1975 Increasingly disgruntled at being asked to move from their usual fields into cramped accommodation half a mile away, the sizeable Glastonbury herd of cows staged a protest, mooing at the top of their lungs during a set by hippy folk-rockers The Incredible String Band. Cows were mooing during Scottish hippy folk-rockers The Incredible String … Read more
1970 With the cancellation of this year’s festival, it is a good time to look back at the very first Glastonbury Festival, which was a singularly ramshackle affair, taking place on a single, rather cramped platform, The Coffee-Table Stage. That first festival was an uneasy mix of old and new. Joint masters of ceremonies were … Read more
Notes From An Apocalypse Mark O’Connell Granta £14.99 Rating: From the beginning of time, people have been predicting the end of time. Many of today’s shrillest apocalyptic predictions echo the Revelation of St John the Divine, which was written in about 90 AD. When I was growing up, in the 1960s, people imagined that imminent … Read more
Big Brother winner Craig Phillips reveals he took his wife Laura to meet Nasty Nick while in Australia, only for his former housemate to tell ‘lie after lie’ during dinner. Craig, 48, won the very first series of the reality show in 2000, gaining popularity after confronting Nick Bateman, 52, for cheating in the house. … Read more
Along with slugs, sharks and snakes, goats have long suffered from a poor public image. You might almost say that the goat is the Duke of York of the animal world. For centuries, the goat has been a symbol of sin, which is why the devil is so often depicted with a cloven hoof. Lechery, … Read more
On Tuesday, I wrote about the peculiarly vivid dreams many of us have had during the lockdown. Since then, I have discovered that quite a few of us have been dreaming about the Queen. ‘I’d just moved into the wing of an old castle and I was settling in on my first night to watch … Read more
One of the most surprising beneficiaries of the current crisis is the game of croquet. The Croquet Association reports a 110 per cent rise in sales of croquet sets, along with a surge in inquiries from people wanting to join croquet clubs. Meanwhile, John Lewis has apparently sold 600 per cent more croquet sets than … Read more
CRAIG BROWN: Online yoga? It’s too much of a stretch for me By Craig Brown for the Daily Mail Published: 00:55 BST, 26 May 2020 | Updated: 00:55 BST, 26 May 2020 YOU WANT To expound on every aspect of coronavirus while everyone else listens to you in respectful silence. YOU’D SETTLE FOR Knowing what … Read more
Colonel Tom Moore, aged 100, and Dame Vera Lynn, 103, have both released hit records this year. Dame Vera’s album ‘100’ reached number 3 in the Official Album Chart, while Captain Tom Moore (since promoted) had a number 1 in the Singles Chart, duetting with Michael Ball on You’ll Never Walk Alone. But what of … Read more
CRAIG BROWN: The taxi driver was one of the cheery sort. ‘Hop in! Beautiful day!’ he said. ‘In fact, there’s no doubt about it – it’s the driest, warmest, sunniest day in years!’