THE LONE GROOVER

I went to my very first festival when i was 17....it was to see pink floyd at knebworth....i went with my very first boyfriend who was the spit of robert plant.....anyhew...we got the x42 bus from the town i live to newcastle bout 15 miles....then hitched a lift to scotch corner bout 35 miles off a lorry driver....then as luck had it managed to hitch a lift from there straight to the fesy bout 300 miles...on a bus loaded with hippys...had to sit, stand and sleep on the floor but it was like a rolls royce at the time.....course it took forever....and they were passing drink and joints round the whole way.....so arrives at fesy spaced out to fuck!....4 a.m....wondering from camp fire to camp fire ...smoking more suspect weed and getting more and more stoned....no tent ..no sleeping bag ..nothing...wakes up in the morning in a crumpled heep on the grass...need to find a loo....dont know if you remember the sounds music paper there was a superb cartoon strip called the lone groover....he went to a fesy and when he goes to the loo... an oil can sectioned off in to segments.....into a hole in the ground.....the queue sort of goes in to the distance....he decides to strip off and wash in a mud puddle when he returns someone has swiped his clothes and he goes..."zoiks!!..someones nicked me fabrics"...classic stuff bit like the freak brothers and fat freddys cat....well anyhew thats what it was like the queue for the loo went to infinity and beyond....eventually they open the gate to the field where the fesy was held...we all go in like herds of sheep....the only food available is lentil based .....frigging lentil soup...lentil casserole...lentil curry ffs....with the toilet situation you think they would choose something less explosive...sits on the grass to claim our place...yet more drink and suspect cake and smokes...thinks we're at the back turns round and sees a carpet of people behind ....freaked out!!...the rest is a haze....i honestly cant remember a thing about pink floyd....gets the train home over night......arrives back home bout 9 a.m on my own......walks in to the kitchen dressed in a long black hippy skirt...and tassled morocan jacket type thingy (btw i still have that jacket with a badge still on it saying ive seen gong....but i never did).....brown desert boots head band...filthy dirty....and my posh aunt was visiting from oxford....she grabbed her chest as she fell back in to the chair gaspping.....bloody hell she's a hippy!!!!......twas a crime in those days....that was the first of many though it didn't put me off...