The Ned Wood Archive

Joe

Joe and Tom were headed over to the Greenpeace stage to see who’s there.  Well, they knew that Beans on Toast was playing at 7:30 but they get there much earlier.  It’s always worth getting there much earlier.  You never know who else is gonna be on.  Good or bad.  Usually worthwhile.  Turns out that before Beans there’s this lass called Shannon White, another singer songwriter, just her and a guitar or her and a banjo.  A rough, wailing, hoarse voice.  Joe thinks he hears a bit of Leveller in there in some of the songs.  She’s effective.  Proper people’s folk – furious about the world!  But she plays it all with a big smile!  That’s Glastonbury for you.  Everyone smiles.  Even when they’re angry.  

So that’s an added bonus before Beans on Toast comes on.  He’s one of their Glastonbury go tos.  They’ve sort of grown up with him.  Like he’s their cool uncle.  He started out singing irate songs when Joe was just starting going, got to climbing up the lighting rigs when Joe got a bit more adventurous, then he got romantic when Joe started dating seriously.  Now Beans does a bit of everything.  And always with a massive smile on his face.  Don’t you just love it when you go and see someone and they are obviously having fun.  Turns out that he loves Glastonbury as much as me. Like the man says, a spring in his step and a smile on his face; a head full of hopes and a hand full of dreams.  Thing is, though, Tom prefers the political stuff like Gods, Children, and Robots and Joe prefers the happy stuff like Watching the World Go By.  He doesn’t disappoint this evening.  He plays both.  And he plays that song Album of the Day which Joe used to think was about his girlfriend until he saw the video and found out it was about his daughter. It has that great line: “try to avoid greatest hits cos the real world comes with album tracks”.  Ain’t that true.