Glasto time again

It's Glastonbury Festival time again and as usual I'm not there. Those who made it are enjoying good weather for a change. But newswise there is a lot of competition. We have an election on Thursday when, most of us hope and pray, the Tories will be voted out. There'a a rather sad contest taking place in the States between a befuddled but basically decent Democrat and an evil lying Republican. What a choice! And there's sport going on as well. The Euro football is reaching its climax, with all England fans hoping for improved performances, India has just won the T20 Cricket World Cup and Wimbledon starts on Monday. Everything happens at the same time it seems. Glastonbury continues to attract thousands of people, but there's fairly little that interests me. Looking through the line up it seems that Cold Play have taken up residence in Somerset and that Shania Twain has been promoted to 'legend' status. P J Harvey, Dua Lipa and Cyndi Lauper (pictured below) are among the acts that have attracted most approval so far. Other than those there are many performers whose names mean nothing to me: no genuine roots acts that I can see and no one who I can get really excited by. There are a few who are of some interest, such as Femi Kuti, Michael Kiwanuka (whose female co star is pictured above), the Skatalites (none of whom are originals), Steel Pulse, the Manfreds, Albert Lee and the Gypsy Kings.

For the first time in many years I won't be going to the Porretta Soul Festival this year. There are precious few original soul acts who are still performing and I can't raise much enthusiasm for the line up this year. Hopefully I will be back next year. I haven't given up on festivals, but it's getting really hard to find a schedule that excites. That's an age thing I guess - although I live in hope. Meanwhile my local village, Odiham in Hampshire put on its annual 'Bands In The Bury' music festival today featuring local groups of varying quality. The photo below shows the Accelerators, a ska band from Basingstoke.