Today I am mostly listening to: Hed Kandi – The Mix 2006, Twisted Disco MixWell, the Big Chill came & went & I think I’ve just about recovered enough to write a little post. My extensive
list of things to take was pretty accurate actually, and if I really think about it, there was nothing else I would have taken. Well, apart from a nice clean on-suite with a power shower, but I think it may have been too heavy to carry...
Considering me & the
Mrs should have left at 9:00 am Thursday morning, we didn’t do too bad as we finally managed to leave at 2:30 pm! You can blame the argument & the raging hangover for the late departure (her hangover, not mine – I’m too sensible for that). In fact, that pretty much set the tone for the whole festival, we managed to bicker and argue for the majority of the time we were together. But anyway, enough of the domestics, on with the festival itself.
Although we arrived on Thursday, the festival didn’t officially start until the Friday. So, after a quick orientation march round the festival site on the Thursday evening, we were all ready for the first act on Friday (and the first of many struggles up that bloody hill).
The Big Chill Hill: It doesn't look that big, but trust me, it was
Anyway, despite the bickering, the acts we managed to see were as follows:
FRIDAYPossibly
A Hawk & A Hacksaw or
The Memory Band (I can’t for the life of me remember who it was, but they was definitely on the Village Green Stage)
A mass wedding in
Lost Vagueness’s Chapel of Love & Loathing (the host needed a bit more practice in my opinion…)
José González on the Open Air Stage – Now, I have to confess that I’m not a fan of this bloke, I just don’t get his music or all the fuss about him & I was really hoping his set would change my opinion. But alas it wasn’t meant to be. It was absolutely packed though, so I must be one of the few who just don’t get him. Oh well, answers on a postcard please.
Aim (Open Air Stage straight after my mate José) – I really wanted to see
Nizlopi on the Castle Stage (a much better stage in my opinion), but I was out-voted (not for the last time) so we had to stay put & wait. They obviously made a big impact on me because I can’t remember what they were like...
X-Press 2 (Open Air Stage), who were the real reason for not moving from the main stage. They must have been pretty good, because they got most people up off their arses & dancing. I seem to remember that I was a tad drunk though, so perhaps the memory is a little bit hazy.
SATURDAYArrested Development (Open Air Stage) – Pretty good actually, and finally one act I wanted to see. Not only did they play the classics, like
Mr Wendal &
Tennessee, they even did a great cover of
Bob Marley’s Songs of Freedom. I think I even commented that I may try & buy a CD, so they must have been good.
Arrested Development - There I am! The one with the pink wrist band!
David McAlmont (Castle Stage) – Perhaps it's cheating by listing him as I didn’t personally see him. The
Mrs did make the effort to wander down the hill & see him though. She said she even cried when he did one song (not sure which one), so he must have been pretty good.
Scritti Politti (Castle Stage) – Hmm, well. It was OK, but I wasn’t that impressed. I think they played one song that I vaguely recognised. One question though, why does he sing in such a high voice, when he actually talks a lot deeper?
Blue Man Group (Media Mix Tent) – To be fair we didn’t have a very good view from where we were & had to make do with standing on tiptoes & looking at the big screens. Perhaps if we’d got our act together a bit earlier it would have been better. They looked quite good from what I could see though. One of them did a weird thing with marshmallows in his mouth...
SUNDAYRodrigo y Gabriela (Village Green Stage) – Despite what I said to the
Mrs, I did really enjoy them (I said I didn't think they were any good...) We’d had another argument, and I was just being difficult for the sake of it! Would definitely like to see them again. And hopefully not be in a strop this time.
Amadou & Mariam (Open Air Stage) – Errm, not sure they were really worthy of the main stage. They spoke a lot of French, non of which I understood. Perhaps they could have swapped with
Rodrigo y Gabriela because that crowd was pretty big.
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (Open Air Stage) – What can I say?! They were absolutely brilliant! I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but I got a whole lot more than I ever expected! They were basically a ukulele-only orchestra who played covers. Sounds a bit boring? Definitely not. My favourites had to be
Blondie’s Picture This,
Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit &
Shaft. Excellent, excellent.
Bent (Open Air Stage) – To my shame I’ve never heard of
Bent, even though most of our group seemed to be big fans. And even though I was in another strop after another argument, I definitely enjoyed them and in a little way they reminded me of
Moloko.
Burt Latino & Mavis (Castle Stage) – Again I can’t really remember what this lot did. We only saw them as we were waiting for The Proclaimers.
The Proclaimers (Castle Stage) – Exactly what you’d expect. Not exactly my type of thing, but they were OK, they played all the old favourites & got a lot of people dancing.
Guilty Pleasures (Castle Stage) – Excellent! They played all those cheesy hits from way back. I think they opened with
Dolly’s 9 to 5. And what a way to open! They finished with
I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing, and of course we all joined in!
So that was who we actually saw, but here is a list of who I would have liked to see (not sure when we would have fitted it in though. What with all the arguing...):
- Nizlopi
- Bugz In The Attic
- Fink
- Eva Abraham
- Pornaoke (not too sure what it was, but it sounded interesting. *nudge, nudege, wink, wink*)
- Norman Jay
- The Heritage Orchestra (the
Mrs was saying how good they were)
- Bikini Beach Band
- Lily Allen
- Glenn Tilbrook (I’m absolutely gutted I missed him)
- Martha Wainwright
- The Association of Capoeira Engenho da Rainha
- The Persuassions
- Fat Tuesday – Not to see anyone in particular, just to visit the bar & listen to the tunes
- Finlandia Cocktail Bar – See above.
Hmm, so that was the Big Chill 2006. I have to say that the site was excellent & I couldn’t think of a better place to hold something like that. The toilets weren’t brilliant, but I was assured that they were so much cleaner than Glastonbury. My only request would be for them to be emptied a bit more often. We never ran out of toilet paper though, so that’s a good thing. The showers were also very welcome. I queued for an hour on both Friday & Saturday, and I can only say that it was well worth it (but a few more showers wouldn’t go a miss). Sunday we managed a solar shower, which was also very welcome.
There was an excellent choice of food (despite what my mate José said in The Guardian - he didn't like the food apparently), and it would have been great to try so much more of it, but the cost could have been a little cheaper (just because we’re at a festival there’s no need to take advantage of us ). The bars we visited weren’t too bad either. Considering the amount of people they had to serve, they managed pretty well & only ran out of a few things on Sunday night. I even managed to get drunk so it must have been pretty good!
Big Chill 2006
