How Orbital changed Glastonbury – and my outlook – with their 1994 set

When David Barnett ventured to Somerset, little did he know he was about to become part of history when Orbital became the first dance act to headline a major stage

In 1994, Orbital made history (Neil Stevenson/Shutterstock)

Saturday 25 June 1994. The Glastonbury Festival. The sun goes down and two blokes wearing glasses with little torches fixed to the sides walk onto the stage.

Do you know that history is being made when you’re living through it? That night we did. After two dozen years of predominantly guitar-based music, Glastonbury had put a dance act on to headline a major stage. Brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll, aka Orbital, were an unknown quantity for both the majority of the Glasto crowd and the festival organisers. Nobody knew if what they did would work on a stage in a field in the middle of the countryside.

My memories of the performance are simultaneously dim and unreliable, yet shine with a razor-sharp clarity burned onto my cerebral cortex. I had to consult my partner-in-crime who was present on that balmy night almost 30 years ago to compare memories; they didn’t quite match up. I can clearly remember standing just to the left of what was then the NME Stage, a few rows out; he thinks we were further to the back. I remember waiting for Orbital to take to the darkened stage; he says we missed the opening track because I was vomiting with pre-match, potentially substance-induced, nerves behind the car while he laughed helplessly without knowing why.