“Put your phone in your pocket and your hands in the sky. That’s the way we’ll make the whole world fly…” Coldplay’s Chris Martin chanted to the 100,000+ crowd as they headlined at this year’s Glastonbury. A call to arms for us all to be present, to feel the love. And feel it we did. There were many special moments in this year’s Glasto and I wasn’t even there! Yet there I was moved to tears watching the magic unfold with Coldplay on the telly surrounded by my greatest loves. Was this the ‘all is right with the world after all’ moment we all needed? That, the Great British Summertime and holidays beckoning…
The very best of Coldplay for me which has rekindled my love of almost a quarter of a century. It feels like I’m falling in love (again) with not only Coldplay but Chris Martin too! A Sky Full of Stars, oh yes it was, and a Hymn For The Weekend with Sparks, Yellow, The Scientist, Clocks, Viva La Vida, and… Fix You with Michael J Fox living his best life on the guitar on stage and Paradise with the phenomenal Victoria Canal. You can watch it all here. An abundance of genuine feel-good vibes - so much there wasn’t time nor inclination to contemplate cliches and enough of it to soften the hardest of hearts. Impossible not to be moved by the music and swept away with the summer spectacle en masse.
A dreamy set that transported me straight back to London in 2000 with Parachutes on repeat from my second summer in the capital. Sparks in particular gets me. It takes me there, listening to those raspy guitar chords and the tender voice of a young Chris Martin in the garden glow of late summer evenings. When I was also young, free, dreamy, falling in love on repeat, getting high on long summer evenings, at music festivals, with little European getaways for next to nothing, and relishing the fun, the freedom, and the ‘who knows what’s round the corner’ of it all… That year I felt connected to somewhere like I never had before - London, England, the people, the music, the bright lights but also the village feel, the countryside, the humour, banter, diversity, fashion, independence, opportunity, interesting and interested people and like I’d found somewhere that understood me. And Chris Martin sang lyrics I wish I had written. It was also the year of my first Glastonbury. The Chemical Brothers, Moby, Morcheeba, Basement Jaxx, and David Bowie no less!
It’s no secret I’m a sentimental fool but watching this particularly good Glastonbury with my family around me on the weekend was a moment of pure joy I needed. A stunning realisation that almost 25 years later, live music lifts me, and affects me and apparently my offspring too. From the aspiring-singer-to-be-almost-14-year-old cringing at my singing along with her divine friend, the appropriately named Miss Sparke, all the way down to the 4-year-old-raver still up and dancing at 10pm. I felt an overwhelming ‘rush of blood to the head’ and heart-expanding joy with all the love and hope for the future of this wonderful generation. And I was just watching the telly! Imagine being there IRL. ‘GlastoFomo’ was pumping hard through our veins. Life is short, we need to get there next year en famille, and so a promise and another summer to look forward to was made. There are few better feelings than being out under the stars, enveloped in live music, flags flapping in the summer breeze, friends and strangers smiling, singing, swaying, with ‘phones in the pockets, hands in the sky’ (one hopes) and a collective love for the present moment and hope for the future…
But it’s not just GlastoFomo that’s circulating, there’s a mild panic building in me, accelerating as summer unfolds. It’s the pressure to make the most of the summer - in case it leaves or doesn’t ever properly show up and we’ve missed our moment. Is it too late for Wimbledon and Wilderness too?! I have this sudden frustration with myself that the season I’ve waited for all year is here and I’m not fully ready! Wait… stop the clocks, I’m not ready! Why haven’t I booked tickets to more? I mean I didn’t even sort my summer pedicure until last week. I haven’t started ‘no carbs before Marbs’ for our European escape (which I still need to finalise) or scheduled a single outing for my children for the 8 weeks they are on holiday.
We’re in the last days of my eldest’s time at prep school - emotions are running high, expectations for memories made and being present to fully appreciate it all. I know I’m putting too much pressure on her to commit to every single event and she knows herself better than me, she literally can’t do it all, and nor should she. There should be events she savors and some she needs to sit out if it’s all too much. Why can’t I be as wise?
I’m also experiencing an additional FOMO of missing the Aussies - so many on their annual European pilgrimage that unfortunately coincides with my busiest time of year for school commitments. Fear that I’ll miss them and the summer will be over and we’ll be ‘back to December all the time’…
So, onwards I go, to appreciate the summer with my loves - taking the cold and cloudy with the bright and balmy; to make time for joy, to be as present as possible, and to heed Chris Martin’s sage advice to keep my ‘phone in my pocket, hands in the air’ like I just do care; and to try to help my children do the same. I really do think it will be how we ‘make the world fly’ again.