Waking up to Day 2 of a very muddy Glastonbury ’97. Pulling on those mud caked boots, and heading out in search of breakfast… from one of the myriad of food stands available across the festival site. Thankfully we’d pitched the tent part way up a hill so weren’t in the worst of the mud, I think our tent actually overlooked the Pyramid Stage so, if we’d wanted to, we could have just sat outside and listened to the music… but there’s no fun in that…

The first band we saw of the day was The Wannadies who came on at 10.40am on The Pyramid Stage, They are a Swedish alt rock band. I’d heard the name but am not sure I had actually heard them before. They were pretty good, and certainly a good way to start off what would be a jam packed Saturday.

Next up on the Pyramid Stage were Republica. Ready To Go had been all over the radio and I really liked the album so was pretty keen on seeing Saffron and co live… and wow… I think they were in the Top Three Bands of Glastonbury 1997 for me. They were phenomenal and blew me away live. Definitely a band I wanted to see again (and wouldn’t have to wait too long as they were also on the Reading Festival bill later that summer.

We then moved over to the Other Stage for the rest of the afternoon and early evening. We caught a mix of bands there – Silver Sun (whom I’d seen before but didn’t rate as highly this time round), Dub War (third time live, and still great), 60ft Dolls (another band I knew the name of but couldn’t tell you if i’d listened to any songs from – they were very good), Geneva (Scottish Indie band – hadn’t seen them before but had a single of their’s, again pretty good live), G Love & Special Sauce (US band, again knew their name but not their music. Was not keen), Stereolab (also first time seeing, but not a fan).

The evening moved in with Dubstar taking the Other Stage at just after 7pm. Dubstar had a string of hits in the UK, with “Stars” and “Not So Manic Now” being the two that, for me atleast, stand out. I had their album, and singles, and liked the band. I’d never seen them live before and they were very good.

Next up, also on The Other Stage, was probably another surprise of the show – and again ended up being in the top three bands of the Festival. Complete with rain coat and wellies was Neneh Cherry. Wow, was she great. I knew her early material from the late 80’s – “Manchild” and the number one hit “Buffalo Stance” that had always been popular when I DJ’d parties and weddings back in the late 80’s. I loved her with Youssou N’Dour on “7 Seconds” which was a massive hit in loads of countries in 1994, and her 1996 album “Man” which included one of my favourite of her tracks, “Woman”, was played a lot at home. But she was never an artist I’d have probably gone to see live – which is one of the real treats of music festivals. You get to see a whole bunch of artists and bands that you might not usually (or ever) see at a normal gig. Neneh Cherry was fantastic live. I said above she was top three of the event, I actually think she was probably my favourite artists from Glastonbury 1997.

After Neneh had finished we headed back over to the Pyramid Stage to see Ocean Colour Scene who had a load of Top Ten hits in the mid-90’s. My favourite was probably “The Day We Caught The Train”, but they were a band I considered a bit bland. I wasn’t really in to their guitar based indie rock sound, despite it being incredibly popular with a load of bands in the 90’s. That said, they were very good live and definitely worth seeing.

Headlining the Pyramid Stage was Radiohead. Their third album, “OK Computer”, had just been released a month before and had given them their first number 1 LP (The Bends, their second album, had reached #4 in 1995). I’d liked Radiohead ever since their 1993 debut album, “Pablo Honey”, which includes one of my favourite songs “Creep”. Even by their third album they had so many classic songs, and OK Computer was a fantastic album in it’s own right if you even ignored their earlier ones. The set covered tracks from all three albums and was brilliant. Very pleased to have finally seen them live, and I think I might have seen them again at another festival years later. Certainly caught their last Glastonbury appearence on TV in 2017 when they headlined again (for the third time, the other time being in 2003).