Interview with Roy Gurvitz

1. How did Lost Vagueness start?

I used to go to a lot of free festivals when I was much younger and got involved in actively taking part. Sometimes, I worked as a welder and set builder.

Since 1986, I’d been working at Glastonbury as a site crew member, which paid pretty badly, but the concession was that you got a bit of space over the weekend. In those days, you could do pretty much what you liked with the space. Some people ran cafes, some people ran bars, and we tried to maintain the essence of a free festival.

Over the years, people became disenchanted with Glastonbury and left - to the point where there was this whole ‘other’ festival occurring outside the festival. I kept my foot in the door - still doing on site work and in touch with Michael Eavis.

By 1990, I had stopped working for Michael. He still accepted what I did as a fairly positive thing; I liaised between the festival and the travellers as well as running a semi-illicit bar. It was fiercely competitive and I was always trying to come up with new ideas, rather than the same old egg butty and beans grub.

Not only did it become boring - it became ineffective as the more established legitimate venues with health and safety certificates were thriving.

I needed to be inventive. The year before Lost Vagueness was born, we ran The World Cup Cafe and the Cabaret Cafe. The next year (1999), we came up with the Casino - effectively the first Lost Vagueness. This was intended as an ironic joke: the new Glastonbury was about hippies, being ethical, saving the environment, all those good wholesome things - lentil soup and veggie burgers. I was bit annoyed that they were now charging £86 per ticket and there was a fence all the way round the site. Somebody was obviously making a lot of money and I wanted to use the Casino to labour the point and rock the boat. I thought it would cause outrage but all the greens and the healers came to gamble their takings away! They all came down and loved it. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to piss anyone off!

So, the next year, we did it bigger and better and people liked it more. We also introduced costumes in the second year. I didn’t want to make it exclusive but everyone had to be dressed up, be ridiculous and stand out against the muddy jeans, kaftans and bandannas. And it got better and bigger. Michael decided he liked it so much that, for the first time ever, he gave me a ticket to attend Glastonbury in 2000 and I was guaranteed a space so no one could evict me.

2. Will you be at the next Glastonbury?

It’s up for discussion. Mean Fiddler has been taken over by Clear Channel - a very right wing, Bush-supporting organisation that has donated a lot of money to the Bush administration. I would be amazed if Michael sticks with that. Glastonbury entered into a five year contract with Mean Fiddler, and that’s up this year. I don’t think I would go if Clear Channel was calling the shots in 2007 but I would look at going if Michael was back to being independent or signed up with another licensee that isn’t Clear Channel.

3. What fuelled your decision for LV to stage its own events?

I realised there was more to life than just going to Glastonbury. Even back in those days when we were still quite small, Glasto took up to three to six months of my year. As LV grew in size and popularity, we could see there was a clear requirement for our type of entertainment. LV was supporting a lot of people at that time of year but, for many people, it wasn’t enough to have one job a year. People needed more work as they started to have kids, myself included.

Holding events independent from Glastonbury has effectively been a detriment to my financial situation; it has never become financially viable. Lost Vagueness generates a ridiculous amount of work and I still subsidise myself by taking other jobs – such as set building. LV creates this illusion of grandeur but I don’t get driven around in a limousine just because I create a piece of theatre.

4. What have the high points been of Lost Vagueness, so far?

When it’s all over!

A notable memory was finding Zoë Ball unconscious under my truck one year. Another was when Michael Eavis officially opened the Ballroom and then, later that night, his daughter, Emily, came back all dressed up in a ball gown.

5. What have been your worst or strangest moments?

It’s usually a 72 hour nightmare with no sleep!

Glastonbury 2005 was pretty stressful. On the Friday morning, a deluge hit and washed away all our props. Everything was ruined and had to be completely re-built.

The worst moment, so far, has to be the closing of the Lost Vagueness field at Glastonbury in 2003. It was terrifying really: we were so over crowded that there was a real danger of people being crushed to death. We were a victim of our own success.

6. What’s the most challenging thing about producing a Lost Vagueness event?

The next gig is always the most challenging. Constantly having to find a new edge, new acts, new decor and sustain the audience – everything, really! Getting it right becomes more important every time. We’ve got away with getting it wrong in the past. If we make mistakes now, it is noticed and people take it seriously.

Working on six to eight gigs at the same time is like trying to juggle with seven swords. It’s a constant process of three or four meetings a day and takes up all my time.

7. Who are the other key people behind Lost Vagueness and what are their roles?

Leila Jones – co-producer. Her role is to follow the gig from conception to execution, pitching for events, writing proposals, organising the crew and doing all the pre, on site and post production. She relays information to the crew and co-ordinates the various area managers. Her background is in circus and experimental theatre, which ties pretty well into LV.


Jim Hudson – co-producer and Chapel manager. He plays a key role in the management of events from beginning to end. The Electric Picnic in Ireland is Jim’s baby. As is The Chapel of Love and Loathe, which he has run and programmed for the last four years.

8. How many people are involved in producing a Lost Vagueness event?

At Glastonbury 2005, we had 1,257 tickets for crew and bands. Each event is a big project relying on a network of people working hard for it to be the spectacle it is.

9. How do you choose the artists and performers?

Continental Drifts, the artist liaison and music programming company, has been instrumental to many of the acts performing. I’ve worked with Chris Tofu (MD of Continental Drifts) for years. I knew him before Lost Vagueness existed and we’ve always shared a similar path. Chris works hard sourcing new genres from all over the world to create a good mix of unsigned acts and those with established followings.

As we’ve progressed, some bands and performance acts have been inspired by us and have formed specifically with the intention of performing at a LV event.

The Chapel and the Casino are autonomous: they truly push the boundaries. About four years ago, the Chapel was at the centre of a serious complaint as to whether public indecency had been breached. Fortunately, there wasn’t a prosecution. I had authorised the performance on the grounds that it was controversial.

At Glastonbury, we often have big acts play unannounced, such as Fatboy Slim and the Scissor Sisters. People turn up early in the hope of seeing a headline act and stay on to experience the madness of Lost Vagueness.

We put on the Cuban Brothers a few years ago when they weren’t known. Now we’re booking them as a big name for our Coronet gig.

10. If you could chose absolutely anyone, who would you most like to see perform at Lost Vagueness?

The Clangers and Soup Dragon.

11. Why do you think the Lost Vagueness concept has proved so popular?

We push boundaries. We go out of our way to attract people to our events and keep them by giving them what they want. It’s inclusive – we make people feel at home and encourage them to interact with the performance by dressing up, etc. We blur the boundaries between performer and guest. And we don’t have corporate advertising plastered on everything, much to our financial detriment.

A lot of creative people go to Glastonbury and put what they’ve seen there in adverts, papers, shop windows, etc. Burlesque was hardly known five years ago. Then, everyone paid attention to it. We did it eight years ago! Burlesque is now used to sell Marks and Spencer products. Is this a coincidence?

14. Do you have any celebrity fans?

Joe Strummer (RIP), John Peel (RIP), Andy Kershaw from Radio 3, we’ve had the whole cast of Eastenders come down, Fatboy Slim and Zoë Ball, the Scissor Sisters. Kate Moss and Pete Dougherty stayed in the Trailer Park last year.

13. Tell us about some of the working relationships you’re forming with third parties and other promoters?

Lost Vagueness is not a drifting ship. We’re planning a European tour in 2007 in partnership with established music and theatre festivals. We’ve been approached to do a US tour as well. I think we’d go down well Stateside but it’s logistically difficult. We’d have to source acts and props locally as it wouldn’t be viable to lug all our stuff over there.

14. Do you think there’s danger of LV becoming too popular and losing its quirky, grassroots feel?

LV would disappear if we tried to retain our integrity as a small, once a year gig – we’d be brushed aside by the things we’ve spawned and could disappear into the laundromat of Burlesque! Having a ten acre field at Glastonbury was the first step; we can’t go back to ambiguity after that. Once you go large, it’s hard to be a recluse again.


15. What do you do for entertainment?

I’m not a massive party goer. I’d like to sit in the corner and contemplate what it’s like to be bored! I don’t get to party at LV – it’s not great fun. It’s a bit like a bad habit. I don’t smoke, I bite my nails and I run LV. It has become my nemesis.

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