Music

Oxfordshire has had reasonable success over the years in Glastonbury’s new talent comp so it was with high hopes that Stornoway and fans packed their minibus and set off for the Pilton Working Men’s Club in the midst of deepest darkest Somerset.

The tiny village in the Mendip hills has done rather well out of its association with the world’s greatest outdoor music festival. The club is an architecturally imposing building and I’m told the sports facilities in the village would make most professional outfits weep with envy.

The first bit of news when we get there isn’t exactly what we were hoping for (they are on first), but at least it means we can relax and enjoy the rest of the evening after the set is out of the way.

The 20 minute performance must have been a nail-biting experience for the band. The room was filled with the great and the good of the UK’s music industry. Huw Stephens stood by the door to my right and Michael Eavis was next to the speaker at the front of the room to my left. Those were just the people I recognised, though later on in the evening I bumped into a teddy boy who it transpires books the Pyramid Stage, and somewhere in the crowd was Poor Charles, the man behind the acoustic tent! No pressure then.

Considering what was at stake I was shocked and horrified when, for the last song, the band dispensed with the phenomenal Glastonbury sound system which had delivered a sound that I’d never previously seen Stornoway match. They went completely unplugged and prayed to the Gods that their opposition in the crowd didn’t choose to scupper the moment by wittering at the bar. It was a tremendous risk and it was a triumphant success. Apart from the perfectly melodic sounds of 'We Are The Battery Human' the room was utterly silent, all the way up to the rapturous applause. The hard work had been done and the judges were suitably impressed.

It transpires that they didn’t win the overall competition, but they did get slots on the Q magazine's Queen's Head Stage on the Thursday, the Acoustic Stage (which is one of the main stages with a 6-7000 capacity!) on the Saturday, and the Avalon Stage on the Sunday. So if you're one of the 150,000 odd punters going to the festival this summer there will be plenty of opportunities to see one of Oxford’s finest – a job well done.