The best month of the year has begun this week, and eventually we have some nice weather to go with it, June always brings up nice memories, mainly because it was always the start of the last term at school and generally the weather was nice, not always hot come on it is Britain, but is was generally decent for British standards. June has the longest day, Glastonbury and of course Wimbledon; this weekend sees the Derby and the Oaks, two of the five classic horse races. I’m not really a horse fan but when I was younger I remember one race involving Dancing Brave and Sharastani, which I suppose shows my age. I think Shahristani won the Derby instead of Dancing Brave (I had a bet on Shahristani that’s why I remember, even though I was probably a tinge underage). I also remember Dancing Brave getting his own back in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe when he stormed passed all the other horses like a turbo charged supercar, isn’t it weird what you can remember.
Glastonbury is always a place I wanted to go to, but never did, I wasn’t the type of person, nor were my friends to go down there and try and sneak through the fences, though I always wished I was. This year sees U2 and Coldplay adjourning the coolest festival around. Watching Glastonbury on TV is not the same, but it is one of those events like Wimbledon that the BBC do an excellent job with. You see in Britain we have the BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation, a national TV station that we pay a small license fee to get, and then we don’t have any ads whatsoever. This generally means for most of the year, we have to put up with a lot of propaganda and dross, but there are a few times like Glasto and Wimby when it just works perfectly. We get BBCi so you don’t even have to watch it all live, you can see the great line-ups weeks later on there, or if you miss a great tennis match it is on BBCi as well. The BBC is great for special events.
Glasto is always a time when you hear great new bands or even great old bands, that just may not have come into my tiny realm of perspective. I never thought I would like Iggy Pop until I watched him at Glastonbury, or many other bands. Some of my favourite bands I came across by accident, like the Hope of the States, I loved their albums, it’s a petty they split up, or Mumford and Sons, I could go on and on. Watching Muse live all those years ago turned them from a band with a few good songs to one of my favourite bands ever.
June also sees the release of the big summer blockbusters, I know most are generally rubbish, but there is always an air of excitement around them. How much will they make? Will they break box office records? If you are a sad movie geek like me these things matter, well at least they did.
June is when Britain is at its best, its best weather, its best everything; it’s just a pity it’s not like that the rest of the year.
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