The annual Glastonbury music festival is one of the biggest in the world, both in terms of the number of people who attend, and the worldwide acclaim for the event. The man behind it all? Step forward Michael Eavis, the dairy farmer turned festival supremo.

Eavis, now 73-years-old, started holding the Glastonbury festival in 1971 after being inspired by Led Zeppelin’s performance at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music the previous year. It’s since been held every year or two and grown bigger and bolder.

As the founder of the festival, Michael Eavis has made the 2009 TIME 100, a list of the most influential people on Earth. Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay, wrote the tribute piece explaining why Eavis deserved his place on the list.

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Glastonbury 2008 was a bit of a mixed bag - with poor ticket sales meaning there were still places for the festival available on the day it started, but some outstanding performances from artists such as Amy Winehouse, Editors, and The Verve ultimately saving the day. The weather was also okay after an initial downpour.

Then there was the highly controversial set by Jay-Z, not controversial for anything he said or did on stage, but because it was Jay-Z… at Glastonbury. Some people didn’t like the fact that a rapper was given headlining status at a traditionally indie and folk venue.

Now it’s all over, and the festival’s organisers, headed by Michael and Emily Eavis, are already planning for Glastonbury 2009. They have attempted to address the ticketing problem by releasing the bulk of the tickets early - this October to be precise.

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Amy Winehouse managed to show up for two gigs in two days, and put on incredible performances at both the Nelson Mandela Birthday bash in London on Friday, and the Glastonbury Festival on Saturday. However, she put a black mark on her record by punching fan while performing Rehab, the last song of her set at Glastonbury.

Wiehouse’ performance was a huge success, with a crowd estimated to be around 80,000 turning out to watch her show. Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis suggested that this was the biggest crowd ever to watch an artist perform on the Pyramid Stage.

Everything was going fantastically well until during Rehab, Winehouse decided to leave the stage to go and mingle in amongst the front rows of the crowd. That is when the following happened, an incident which ensured her the Sunday newspaper headlines yet again.

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The 2008 Glastonbury Festival is finally upon us, with the first set of headliners set to take to the stage tonight. While the whole nature of the festival has been brought in to question over the past few months, Michael Eavis is convinced the festival has a future, and that this year’s controversial line-up is a winner.

Glastonbury used to be a very free and easy festival where almost anything was allowed. This included people just turning up and gatecrashing. The music was also very firmly grounded in the hippy/indie genre, with mainstream acts left for other more poppy festivals to mop up.

But the last few years has seen a number of big changes occurring. First and foremost, the nature of the festival was changed, with high ticket prices, more security to keep out the unwanted elements, and a severe system for ensuring only proper ticket-holders made it on to the site.

The first noticeable effect of this was of less atmosphere reported at the festival over the past few years. If only the middle-classed wealthier gig-goers can afford to make the journey to Glastonbury, then the atmosphere is clearly going to change, and not necessarily for the better.

Then we had the line-up altered significantly to include a much more diverse range of tastes, including, shock horror, hip-hop. When Jay-Z was named as a headline act for this year’s festival, there was an outcry which continues to this day, the first day of Glastonbury 2008.

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The 2008 Glastonbury Festival has had a tumultuous build-up, with complaints from many about the unnecessarily stringent ticket buying policy, and a distinct lack of enthusiasm over the line-up, with Jay-Z’s headline slot coming in for particular criticism.

This, as well as the lack of good weather, has lead to sales hitting a record low, and even at this late stage, there are still tickets available for the legendary festival. But not for long, as they will be going on sale in HMV stores around the UK tomorrow morning at 8am.

According to an announcement on Glastonbury Festivals, tickets will be available in seven store from 8am on June 11th. The stores are as follows:

HMV Bristol, 21/23 Broadmead
HMV Glasgow, Argyle Street
HMV Newcastle, 56 Northumberland Street
HMV Manchester, 90 Market Street
HMV Birmingham, 38 High Street
HMV Cardiff, 53 Queens Street
HMV London, 150 Oxford Street

While this is good news for those gig-goers still looking for tickets, it again raises serious questions over the whole anti-touting policy in the first place. People will be able to go in to the shop and buy a ticket tomorrow with no hassle. However, if you’ve bought one over the Internet already, you’ll know the hoops that the organisers expected you to jump through.

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Today is the last day to register for your chance to obtain tickets for the Glastonbury Festival.

Although tickets won’t actually go on sale until April 6th, everyone who wants to be in the queue, needs to have registered by midnight tonight (March 14th) or miss the chance until next year (if there is a Glastonbury next year).

The policy is part of several anti-tout measures brought in in recent years, after the site was overrun by non or fake ticket holders.

Unfortunately this also means uploading a passport style picture now, which should you be successful in buying a ticket in 3 weeks time, will be printed on your ticket, enabling security staff to make sure you are who you say you are.

To register, simply head to the Glastonbury Festival Ticket Registration Page, and submit the details which are asked of you.

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Yes, if you take Emily Eavis’ thoughts on the matter as hard fact. No, if you take more notice of Michael Eavis’ denials on the whole business.

Michael Eavis has been organising the Glastonbury festival in the UK for 38 years now, but recently starting sharing the responsibility with his daughter, and now co-organiser Emily. The problem is, she sometimes puts her foot in more than just the annual mud bath.

Speaking to Orange World Emily Eavis said a few days ago:

“I kinda feel that we should ply everything into this as if it be the last. It’s a risky, risky business and it would be nice to think, to know that it could go on forever, [but] I don’t know if that’s possible.”

Now obviously if take that as it is said on paper then yeah, this year’s festival, which is likely to sell out within hours of tickets going on sale, could be the last. But, I don’t think that’s what she intended to come across, and her father agrees.

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Led Zeppelin have apparently been discussing the prospect of headlining the Glastonbury festival in 2008.

According to this week’s NME, the band are keen to do it, and follow in the footsteps of The Who, headliners on the main stage last year. But at this moment in time it doesn’t look very liekly that a deal will be struck.

Apparently, members of Led Zeppelin and Glastonbury head honcho Michael Eavis (pictured) have been talking about the possibility of it happening, but have hit a snag on the price.

Led Zep’s representatives in the discussion were after such a high price for the band to appear, that Eavis cut negotiations short. The reason is because he has price cap on paying performers, no matter how big or legendary, and this was over that self imposed limit.

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Last month I reported that the Rolling Stones would be quitting touring after their last date on the A Bigger Bang tour.

Speculation was rife that after that show on August 26 at the London 02 Arena the band would quit performing live due to age.

Now Mick Jagger has come out and said that the Rolling Stones will never quit, either producing music or performing live.

He said:

“I’m sure the Rolling Stones will do more things and more records and more tours. We’ve got no plans to stop any of that really.”

“As far as I’m concerned I’m sure we’ll continue.”

First of all yay, that’s good news, it means I may not have missed my chance to see them live once in my (and their) life after all. Whether Jagger has actually informed the rest of the band of this decision is not clear.

It seems that the Rolling Stones really are one of those bands who will “Rock till they drop” and good on them, proving age is no barrier.

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First it was Glastonbury, then the ‘Concert for Diana‘, now as I sit here watching the ‘Live Earth‘ concert coverage from London, it’s happening again. Why are all the big concerts suffering from crappy sound systems and technical problems?

Last month’s Glastonbury festival was a great success with most pundits and fans in attendance saying it was the best ever. The main problem, apart from the annual mudbath was the shockingly poor sound quality on the Pyramid stage. The problem was most evident during the headline acts on all 3 nights, as the Arctic Monkeys, The Killers and The Who took to the stage late in the evening. During The Killers awesome set, there were even cries of “Turn it up“. The speaker system had been changed for this year’s festival, and according to organiser Michael Eavis, “the PA isn’t quite strong enough for us here“. Well that’s an understatement.

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