Friday

– arrived in plenty of time to see Shellac. They were ok, but kept slowing down songs which was a bit frustrating. Was pretty drunk by the time Oxes started but again they disappointed a little. Entertaining but a bit crap musically. Was completely twatted by the time Dianogah started and got distrated by talking to big shouldered man from Jullander and Luke Younger. Still managed to see most of them though and they were great, very humble too, singer guy said he couldn’t believe so many people turned up to a festival with the bands on the bill. Then upstairs for more beer and Blonde Redhead which didn’t inspire me but I have to admit my attention span was beginning to be affected by the alcohol. So downstairs quick smart for Shipping News who were the best thing I saw all weekend. They were incredible and sounded very little like anything on their two LPs. Like I said they were just damn lovely. In all honesty we couldn’t be arsed about going up stairs for the Breeders in our condition so we just headed for the pub before catching some of Low. Got bored during them and so went back to pub. Now I think I remember seeing Dave, Ady, Paul Ackroyd and some others and even buying them all a drink before deciding I should really go and talk to Marcy and co. So off I went chalet number in hand. Now the chalet ended up being just opposite ours but you’d not have gussed that considering I wandered about for ages trying to find it and ended up in a field at one point. Anyhow found them in the end and drunkenly greated ’em all. Now it wasn’t me who broke that stereo by the way. I think anyway:)

Saturday

– Feeling a little (read as utterly) atrocious the following morning I felt shellac came too early for me. So I lurked in the chalet for a few extra hours eating pasta. I did see High Dependency Unit and was impressed. So ended up buying most of their stuff. Missed everyone else that afternoon as thought it would be a good idea to drink again. It wasn’t. Did see smog though, well two songs until we decided he wasn’t going to play with his band and also that it was crap, so we left. But still somehow missed the rachels. Did meet mister summerlin in the mechandise stall though which was some consolation. Do Make Say think I thought were excellant and I also got bored with Godspeed. Had to leave early though because I had the chalet key and two of my mates were dead drunk and I had to go let them in. One of ’em was at one point trying to kick the chalet door in and cut his foot pretty badly. So was sitting in chalet at 3am on Sunday morning cleaning his foot up and improvising a bandage until the morning. Fun. Did get a Sunnyvale demo though and the contract isn’t binding. I asked our label legal council Gunther the Badger, you forgot to make me sign it.

Sunday

– Again I didn’t see many bands but this time it was mostly because I was on a stall selling me records to lots and lots of lovely lovely people. We had to put up with some friendly heckling from mister summerlin about being up at 11am to sell records but it went great. I actually sold everything I took. Met some other lovely people too. It was the whole community/firendly feeling about the afternoon, swopping stuff with the other labels and talking to people like Efrim Godspeed and stuff. Anyhow this was when I turned down the pie. Now I was offered what looked like a slice of very lovely if a little burnt cherry pie. Very kind and everything but hating cherries whether in a pie or out meant that there was no blinking way I was gunna eat that pie. Steak and Kindey? Different story. I did turn it down very nicely though I thought. Anyhow sorry for not eating the pie. I would not have enjoyed it, it would have been wasted and wasting pie should not happen, like, ever. Did see Mission of Burma who I liked lots and also Cheap Trick who I just damn loved. They were so funny and also oddly proud that their bassist had invented the 12 string bass. Plus the plectrum tricks were worth it alone. They were taped all over the mic stands and at one point the guitarist played a chord, threw the plectrum in the air and caught it in his mouth, while taking a new plectrum and playing a bit more before throwing that one into the crowd, spitting the one in his mouth in the air, catching it and playing with that one for a few chords. It was shall we say damn great to watch. plus the whole stadium rock stuff has always made me smile. The Upper Crust were sooooooooo bad it wasn’t funny. As were Silkworm earlier on but they barely even deserve a mention. Anyway the last band were the fall and they sucked by any serious consideration. But I just thought it was entertaining tht it seemed like he’d just asked the three band members the other day if they’d play the gig and then basically ignored them when on the stage. Entertaining overall I suppose. Was only an hour however so didn’t last too long anyway.

Good things I’ve not mentioned:

– the absolutely amazing general atmosphere. So friendly and open.

– meeting tons of random people and getting demos like that one off Marcy I nicked.

– the sunday record stall. I loved those 6 hours. Yes loved. Best thing all weekend.

– amazing situation of diskant and errol chalets with all the waving fun that ensued. Didn’t speak much though:(

Bad things I’ve not mentioned:

– sun burning neck on sunday afternoon

– not meeting people like Greg Kitten, Rob Strong, Kirstie, Neph etc etc

– Lack of oven gloves. Cooking stuff in grill very dangerous without them and I have the burnt fingers to prove it.

– only seeing Shellac play once and on the worst day, the friday.

Basically however I’m not sure how you could fail to have a great time. So many lovely people. So much to do. I loved it, every minute apart from first thing saturday morning when I realised that so much Kronenburg is not meant to be consumed. I did not feel too chipper shall we say. Anyhow GREAT weekend.

Posted: 04|24|02 at 3:06 pm. Filed under: events, live reviews.
Comments and pings are currently closed.