Realised a couple of weeks ago that the Sunday line up at Dekmantel might as well have been curated by me.
It's sold out, and it's my mate's 30th the night before. Still tempted.
Realised a couple of weeks ago that the Sunday line up at Dekmantel might as well have been curated by me.
It's sold out, and it's my mate's 30th the night before. Still tempted.
Couldn't get into OVERMONO at Dour. It was good, but at 10:30pm whilst exhausted I needed something faster and heavier. Karenn straight after hit the spot nicely, though, and Blawan the next day was very good.
As for Tomorrowland, Amelie Lens and Beyer were both decent. Not sure I'll be rushing back or anything, and I'm a little annoyed at missing KiNK for the latter but the stage Beyer was playing was far superior.
Going to see Pete Tong presents Ibiza Classics on Friday in Leeds. Just a load of old dance/rave tunes performed by an Orchestra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs3BXVTF7mw
Nice. That Ibiza Proms looked great at the time.
That was a long day. You'd think they'd have the queueing down seeing as they've been running this festival in Times Square (Newcastle ... awww.) for a week. In through the doors at 4:15pm. Doors were supposed to be open at 3. A quick rundown, I guess:
- The Old Pink House. I had to look their name up because I couldn't fathom it in the moment. They look like twats but were decent live.
- Some ... four-piece girl band who, again, I didn't catch the name of. Might've began with the letter D. The bassist knackered her bass in the first song. She had Dave Hill's fringe. The lead singer is how I'd imagine Mark E. Smith sober to be. Lots of shouting. Well, exclusively.
- Public Broadcasting System. Our answer to Of Monuments to Masses. Post-rock with some sampled speech over it. Pretty good, although the lead guitarist is the most restrained human being on the planet which makes them boring to watch.
UNLESS THEY HAVE AN ENTHUSIASTIC BRASS SECTION IN TOW. Guy playing the sax became a fantastic hype man.
- The Cribs. Right, this is the first time I've felt out of place. Completely. I know of two of their singles and I enjoyed them when they rolled them out. I don't care enough to get along with the rest, though. In a crowd super into them. They also said they'd changed the set because there were so many fans of theirs. Code for. "Doors weren't open for an hour so we're pressed for time." Still cranked out an hour.
- Manic Street Preachers. Outstanding. Slightly dampened by the drunk bloke who turned a touch rapey and got pointed out by security. Also the moments were I came close to being crushed or bowled over. The first coming when a bint in a mohecan barreled through. The fucking state of her. Oh, and the guy that got visibly upset when his requests to play Faster were shut the fuck down. We got showered with streamers at the end of If You Tolerate This. James got strangled with them in the next number. On the plus side, someone's attempt to nail him with a pint was miles out.
How did you fare for Glasto, @dino? It was chaos but we managed to get my main two groups sorted. Pretty much everybody else I spoke to didn't manage, though. Gotta treat every year like your last at this stage.
I’m heading back to Glasto for the first time since 2014 next year. Muchos excito.
Yeah, last time getting a ticket in the resale meant I missed out on these six extra months of excitement. Fucking love it.
Is there even a line up yet?
Nope. But if you can’t find something you like buried in the Glasto line-up, whether it even be something that isn’t musical, Glasto probably isn’t the place for you. For me, good headliners are just a bonus. In 2014, I saw all three. The two years before that, I saw I think two out of the six. There truly is diversity of line-up across the bill that is almost universal.
Kendrick Lamar and Elton John.
I'm a twit
I missed registration this year. Lots of my mates are going so pretty SAD that I can't go.
Looks like The Cure will be one of the headliners, which I won't be at. They did a three hour set at Bestival a few years ago and I gave up after half-an-hour. It was so dull. They've got some songs I like, but I don't think I could stomach Friday I'm In Love either. I quite like having headliners that I'm not interested in as leaving the Pyramid can take about 45 minutes and your chances of getting into the south east corner are dramatically reduced.
The Cure basically do ‘a tour’ every summer don’t they? Which usually translates into 7/8 fucking huge outdoor shows and that’s it.
I’d def go see them if they are at Glastonbury, but I do fear the interminable nature of their sets.
Going to Love Saves The Day in Bristol. £90 for two days + nights is pretty cheap and there's a nice mix throughout the line up. Would like to do a day at Junction 2 but its the same month financially as Glastonbury so doubt I could afford it. My mate wants to do a festival in Barcelona, so I've been pushing Sonar but he wants to go to Primavera, which again is the same month as Glasto. Other than that, would love to do Outlook but £££ so might just go to Boomtown again.
I want to do Sonar so badly, but I'm not sure if I have that weekend free and kinda doubt I can convince anyone to tag along.
Going to festivals solo is so good tho
I don't mind doing the odd night alone if the music warrants it, but a whole weekend by yourself would be a bit shit. I know you'd meet other people, but 99% of other people are shit.
Doing this in July. The missus is desperate to go and there's Culture Shock, Spy and London Elektricity for me. I have no fucking idea who 90% of these are. Loads more to be announced.
https://electriccastle.ro/
Awesome venue too.
Danny Byrd was good when I saw him at Hospitality in the Park a couple years back. Boys Noize is always good too if you fancy some techno. How'd you find out about it?
The missus is Romanian and has always wanted to go but moved over here 9 years back. Her mate has been last couple years and said its fucking amazing so we both said why not.
Free accommodation too as some of her mates live nearby.
Nice. Being a foreigner at a festival is great. Everybody will be so impressed that you travelled all that way for the festival. You'll probably get some free keys out of it.
Think I'm getting snuck into Glastonbury. About a million things that could go wrong, but fuck it.
By security? I remember you saying you had that option a few years back. Good luck.
Tempting fate doing a clashfinder but this is what I fancy:
https://clashfinder.com/s/g2019/?user=0k5feq.vb&
Not a great deal during the daytime but the late stuff is immense. Iicon Friday & Sunday.
Off to Glasto too. Much excitement.
Good luck. Will be interested to hear the story regardless.
IICON does look and sound mental. Such a good line up. Karenn on the last night.
New Arcadia looks okay but it's usually a waste of time after midnight.
There's so much going on that I'm just going to go with the flow. My clashfinder is overwhelming. Gotta get the adventures in.
Karenn could be the best thing ever. Going to really have to make an effort to have gas left in the tank at that time of the weekend.
never even heard of half of these people
Bicep DJ set going straight into Hopkins DJ set is
I was there for a lot of Karenn but left to keep the group happy. That IICON stage, though: fucking hell. Batu on Thursday was genuinely mind-blowing. It felt like I was suspended in the air like a fish stunned by dynamite.
Wu-Tang far, far exceeded my expectations too and were maybe the best day act. I had a lot of fun just bouncing around this year, though. The energy at Glastonbury is incredible. There's nothing like it.
https://youtu.be/GGS_-FYXdHE
There's a time-lapse video of IICON being set up.
My brain is in serious pain today but what a fucking weekend. It really is so well organised and curated, everything felt perfectly executed.
Got in with my brother's mate's crew wristband but had to give it back so was without one all weekend, was mildly paranoid for most of the festival but nobody seemed to give a fuck.
I had a heavy one on Thursday night so Friday was incredibly hard going in the heat, utterly relentless and nowhere to hide from it. Took it easyish on Friday and Saturday so had plenty of juice the whole weekend which worked well.
You're right about IICON. It is incredible, they better not change anything about it. Size is perfect even if it was quiet at times, loads of space to jump about and go mental or just chill out and have a seat if you fancy. Obviously visually incredible and the sound is amazing. The absolute bollocks. Karenn blew my face off but it was a fairly relentless 90 minutes.
Yeah, everything still feels like it's working out perfectly. I feel like a proper hippy being so in love with the world. It's strange, but I hope it never ends.
Security really don't give a shit. I felt I was proper pushing it at times but I think they're all fucked too. They must be under orders to just let things be unless anything violent is happening.
I've got a Quechea fresh and black tent so was able to sleep in the day. Its well worth investing in one if you can. My energy just didn't stop. Stone Circle after 6am every night before forcing myself to close my eyes for a few hours.
I've seen some people complain about IICON, but I thought it was perfect. This country just doesn't get techno, but if they keep that there eventually the crowds will come. I love drum and bass but it would be a waste of the stage to stick it on to get the crowds in.
IICON did look fucking cool. None of the goings on in SE Corner / Shangri-La are really my thing musically, but we spent a couple of nights there just taking in all the weirdness which was very enjoyable.
Hot Chip on the Park Stage absolutely stole the show for me. I’d not seen them for nearly a decade and they’ve come a heck of a long way in that time. Plus, their cover of Sabotage by the Beastie Boys with Four Tet (!) was incredible.
I heard Sabotage from my camp. Wish I'd ran over to catch it now.
What an absolute lad.
That lad really did smash it. Proper rose to the occasion.
In contrast, Huw Stephens responding to "that was black history in the making" after Stormzy's performance with "ahh, when Chris Martin came out" is the most stupid thing I've ever seen. Surely he has to lose his job? He was already shit so there's no reason to keep him.
Hot Chip really did smash it. Proper greatest hits set and there wasn't really a low point, just a party the whole way through. I love them.
Here's an article about IICON, sounds pretty promising for the future: https://www.musicweek.com/live/read/...reation/076682
Signed up to volunteer on the Saturday at Dekmantel and then going on the Sunday.
Want to start the day with Yu Su and end with Palms Trax, fuck knows in between though. Palms has the potential to be an all-time set.
Big clashes amongst the headliners. I'd probably check out Tzusing.
Kinda tempted to check out Raphaël Top-Secret and then just prep for a full 4 hours of MCDE + Palms.
Oh, went to Cercle's Amelie Lens-thing yesterday. For essentially being an event held in order to film a long-ass promotional video, it was pretty cool.
Where was it? Cercle normally pick good locations.
In front of the Atomium in Brussels. They lit them up like gigantic disco balls so that was almost worth the price of admission.
Tzusing.
DJ Python is the other one that stands out.
Actually I'm getting mixed up with Mun Sing. Don't think I know who Tzusing is.