James B Partridge’s nostalgia-filled set, Primary School Bangers, went somewhat viral after last year’s festival with videos of Glastonbury revellers singing along to well-known hymns for their school days – as if back in the assembly hall but more enthusiastic about their vocal performance.
The set on Summer House is so busy that the crowd almost entirely blocks off the route through Glebeland, spilling out and up the hill towards The Gateway and – I’m led to believe – seeing the bottom entrance to the field closed off because of the numbers of people.
Partridge tells us he plans to evoke that hall and its sights, sounds and smells: the whiff of yesterday’s lunch lingering in the air, an old projector at the front, sat in rows surrounded by your friends. He promises to transform us into the Primary School Bangers Choir. Before long, the huge crowd are in full voice to One More Step Along the Road.
Admittedly, as someone who went to an Irish primary school, I struggle to recognise some of the songs – so I don’t get the full nostalgia until Partridge launches into a run of classics; Morning Has Broken, Any Dream Will Do and Eternal Flame.
With nostalgia acts increasingly drawing huge crowds on the main music stages – Avril Lavinge and Sugababes this year and Franz Ferdinand and Rizzle Kicks this year – it’s no surprise that Partridge’s intense nostalgia goes down a treat in Theatre & Circus. And who doesn’t enjoy a sing-a-long?
