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Knebworth 1976..I am not sure how I got out of the house, as my parents were very strict. Me and the broke, hippy boyfriend went up the night before and for some reason he brought no sleeping bag. We shared mine ( a bit of a tight squeeze) and slept in what seemed to be a car park. In  the middle of the night some jokers thought it would be really funny  to pour a pint of milk all over us, so as the next day dragged on we got stinkier and stinkier, as the toilet were facilities were not up to much. As there was just the two of us, and how ever thousands of people, we never moved from our spot for about 15 hours, apart from an occasional individual clamber to one of the toilets ( every time we did, our spot in the crowd got smaller). I think we only had a box of smarties  to eat all day and night…There were lots of problems with the sound, so by the time the Rolling Stones came on, and did their longest set ever -which was really really  late, I was writhing  on the ground with abdominal  pain (no sympathy from the boyfriend) due to lack of food, sunstroke and  sour milk fumes  It got really cold and I had only a thin checked shirt and a bright yellow cadillac sweat shirt and nearly froze getting out of the festival which took about 2 hours…the crowds…yuk… ’til the wee small hours …like about 3am then we  hitched back to Watford. You would have thought I would have been put off music for life….

The year after, I went with 3 friends  a tent, enough food to sink a battleship and a change of clothes, and no milk.

SONG OF THE DAY Todd Rungren -I Saw the Light

I seem to remember Todd Rungren was one of the highlights of an amazing line up on that day in  the summer of 1976…but all I can still remember is the smell of sour milk.

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I looked up if there was any festivals or feasts days happening today, and blow me down it is Michaelmas Day today, one of the four ‘quarter days’ in the year in some calenders   – Lady Day (25th March), Midsummer (24th June), Michaelmas (29th Spetember) and Christmas (25th December). So Michaelmas Day tugs it’s forlock at the arrival of another natural phenomenon….

Off to the beach!

Autumn, and says goodbye to summer – though you would not know this today, as the temperature sores to 27 degrees in our back yard and anyone in London with any sense has taken a sick day and gone to the beach.

Old Michaelmas Day – which was 11th October sounds like more fun.  There is an old legend that you should not pick blackberries after  O.M.D -probably because they are well past their sell by date and have no flavour by then. But  folklore states that on Old M.D Satan was banned from heaven ( how he got in there in the first place seems a bit of a mystery, but I am sure there are lots of legends about how he got in with ‘a plus one’, on someone’s guest list) He was obviously physically pushed or thrown out, because legend has it that he fell into a blackberry bush on his way to hell and gave the brambles  a right cursing as he landed, which presumably ruined their flavour…I sympathise for the devil at this moment, as I got pretty scratched at the weekend picking the same fruit and they are lethally sharp. In Yorkshire, it is said that the devil then spat on them…yup I get this too, I nearly spat myself…but am much too well behaved. A little cursing sufficed.

So there you go…you can tell that they were obviously short of things to do in those days, no TV to vegetate in front of,  ( I did not really sit in front of a programme about the reforming of the group Steps  last night?…kill me now!) really weak beer,  so there was a lot of story telling going on, some better than others. I have to say this particular legend  is a bit weak in it’s plot.

‘There is a flower called the Michaelmas daisy. The act of giving a Michaelmas Daisy, so they say, symbolises saying goodbye, perhaps in the same way as Michaelmas Day is seen to say farewell to the productive year and welcome in the new cycle.’

SONG OF THE DAY – Rolling Stones -Sympathy for the Devil

I don’t understand the lyrics of the song,  about 15 years ago, I  bought a hot bacon roll for my lunch in Crouch End, stuck it in my coat pocket as I went into Tandy for some cabling ( haha , see yesterday’s post) and there was a man with a dog in the shop, the dog kept nuzzling up to my coat pocket. The man turned to me and said  ‘you must have a dog, my dog seems to really like you’…I replied ‘ sorry mate I think the only thing your dog likes is the smell of the bacon sandwich in my coat pocket… oh how we laughed -the man and dog left…The man behind the counter was most excited…’Do you know who that was? It was Mick Jagger’s brother!’ so there you are, another claim to fame. Mick Jagger’s brother’s dog, nuzzled my coat. My favourite piece of this song is the vocal hoo hoo bits. Make the most of the sunshine if you have it  down  your way, and you are not stuck in a windowless room x x

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Just after I took this photo a little gust of wind took all the seed heads off this beautiful dandelion  They danced across the landscape. The dandelion head was a shell of its former self.  A few minutes later the sun was gone, and  the light all slowly seeped away . Today is a day for making sure I appreciate everything as it is RIGHT NOW, as you never know when a gust of wind might come and change it all.

SONG OF THE DAY  The Rolling Stones -Paint it Black

I was just a bit too young to get into the Stones the first time. I heard 2 friends do this as  an acoustic number at our club, and realised I had never heard the words before so I then arranged it for acapella. It was the top song in the  choir poll for a while. Here is a version beautifully sung by Earthly Voices  CLICK HERE in the summer of 2009 (LIVE!),  you can really hear the words, and then listen to the original !