Lovebox is an absolute cracker with a sour end

Lovebox Weekender 2014

Friday 18th to Saturday 19th July 2014
Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets, Greater London, E9 5DU, England MAP
£90 for both days - SOLD OUT

Daily capacity: 50,000

House music is the undisputable sound of London now. With the likes of Disclosure, MNEK, Gorgon Sound and Route94 filling the charts with radio friendly pop-house sing-alongs and darker, druggier shades pulsing through the underground, its various forms are everywhere. It was mostly house that crowds heard blaring as they descended on Victoria Park for the second big festival of the summer, Lovebox. Blessed by the hottest weekend of the year the young and hip crowd was buzzing.

Henrik Schwarz’s remix of Omar S – ‘Feelin You’ had heads nodding in my short wait in the queue and most chip vans, photo-booths or cocktail stalls were rinsing old classics like MK and Kerri Chandler. I’d made the decision to deviate from the 4x4 120bpm side of things, figuring I’d hear that regardless every weekend for a long time to come.

This year Lovebox had produced a free app with live news and a breakdown of each stage’s schedule, with the fatal flaw of requiring a Facebook sign in. Not likely amidst a sold out crowd of 50,000 but with a bit of patience I was able to spot the bespectacled, hat-topped head of Sir David Rodigan who was playing the main stage. Rodigan, is a living legend and one of the most passionate and entertaining DJs I’ve heard. It’s rare you’ll see a house and techno DJ look up from the decks. With Rodigan you see a 65 year old sing along and giggle as he does laps of the stage as if he’s in disbelief at the drop, hearing the tune for the first time. His mid afternoon set of sunshine reggae and system shaking dancehall was irresistible. With his grumbling mic antics, yells of “pull uuuup!” and “can I get a signal?” having the crowd grinning ear to ear. Old favorites like Millie Small’s - 'My Boy Lollipop', the song that inspired his life-long fascination with Jamaican Reggae was dropped alongside Bob Marley and fresh dancehall from Popcaan. Catch this guy if you get a chance.

Paul Woolford’s Special Request project at the Bass Laced stage was next on my list. The man best known for the mind bending abstract electro of ‘Erotic Discourse’ has turned his hand to honing and amplifying the components of old school jungle and hardcore. 2014’s Soul Music took cues from early 90s pioneers like Foul Play, Omni Trio and the Metalheadz roster and injects with the production value of the software age. His remix of Sub Focus turn back time and Tessela’s Hackney Parrot had the sweaty hairs on my neck and arms on end.

But the highlight of the Friday night is bar far DJ Ez. This man is responsible for the most “fuck offs” and jaws dropped of any DJ ever. He plays inside a wooden playhouse to a crowd of a few thousand, switching it up between old and new school grime, garage and house. Blending together the now familiar Wookie remix of SIA’s 'Little Man' with Route 94 ‘My Love’ had the crowd whipped into a frenzy. He’d bring in a new dutty bassline every 20 seconds. Typically a DJ set will have three or four memorable moments, an EZ set blows your mind every minute. This is DJing on a different level.

Chase & Status round of a sweaty hectic Friday on the main stage with big hitting stadium drum and bass. A lairy crowd bounces to huge drops and euphoric breakdowns. Guest vocalist, grime MC Kano joins in on the action for ‘Against All Odds’ and the duo round of with fresher material Eastern Jam and the melancholy and nostalgia of Blind Faith with Liam Bailey. I like my DnB and jungle in a dark, dingy little room but the grand spectacle of it all is a great way to close off the first day. Fireworks explode across the main stage as the crowd start heading back towards the gates wide-eyed to the club of the after party.

Despite feeling rough I dragged myself back to the park for the second day. The crowd feels a little more loose and shambolic watching Soul II Soulroll out a slick set of R&B, new jack swing and house. Nas is the main man on the Saturday, delivering a perfect run through of 'Illmatic' in charismatic style to a swooning crowd. “A whole lot of this crowd are younger than this album, we used to have to bump it on cassette. We turned that shit on like this…” Nas exaggerates the motion of slapping the chunky play button on a tape deck and the DJ drops ‘half-time’ right on the button, the crowd go nuts.

MIA starts off promisingly with a hypercolourful stage set up featuring huge psychedelic mandalas and thousands of thick glowsticks which light up the crowd. As I head towards the toilets a rogue stick is fired from afar and smacks me upside the head, dizzying me for a few seconds and drawing blood from my forehead. Who to be angry at? I laugh it off and rejoin my group of friends but the show seems to be going downhill with repetitive shouts of “turn the mic up!” from MIA as she runs through ‘Bucky Done Gun’ and ‘Bad Girls’. In line with her activist shtick she makes a reference to the Free Palestine demonstration but her crowd interaction is barely audible at times. After a welcomed stage invasion she eventually drops her mic and announces the show is finished, twenty minutes early. I heard plenty more reports of sound issues on the main stage and elsewhere friends were rejected entry after crowds rushed the gates. A sour end to a sunny weekend for some. But I had an absolute cracker, with a scar and sunburn to show for it.

review by: Paul Shiels