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The prodigy - Milton Keynes

Guest JC-Mo'Fucka

By Guest JC-Mo'Fucka
in other UK festivals

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pbsuper Newbie

pbsuper

Posted
Posted

So looking forward to this, it is going to be so good. Finally managed to find a hotel with a vacant room for the night as well, so can enjoy it even mroe without ahving to worry about travelling home late at night as one of the group going would have had to drive.

Not sure now the 2nd stage is going to work/be situated though.

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JC-Mo'Fucka Newbie

JC-Mo'Fucka

Posted
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So looking forward to this, it is going to be so good. Finally managed to find a hotel with a vacant room for the night as well, so can enjoy it even mroe without ahving to worry about travelling home late at night as one of the group going would have had to drive.

Not sure now the 2nd stage is going to work/be situated though.

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karlpowell Apprentice

karlpowell

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Soooooo Looking forward to this but i am designated driver and will be driving back to Bolton after the gig so no beer for me :( .

still i am taking my lad to his first outdoor gig , with a bit of luck he will get the bug and be at all the outdoor events im at next year.

karl

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xploit Newbie

xploit

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On the MK bowl site it has this:

Approximate times:

Festival Area opens at: 12.30

Official Gates opening time at: 13.00

Does it offend you, Yea ?: 14.45 to 15.30

Chase & Status: 16.00 to 17.00

Enter Shikari: 17.30 to 18.30

Pendulum: 19.00 to 20.15

Prodigy: 21.00 to 22.45

Curfew: 23.00

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radish Newbie

radish

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Great day. Really impressed with the atmosphere, the usual few twats trying their hardest to spoil things, but in general the crowd seemed really chilled and happy. Had a much better, more 'festivally' vibe than, just as an example, V imho.

Got in nice & relaxed, didn't bother getting there early so avoided the queues, just wandered around until we got to the 2nd stage/area. Bar queue seemed shorter there pretty much all day, although it was 3/4 hour at one point. Better than 1 1/2 to 2 hours in the main arena though. I was a bit suprised by the 2nd stage location though. I've never seen a 2nd stage at MK Bowl before, and hadn't expected it to be in an area where the floor was basically gravel/rocks/boulders/razor-sharp stones of painful doom. Unsurprisingly I saw a few injuries to moshers, one lad looked like he'd caught a rock or two right on his nose. Apart from the questionable substrate the area was good though, a nice change from the main arena and added to the festival vibe.

The rest of the bowl was the same as it's been since the 70's, honestly I don't think some of the toilets have changed in that time. Not that it's a bad thing (they've been cleaned a couple of times probably), as far as big venues go I think the MK Bowl has a lot going for it. The sound's far better than most stadia, you can see the stage from pretty much anywhere in the main arena, and having the big stretch around the outside for all the food things means there was plenty of choice. It's not perfect, but I actually quite like it as a venue.

As for the bands and music, not sure who we saw first on the Take Me To The Hospital stage, but they were pretty good. On several visits to the area, whichever djs were playing were ok and seemed to have the crowd enjoying themselves. In the main arena we caught most of Does It Offend You, Yeah, and I thought they were ok. Might have to track them down in a tent or small venue, thought their sound carried across well from what I've heard on radio/online. Enter Shikari were ok too, always enjoy the energy they put into their set.

Cue main disappointment/unsurprise/anger-inducing twatface of the day. 'DJ' Zane Lowe. Call trades description act people now please. Having seen this talentless twat kill an atmosphere stone dead before, he didn't surprise by doing exactly the same here. All around us were people yelling in disbelief as he cut yet another song short after no more than 20 seconds, and just before people started getting into it. Utterly shite, shouldn't be allowed to call himself a dj. We wandered off, only having heard any of his 'set' after mistakenly forgetting he'd be on in the first place.

Wandering back after a rather good roast, stuffing & gravy in a roll (not quite the baguette heaven from Glasto, but still bloody tasty and just as impossible to eat without making an utter mess of yourself) we saw some of Pendulum. I'll admit they're not my favourite kind of thing, and I was impressed that they're a full-on 'proper' band with instruments and everything, but after the 3rd/4th/5th/nth song, I just couldn't tell if I'd already heard that one before, or if it was the one I vaguely knew. All a bit samey, would've been great in a club/tent but just not for me at the bowl.

So we wandered again and caught some of Gallows (I think, looked like them from what I remember anyway). I know being miserable is a bit of a stage show, but the number of times the singest bloke told the crowd they were shit and to f**k off seemed to start back-firing, there certainly seemed to be more people leaving than bouncing around. They sounded pretty good to my old punk ears, although while having a chat with a few people who'd spotted my Poppies t-shirt we did decide they were probably a bit of the punk(ish) equivalent of Pendulum; it all sounded a bit samey. Anyway, the atmosphere was still good, the weather was still ok if sticky, and there was plenty of amusement to be had watching people try to carry a crate of 24 bottles of cider/lager that just cost them £88.80 without dropping them. And also amusing watching the desperation of some people offering the crate-carriers £10 for 2 bottles just to avoid the queue. Profit-making could have been tempting had I been arsed. Which I wasn't.

So, back to the main arena to get in place for the Prodigy then. Via a doughnut stall that apparently must have used lava to cook the bloody things in. I swear they were still skin-meltingly hot after 20 minutes. Good sugar rush though.

Got in place somewhere to the left of the stage, not arsed with the get-down-the-front need-a-wristband bollocks. Had to endure some more Zane Twatting Lowe, stunned when he let a track play for almost the whole length (although he didn't play it from the start, f**ked about with it first), and lo and behold everybody around us (if not the whole place) sang along loudly to Motorhead's Ace of Spades. At a dance festival. Learn your lesson Lowe, play the f**king record, don't mess around with it. I won't mention Zane again, other than to say when the Prodigy later dedicated a tune to him we weren't the only ones that said "What, a new track called You're a Shit DJ?".

So, the Prodigy. Well, they didn't disappoint. I felt a bit old at the start, being surrounded by what seemed like half the twenty year olds in the bowl that day, but after Breathe I had slipped back 20 years myself. Track after track flew by, the new stuff fitting in perfectly with the old (I still can't believe Jilted Generation is something like 16 years old). Run With The Wolves was a highlight, I like the track on cd and live it was great, the driving drums really pulling the crowd along. Some nice laser action (I think that was Weather Experience) had me thinking of Pink Floyd more than raving, but they really built the atmosphere up ready for stuff like Voodoo People. Finishing the first bit with Smack My Bitch Up, which was incredible - must admit it's never been my favourite Prodigy track but they changed my mind with this performance, I even did the crouch-down and jump thing along with the thousands around us, despite my age and crappy knees - we couldn't believe just over an hour had gone already.

On to the 'encore' (the grumpy bastard part of me won't let go of this one, it's only a bloody encore if it's unplanned, this was just the second part of the set) and things just got better. I have to say thank you at this point to the woman that presumably had mistaken me for someone else and congratulated me on my shoulders (never really considered my shoulders to be a selling point but I may have to re-assess now) and gave me her Prodigy loving with a welcome hug, really took the vibe back to chemically-enhanced loved-up rave days. Everybody/No Good/Charly cemented that rave vibe into place before Their Law had me screaming the lyrics at my loudest, and thinking that even more than a decade after splitting up PWEI are still making a mark on huge crowds even if the crowds don't know it. Out of Space was the only way Their Law could be topped as a closer, and that was it. Surprised there were no fireworks, first time ever at the MK Bowl gigs I've been to, but that didn't stop this being a bloody good day. Nice one chaps.

Edited by radish
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