THE WORLD IS A VAMPIRE
The dark can't disguise the fact that the weather has changed for the worse and I get a terrible sense of déjà vu stepping off the train at Westbury and into the drizzle of a Somerset night cursed by all us interlopers who've brought this shoddy weather back to Glastonbury again.
Are we the jinx? Is it us?
"It's the same for the Bath Show in May. Rains every year", says the cab driver who picks me up.
OK. It's not just us. In fact, it can't be, because I remember Glastonburys in the '90s which were a dustbowl. The problem now, as Michael Eavis pointed out on BBC Breakfast the other day, is that the mud is beginning to stick and Glastonbury is getting a reputation for being an assault course.
The niggling, sometimes heavy, showers which last through Thursday night and into Friday don't help - but Vampire Weekend do. Much has been made of the line-up's inadequacies or frailties this year but there is an awful lot to see if you can drag your heels through the mud.
More importantly Day One delivers two key performances (among others) with The Vamps assured appearance being the first. On at 2.15pm, they pull a crowd bigger than any I've seen at this point on a Friday afternoon in 14 years of coming to Worthy Farm.
It's not just that the critics have been kind to them - it feels like all the other rock leylines are converging around them here. Their debut album is still selling consistently well months after release - as word around them spreads. But also, as British Indie Rock continues to fracture in 2008, the gap for a group like this has become bigger and bigger.
On top of this, Glastonbury is perfect for VW and their cultured abridging of musical styles. Although they play the Other Stage, their set hints at music you can hear in the Dance Tent, on the Jazz World Stage, at Avalon or in the Glade. They seem at home; comfortable and friendly, crisp and workmanlike. They go down a storm between storms. MGMT do a grand, majestic job re-evoking and reappraising the spirit of Glastonbury past in the Peel Tent later on, but Vampire Weekend's version of World Music is very now.
Later still there is another coming of age as Franz Ferdinand appear as 'surprise' guests in the (new) Park area. This is as much to do with the setting as the band. The Park sprung up last year playing host to Damon Albarn and friends, but in the adverse weather conditions the "festival within a festival" went largely unloved. This year its popularity has rocketed, rubber stamped by a massive crowd for Franz just after 10pm.
Throwing in some of the new material they've been airing on their small towns tour over the past week or so, this a tentatively successful return to the festival circuit for the band - although it's still hard to beat the indie hedonism of Take Me Out.
"We did some flyering this afternoon," announces singer Alex Kapranos from the stage, "because we didn't know if anyone knew we were playing. One lassie said to me "'You're not in Franz Ferdinand!' I am I'm the singer. So she said: 'If you're the singer then which part of Sheffield do you come from?' This one is for her!"
God smiled, the rain cleared. Job done.
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