you say, what would you say makes a good lineup? Like, I love what you're talking about, about— I really so agree that you should get someone on early to get people out of their tents and away from their tents, to be honest. But when you're looking like at a lineup overall, maybe not, you know, talking about Boomtown here, but like For example, when you saw the Glasto lineup, or when you look at Big Love's lineup— I know that you're a part of— or, or when you look at Shambhala or something like that, what makes you go, oh yeah, this is— they've done well here, this is a good lineup? Is it variety? Is it— I'm not going to put words in your mouth, I'll let you go for it.

44:51Kaptin Barrett Yeah, do you know what, it's a mix, it's a mixture of stuff. So I think for me, I, I hate looking at a line— like, I look at so many lineups, you know, I look at pretty much every festival lineup And there's a lot of the time you really get poster fatigue. You just see the same artists on this, on there, like continuously, and they start to lose their shine after a while. You know, you just like, you become a bit numb to them. And so, you know, it's important to have artists that people can connect to, that they look at it and they go, oh, okay, that's, that's great. But it's also important to put people on that you don't expect. Or like, you know, we spend a lot of time playing that game of like, okay, who haven't we heard from for a while? Who's like amazing but just hasn't been to the UK in a while? Because the problem is everybody, everybody looks at everybody's posters and they get ideas from them and they kind of— everyone just copies everybody else, you know? And it's, it's, it gets boring. It gets boring for the, for the people that go. But you do need those names a lot of the time, you know, if you— especially if you've got— if you're a big festival, you need names that people are going to connect to, that are going to bring in enough. Like, for example, at Boomtown, you know, we still got big stages. I'm not— we're not releasing the lineup, um, but we've still got big stages that we need to fill, uh, with people. So there has to be some amount of draw. And I, I guess it depends on— it's different for different festivals, you know. You've got to really know your crowd, um, and so a good festival knows their audience And does a mixture of A, catering for what they want, and B, giving them something else, a little bit extra. You know, that I think the magical moments tend to come from festivals with the artists that you don't expect, you know, where someone drags you because they've heard of it, and then all of a sudden you're like, oh wow, they blew my mind, I wasn't expecting it. You know, like, I, I, I still get that from festivals. Nowadays I have a list, even at Glastonbury, I have pages and pages of schedule, you know, and but there's always going to be one act that I wasn't expecting to see and someone will go, no, no, no, no, you need to go and see this band, and I'll go there and it'll be like, oh wow, okay, yeah, that's, that's not what I was expecting.

47:12Miguel You mentioned, uh, before that sometimes you might have to hold your ego, and now you just said that the festival needs to know your audience. So would you say like Boomtown has been growing together with the audience and they are communicating and they understand each other?

47:25Kaptin Barrett Yeah, I mean, our audience are pretty vocal and, and that's great, you know, they're on social media and, and we're constantly looking at that. And, but I mean, I tell you what, I tell you what's been tricky, I think, as, as music, because as the crowd becomes bigger and the music becomes more separated, it could be hard, you know, you It used to be put out a shout out like, what bands do you want to see? And you could guess most of the acts that people are going to say, you know, whereas now lots of festivals do it and then they'll put a shout out and it will be like everyone's got a different idea, you know. Music has become a lot more— the music scenes and everything have become a lot more fractured, and that's wonderful in some ways because of the sheer variety of great acts. You know, and people are, are kind of checking out lots of different music and more music. Um, but, but on the flip side of that, actually, when you're, when you're programming and you're trying to figure out, okay, but who's, who's bigger than who, you know, like who's the draw, who's— and what people into, it can be super tricky. Loads of times we look at, we, we think of an artist and we, we were like, oh, let's book them. And then we look at it and we're Is anyone actually going to know who they are? It's like, it's, you know, this is a big artist, but, but do our audience know who they are? And, and, and sometimes it's a gamble, and sometimes those gambles pay off, sometimes they don't, you know. That makes it— it's half the fun, right?

48:57Jessi Yeah, yeah, I love that.

48:58Miguel I know, it's been great to, to hear how everything that goes in the process, especially for someone who's been so involved in festivals for so many years and involved in the industry. So thanks for sharing.

49:06Jessi Yeah, for sure. I guess You know, on that actually, um, you know, we don't want to be— don't want to be negative, but, you know, we know that obviously the last couple of years have been super complicated for festivals in general. You know, there's the B word and then there's the C word, both of which I won't mention. But, you know, we're going to talk about the actual Glasto lineup in a minute and kind of changes to that. But, you know, what have been the challenges for you, I guess? You know, I guess along the lines of rebookings or cancellations, or maybe like the legislation has changed or whatever. Have you seen anything? Well, I know that there have been challenges, but kind of what's been the, what's been the most difficult for you, I guess?

49:43Kaptin Barrett Yeah, I mean, there, there are tons of challenges. I mean, it's kind of thrown everybody out. I mean, on a, on the programming side of things is we, we haven't had many gigs for a couple of years, so you, you haven't seen how gigs have been doing. You can't be like, oh, uh, well, this band just sold out Academy or, or whatever, so maybe we should pay attention to them. That it's completely like, oh, okay, it's like a fresh palette almost, which is great. Again, it's super exciting. And then, you know, I think, I think it's shed a real negative light on the, on the UK. You know, the B-word definitely did that. And so I think a lot of artists kind of decided that, um, not that bothered about touring, touring in the UK, you know. It's not necessarily going to give us what we want. But yeah, a lot of artists still do, you know. Obviously you're going to see loads of artists still coming in and playing. It's not going to change that much. What are some of the other things? I think it's really kind of damaged people's trust. Like, people are really, really excited to go out and see live music again and things like that. But, you know, a lot of people are like, ah, I don't know. And, you know, so Costs are going up for everything at the moment, you know, and that's an extra challenge for all festivals, you know, not again, not just with the costs that the festival have to pay, but the psyche of the country of like, okay, maybe we need to be a bit more careful. Yeah, there's, I mean, there's so many, there's loads of challenges, but that's, to be honest, that's what kind of being in the festival industry is. It's just a series of troubleshooting. Like anyone that puts on a festival festival will tell you, it's just, it's just one big troubleshoot really, you know. You're constantly just coming up against problems. I think, I think that was one of the big things about, um, uh, the C-word as well, was because all of these festivals are just used to dealing with any problem that comes at them and just getting past it. And, but, and it's always the show must go on, you know. It's always that the show must go on. You just get past it. But when it came and all of a sudden we hit this thing that, no, sorry, you're not going to get past that now. This is, this is the pause button. It's not a stop button, you know. For some people it was, but it's a, it's a, it's a heavy pause. It's like, nope, you are not indestructible, you know. And I think that was, that was, that was quite hard for a lot of festival organizers.

52:14Jessi Yeah, I saw, um, Lak the other day posted a video. So Lak's, um, one of the founders of Boomtown, or directors of Boomtown. Am I right there? Have I got that right?

52:23Kaptin Barrett Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's right.

52:24Jessi Yeah, directors. Okay, cool. Yeah, Lack posted a video saying like, you know, just because of that pause, as you mentioned, and it, and it was a stop for some people, that a lot of people in the industry, like, they, they couldn't afford to pause as such, so they, you know, reskilled and, and went and worked somewhere else. And, and, you know, then it means that there's less people to be putting the show on, you know, uh, and then the people that are left are, you know, having to— well, they are charging more, and then, you know, costs are going up, so It's, it's, you know, a pause sounds like a nice thing, but actually, you know, I can understand how it's just made everything quite a bit harder.

53:00Kaptin Barrett Yeah, it has. I mean, everything— there's no getting away from it— everything's a little bit tougher. And we thought that we were out of the— and I say we, you know, I'm kind of— I, I hear it from a lot of different people— kind of thought, oh, we're out of the woods, and then all of a sudden it's just extra challenges, you know. But but most people will get past them. Yeah, I don't want to be too negative about it, you know, because we know—

53:25Jessi No, no, no, no. And I, I'm always trying not to be too negative on this, but yeah, you're right, the show is going ahead this year. We're all very excited about it. Yeah, it's just— yeah, we've had— we have had to hit that pause button. And I, I guess we just really wanted to hear from you, like, the, you know, how it's affected you. But I'm, I'm glad it's sort of— you know, you talked about how getting people into the UK, the B-word, has been a bit of a problem, but you're still getting people in. They're still saying, you know, they understand that the UK is a market That's not worth ignoring, if you see what I mean. That's worth the extra effort. But, um, but yeah, I guess, you know, if we were to— I think we're going to come on to this in a bit, but, you know, lots of 2020 lineups that were announced and then obviously retracted have had to change quite dramatically in 2022. We're seeing a lot more British artists that are higher up the bill than they would have been. You know, we're seeing a lot more emerging artists coming through. Have you got any sort of Thoughts on that?

54:17Kaptin Barrett Yeah, I mean, definitely, you know, within 2, 3 years, loads does change, you know, and some of the artists that were originally booked, so, you know, it's kind of, it's like a dream sometimes when you're a programmer and you book someone because you think, oh, okay, this is someone who's really exciting at the moment. And then by the time your festival comes along, they're like a headliner and you're like, phew, We wouldn't have been able to afford them otherwise.

54:48Rob I hope you don't mind, guys. I'm conscious that I'm in the background here, um, just listening on my headphones as we record this remotely and quite enjoying it like I'm listening to the podcast for real. I've got to say, it's very— it's just good stuff. So, but I have, um— is now a good time to chime in for a quick question?

55:03Miguel Go for it.

55:05Kaptin Barrett Go for it.

55:05Rob Just, it's only just come to me, and it's really because we were talking about not being too negative and trying to be positive. Well, uh, one of the certainly positives and one of the things that that we know I did was the streaming and the trying out the DJ things. With regards to looking at new talent and artists coming through, particularly with DJs and stuff, are you looking at people from the increase of what they've been posting on Twitch and the live streaming and stuff? Has that brought more DJs to the table that you guys are interested in?

55:34Kaptin Barrett Some, not necessarily on the Twitch. I think it was such a minefield that a lot of the people that I kind of really enjoyed on streaming were people that I did already know. There was a few, there's a few that really shone through, um, but then, but then also, um, yeah, there's, there's various different platforms, you know, like your Boiler Rooms and things like that. And when someone shines on those sort of platforms, it really makes a difference. So there were a few that came through. To be honest, for DJs, I think it's, it's one of the most exciting times I've ever known. Like, it really is. Like, you know, the, the DJs that are coming through at the moment are just Just next level. They're playing a real good variety of music, and, you know, you've got, um, I, I don't want to name any names because I don't want to give it too much away of who I'm excited about at the moment.

56:26Rob Of course not.

56:27Kaptin Barrett You know, a lot, a lot of great DJs coming through from the queer scene, and, you know, loads more, uh, amazing female DJs coming through. And, and, and it's, it's really, it's really made it exciting again. And, uh, quite a few of those kind of came through Excellent.

56:45Rob No, I appreciate that because it was just something that suddenly came to mind because I know I started watching a lot of things, bands that I wouldn't necessarily know about, people that were putting stuff out there on social media and stuff, and it just led me to listen to loads of cool new stuff. So I wondered if that influenced the way festival bookings might be going now, or people who perhaps wouldn't have necessarily been there are now in the forefront of your mind perhaps.

57:10Kaptin Barrett I think it's really like all of us do watch live videos and things like that and get a thing, but I think I know personally I really just try and watch as many as I can live. So yeah, I think it's quite hard to catch the vibe exactly. I'm trying to think of one example where I did actually think, right, that's it, I'm booking them.

57:35Jessi And, um, I was gonna put forward that, uh, one person that I, as a DJ, I've kind of followed on social media. He— I think he really got going properly, like he got famous during lockdown, I guess, was a guy— I'm going to pronounce it wrong, but he's called Suat. So S-U-A-T. And he does these like Instagram videos. So what he— he's got a set of decks and some mini rigs that he ties around his Yeah, yeah. And he just goes to like city centers and like does this kind of like techno sort of set, which is—

58:08Kaptin Barrett Is he the cycling dude? Like he was, uh, he did the, the drum and bass cycle.

58:15Jessi Yeah, yeah, the, the drum and bass bike guy. He's separate, but it's a similar kind of thing that he get— he gets his— Suat gets his decks out and they're attached around his waist and he walks around But he's done ones in like shopping centres, he's done ones on a canoe, like going down the canals in London and things like that. And he always livestreams them, but he's very similar. He came out as D&B Bike Guy same kind of time.

58:39Kaptin Barrett Yeah, I, I, do you know what? Yeah, I, I do. I just, I just had a quick Google. I do recognise him. I did see some of his stuff. I, I, I got the two confused completely. Uh, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they are different.

58:50Jessi But yeah, I guess like you don't know what they're like doing a live set to a crowd, so it's kind of let's wait and see. I think he's on a few lineups throughout this year, so you can— maybe you'll get an actual idea of a lineup set. Love that. Cool, thank you for that, and great question, Rob. Thanks for, for coming in there. I guess we, you know, bringing it back to Glasto, um, one thing we did sort of notice is that Glasto, like a lot of festivals, are releasing the, you know, the main lineup poster in that kind of alphabetical order, apart from, you know, the headliners in Glasto.

59:22Kaptin Barrett Yeah.

59:22Jessi Sort of, um, you know, on their poster, but I've noticed it in a couple of festivals and things. I, I've, I've heard from people that I know who work in the industry that they've had artists genuinely, you know, getting a real pissy about where they are on a lineup. So I'm guessing, is this a helpful thing? Do you think it's, it's going to be the norm now, or—

59:42Kaptin Barrett I think, I think as a DJ that's called AAA Bad Boy, it's a brilliant thing. I think that, I think every lineup should be A to Z.

59:51Jessi Brilliant.

59:52Kaptin Barrett Um, but, but yeah, I mean, I, to be honest, it— I'm, I'm quite surprised that Glastonbury managed to, to last this long and not do it. I don't know what tipped them over the edge. Um, but I— you just see it more and more because it does— it takes so much time having those kind of— that those negotiations of, of who's bigger than who. And, you know, when it comes to someone like— just looking at the Glastonbury lineup, like, you know, is Crowded House bigger than Elbow? Are they bigger than Black Midi because Black Midi's newer and cool? And, you know, all of these sort of things, it's just— it just becomes quite tiresome. Um, like, especially with Boomtown, because we book a lot of DJs that are kind of big in their world, but, but then when, you know, when however many thousand people come out to see Beans on Toast and only say 6,000 people came to see that techno DJ, like, who's bigger, you know? Who's— how are you gonna argue that of who's bigger, you know? And, um, so it becomes quite a tiresome job, to be honest. And I understand it, like, don't get me wrong, I understand it from an artist's perspective, um, because people pay attention to it. People do pay attention to it, where they are on the lineup, you know, who's bigger than who. But ultimately, it, it's, it's not an honest representation So I think A to Z is, is a more kind of like, like a leveler. Like, right, look, everyone's on the same level. It all depends on, on what your first letter is. I think you are going to see a lot more bands beginning with A in the years to come.

1:01:28Miguel But do you say this is a change that's been coming, or is Glastonbury can do it because they are Glastonbury? No, I can tell people that Glastonbury have got away with not doing it.

1:01:38Kaptin Barrett That's the thing, they've got away with Nice. Not doing it for years. A to Z is, is what you do when you can't have those arguments anymore, and, and you just, you know, the only way to keep everybody happy is to do it in A to Z. Um, so, so actually Glastonbury for years have got away with, um, with not having to do it in A to Z, and I, I feel like, I feel like now that they've done it, that, that's it. It's going to be the industry standard, like, for, for most people. It's quite lucky for us because we're not releasing the lineup. So, so I don't have to have any of those conversations.

1:02:10Miguel I was going to even ask about that. If you can, can talk to us about a little bit of the thoughts that went into the decision.

1:02:16Kaptin Barrett Yeah, I mean, well, that was, that was partly it. But, but also, so what happens, like, it's great to see a lineup poster and it's— but like you've seen it with Glastonbury over the years, you know, people will say, oh, I'm not going to Glastonbury because Billie Eilish is playing. You're like, that makes zero sense. There's so many other artists on that lineup. But people become fascinated or fixated on the headliners.

1:02:42Jessi Oh, for sure. I have friends of mine who go, how on earth, why are you going to Glastonbury this year? The lineup's shit. And I'm just like, oh, I've sworn. Oh well. But you know, I— they, they say this to me like, oh, why don't you— you should just not go and sell your ticket. I'm like, firstly, you don't understand how Glastonbury works, uh, and, and secondly, no. Like, I, I think I see one Pyramid headliner if I'm lucky. Like, you don't, you don't get it. But anyway, sorry, carry on.

1:03:05Kaptin Barrett Yeah, I think I've only ever seen Stevie Wonder. Like, that was— I, I can't think of one other Pyramid headliner that I've ever seen, um, in all, in all of these years. But, and, and that was worthwhile. That was a, that was a great, great moment right there. But yeah, so people become fixated with the headliners. And on the flip side of people thinking it's shit because, uh, there's someone they don't like on there, people think that it's good because they know one of the headliners. And so when you, when you start putting on bigger and bigger artists You get an audience who don't understand the festival necessarily. They're just going because they see that name, and, and it really— it's— excuse it— especially with something like Boomtown, which is— it's not, it's not a music festival. It's really not. Like, it— and I'm, I'm saying that as the music programmer. I don't see it as a music festival. I see it— I see the music as something that facilitates the atmosphere and the vibe. But, you know, it's a festival. It's an immersive festival. It's one where you just go. Yeah. And you, you become a different character. You lose yourself within the festival. It's not about who's playing what time, it's about just being a part of it. And like, like I say, the, the people— it's people that makes the festival. And the reason that a lineup is important is because of the people that it brings to your festival and what it gives to those people. But, um, yeah, yeah, so I, I, I, I feel like a lot of the time the headliners are distraction from the actual festival itself.

1:04:36Miguel I was gonna say that we, even though we are— this discussion is quite lineup heavy, we all know that Boomtown and Glastonbury, there's so much more to the experience.

1:04:45Kaptin Barrett Definitely. Like, I've had amazing Glastonburys before I was doing the job where I now have to kind of like really go and see lots of bands. Like, I've seen like less than 5 bands and had an amazing time at Glastonbury, you know, just, just getting lost within the the festival and just wandering around. And I think one, one Glastonbury I saw 3 bands and one of them was Babyhead about 5 times. And, you know, I still had a great time.

1:05:12Jessi Yeah, we've, we've talked about this in our previous podcast and we've kind of said you can always tell a Glastonbury newbie when they're— they've got the programme in front of them and they go, oh, at 1 o'clock I'm going to see this band on John Peel, and then at 2:15 I'm going to see this band on Williams Green. And then at 4 o'clock I'm gonna see this band on the other stage. I'm like, unless you're gonna run and cut off half the bands, no, you're not. Um, you know, I, I go to Glastonbury and I have one thing a day that I absolutely must see, and then the rest of it is just walking around. And you might walk past something and go, oh, that sounds good, I'm gonna go in there, or I'm gonna go and listen to this for a bit. But you know, it's not about the—

1:05:50Kaptin Barrett When you start stressing about like, you're just gonna, you're just gonna have enough time because you're not gonna get there. You're gonna get stressed with your mates because they're dragging behind, you know. And like, don't get me wrong, I am now that person because I'm like, right, okay, like my schedule of things to do is ridiculous. I know I'm not going to see all of them, you know. I'm not going to stress out about seeing everything, but I have to like at least try and see as much as possible. But, but I mean, there's definitely some days where I bump into mates, I've got this, I've got my list and I think, do you know what, there's no one on there that I have to see, so the list is going in the bin. I'm just gonna— I'm just gonna wander around for a bit and enjoy Glastonbury. And I think I always seem to have a moment like that, and I think it's important too as well, you know.

1:06:36Jessi Yeah, yeah, of course. I think that's the best way to do it. Even, you know, someone like yourself whose, whose kind of job is to go and see people now and make sure that you're seeing as much as possible. I, I guess just quickly before we do get into the lineup, and we are going to do Do you— I mean, you know, after talking about what we're talking about and the fact that the lineup don't matter is one thing we say a lot on this podcast, do you think Glastonbury could ever get away with, you know, air quotes, doing a Boomtown and just not releasing the lineup until like 2 days before? Do you think that could— they could ever get away with that?

1:07:05Kaptin Barrett I think they're in a much better position to do that, to be honest, you know, because they always sell out anyway. Like, they're, they're in such a good position as long as they deliver when everyone goes.

1:07:17Rob Yeah.

1:07:17Kaptin Barrett I think, I think they're in such a good position. I think they should, like, I'm all, I'm all for it.

1:07:21Jessi I agree, I think the same. It'll stop people being silly beforehand and being, you know, although I guess maybe it'll mean more resale tickets go back in the pot when people go, oh, I'm not going because this person's playing. Cool, more chance of a resale ticket for me.

1:07:35Kaptin Barrett Yeah.

1:07:35Rob Correct me if I'm wrong here, guys, but I remember, if I remember rightly, in the past Glastonbury always used to release their lineup after all the tickets had sold, and this was when obviously they took Forever and ever and ever to sell. Because I remember, like I was just saying, like in 2002, I remember the lineup being really late. Like we were all, you know, planning to go and it still hadn't been released yet because there was still a few tickets left. So I think, you know, it dropping late was how it kind of happened back then. And then obviously it started selling out in not just a day, but in hours. And then that all sort of changed, didn't it?

1:08:07Kaptin Barrett The last time I remember it not selling out or not selling out until the last minute was the year that Jay-Z played. It was actually the only year that I've, I've bought a ticket, I think. And it was— I bought it on the Friday or the Thursday or, or something like that.

1:08:23Jessi Literally off the festival?

1:08:24Kaptin Barrett I bought it on my, on my way.

1:08:25Rob Oh wow.

1:08:27Kaptin Barrett Yeah, like I was on my way to Glastonbury and I thought I was gonna try some— I thought I was gonna have to try some, you know, little hustle or something. And, um, and, and, and I went into like HMV and just bought a ticket on the way down there. I was like, oh wow, That was easy.

1:08:42Rob In a music shop.

1:08:45Kaptin Barrett Yeah, yeah, totally. And I think, but after that, because it was pretty— I think it was probably a pretty muddy year the year before, and so that was— that's always a struggle the next year. But then the— I think there's so much negative press about Jay-Z playing, and everyone was just like, oh, it's not what it used to be, etc., all of that nonsense. And then of course Jay-Z smashed And of course it was a great year. So ever since then, they've just sold out super quick.

1:09:13Rob One thing that people always say to me is that, God, how can you justify paying £250, £260 for a ticket? And then I say to them, well, how much would you pay for a gig ticket, for example? And, you know, they're pushing up towards £100 now, aren't they, if not more? So if you go by that, you only really need to see 2 or 3 bands in the first place to kind of get the music value out of your ticket. But the value you get from the festival as a whole is so above and beyond that, it's ridiculous. Even if you, like you say, if you saw nobody.

1:09:44Kaptin Barrett But, and you get, you know, you get people paying thousands and they like, it's worth it, you know, like you will, you will have like, it will change your life. You go to Glastonbury for 5 days, whatever, it has the potential to change your life way more than if you went abroad for that amount of time or even longer. And I think for that sort of experience, you know, like the times it becomes questionable is when you go and it's super muddy and you're like, I've definitely come out of Glastonbury once at the very least going like, I don't know if I can do that again. And so when you've paid loads of money for that experience and it all goes a bit pear-shaped, I can understand that. But most of the time I think I think music festivals in general are like underpriced, if anything, you know?

1:10:36Jessi Oh, big time. I can only agree. Like, I have friends at work— well, sorry, I have friends and I have like colleagues and things who say to me like, I don't understand why you pay hundreds of pounds to go and, you know, set up your own tent and carry your own stuff in and, you know, be muddy and cold and get no sleep. And I'm like, you clearly have not been, because anyone who's been understands it and realizes that it is an experience worth so much more than the ticket prices they charge. And that's not just for the bands, that's for everything else as far as I'm concerned.

1:11:08Kaptin Barrett Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.

1:11:10Jessi Amazing. All right, well, let's, let's move on to the Glastonbury lineup 2022. Oh, exciting. So Captain, I know you're part of my UK Festivals Facebook group, and when I posted about this in the Facebook group, you were one of the first people to comment on it and said Cool, this is an absolutely cracking lineup, or something to those— to that effect. So, you know, why as an overall is it a great lineup as far as you're concerned?

1:11:36Kaptin Barrett Do you know what, just, just the sheer kind of like every band on there is so well thought about for the crowd, for the space, and for their performance, for their lyrics. Like, you know, a lot of thought has gone into that lineup and I've seen— I haven't even seen half of the bands on there, but the ones that I have seen are all good, you know. And I don't say that lightly. I see a lot of bands, you know. Everyone I've seen on that lineup, there's bands on there that I'm like, I saw, I've seen the last couple of years. Like bands like Black Midi blew my mind when I saw them earlier this year, you know. People like Self-esteem is great. Snarky Puppy are just, you know, one of the, one of the best jazz bands out there. Like, literally everyone on there— not everyone is to my taste, you know, and I'd say there's one or two that are questionable, but most of it, I, I would say, like, these are quality, quality bands, you know. And it's hard because there's so much, like, there's so much subpar artists, like As we carry on and people get number ones having never played a show, you know, and so much studio trickery can be done. And not to sound like an old codger here, but like so much studio trickery can be done in the studio so that when people come out on stage, you know, you've seen a huge rise in artists miming on stage, you know, like massively.

1:13:12Miguel Yeah.

1:13:12Kaptin Barrett Because they can't deliver what they could in the studio. It's been so over-polished. And I, I see it lots and lots, artists just, just not delivering. Whereas the artists on this lineup, there's none on there that I wouldn't expect to at least give a solid show.

1:13:29Jessi That's, that's great to know because, you know, I—

1:13:32Rob Absolutely. This is what we want to hear.

1:13:34Jessi Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think like, this is exactly what I want to hear. I will put my hands up in that I, I used to in my teenage and university years, um, was very good at keeping up with music, let's say. But I have been slacking in the past kind of 5 to 8 years at least. And, you know, I stick with what I know and I like what I know, and I go on Spotify and I play the same old stuff that I know and love, right? So, you know, when I am faced with a lineup that I'm like, a number of those names, I'm like, my instant reaction is to go, oh, it's new, that means it's probably crap, you know? So to hear from you that actually know You know a lot of these artists, if not all of them. You've seen at least half, you know, as you said, you've seen them live, and they are quality, you know, will sing, no miming, you know, no overproduced, etc. They're gonna, they're gonna deliver. So I love that.

1:14:21Kaptin Barrett They're gonna deliver. There's so many great, uh, performers on there, from Sampa the Great, Little Simz, Koffee. For headliners, I think that's, I think that's so strong. I know people that Like, Macca gets a rough ride, you know. Like, for some reason, at some point, it was cool to hate on Paul McCartney. And you know what, you look back, you look back through his back catalog, and there's not many people that can match him, you know. You've got—

1:14:51Rob No, he's musical royalty, isn't he?

1:14:52Kaptin Barrett You've got the whole of the Beatles back catalog for starters, and then his solo, his solo stuff. I think even his last album, right, when, when most bands from his generation are releasing like tired tropes and best-ofs. Like, it was an exciting, well-crafted, like, fresh, fresh-sounding album, which is incredible when you think about it.

1:15:13Jessi Right, okay, I'm gonna have to go and listen to Paul McCartney's album then. I, I'd definitely written that one off.

1:15:18Kaptin Barrett So listen to that last album. I think, I think, I think it was quality. I really do. And he, and he, he's released some quality stuff. Yeah, like, everyone judges him for one or two naff songs, you know, but, but I, I'd say He's created so much incredible content, and I've never, you know, I've never actually seen him live because, because the last time, I can't remember what I was doing the last time he played. I think I was literally in the tour bus next to his having a jam. Like, somehow I ended up backstage, uh, of the Pyramid Stage, and I was in, uh, it was the year that Spearhead, Michael Franti and Spearhead, played the, um, the, the Pyramid. And we had— me and my mate had blagged it backstage, and my mate had a radio show on, on, um, Radio Wales. And we didn't have any press passes or anything, but we managed to blag it backstage and do an interview with Spearhead and Black Eyed Peas as well, because they were playing. And we just ended up staying there and having a jam session. It was like Black Eyed Peas was in the tour bus, Spearhead, Tipper Irey, And we just had a wicked jam, but I think— but, but literally the, the tour bus next door was Paul McCartney. So I think we were still sat in the, um, I think we're still sat in the tour bus while he'd gone on stage and performed. So we totally missed it. But you know, I'd be tempted to see it.

1:16:38Jessi That is a hell of a story. And I tell you, now hearing that one, I, I genuinely think I could listen to you tell Glastonbury stories all day. We might have to have a separate podcast on that because If that's just the casual one.

1:16:50Kaptin Barrett Yeah, there's a few there.

1:16:51Jessi If that's just a casual, you know, drop story, then I bet there's some more good ones in there.

1:16:55Kaptin Barrett Uh, there's probably a few.

1:16:56Jessi Yeah, I, I think the Paul McCartney thing, like, you know, I'd kind of written it off, like, but I will go and check out their new album. For me, I was not a huge mega mega Beatles fan. Like, I, I realize, you know, the impact they've had on music and etc., and, you know, their songs, everybody knows them, but I was kind of a bit about him playing Um, Kendrick Lamar, you know, I'm into. I think he'll be great. Diana Ross, yeah. And then Billie Eilish, just for me, I understand that she's an amazing up-and-coming new artist, and I know that actually she's pretty well established. I say up-and-coming, she's not. And I know she's got a good range of stuff, but I think I was expecting, you know, for them to have a solo female artist. I don't know, I just was— I was— maybe I was expecting more, but maybe I'm just old. I don't know.

1:17:43Kaptin Barrett I think, I think, no offense, but I think that's it.

1:17:46Jessi Yeah, it is, isn't it?

1:17:48Rob It is.

1:17:48Jessi I know it is.

1:17:49Kaptin Barrett Literally, literally, there's not— because it gets harder and harder. Pyramid Stage is a massive stage, you know. It becomes harder and harder to find those headliners who will fill it. And for the younger generation, like, Billie Eilish is huge, you know. They are so excited about her. And it's not for me, it's not, it's not my vibe, but, but I think as a performer and, you know, a lot of what she's about, etc. I think, I think she's a great headliner, to be honest with you. But I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna go and see her. Like, it's not— I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna go in there and wage through all the teenagers, you know.

1:18:25Jessi I mean, you've only seen one Pyramid headliner, haven't you? So—

1:18:28Kaptin Barrett Yeah, exactly, exactly. Do you know what though? I am going to see Kendrick Lamar without a doubt. Like, I am there.

1:18:35Jessi Yeah, that's the one I think I'll see as well.

1:18:37Kaptin Barrett Because I've not seen him live yet. I've seen, I've seen so many videos I've been a fan of his since 2010, and he's just, he's just such a great performer, you know, and like great lyricist, amazing tunes. But you know it's going to be a great show. I was so gutted that I missed Stormzy last time. I was DJing at the same time down at Shangri-La, and I was, I was so gutted about that clash, you know. And then I saw the— watched this video back afterwards And it was just— I'm like, right, I'm not missing Kendrick Lamar, not at all. Do you know what I did? I did actually go to see Jay-Z, and it, it was a while, stood there. I might have been a little bit inebriated, and, uh, and I was like, when is he coming on? He should be on by now. I'm really disappointed. And it turns out I was at the Other Stage watching Massive Attack.

1:19:24Jessi Ah, brilliant, brilliant. I love that.

1:19:28Kaptin Barrett But, um, but yeah, I'm definitely there, and I'm Like, I think I'm just gonna spend most of Sunday down there actually, you know, because you've got a really— so last time that Stevie Wonder played, like, we had to get down there super— we got down there for Jack Johnson and we like managed to get through loads of the Jack Johnson fans. And then Faithless came on and like we jumped, we jumped through so many Faithless fans to try and get to the front. And it was like, it was a thick wall of people, but because everyone's jumping around so much and crowd surfing and things like that, we managed to get super close. And then in the break between Faithless and Stevie Wonder, we saw a space and we just headed for it. We just did what we could to get to it. And there was like a naked man sat about 4 rows from the front, and that was it. He was our best mate because there was loads of space around him. But like, you've really got to put the effort in if you're gonna catch a Sunday headliner. So I'm, I'm there for it. I'm gonna be there for— who else is on on the Sunday? Like Diana Ross.

1:20:33Jessi You're gonna be a Pyramid Stage hogger, basically.

1:20:35Kaptin Barrett I think so. I think I'm gonna have to be.

1:20:37Jessi You're gonna be one of those people who just— you're gonna bring a chair.

1:20:40Kaptin Barrett Yeah, I tell you what, the more— the older I get, the more I think those people have something, you know. Um, but Angelique Kidjo's playing on the Sunday as well, so that's probably going to be quite early. So I'm just going to go down there for Angelique Yeah, I think, I think it was something that—

1:21:00Miguel a challenge for this lineup. And I think, Jessi, you mentioned Billie Eilish sort of replacing Taylor Swift. I think a challenge for this lineup is, is this Glastonbury 2022 or is this Glastonbury 2020 happening 2 years later, like delayed? So I think everyone is looking at lineup with the eyes of 2020. Yeah, I think that's a good point. and looking for bands that were in the poster and then they're not. Or maybe they're thinking there's a lack of surprise because we kind of knew a lot of the bands that will be playing or expecting them to come back. So I think that's definitely— seeing the reactions to the poster, I feel that there's a bit of that maybe.

1:21:34Kaptin Barrett I think it's a little bit of both though, isn't it? You know, there's like, there are some bands missing that were on the 2020 lineup and then there's some new ones. There's some that people were really excited about. Like, I was really— I would have been gutted if Kendrick Lamar wasn't on this one or Diana Ross. You know, I would be gutted. I would accept it because I understand how festivals work, but I'm so— I was so happy when I saw him back on there. I'm like, right.

1:21:57Miguel So, but it's exactly this feeling that I think that I'm trying to say. I think that this poster, this lineup has this challenge because there's the expectation set back in 2020, and then you need to keep it fresh as well. And I think maybe they did it.

1:22:10Kaptin Barrett Yeah, I think they did a great job. Honestly, I was super impressed when I saw this poster. this poster. And that, you know, there's so many acts on there that there's quite a few that I probably won't get to see. There's loads I've seen before, um, but I'd say most of those I would, I would recommend. There's not really any on there that, that I've seen before that I would say don't bother.

1:22:30Rob For somebody like myself who probably— this will be echoed through, I think, a lot of the guys that will end up listening to this— who looks at the lineup and just generally kind of I felt a little bit detached from music because there was a lot on there that I thought, ah, I don't know any of this. Am I perhaps, you know, in the wrong place here? But you've certainly gone a long way to make me feel a lot better about the lineup. Not that it bothered me because, you know, I love Glastonbury, but you've got me excited. You know, you've got me thinking, right, actually there's a lot here I'm going to start checking out, new or not.

1:23:05Kaptin Barrett You need to listen to more Radio 6, basically. I think, okay, I think, I think that's kind of like, for me, it's like the perfect Radio 6 lineup. That's, that, that sounds like a bit of a diss, but it's definitely not.

1:23:21Jessi No, I love Radio 6, uh, like BBC Radio 6 is the one, um, and I, I do think you're right, it is kind of a blueprint for that, but it's what I've been trying to listen to more of.

1:23:30Rob When you mentioned the word jazz earlier, that pricked my ears up. I thought, oh, okay, yeah, no, actually there's, there's going to be some pretty tasty stuff on here.

1:23:37Kaptin Barrett I'm gonna have to start, you know, looking into I tell you, I tell you what, I can, I can help you on that now. Like, I mean, West Holts is my favorite stage. And so on the jazz tip, right, I'm gonna go through this now.

1:23:48Rob Because it used to be called Jazz World. Perfect.

1:23:50Kaptin Barrett Emma-Jane Thackeray, if you've, if you've not, if you've not seen her before, she's incredible. So definitely go see Emma-Jane Thackeray. Uh, Nubia Garcia is also like an incredible saxophone player. Uh, she played at Boomtown a couple of times. And she's like, the last time she played, it was when there was a hurricane. And I remember watching her and I could have sworn the hurricane was coming from her horn, you know. I was like, wow, it was quite a moment. Of course, you got Herbie Hancock, who I was quite surprised wasn't playing on West Holts actually. He's playing on the Pyramid Stage, which is interesting. I hope that's on Sunday as well because that's it, that's me done. In fact, I think it is. I think he is playing Sunday on the Pyramid. And then, yeah, Snarky Puppy, like a big band, big sound, just, just awesome. But yeah, I mean, there's other kind of jazzy, jazzier bits around there. Um, I'm sure Shane Coote and Egypt 80 are probably on, um, on West Holts.

1:24:51Miguel Um, I feel like, I feel like Captain is dropping some knowledge of who's playing where and when that we don't really know.

1:24:57Rob Oh yeah, I was just about to say, have I missed something?

1:25:00Jessi Because, yeah, Captain, I'm loving it, but I'm sorry.

1:25:06Miguel I think one of his spreadsheets contains some secrets.

1:25:09Jessi Yeah, yeah, if you've got some like, like day splits, then I think our listeners are gonna be like, what? Okay, so maybe we shouldn't go too far down that line.

1:25:19Kaptin Barrett Don't trust me, don't take my word for anything.

1:25:23Jessi Okay, if you say so.

1:25:25Rob Get out of jail free card right there.

1:25:27Jessi Um, Rob, just while we're on this, I mean, you've got some jazz recommendations there, but was there anybody else in the lineup that you wanted to say, I like these people, and then maybe Captain could go, oh, well, you should see these people.

1:25:37Rob I was thinking about this obviously in preparation, but you know what, I think because I only really knew the obvious ones that everybody knows, um, and I think that, you know, my position is going to be reflected by everybody out there. So in what— just to reflect what I said before, it's quite strange, we are recording this remotely, so I've been listening like intently with my headphones on, it's almost like I'm listening to this podcast. I've taken so much from it already. You know what, I'm more than happy to move on to somebody else because my list of notes, if I get any longer, I'm going to need another page.

1:26:09Jessi You don't want to fill up your schedule too much then, is what you're saying?

1:26:13Rob No, that's it. Because what I was going to move on to is sort of like what sort of stages do we, you know, are these guys going to be playing? Because if I don't have anyone I particularly want to see, we've spoken before, I tend to go around like the West Holts, Glade, or Croissant Neuf as kind of my go-to areas, which is where I just tend to discover or find music that I like. So I don't necessarily know who, who they are or what their names are, and generally it's not great, but I'll quite often probably forget them as I leave. But it doesn't stop me enjoying that sort of music. So to know that there's going to be some good performers— because what I'm looking for is I don't want to go and see somebody perform and feel like I'm just listening to the album. I want to see, you know, them perform the songs, you know. That's what I was going to say. Kind of when you were saying about the miming thing, I think that's such, you know, that's so It's doing people out of what a good music gig should be. It's not about just listening to the album, it's about seeing them perform and just go with it and change it up and really make it good. So the fact that the lineup contains people like that, I'm absolutely buzzing.

1:27:16Kaptin Barrett Yeah, I think you're generally, you know, pretty safe around West Holts. Yeah, that's my go-to if I'm like, want to just hang out at a stage and not move too far. that's definitely where I end up. Um, there's one artist on, on there who I'm pretty sure is playing at West Holts, which is Griff. And I, I was, I was a little bit like, oh, okay, that's a bit different, very poppy. But I definitely, I'd give her a go still. I'd definitely like check, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't stay away necessarily from the live show. I'd be interested because—

1:27:51Jessi My friend, um, saw her in Brixton like a couple of nights ago, actually, like less than a week ago. Um, and it was because he was in the area and his friend had a spare ticket and was like, do you want to come along? And he And he sent me some videos afterwards and was like, we need to go and see this girl at Glastonbury. And as you say, quite poppy, but like, he, he was right. And he's, you know, he knows what a good, uh, you know, good live show is. And he was like, she was brilliant at Brixton. So like, that was on my list, Griff, definitely. Even though she's, you know, quite poppy, I'm, I'm up for it. I think she'll be great. But yeah.

1:28:21Kaptin Barrett It kind of— I guess it was not, not exactly the same, but it kind of— I guess it kind of reminded me of like Because FKA Twigs was on West Holts as well, and maybe it was kind of filling that kind of slot. I don't know, it's maybe not fair to completely say those 2 together because they are different. But yeah, honestly, if there wasn't much else on, I was there. Especially now you're saying that, that makes me think, okay. But yeah, it's hard. It's, you know, it's really hard to work out where some of the artists are playing because they They all kind of pull from different places, and so artists that you would be guaranteed are going to play on West Holts will find their way onto the Park Stage especially. To be honest with you, I tend to, I tend to like stay on that railway track, you know, from like the Park and Arcadia up to Southeast Corner. That's my territory, you know. There's not often I come off path. That has to be a really good band.

1:29:23Jessi That's mine and Miguel's path as well, basically.

1:29:26Miguel I was gonna say, do you guys think that considering that we sadly missed the 50 years anniversary in 2020, uh, are there gonna be any surprises?

1:29:34Kaptin Barrett Oh, I— yeah, I reckon so. I mean, there always is though, isn't there, with Glastonbury? There's always, you know, someone pulls out someone that you're like, wow, can't believe it. Um, and yeah, there's, there's always something that will happen. And I— yeah, I, I honestly, I think that's—

1:29:51Miguel I think I, I was, uh, I— they did a live stream, the Live at the Farm, and then Thom Yorke with his new project, The Smile, and I, I was sure they're gonna be on the poster. So I'm putting that down as a secret set at the park.

1:30:06Kaptin Barrett Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But Thom Yorke, Thom Yorke was on the poster, wasn't he, for 2020?

1:30:11Miguel He was, he was on the poster 2020. Yeah, and I'm saying because they did the live stream on the farm during the lockdowns and everything, and he was there with his new band called The Smile, which is together with— oh my God, my mind blanked out now— the guitar player from Radiohead as well is also involved.

1:30:27Jessi Jonny Greenwood? Did I get that right?

1:30:29Miguel Jonny Greenwood, yeah, of course.

1:30:30Kaptin Barrett Yeah, that could well be. Yeah, he loves a secret set, doesn't he, Thom Yorke? So yeah, you could well be right there.

1:30:40Miguel And you did mention Self Esteem, so this is one set I'm really excited to see. I saw her in in 2019. She, by chance, she played the BBC introducing stage and it was amazing. And since then she's grown so much. So I'm really excited and I'm hoping, I hope she's going to have a good slot because I've seen her play tents. So I want her to have a big stage, really.

1:30:59Kaptin Barrett Yeah, definitely. She's great. She's, she's wonderful. Yeah, I think she'll smash it. I mean, for me, that's, that's like a perfect Park Stage artist, you know?

1:31:10Miguel I was just going to ask, I don't know if your music knowledge extends to Brazil because I'm from Brazil.

1:31:15Kaptin Barrett Okay, yeah, I know a little bit.

1:31:17Miguel And in 2020, there was like one of the biggest Brazilian musicians was on the poster. His name is Gilberto Gil.

1:31:22Kaptin Barrett Okay, yeah, yeah, classic.

1:31:24Miguel And this is one that I actually sad to see that is not back. And also since then I've been learning he was there at the first Glastonbury. He actually was involved. He was— he stayed at the farm for months before the festival happened. He was— he was giving suggestions, and apparently Brazilian Carnival was something that was really— they were discussing a lot before putting the festival out, how they wanted to have a lot of performance, a lot of, uh, other things involved other than the music. So I was hoping that he was going to be back. So that's—

1:31:55Kaptin Barrett I would love— I've never seen him and I would love to. Yeah, he's a fantastic artist.

1:32:00Miguel Do you, do you have any, any artists in particular, Jessi, you're excited about?

1:32:04Jessi Oh yeah, I might get some recommendations off you if that's all right, Captain.

1:32:08Kaptin Barrett Um, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:32:11Jessi I, I'm kind of a rock girl at heart, right? So I mean, if, if somebody was to say, what's your favorite band? Uh, my instant reaction would return with AC/DC.

1:32:22Kaptin Barrett Okay.

1:32:22Jessi That's always my go-to. Um, I really like Glass Animals. Um, Miguel was actually saying before you joined the call that he went and saw them at Ally Pally, and I'm jealous. A few of my friends went and I missed them.

1:32:33Kaptin Barrett Do you know what? Do you know my favorite— do you know my favorite rock bands? on, on this lineup are probably Black Midi. Have you seen them before?

1:32:42Jessi No, I mean, you've mentioned Black Midi numerous times, but I'm up for it.

1:32:46Kaptin Barrett I've said it a few times, haven't I? I think I just love them. I saw them in London a couple of months ago, and I think I just loved it so much. I mean, it's proper like Gen Z ADHD rock because they just go all over the place, but they're such incredible musicians. I mean, it's punk, it's metal, but it's also jazz. It's also probably classical. It's like, you know, there's so much that they, they pack in it, but they're such incredible musicians. Um, I think, I think they'll go down really, really well.

1:33:15Jessi Right, that's going on my list. Yeah, I love that. Like, I was gonna say, like, the other ones that I know on this list that I love are sort of, you know, Foals. Um, I've actually started listening to The Strays recently. I'm really into them. Yeah, the female-fronted band. She's, she's wicked. I'm really liking The Strays.

1:33:29Kaptin Barrett They're not playing, are they? Strays?

1:33:31Jessi The Strays? I thought they were on there. I was— you know what, I've been listening to a, a Glastonbury like Spotify playlist, not yours, so this is probably why it's wrong. But I've been listening to a Glastonbury Spotify playlist and they were on there, so I assumed. I'm now looking through the poster like, no, I can't see them. So maybe you're right and I've got this wrong. But anyway, I like The Strays, so there you go. Um, Wet Leg as well, I do really like them. I've got into them.

1:33:55Miguel I'm looking forward to seeing them live.

1:33:56Kaptin Barrett I'd like to see them live. Yeah, yeah, I like, I like the tunes. I'm interested to see how they deliver live. Uh, have you seen Warm Douche Alive?

1:34:03Jessi No, I have not. Warm Douche Alive? Oh yeah, okay.

1:34:06Kaptin Barrett I love those guys. They're pretty rowdy, right? But like fun, super, super fun and, and kind of stomping.

1:34:13Jessi Um, yeah, that sounds right up my street.

1:34:15Kaptin Barrett Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like them a lot. Really, really like Avalon and the Sniffers. I think they're Australian, kind of, uh, female-fronted punk band. But again, super like just really catchy kind of like—

1:34:28Jessi I'm writing all this down.

1:34:29Kaptin Barrett Um, and energy, really good energy, uh, in the music. I think I've, I've not seen them live, but I've, I've just got that feeling they're gonna be a lot of fun. Uh, Fontaines DC are always good. I've seen them before. Um, Idles, of course. Yeah, always wicked.

1:34:47Jessi Yeah, I've seen Idles a couple of times. They've always been like— I can't get on board with Idles when I listen to them on Spotify for some reason. But I've seen them live and I think, yeah, their energy, like, I'm really into it. But I don't know why, I've just never really got into their—

1:34:59Kaptin Barrett Real strong energy.

1:35:01Jessi Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very much a live thing for me.

1:35:04Kaptin Barrett Do you know, do you know a band I've only got into recently and I'm, I'm, I don't know how it's gonna— I, I've just got this feeling that they're gonna be good, is Metronomy. Like, I kind of missed, I kind of missed them, I kind of missed them at the beginning, you know. Like, I'm not— it's not a band I'm that familiar with, but the more I I hear them, and I, I enjoyed the last album, and the more I hear them, I'm like, I want to go and see them because I just feel that it's not a band I would necessarily go and see, uh, pay to go and see their gig or whatever, but I, I just have a feeling that I like them. So I'm gonna go and watch them. I might actually watch— do you know what, I've never actually seen Primal Scream all the way through. I've only ever seen Get Your Rocks Off 4 times. Like, literally, I don't know what it is about Primal Scream. I always turn up right at the end of their set and I just hear Get Your Rocks Off. That's it. Like, I've been— I've seen them in Hong Kong, I've seen them in Glastonbury Festival number 6, and I only ever catch the end.

1:36:03Jessi Yeah, I saw them when they were, um, just before Faithless. I think when Faithless were headlining the Pyramid Stage, I think it was Primal Scream before them. This is like, God, 2014 or something, 2015, maybe a while ago. But yeah, they were good then. But I know what you mean, that, that song is always the one, isn't it?

1:36:20Miguel I was gonna say just that. I think I'm planning to see Primary Screen this year because I don't, I don't know which year was it at Glastonbury. So you just said probably was 2014. I was there waiting for it to start, and, and the first song started and everything was amazing, but it was raining, it was pouring down, and I was with someone who just didn't want to stay, and I don't know why I was that person, and I left.

1:36:42Kaptin Barrett Oh yeah, that happened. Do you know what, I, I, I— the one band I wanted to see for years, it was Manowar, and, and they played, and for some reason I was watching them, and then I just, just, yeah, maybe followed someone, I don't even know. The next thing I know, I wasn't watching them, and I was like, why did, why did I leave? I've been wanting to see that band.

1:37:02Rob I absolutely love Manowar. I've just got a child.

1:37:05Miguel Yeah.

1:37:06Rob Yeah, awesome.

1:37:07Kaptin Barrett A hard band to book, that. I can tell you from experience, that's a hard band to book, but, uh, but absolute legend. Um, Squid. Squid is the other rock band that I would definitely recommend.

1:37:19Jessi Squid, sweet.

1:37:20Kaptin Barrett Yeah, yeah, really, really good live band, them.

1:37:23Jessi Okay, amazing. Right, I've got some great recommendations there. I guess I've got one final question on the electronic front. So, you know, Bicep Quartet, I've seen both of them Many, many times. Big fan. Any— anything along those lines that I should look at as well? I know that obviously DJs are a bit loose.

1:37:41Kaptin Barrett Yeah, they're the big ones on here. There's not— yeah, there's not a lot of the kind of big electronic acts necessarily on there. They're, they're the two that I would definitely— was that— see, you know, you could put Caribou in that, and like, Caribou, good live, but, but I wouldn't necessarily like go out of my way to watch them again. Like, I, you know, If they're playing nearby, I definitely like pop in. But I mean, Nightmares on Wax always wicked. I don't know if that's a DJ set or what, but like obviously has decades worth of classic tunes spanning from, you know, old school hardcore to all over. So it always plays a good set as well. I mean, a great, great DJ, Nightmares on Wax. Amazing.

1:38:30Jessi And I think like most of the electronic lineup comes a bit later, doesn't it, when they do their individual sort of stages?

1:38:35Kaptin Barrett Yeah, once you start getting, once you start getting more kind of like of your Arcadias and your, um, and of course, uh, Silver Hayes and, and the Southeast Corner and stuff like that. Um, yeah, yeah, there's going to be a lot more. There's definitely going to be a lot more. But I mean, I'm I definitely want to see Fortet. Definitely want to see Bicep. Uh, they're just, they just always deliver, you know, they're always good. Um, Avalon— have you seen Avalanches?

1:39:04Jessi I have not seen Avalanches actually, no.

1:39:07Kaptin Barrett Uh, the Avalanches are wicked. Yeah.

1:39:09Rob I think I saw them either 2002, 2003. They were brilliant. I'm trying to remember what the name of that album was.

1:39:15Jessi But yeah, okay, cool. I'll add that, I'll add that to the list. Nice. Yeah, Bicep and Fortet, I saw them both at Glastonbury 2019. Well, definitely Bicep. My mind is fuzzy whether it was Fortet I'm pretty sure my mate told me it was Fortet, but he could have been lying. I definitely saw Bicep at the Gas Tower and that was wicked. Like, it was— we luckily got there early because I heard it was like impossible to get in. But yeah, the sort of immersive 360 of the Gas Tower and Bicep was awesome. Really enjoyed that.

1:39:44Kaptin Barrett I wish I'd have seen that. What a good space to watch them in as well. That's incredible. Yeah, they're massive now, aren't they? You know, they were like the biggest dance band Pretty much. Yeah, like I say, it's so much good stuff. I really want to see Burna Boy. It's nice to see some Afrobeats in the festival. But yeah, let's see. Let's see what comes out. There's loads. As we say, this is just a small taster, you know, of the festival. There's so much more to come. Certain parts of the festival are like scrambling to confirm the last of their artists so that they can release them Soon. I've got to be careful what I say, haven't I?

1:40:21Jessi Yeah, you do. Well, or not. We're quite happy for you to not, but you know.

1:40:26Kaptin Barrett But yeah, I know, I, I, I know a few. I know, I know a lot more really good acts that are still to come. You might even see AAA Bad Boy down there, but I can't confirm that or deny it.

1:40:37Jessi Hey, AAA Bad Boy might be there. Go and see AAA Bad Boy if he appears on the list, everyone. Love that. Um, yeah, thank you. I've definitely got some Spotify artists I need to go away and check out. Um, and yeah, there's a few on there that I'll definitely be running to see for sure. Um, yeah, I don't know, Miguel, have you got any more questions? I feel like, my God, this is gonna be a long podcast, but it's all been so good.

1:41:02Miguel No, it's been amazing. I think, I think the summary is just, just be excited to get, get excited while you're there and go around and find new acts if you don't know what you If there's anything you think you're not excited, definitely they're all going to deliver.

1:41:15Jessi Yeah, I love that.

1:41:16Miguel And I think, and I think, I think we got everything. Thanks so much, Captain. It's been, it's been a pleasure to hear you and to learn more about the job you do and understand more about the festival industry. So it was a really, really interesting conversation.

1:41:31Kaptin Barrett Absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me on. And I'll see you all front left down at some of these acts.

1:41:39Jessi Awesome. Well, I guess we'll leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us. And yeah, we'll, we'll speak to you soon. Hopefully see you front left. I love that. Always front left. Always.

1:41:49Rob Thanks so much. That's been really, really, really good. Awesome.

1:41:52Kaptin Barrett Nice one, guys. All right, take it easy.

1:41:55Miguel Thanks so much, Captain.

1:41:56Jessi Have a good evening. Wow, how epic was that? I absolutely loved chatting to Captain. I'm sure you did too, Miguel.

1:42:08Miguel No, that was fantastic. Certainly I took a lot of notes. There's a few bands I'm gonna be checking out online now and might affect how I'm gonna be planning my Glastonbury 2020.

1:42:17Jessi Oh, definitely. I've got a list now. I've got a solid list and like a few extras that, you know, were not ones that I particularly requested or said that I might be into, but just hearing Captain talk about them, yeah, Yeah, I've definitely got a much longer list than I had before, so super excited about that.

1:42:34Miguel And thank you for listening, and also welcome to any newcomer, someone who maybe just got their first Glastonbury ticket on the resale, or someone who's been waiting to go to the festival for the first time. We have a backlog of episodes that was made for you, how to get ready for Glastonbury, so make sure you listen to our first episodes and continue listening because we have more planned down the line. And as always, keep in touch with us through our socials, uh, @GlastoCast, and you can always email us at [email protected].

1:43:06Jessi Amazing. We'll see you next time.