There is a terrific piece ion today’s Guardian in which Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis explains the debt Europe’s largest music festival owes to Clarks shoes and Quakerism. 

Says Eavis: “But Quakerism also had an influence in that the Clarks [the shoe-making family, from Street in Somerset] are Quakers. My great-grandfather rented a farm from them. The non-conformist, Quaker thing was strong in mid-Somerset, and the Clarks had an influence on the politics and the planning of the neighbourhood. That’s why I’ve been allowed to get away with the festival. It succeeded only because of the support and influence of the Clarks and the Quaker/Methodist non-conformism here. It simply would not have succeeded anywhere else in Britain.”

To me,  stories around pop music can often be more interesting than the music itself.

 

Posted in: Big Picture story