Guess who, guess what? - Thoughts on celebrity.

He or she may be well known but it's at a festival and, like the nobodies that you and I are, they have simply decided to let their hair down and enjoy like everyone else. Without doubt you can name a few very recent victims of such things...

If I ever catch the likes of you, maybe a journalist, at a festival you had better be looking and behaving immaculately in every way. You won't see me coming though, because I'll be enjoying it too, without thinking much about how others may see me, just like almost everyone else there and I probably won't know you from Adam anyway.

That in all probability nobody will ever think twice about that is in itself a comforting thought. I prize my anonymity but that does not make me think any less of those who, by dint of their background, career or ambitions, can only forgo that little luxury. The idea of being at a major event and thinking that almost anyone might recognise me would simply petrify me and - if I were there with friends I wouldn't wish it on them for a moment either.

I'm lucky; it is not likely to happen to me any time soon. Yes, I might very well have had one more beer than logic dictates, and you might have had a sneaky fag back-stage, but because we are both unremarkable so is the occurrence. More than once this has resulted in rambling discussions, often with hitherto strangers, that have at the very least attempted to put the world and its music in perspective and I'm not aware that we have regretted any of them. That is, at least in part, what festivals are for...