Glastonbury again.

 Glastonbury again

It's that time of the year again. June is blossoming and summer has arrived. The sweltering heat and warmth of the sunshine gladdens the heart with immense delight. Britain is basking and in 30 degrees of sunshine. It almost feels as if the warm summers we were accustomed to during the mid 1970s have now returned. Now the beauty and splendour of the flora and fauna has made us all very humble and grateful for both our mental and physical health.

Across the wide expanses of Somerset's most fertile farmlands an English hardy perennial is tuning up its inimitable rock guitars, its magical keyboards, vibrant violins and those precious pianos with their flawless chords. This can only mean one thing. Every summer Glastonbury makes a regular return to its huge variety of stages and the preparations are well under way for the big stars, the music covering every conceivable genre, a national treasure that never disappoints and always lives up to its celebrated reputation. It's been here for well over 50 years now and we'd wonder why it wasn't there on this weekend of weekends.

Memories of Glastonbury past have to be savoured if only for the esoteric nature of the acts who were asked to appear. Several summers ago Shirley Bassey enjoyed a completely unexpected reinvention and a sudden renaissance that none of us saw coming. Bassey frequently featured in her own BBC Saturday night TV shows during the early 1970s and then progressed almost naturally into the world of James Bond and the cinema. Diamonds Are Forever was a gutsy and powerful production that catapulted her towards ever greater heights of global popularity.

But then Bassey was summoned by the owner of Glastonbury, Michael Eavis who, for the best part of five decades, has consistently produced a gallery of the great and good from both the commercial mainstream to the much misunderstood sound of folk. It was a lovely combination of the obscure and arcane, the kind of music that would never have been publicised or exposed to a much wider public.

Throughout the ages we've had synth pop, cellos in all their angelic perfection, glockenspiels sharing the same company as double basses, country and western, indie music in intimate little garden arbours and heavy metal meeting American soul and jazz at its most exquisite. There was the day when Shirley Bassey captured the hearts of both young and old alike while her beaming smile encapsulated the whole of the early 2000s period. The Welsh chanteuse, with a voice to remember, forever lit up Somerset that evening.

Then there was the Electric Light Orchestra, surely one of the most captivating and brilliantly visual of all groups. The ELO were wondrously imaginative, and still are, years ahead of their time, futuristic, experimental and stunningly effective. The accompanying violins, double basses, Bev Bevan's pounding, purposeful drums and all manner of sound effects propelled the band into all kinds of diverse directions. Jeff Lynne's ingenious arrangements of the seminal and unforgettable Mr Blue Sky, The Diary of Horace Wimp, Turn to Stone and the superb All Over the World were given the five star treatment at Glastonbury.

And so it is that the headline act on Sunday evening goes to the one and only Sir Elton John. John recently announced his retirement from the concert circuit. Almost touchingly he admitted that he'd had enough after a gruelling and physically punishing career that had begun when he was only 17. Now 76, Sir Elton John will wrap up his star studded and legendary life on the road with Glastonbury on Sunday, a venue that had never been at the forefront of his mind at any point in the past.

For most of us the most intriguing story of Glastonbury can be found in its first year in 1970. Without any real idea of just how remarkably successful Glasto would become Michael Eavis came up with his first catering proposals. Since Glastonbury was situated in the middle of England's most decorative countryside Eavis thought it a good idea to sell cheap bottles of milk and some light snacks. Now though Glastonbury is a British phenomenon as much a part of  Britan's heritage as red pillar post boxes and warm beer in timber wood snug pubs with roaring log fires. Let's hear it for Glastonbury.