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We are delighted to welcome one of our favourite bands of the moment, The Joy Formidable, to the Â鶹Éç Wales Music fold. They'll be blogging their way round the European festival summer for us; this week they kick off with their Solidays and Glasto weekend. On to Ritzy, Rhydian and Matt:

The Joy Formidable at Glastonbury. Luckily most of the mud had dried up by Sunday!

Friday 24 June

Today we're off to on the outskirts of Paris. It's amazing how, with some clever packing, you can fit a 60 inch gong, a 12ft banner, an entire backline and eight passengers into a modest sized splitter van. It's 20 degrees with a light north westerly wind and Rhydian is wearing bright red trousers, as you can see from the photo photo below; it puts us in the mood for some Bluddle- Uddle - Um - Dum.

Rhydian's rear end in some very bright red trousers

A journey time of six and a half hours involves , Broken Sword, and Suckers, amongst other distractions.

We have a 60 inch gong... but that's not it Rhydian!

We stop briefly at a French service station adjoined to a nature reserve. There are lots of ducks and a pond swarming with fish. We tickle the belly of what we deduce to be a .

and I have a singalong in my head: "When your heart's on fire, you must realise that smoke gets in your eyes".

We arrive on site, welcomed by a picnic and a nice bottle of red. Fun tent, fun lights, the gong hangs by a thread but doesn't squash any toes. A success! Enchantée.

Sunday 26 June

Up and on the move by 6am, straight to , Somerset for a stint on the John Peel Stage and a few buckets of scrumpy. It's hot and it's sloppy, it's going to be a good day.

The Gang (l-r): Tom (tech man), Ash (monitor man), Matt (monkey man), Jonny (tour manager), Ritzy (Ritzy), Neak (sound man), Dan (production manager)

2pm - We have a couple of technical hiccups beyond our control that delay our onstage arrival by half an hour. The crowd are kind and patient and obviously of heightened mental capacity seeing as they were there and not watching the . We love the show, but we're sorry we have to keep it shorter than we would have liked.

Us from the side of the stage at Glastonbury

The plug gets pulled, a TJF first and kudos to them, nobody has had the balls to do it before. Thank you to Joy Smith on harp, it sounds magical. We enjoy a good towelling down together, finished the beers, confuse a few journalists and then hit the site. This afternoon, Q Magazine asked us which artists we thought would be influential in 25 years time. After seeing Eels, I wish I'd have remembered to mention them. A great set. We enjoy several more drinks, the sunset, headlining the Other Stage, some noodles, the dance tent and the journey home is lary. Night night Glastonbury, see you in 2013.