Saturday morning dawned on a very, very damp and muddy Glastonbury. Spirits were a lot higher – largely down to England’s win against Colombia the previous evening – but I was also a lot more relaxed as I’d been stressing about the weather and Delphine not enjoying her first festival. She’d laid my concerns to rest the previous night though and didn’t mind the weather – so I was feeling a lot more chilled out and less anxious which inturn allowed me to enjoy things more too.

First up on the Pyramid Stage was Sharon Shannon – an Irish folk singer who played fiddle, accordian and other instruments. I’d not heard of her before but she was very good, and certainly was a fitting way to kick off Day 2 of Glastonbury.

Next up were Catherine Wheel, whom I’d seen at Camden Palace a few years before (GIG 219). I’d enjoiyed them at the club, and they were pretty good here – although possibly suited the smaller club venue more. We returned to Ireland for our third band of the day – with Hothouse Flowers. Hothouse Flowers had a big hit in the UK back in 1987 with a track called “Don’t Go” but were massive in Ireland with a string of #1 albums and Top Ten hits. They were also great live and I was really pleased to have been able to catch them.

Leading straight on from Hothouse Flowers was a singer I loved but had only managed to see once to date (GIG 166) – the lovely Tori Amos. Tori sat between a piano and electric keyboard, switching between one or the other during the set – or even playing both at the same time – she really commanded the stage and held the audience in captivity. Tori has such an amazing voice and brought some sun with her to give us all a break from the showers. She was probably my highlight of the entire festival, or certainly right up there.

Next up we had The Sterophonics followed by Mansun, both on the main Pyramid Stage. I had little interest in either band (although years later The Stereophonic’s 2005 album “Language. Sex. Violence. Other?” became one of my favoruite albums) and neither left a lasting impression on me at the festival, which is something that could not be said for the next performer on the Pyramid Stage.

Robbie Williams – the rascal and rebel of boy band Take That – who had left to go solo in 1996 and whose drinking circle included Oasis’ Liam Gallagher (there were loads of rermours at the time of Robbie’s leaving Take That that pointed towards Liam and co encouraging him to leave the band and become more edgy). Robbie Williams is one of those acts that I would never have ever seen had he not been on a festival line-up – which would have been my loss. Whilst not in to his music Robbie Williams is an absolutely amazing showperson and oozed charisma. He was fantastic live and certainly seemed to win many of the crowd who may have been a bit dubious at the beginning – and seemed to get everyone singing along to ‘Angels’ and other hits throughout his set. Brilliant performer – which is something I never thought I’d have said before seeing him live.

Following on from Robbie Williams was Tricky, who was an artist I really liked and had never seen. I’d first heard of Tricky when he was playing with Massive Attack but loved his solo albums – especially 1995’s “Maxinquaye”, 1996’s “Nearly God” and 1998’s recently released “Angels with Dirty Faces”. Live he was brilliant and put on a great set. The only problem we had was that partway through the set Delphine started to feel unwell – which I think we worked out must have been a sausage she’d eaten earlier. So at the end of Tricky’s set we left the Pyramid Stage and made our way back to the tent so she could rest up. Thankfully our tent was up the side of a hill overlooked The Other Stage – so whilst Delphine slept I was round the campfire with the others in our group (thankfully it’d stopped raining) listening to Underworld play. Underworld’s “Born Slippy” was a fantastic 90’s anthem and being able to hear that live was amazing.