The Leftfield

A little bit of politics…

Politics. This picture of the Left Field is from the early 2000s. Some people say that Glastonbury should have nothing to do with politics, that it should just be about entertainment.  But that’s garbage.  Politics and music are bound into each other.   Their relationship emerges out of the fault lines of class, gender, race, sexuality, and all the other fractures of suffering, exploitation and oppression.   Punk, disco, folk, grime, dance, hip-hop, reggae and so on all make politics in their own way. The Left Field is therefore just a natural expression of the essential relationship between music and politics.  It is also barn storming fun!  Where else could you have seen Tony Benn delivering a defiant passionate critique of capitalism followed by a surprise appearance by The Specials (sans Terry Hall)? It is also the place where I had closest to what I think of a religious experience.  Again, at some point in the late 90s or early 2000s Billy Bragg (who else!) was playing there.  Towards the end of his set he announced something like ‘... this is why we all do what we do’. He went straight into Garageland with its declaration of taking control over your own life and its strident contempt for what ‘the rich are doing’.  Pure truth!