Glastonbury

On Friday morning we played our long-awaited gig at Glastonbury. From the moment we woke up in the morning, we were buzzing with excitement and nerves.  This event has been built up for a long time, so we did our best to block out everything and focus on playing. The John Peel stage is a highly respected one at Glastonbury, and to be asked to play on it for our first international show was just an incredible feeling. Walking out on to the stage to see thousands of people watching with curiosity felt pretty crazy. We played hard and dealt with the technical difficulties that seemed to happen one after the other. Aside from that, we had so much fun. The crowd reaction was amazing, particularly after we played ‘Whole lotta Love’ and onwards. We were unsure as to whether or not we should be covering that song in its homeland, but we seemed to have made the right decision. We are so lucky and are so thankful for the support everyone has given us to get here. 

We have been spending the rest of our time trudging through mud, falling over, exploring and seeing bands. This place is gigantic. There is so much to see and we are constantly bumping into something new. The atmosphere is incredible. Everyone is here for a good time and there is just love and fun in the air.

On The Road To Glasto

Finally, we’re on our way! We had a great day driving down thin windy roads and cobblestone towns. The scenery was so beautiful! We were starting to doubt our trusty SAT NAV as the roads became thinner and it seemed as we were right in the middle of nowhere. We should have never doubted her, we got there in the end.

On the way we stopped off at Stone Henge where our manager began to quote Spinal Tap and didn’t stop for the rest of the day.

We are staying in a very kind families home that is so “England.”

We just finished running through the set acoustically before bed time. Hopefully we can get some sleep tonight, as tomorrow is the big day! The forecast is rain in the afternoon, so hopefully it will hold out till after our set. 

Our ‘Through The Clover’ EP was released here in the UK yesterday, and very appropriately we finally met face to face with Yvette and David Boyd who released the EP through Flock records (Angus and Julia Stone’s label.) In Australia we released it independently through Shock Records, and Flock is the equivalent over here. Shock, Flock.. what a coincidence.

We squeezed in some sight seeing yesterday before hitting the rehearsal studio in preparation for the big show. We visited Buckingham Palace, strolled through the beautiful Saint James park and took a ride on the London Eye. The architecture here is just breathe taking!

Today we rehearsed in the Ritz Studios, built underneath a railway bridge. Every ten minutes or so the room would shake as if we were being hit by an earthquake, as trains passed over. Next door rehearsing was The Jim Jones Revue, an awesome band from over here.

After rehearsal, we went to the place where Marc Bolan from T-Rex passed away. It was quite a moving experience seeing the shrine of flowers, pictures and letters.

Only three days till the big show!

London.

Well, we’re finally here in London - the moment we had been waiting for since October last year, when we were invited to play at Glastonbury after our set at One Movement in Perth. It all seems so surreal. Luckily we have a few days to adjust and let it sink in before jumping into the rehearsal studio and heading off to Glasto. Here we were thinking we were going to escape dreary Melbourne weather for some sunshine, but it’s actually warmer back home!

We literally just caught our flight here, after frantically trying to squeeze clothing into our carry on luggage to avoid the $50 per kilo we had gone over due to our instruments. Amy had to bolt ahead from customs to make sure we all got on. It was like a scene from a movie.. heads turning and all. Pretty funny really! At our stop over in Singapore, a dude approached us who knew us from back in the Iotah days. He played at one of the open mic nights in a country pub we played at. What a small world it is!

The flight was long and tiring, but touching down in London made it all worth it.

We’re still quite jet lagged, but have managed to get some sight seeing in today. We went to Camden markets, which had all sorts of amazing treasures. Oh, we also saw a squirrel. That was quite exciting. Some more sight seeing tomorrow and then rehearsing Tuesday and Wednesday. Exciting times!