Mr Scruff has just played a three-hour set all on his own to a packed house. Gruelling as that may sound, it's still far short of his preferred set length (5 hours). He carries his records out of the dance tent to the van, his driver getting indignant on his behalf ("Andy! Get someone to take your records! there's people to do that for you!") Backstage, Andy Carthy is being every inch the conscientious player, dilligently completing the PRS form to ensure the makers of all those records he's just played get their dues. So you have to fill in your entire setlist each time you play? "Pretty much, yeah..." Sleepy-eyed and softly spoken, despite the jazz beard he's not actually very scrufffy at all. This being Sunday evening, everyone in the posse is in a jolly mood, bottles of wine are being finished up and fragrant cigarettes are on the go. They've been here all day, and it shows; Carthy's close-shaved head has an attractive red glow across the top of it... What did you make of Glastonbury then? "This is my first time actually - I was surprised how chilled it was! Not as many casualties as I was expecting..." (wry smile) This being Sunday evening, I am also feeling somewhat sleep-deprived and spaced (it's my fifth day here) and can't think of anything really edgy or important to ask. So I go for the things I always wanted to know... Just how many records do you have? "Ooph, no idea!" (shakes head and rolls eyes slightly). "Maybe... 10 - 15,000?" Cripes. Any particular genres floating your boat right now? "No, not really.. Everything I guess!" So how do you organise that lot into one of those famous 5 hour sets? Is there a lot of planning the night before? "Nah not really, I just make sure I know my records really well, and I like to have a lot of things with me so I can adapt. There's no real structure as such. Of course it starts quite chilled and gets more banging, but beyond that it just takes its course." Obviously playing to a huge marquee of chewed-up festival-goers is going to be a slightly different proposition to the usual club setting. What do you make of the whole festival thing? "Festivals are bizarre... I've played a few before, there's so many people. It's odd looking out at this sea of faces... I don't really bring different records, just the same thing of taking enough so I can adapt to the mood." How did you find today's dance tent crowd then? "Yeah, really good... Everyone seemed to be enjoying it... " The conversation meanders across various things from here. We bond over the pain of being a part time arts student - Carthy got a degree from Sheffield Uni before deciding the superstar DJ life was more interesting - "Eventually you have to decide what you're really interested in. There's loads of stuff I've thought, Yeah, I'd really like to try that, but there's just not enough time. You have to focus on what's most important to you. I see it as part of the same thing, the music and the visuals..." It's getting late, and everyone's getting a bit scatty, so we wrap things up. The scruffy one's (tidy) girlfriend is gently reminding him to thank everyone who's "been so nice to them" at the festival, and I need to go and get some fresh Air. But he didn't escape without furnishing us with a doodle. He got frustrated part way through drawing all the people - "Honestly... I could have picked something a bit easier to illustrate than the Dance tent!" - but here it is, a Scruff's-eye view of the dance crowd havin' it. If you haven't checked out the website - www.mrscruff.com - I advise you to do so at once. It's quite frankly hilarious.

Words: Marilyn Kahan Picture: Mr Scruff