Beta Days: Steve Mason on festivals

 

I've never been to a festival in my life as a punter, but I've played a hell of a lot of them. Coachella's a nice festival, in that it's a bit like going to a really expensive polo club, but the only thing that ruins it is that it's got that oppressive L.A. feel where you’re not allowed to have fun unless it’s sanctioned by the government. But the best festival I ever played at was when The Beta Band were supporting Radiohead in the States. There was one gig where we played a horse-racing course, and our changing rooms were the jockeys’ changing rooms, which had this massive hobby-horse on wheels. So, in our wisdom, we tried to get the thing on stage using one of Radiohead's golf-carts. Then, just as we were managing to get it on stage, this security guy came over and went absolutely fucking mental and said ‘I don’t know where you guys come from, but in this country, we don’t take things that don’t belong to us’, which immediately made me shout something like ‘Iraq!’, or ‘Native Americans!’. We had a lot of fun on those tours, but I don't think we'll ever beat the hobby horse.