Michael Eavis
Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010
BBC
4.4 • 804 Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2008
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kirsty Young's castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is Michael Eavis. It's more than 30 years since he launched the Glastonbury Festival at his dairy farm in Somerset. Back in 1970, the headline act was Marc Bolan. His fee for appearing was just £500 and party-goers were given all the milk that the farm's herd of Friesians produced.
Over the years Michael risked losing his farm in order to fund the festival, faced years when the event was mired in mud and was criticised for booking a hip-hop act to top this year's bill. But, he says, he always felt compelled to keep the Glastonbury Festival going and now it attracts 180,000 people each year and brings millions of pounds into the local economy.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: How Great Thou Art by Elvis Presley Book: Blake by Peter Ackroyd Luxury: A mouth organ with instruction book.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.4 | My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:10.7 | The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that. |
| 0:17.4 | With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to helping |
| 0:22.7 | you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put together |
| 0:28.7 | by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life, |
| 0:34.9 | check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. |
| 0:41.8 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:44.9 | The program was originally broadcast in 2008. |
| 1:08.2 | Music My castaway this week is the founder of the Glastonbury Festival, Michael Evas. |
| 1:12.1 | A Methodist dairy farmer from Somerset, he's always had an intense love of music, so much so that in the 70s, he used to play the kinks track, Lola, to his cows during |
| 1:18.1 | milking. These days, the cows still get milked, but every summer they hear the likes of primal |
| 1:22.7 | scream, oasis, or Amy Winehouse, and the roaring approval of hundreds of thousands of fans. |
| 1:28.9 | A very long way, Michael Levis then, from your first festival. |
| 1:32.1 | Your headline act back then in 1970, I think it was, was Mark Boland. |
| 1:36.3 | What did this glam rocker from London make of Rural Somerset? |
| 1:40.8 | Well, he was great, actually. It was absolutely amazing performance. |
| 1:45.3 | When he turned up, though, |
| 1:53.0 | he turned up at the gate in a bureauc or a Cadillac. It was all covered in some kind of velvet or something. |
| 1:59.6 | I put my hand on it and just strode. I said, supercar, a nice car you've got, because I did security, |
| 2:01.5 | and I took the money on the gate, |
| 2:06.3 | I did everything in those days, you know. And so he screamed and he said, take your hands off my car, |
... |
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