What a pleasure, a music festival where you could get in the arenas and up the front without any trouble. The sound systems were well up to the job, although the visuals were limited. All in all it made for a relaxed time where my choice of music was dictated by what we wanted to see, rather than the difficulty level of gaining entry.
The day started fairly bright and we joined the stream of people entering the pleasant surroundings of Stanmer Park. The organisers had the good idea of placing the arenas on the gentle slopes, rather than at the bottom (take note Homelands).
We caught the end of Scanty Sandwich in the Big Beat Tent, who will probably end up a one hit wonder in chart terms, but laid down some chunky danceable tunes that you're going to hear a lot of on the dance floor.
Indian Ropeman have been a perennial "must see, but didn't" band. But this time we made no mistake. Installed at the front of the stage we were able to appreciate the variation of their set. Comparisons with Asian Dub Foundation might come up, but Indian Ropeman score for a greater variation. I can't really explain what their musical style is, but I can tell you what its not! Its not Garage or Jump Up, its not techno and its not Heavy Metal, but it is just about everything inbetween. The music varied in intensity and at times got very HEAVY, but the introduction of the Sitar in 4 or so of the tunes kept the interest going. It was a minute into the third track before we twigged they were covering Sunshine of your love" The CreamEric Clapton rock standard (I had to ask my dad for that info, honest!). Unusual!
Crossing over to the NME stage in a leisurely fashion (have we mentioned how easy it was to get into the arenas?), we caught Manchild, definately not just the "Welsh Prodigy". They got a fair number of the lazy posse in the tent on their feet and you could just about forget it was only 2pm. The most powerful track they played was their new single 'Rehab' which came over loud and heavy. The MC kept a decent commentary going and therefore Iwe can tell you that a couple of the tracks they played were collaborations with Therapy! and The Stereophonics. Their dancer was wicked as well.
The Legends arena was already running late, so while we meant to see DJ Storm, we actually caught the end of Dayzee who had the whole place mooshing and then most of Bailey. Now there may have been technical problems with his equipment, but Bailey looked very troubled as he crouched over the decks. But he needn't have worried so, the sounds coming over were wicked and the crowd loved it, so cheer up Bailey.
Made off to the pussycat club to catch Tall Paul, however it seemed he didn't show because the not so tall John Kelly was in his spot and played a double set. Now we can't remember ever coming across him before, but we're informed he's being doing it for 15 years and was voted 25th best DJ in the world in a magazine. He played an excellent set of hard bouncy TechnoTrance, dropping in quite a few of tracks I've heard, but mainly playing original and fresh tunes. John is of the old skool and was around well before this Superstar DJ nonsense. He's quite happy to have his back to the crowd checking his records, lighting a fag, or chatting to the numerous liggers who seemed to invade the stage at one point to take pictures of each other whilst chatting and enjoying the free booze and fags - GET OFF. So, stage show 0, rocking tunes 10 and that is exactly what we wanted. Check him out. Later on the Pussycat resident DJs Nippa and Simon Jordan kept the crowd at it while a huge silver puppet monster danced around the stage - no, honestly!
We got back to see Eat Static in the NME tent. This was our fifth sighting of the boys this year and we've now actually started to really get into their new stuff. The Album Crash and Burn is quite strange, not in the normal strange Eat Static, but in a whole new way. Salsa beats, Arabian chants, off key riffs? It takes some getting used to, but it's worth the perserverence because the direction their music has taken keeps them pushing the boundaries of whatever musical pidgeonhole they are in.
We caught some of Bentley Rhythm Ace while relaxing outside of the tent, chatting to one of our new festival friends.
Laurent Garnier swapped places with Armand Van Helden, which suited me. Now LG is French and it shows, the set started of with a dance routine by a couple of girls, which made a nice change, then the man himself, plus a couple of cronies appeared and started laying down their sounds, which came fast, hard and varied. One of LG's partners used a variety of Brass instruments during the set, ranging from an electric horn, to a bog standard Sax. As with the dancers, this added depth to the set. All the while Laurent was laying down the beats to an up for it crowd. LG is renowned for his 6-8 hour sets, but tonight he packed the intensity and complexity of that into an hour and a bit. Tres bien.
Back to the Big Beat tent for the end of Les Rythmes Digitales who, as we all know, aren't French. An energetic and visually stimulating set got the crowd going and justified their high placing on the line up.
A few minutes set up and Mr Slim joined us for a short rendition of a few of his finest moments. We have to say it didn't really do it for us, and in fact we wandered out before the end to catch DJ Rap. His set was a bit disjointed and there's too much retro for our liking. We're reliably informed it got better in the end, but we'd expected a full-on party with his home crowd and this didn't happen. Fat Boy seemed to be enjoying the set more than the rest of us, although there were two topless girls sat up on shoulders to amuse us.
The last 30 minutes were spent going from tent to tent checking out the final vibe. We reckon DJ Rap in the World Dance had the most up-for-it crowd. The Pussycat arena, with ATB, was the most jammed. Pussycat had been full all day with a great up-for-it party mood, and the Legends arena had also been bouncing all day. The smaller Experiments arena we found the most pleasant inside with no less than three video screens and fairy lights around the mixing desks.
Layo and Bushwacka were headlining in here with their tech house and the whole
crowd were moving. But close down was at 11pm and the organisers were very strict
about it. A happy but bemused crowd filtered out, it seems too early to go home,
but we've been at it since midday and for some it starts all over again tomorrow.
The organisers had done a decent job, choosing such a pleasant site for a start and then for placing the arenas within short distance of other which made it so easy to float between them, also for having good sound systems and providing plenty of water refill taps outside the arenas. There did however seem to be very long queues for the loos all day, maybe need to provide more? Time tables were inevitably changed and although a couple of arenas displayed revised line ups it would have been better if all arenas had done it. We'd also expected Sonique to be making an appearance but there was no mention in the programme and the information tents knew nothing.
This festival had a small capacity - only 8,500 - which made for a cosy friendly atmosphere and also meant that you could get in any arena easily and have room to dance. The weather had held out and the lovely sunny spells where perfect for relaxing on the grass or wandering around the usual festival market stalls. There was a slightly higher police profile than we're used to, and they were "busting" people for cannabis. Albeit letting them off after confiscating their stash (for destruction obviously ;-). To balance that we didn't see a hint of trouble all afternoon and the security were fairly chilled.
Essential - small but perfectly formed.
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