When Glastonbury first held a music festival in 1970 I would only have been 9 years old so it’s no surprise that I wasn’t aware of it for a few years. However, by the time the 80s had come around it’s popularity was such that it had been added to my bucket list of “ambitions to achieve”.

My chance finally arrived June 26th 1993 courtesy of the Kinks. By that point I’d been with the guys 4 years during which we’d toured the US several times, all over Europe (including England) and the Phobia album had been launched.

As I recall it we were replacements for Crosby Stills & Nash who had pulled out late -just as the Kinks had done at the very first festival.

There was time for rehearsal and I stayed in the flat adjoining Konk studios sleeping on a pull out sofa that was actually more comfortable than the bed I had at home!

Bob, Jim and myself met up in the studio reception in the morning along with Lucy (Bob’s daughter).and it may surprise you we were chauffeured all the way from North London down to Glastonbury on the day we were to perform. A trip that takes so long we had two drivers sharing the work load. More of them later.

Fast rewinding back to 1989 when I was first introduced to Bob I recalled his very first words to me. Not “Hello” or “pleased to meet you”. Nope. Bob held my outstretched hand in a steely grip and said “Stay away from daughter” through gritted grinning teeth.

Fast forward again to June 26th 1993 and I enjoyed the company of Bob directly opposite watching me like a hawk for over 4 hours.

On arrival I was relieved to see the weather had been kind and the backstage area was free of the mud that occasionally engulfs the festival. I’d love to say I still had a backstage pass but on the day it was one of those annoying wrist band things (similar to what you have in hospitals) which I ripped off as soon as possible.

The road crew quickly found us and that was when I learned that Lenny Kravitz (the headliner) was refusing to go on last as planned.. I’ve heard since that he’d stepped back from headlining out of deference to the Kinks. Not so. Lenny didn’t want to follow us! He needn’t have been concerned. If Glastonbury had a roof he would’ve torn it off. Kravitz had struck gold earlier that year with ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’ and went over fantastic on the Pyramid Stage.

The clearest memory I have that day was the crowd carried on singing his closing number ‘Let Love Rule’ while our road crew reset the stage. 20 minutes later I went on stage just to test my keyboards and they were still singing ” Leeeeee-et L0000000-ove Ruuuuuuuuuu-ule”. Now we had to follow him!

Bill Orton was part of the crowd at Glastonbury that day and I’m grateful to him for making a copy of the set list we performed. (See below)  Ray was never afraid to give less familiar songs an airing, confident in the knowledge that he has Lola and friends to pull out of a hat when required. Even so I was surprised to see we played ‘Drift Away’.

The set was well received even though the encore included a couple of songs the audience wouldn’t have been hugely familiar with: ‘Aggravation’ and ‘Hatred’ and there was even time to squeeze in an unrehearsed blast of ‘Twist & Shout’. It had been a great experience which unfortunately wasn’t filmed. Any pictures here were taken by Bill.

Finally it was time to head home. A journey that somehow took an extra hour or so longer. The reason? One of the driver’s had decided he wanted to be dropped off first over in the East End of London… Thank you very much! I ended up back at Konk in the extremely early hours and crawled back into the most comfortable sofa bed in the world.

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Glastonbury was a good show and there was certainly a high level of crowd excitement as the band hit the stage, I nearly missed the Kinks as at that time you could buy a day ticket and the Kinks were booked for the Sunday, but Red Hot Chilli Peppers pulled out and at a late stage the Kinks were switched to the Saturday night!

Bill Orton

Set List

Intro Tape/Around The Dial (short)
The Hard Way
Low Budget
Apeman (short)
Come Dancing
Phobia
Deadend Street
Driftaway
Over The Edge
Till The End of The Day
Sleazy Town Days
Only a Dream Scattered
All Day and All of the Night

Encores

1 Aggravation/New World
Lola
2 David Watts
You Really Got Me
3 Twist and Shout
4 Hatred