As a bit of an all round music fan, (it’s in all my interview questions – what music gets your creative juices oozing?) and with Glastonbury 2015 just around the corner, it made me wonder what I have missed out on by not ever going.

I thought about visiting many times between the ages of 18 and 21. At the time, I was drifting through life in a permanent summer haze of fun; it was post ‘A’ levels and I spent two years before Uni, working at Beaulieu Motor Museum, driving veteran buses & mono rails, (That’s a story for another day) and serving at the brilliant, local pub, The White Hart. The said pub was located in Lymington, Hampshire and I can honestly say it ranks as my best job – probably because I was young at the time. We had lock-ins, lots of them, where the landlord (he was a legend) would throw me the keys and leave me to it. We played loud music, had lots of laughs and there were plenty of antics – the local police were very understanding.

Needless to say, I didn’t ever get round to going to the original, and some say, the best, UK music festival. It wasn’t the mud that put me off. People who know me now couldn’t possibly imagine me roughing it, not showering for days and camping in the cold and wet but it wasn’t the conditions that swayed my decision. I was a bit shy, a bit reserved and worried what I would do if I lost my fellow companions and found myself on my own. There were no mobile phones to help me out back then.

But oh, if only I could go back – with age and confidence now on my side – and tell my teenage self that it would have been fine, I would have had a ball and experienced one of our all-time great music festivals.

So, what have I missed out on? If I had gone in 1990 (aged 19) I would have seen great acts such as The Cure, Happy Mondays, Sinead O’ Conor and World Party. Wow, that would have been good! It puts a smile on my face just writing these names as I loved all of these bands and if I’d had a playlist then, they’d be on it.

In 1990, the festival took the name of the Glastonbury Festival for Contemporary Performing Arts, for the first time, to reflect the diversity of attractions within the Festival. It was the twentieth anniversary of the first Festival but unfortunately, ended with confrontation between the security teams and travellers who were looting the emptying festival site, resulting in 235 arrests and £50,000 worth of damage. It was also the first year that a professional car parking team was employed and donations of £100,000 were made to CND and other local charities.

The cost of a ticket in 1990 would have cost me £38 pound; 2015 prices are £220. Ref Glastonbury 1990

With the final preparations well under way for this year’s Glastonbury, and with headline acts such as, Foo Fighters, Paul Weller, The Who, George Ezra and Kanye West – not sure my teenage self would agree Kanye was Glastonbury status; but hey I’m older, wiser and more liberal now – getting ready to sparkle, what advice would the 19 year old me give my 43 year old self?

Go, enjoy, have fun, laugh lots and play your music loud!

We’d love to know whether you have ever been to Glastonbury and if you have been, who you saw? If you didn’t go but want to know who you missed out on seeing, the Glastonbury history and gallery pages provide great points of reference.  There are also some wonderful photos, taken through the years, at The Guardian.

So, here’s to great music, dancing in the mud and getting your creative juices flowing!