The Big Chill, August 2006, Eastnor                                                                                                                                                                                         go back

Festie highlights:  Friday - Jon Hopkins

                                 Saturday - Laroca

                                 Sunday - Rodrigo and Gabriella  AND   Bam Bam  AND   The Shed

The Future:            Gypsy beats and extreme cabaret  (and the shed)

After walking through a stream with poorly packed plastic bags dangling from each finger, sweating profusely whilst wanging tent poles around, and completing the all new chore of a trip to the lock-up, (why did thieves have to realise that tents don't lock?) I finally arrived at the Big Chill. By the time i recovered i found myself, pint of cider in hand, watching a red dress leave the stage. Was that Tunng i just missed? Bugger.

Jose Gonzalez was the first big act circled in my program, but his lack of stage presence left me thinking i would rather be at home listening to his cd, at least then i wouldn't have to listen to the conversation of the girl sitting in front of me at the same time. Nizlopi looked over-confident and after a few songs including attempts at rapping and repetitive refrains we reminded ourselves that we didn't even like the JCB song everyone was waiting for and got the hell out of there.

None of my friends were as keen as me to borrow hilarious yet hideous synthetic outfits from the dressing up tent, and we found ourselves back at the Castle Stage for Lambchop when the musical experience picked right up - quality musicians with great banter.

X-Press 2 straight after them on the main stage was jumping and i had to drag myself back to meet friends for Jon Hopkins. Everyone loves to be right, but i was so wrong in my dismissal of Jon Hopkins as whale music (whatever the hell whales listen to..). It was the act of the night. The visuals and bobbing electronic beats drew you in, the crowd was not large, but perfectly formed, and once you started bouncing around you couldn't stop . Lost Vagueness would, i'm sure, have been the perfect end to the evening, but after all the hype it's not surprising it was so rammed they had to shut the wooden doors on everyone and try to stop people rolling in the side.

Saturday started with perfect festival weather, well after the drizzle anyway. Hooray for clouds on what would otherwise be an almost intolerable day of shade seeking, combined with that early morning tent evacuation. (you know how it goes - you lie there just a little bit longer than is actually bearable, then have to hurl yourself out of the tent collapse on the grass groaning, usually in front of  your sensible neighbours sitting on camping chairs eating eggs ).

Our first act of the day was Laroca, and their  funky yet chilled sound was the perfect start to the day. The mc gave them a hell of an intro, but he was right, with all 11 of them on stage it was a perfectly coordinated live act. We got all excited when we saw Andy Gangadeen come on stage with Jon Metcalfe, but hunger dragged us away before he did anything spectacular and we caught instead some grating vocals from Shri Live.

Walking around, doing a bit of shopping, the festie felt bigger and more crowded than ever before, but the "chilled" atmosphere, amazingly, was still there - (is it because there are so many men walking around in dresses?) And more importantly the quality of toilets has not deteriorated and it is possible to get a hot shower. I tried on many a ska hat, but i was too late; by Saturday everyone had them already.

In keeping with the demographic of big chill goers we spent most of the afternoon being white, drinking red wine, eating camping canapés and discussing which of our friends in their early thirties would be getting married/having babies first.

We missed a fair amount of music that day but the prospect of gypsy beats dragged us back into the main arena for Ross Allen at Fat Tuesday's, but he was playing his house set, and all we found were clockwork orange characters complete with codpieces. Quantic provided a sweaty opportunity to dance around and witness our friends in various states of inebriation. The club tent definitely attracts the people furthest from reality. Lost Vagueness was not quite as raunchy as expected, but after just a taster it was clear that "extreme" cabaret is intense and watchable, and that was before she set fire to tassles on her nipples and twirled them around.

What were the egg wearing? The 80's McFly outfits did not, however, detract from a great lose yourself set which left everyone with that warm fuzzy feeling.

Sunday is the day of cheese at the big chill. At any time you can find something you have heard a hundred times before if you want to. The Bikini Beach Band wore orange, had grass skirted dancers with props ranging from coconuts to bottles of tequila, and threw a few dance routines in with their surf guitar covers. It was all good foot tapping fun, and some of the random mixes made you chuckle, but an hour was plenty. Seeing Norman Jay MBE's crowd for his last song was a classic (if crowded) Big Chill moment. The song was well known, the build up was perfect, and when it kicked in there wasn't a person in the crowd who didn't know it was coming. 10 000 people started jumping up and down at the exact same moment. wicked.

I've never heard people yell for an encore like they did for Rodrigo y Gabriella on the Village Green, Sunday afternoon. It's best to watch from up front so you can see their hands. With amazing talent, energy, and passion  for classical guitar (especially Gabriella) they mash together wide-ranging styles of music to come up with beautiful tunes, build ups, alongside the occasional bit of  Metallica. If you didn't already love them, when they spoke to the crowd in heavy Mexican accents they sounded genuine, sooo cute, and really happy to see a crowd like us.

We left Amadou and Mariam early on craving sausages, and by all accounts we missed a treat.  But the musical fun continued later with Bam Bam in the Funkywormhole (now there's a great new addition this year) and the discovery of the Garden Shed of delights. While Rob da Bank was busy with overplayed Underworld tunes, we were seriously grooving to reggae and old ska records. The shed f***ing rocked - ending the weekend  with  thumping old school toons, and yup they were cheesy. Lets hope it's back next year.

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