Boatherder

At the weekend, I went to a festival in Lancashire, called "Beatherder" probably named so because of the collected music areas..

Despite extreme weather conditions, mainly rain and Thunder and Lightning. Everyone had a Jolly good time.

My friend had organised us to supply a P.A (amplifiers, speakers) in one of the tents... (this was a blag really, because we wanted in for free and we both wanted to DJ so....)Our Tent was based on a "working mans club" and was called "Beatherder and District Working Mens Club"

It was a pretty crazy place to be really... The girls running the it were as nutty a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes.. which was really good, cos it only added to the atmosphere, anyway... The girls had organised a wedding party (fake) to arrive in a Limmo... which was made by attaching a cardboard box to 4 people (one is the front of the limmo 2 are the doors and middle bit, the fourth is the rear of the car).. which drove into the tent and the bride got out... it was quite surreal.

The girls also had several games of bingo. the top prize in which was around one pound 23 pence.. so. Otherthings that we did.. that worked really well.. was an open mic/whatever session.. so there were a few DJ's who had tunes with them played. A daft band, A moody band, a passionate female, a ex TV addict and some rants, A young Jazz/funk/ska band (who did an acoustic set (trumpets and drums) cos we had no power.. due to the excessive rainfall).. some comedic singer called Captain Hotknifes..

Our tent reminded me of a tent I spent a lot of time in at a festival last year called Disco du Fromage (Disco of Cheese), because of our diverseness and closeness and generally relaxed feel of our tent.

I seem to be writing this in a way that I'm not saying.. well on friday we arrivied and was moaned at by a farmer because of the mud now being churned up in his field. and then we pitched our tents and then went to the working mans club. Met up with John and then went to my car to get my Decks (turntables)... and so on. I THINK IT'S not good to shout like that so I apologuise, why doesn't my spellchecker work in this blog box..?? there's something worth a ponder. I as per normal have done a crap job of getting photo's of the whole thing.. Although I have got some of Sundays antics..

A interesting point to note that as from the 1st of July 2007, smoking in public places or in the workplace will be banned and illegal. 

Which is a interesting point at a festival, as the whole festival site.. is infact a workplace. (the farmer owns the land - It's his place of buisness, most of the areana's are in tents...hmmm)Luckily I'm not sure anyone really knows what the score is when it comes to festivals. To be quite honest I don't think anyone gives a ???!

On the subject of giving a ???, I arrive at a friends yesterday whos askes me "Have you seen anything about the carbomb at glasgo airport"me - "Seen it? I've been at a festival for days"and then went onto tell me..

It's one of those times where you think to yourself, I'm so glad to be cut away from it all. Or on the otherhand it's quite shocking what could happen over a weekend of a full moon..

Amidst all the choas that seemed to be surrounding a world within a world of people unaware of what was happening. There were smiles and laughter.Does one person suffer as another relaxes? (big wheel - massive attack)

The Line up included..Transglobal Underground, UR Penetrators, Digitalis (mate Bens band - Quality dance beats), Subsource, Dreadzone, Ziontrain, Jim Noir, Dub Pistols (who got cancelled because the mainstage was too open to the elements and it got severly waterlogged) Andy Weatherall (good trippy funk tech house), Semihere, Tayo, Mikko, The Utah Saints and more... all this for under 35 pounds.. (quality pricing!) much better than Glastonbury.. The Mud would have made it on a par. Considering glastonbury costs 100 + pounds for 3 days and this was 30 pounds for 3 days..!! need i say more..  I would have seen about the same amount of music If I had went there.. It could be seen as a waste of money depending how you look at it.. I ended up missing loads of bands at glastonbury, for variour different reasons.. mainly Queues and people getting lost..

Both John and I got to do a set, his was early friday, I did the late night early morning shift..2.30am - which turned out really great. It started off quite busy as people deciced which main area they wanted to go to.. Interestingly I forgot where I was.. other than at a festival.. I played some funk, dub, drum n bass, which people really liked and when it was quieter, I did some experimental music.. Plaiyng an instrumental track and slicing vocals over the top.. adding effects and making things quite spacey for a while later on as things stared to finish, our tent started to get random people in it again although by this point I was getting quite tired (about 5am) My mate Jason turned up and encouraged me to get people going again.His Words "Play some more of that funky stuff" near the end of Kool and the Gangs Funky Stuff (semi coincedental). And so I did.. It got quite crowded and jumpy!  soI thank you Jason, you really helped motivate me (I was shattered) which had a really positive outcome.. Nice one! During this time when Jason had arrived there were words that were cut out and were lying around for people to make sentences from.. to which Jason stuck the words your golden to one of my turntables... How true! :D

We finished at 6.30am..

By the end of the weekend the mud was around 12 inches deep in parts, people were diving in the mud, sliding, there were some naked people on stage, When that was mentioned the whole tent cleared.. almost.. hehe. We had no power, Due to water levels and the dangers of electricity and water, The open mic session turned into an open cup, with a mic stand and was a good laugh. The reaggge tent was fukny ans swingy (as all good reggae tents should be) and I got kissed several on the cheeks by a girl who wanted a smoke.

My tent is muddy It's outside hanging on the line drying.. It was fancy dress night on saturday night and I wore my Brown Pinstripe flared suit that has got severe mud damage on the bottom of the trousers.. I'm hoping they'll clean up ok..

To finish up we got towed out by a tractor as my car got stuck in the mud...

A little tribute to that..

"We sailed out of the fest, behind an International Tractor, Pulling like a tug at the beat harbour. We skipped across the mud, well not skipped, We sailed!  A most excellent way to leave In style, Effort free!!

Thank you beathearder tractor guys..!! "

Cumfy