Potentially the best ever

[GregWhelan]

Re: Potentially the best ever

Sounds like a great day! Will probably go to this next year

[TheMightyGreg]

Re: Potentially the best ever

Ps did anybody spot the guy sliding down the outside of the Bedrock tent

Yeah man I saw that..what a lunatic!

[simonr]

Re: Potentially the best ever

Sounds very decent and tremendous value for money - pity Van M didn't turn up, he was excellent in 'biza. You can't beat a tent slider - respect !

[DIDI]

Re: Potentially the best ever

Ahhh Memories!!

[diegoff]

Re: Potentially the best ever

all those monsters together??? wow!!!! have a rockin? time

[jeffrey collins]

Re: Potentially the best ever

I think i'll have to make my way to my MS friend JP's place this time next year, cause I gotta see how the real festival people throw down.

[berps]

Re: Potentially the best ever

ill upload some more videos when i get the chance got some more cattaneo and some digweeed just mad mad busy at work and still recovering from the weekend!!! I got Caked ! haha

[simonr]

Re: Potentially the best ever

Berps you're always getting caked mate ! U making to Sasha on Friday ?

[TheMightyGreg]

Re: Potentially the best ever

Just finished a review for a local magazine, thought you might wanna check it out:


As a walk in, I get the kind of feeling that only comes from walking into a near empty festival site on a sunny August Bank holiday. A mixture of excitement, anticipation, nervousness and the pumping tunes already pouring out from the main stage, where SOS are doing a good job of keeping the few people who have arrived this early entertained, results in every hair on my body standing firmly to attention, my legs propelling me several feet into the air and my mouth emitting a loud ?Yeah!?, startling group of scantily glad girls on my left who proceed to giggle and give me a few uneasy looks. I genuinely couldn?t care less; I?m about to have one of the best days of my festival career.

I make a beeline for the Bedrock International Arena, where I plan to spend the majority of my time, and am faced with one of the few disappointments of the day; Jimmy Van M (who warmed up so flawlessly at Bedrock a few months back) seems to have pulled a no-show, and been replaced by a Nick Warren look-alike (to be honest, it might actually be Mr Warren himself) who, to be fair, does a pretty good job of getting the proceedings going. Techy, yet melodic tunes mean that while it?s the biggest tent there is, it?s also the busiest. Steve Lawler?s up next, and while he plays a couple of solid tracks, mostly it?s a bit inconsistent; too up and down both in tempo and it style and subsequently I wander off in search of aural pastures new.

Happily, my desire for the different sounds only a festival can offer is rewarded when I stumble upon the Ibizan Underground tent, currently playing host to the beautiful and talented Smokin? Jo. Her musical style seems to have developed considerably since I last heard her, and while she wasn?t on my hit list before arriving, she certainly will be from now on. Although she still plays the same rolling, beat driven House she always has, there?s something a little more sophisticated in her sound. The tent is much smaller, but less crowded than the Bedrock one, and the crowd is different; a little older, a touch more relaxed and wholly appreciative of the subtly charged atmosphere Jo is creating. She drops current favourite ?Heater? by Samim but rather than playing it in it?s entirety, leaves it only long enough for recognition to spread across the collected faces, before dropping it out in favour of another deep, dark thumper. She?s pleasing the crowd enormously by not relying on crowd pleasers.

Jo gives up the decks to everyone?s favourite Argentine, Hernan Catanneo. The first half of his set is flawless; fluctuating basslines are flattered by blissfully euphoric melodies and live percussion from Trace, although the percussion is prematurely ended at Hernan?s request as it?s drowning out the music it?s intended to compliment. In fact, the one gripe I would have with the day in general is that it was possible to maintain a normal volume of speech regardless of how near the speakers you stood; every arena could have been twice as loud and still been relatively quite. Sound restrictions I assume, but c?mon! It was all over by 9 o?clock; surely Wandworth council can let their fast receding hair down just a little?

One of the major problems I?ve found with festivals in the past is that you spend much of your time wandering from stage to tent to bar to toilet to random crafts stall to laughing gas stand and back again, and so miss the acts you?ve spent the last few months chattering away excitedly to your friends about. Not so SW4; it?s relatively small size means that nothing is more than a 5 minute hop, skip or jump away. Having said that, the rest of my day is spent where I anticipated it would be; the Bedrock International Arena. I do try to investigate the Harder, Faster arena, where Sander Van Doorn is nailing not wholly inoffensive tech-trance numbers to an appreciative (and full) tent, but since the death of the last century, trance just doesn?t quite hit the spot like it used to ? a fact I wish were not the case and mourn on a weekly, if not daily basis. A remix of Depeche Mode?s ?Enjoy the Silence?, I think by Yvan & Dan Daniel, encourage a brief stomp out of my hesitant legs, but before long, it?s back to the Mothertent.

Eric Prydz has played the event the last three years running and has impressed on every occasion; none more so than this year. The crowd is entranced by not only the quality of his tune selection, but the adeptness of his mixing. Can this really be the guy behind chart-worrying cheddar ?Call on Me?? The spell is momentarily broken by someone scaling one of the 15 foot poles supporting the tent, hoisting themselves up and running up and down the canvas for a few minutes before hurtling back to earth unscathed. Great effort, although security don?t seem to think so; I?m sure he?ll get away, he?s obviously an athlete. Prydz gives way to Josh Wink, who drops the lights the tempo and my jaw by playing one of the most technically impressive and musically mesmerizing sets I?ve ever had the pleasure of hearing. You can tell he?s an old hand at this mixing lark; acidic beats and furry, minimal melodies are interjected with stinging bleeps, organic clicks and other sounds that you?d find in the insect house of London zoo. Unfortunately, the rest of those present don?t seem to share my enthusiasm; the tent?s only about half full by now, with people wandering off in search of the main stage and Sasha, who by all accounts plays his usually South West Four set ? proggy beats intermingled with uplifting breaks with the odd indie mash-up thrown in to the mix.

The day ends as it began, with all senses tingling and a broad smile plastered across my face. This time it?s John Digweed who?s making me grin like a festival idiot; again the tunes are spot on, again he?s seamlessly blending one track into he next and again every single person in the tent (which is once again completely packed) is dancing their flip-flops off. As I wander out of the gates at the end of the night, with Paul Van Dyke dropping Freefall?s ?Skydive? to accompany my exit (I really do miss trance), I remember something my friend (no doubt jealous that he had failed to score a ticket) said to me the evening before; ?Maybe you shouldn?t go in case you feel sad afterwards?? Well, I do feel a little sad, but not going to this would have perhaps been the most regrettable action of my life. I wonder if they?re selling tickets for next year yet?



A poor second to being there, but hopefully you get the idea!

[AndyH]

Re: Potentially the best ever

Nice mate..

'Dancing their flip flops off'.. like it..

[berps]

Re: Potentially the best ever

right chaps n chapesses heres the videos i took again in full i apologise for the actually quality of video footage i was afterall caked and well there was no way i was gonna stand still or have a steady camera hand after the cakes id had hahaah!
Anyway the audio is still alright and it will give u people a taste please enjoy and if anyone else has any please post!
Simon R no Sankeys this week i was gonna stay in have a quiet one but the charlatans and the twang are playing local so gonna go see them!!! Might be up for the warehouse partys in manc later in the year Digweed and possibly sasha in december!!!

Anyway Vids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3ZWGeKs9ic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5nODbCzwmQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBm86B8Yhyw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KD5jvA8wtA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-qoOyUgrSE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ABGlfg4V8E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u65ppgwRbw

TAH TAH!