All Tomorrow's Parties

[Skummy]

I made a thread about this forever ago, but now it's less than a week to go, and I want to brag some more (and, possibly, see if any of you lot might be going too).

Basically, this is the best festival on the planet; it's held at Butlins, so it's all indoors, you get accomodation, proper bars, and CRAZY GOLF. That and it's got the most wonderful and eclectic line-up of any festival I've seen, other than previous years' ATP.

The line-up is as follows;

Portishead, Aphex Twin, Boris, SunnO))), Om, Julian Cope, Sparklehorse, Oneida, Black Mountain, Crippled Black Phoenix, Fuzz Against Junk, Seasick Steve, Team Brick, Earth, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Kling Klang, Thurston Moore, Autolux, Jah Shaka Soundsystem, Francoiz Breut, Glenn Branca, Jerry Sadowitz, The Horrors, Chrome Hoof, Malcolm Middleton, Joe Volk, Lucky Luke, The Heads, GZA/Genius, Oren Ambarchi, John Parish, Polar Bear, Atavist, Blood Island Raiders, Silver Apples, The Blessing, Jukes, The Madlib Medicine Show, Thought Forms, DAMO SUZUKI, Gonga, Rosie Red Rash, Dylan Howe, Malakai, The Gas Giants, Don Mandarin, Fuck Buttons, John Cooper Clarke

I reckon that's essentially the best line-up of any festival this year, by far. To say that I'm excited is a tiny tiny understatement...every band that I've heard of on that line-up is brilliant, except The Horrors, and the ones I haven't heard before sound like they'll be interesting. The only irritating thing is that Portishead clash with Thurston Moore, and Boris with Damo Suzuki.

But, basically, yeah. Excitement. Totally.

[THEXTREMIST]

How could they schedule a clash between Portishead and Thurston, that's criminal. I would go but, 1. don't have the money and 2. I'm still in withdrawal for not being able to go last years which had the best lineup period (except Mudhoney, that would have made it a tad better than amazing). I still got to see Dino and Sonic elsewhere anyway so I'm not too bothered about missing that one. I will go one year though, maybe next if Uni doesn't get in the way of things. It's a sizable amount of money.

[gunnar hendershow]

I would love nothing more than to still be in England so I could see this.

[Steeb]

I don't see how Boris Vs. Damo is even a question, myself Rest of the line-up looks really interesting though, I gotta say. Lucky bitch.

[Skummy]

The Boris/Damo choice is difficult, because on one hand it's Damo Suzuki...a former member of one of the greatest bands of all time, and one of the few people cool enough to have a Fall song named for them, but on the other hand, I can imagine Boris being phenomenal live, and I don't want to miss any potential Boris/SunnO))) collaboration....but I haven't heard anything Damo's done as a solo artist in YEARS, so I don't know how good he'd be. That, and Boris, Earth and SunnO))) are all playing one after the other, and I don't know if I could handle that without just turning into mush by the end of the three and a half hours or so.

[Skummy]

If someone had told me a year ago that, in December 2007, over the course of one weekend, I would chat to Thurston Moore, shake hands with Damo Suzuki (and converse with him multiple times, actually), walk through a hallway lined with posters of H and Liberty X and their ilk en route to seeing an incredible doom band with a headfull of amphetamines supplied by Julian Cope, and see SunnO))), Aphex Twin and members of the Wu-Tang Clan perform in Butlins....I'd have thought they'd completely lost it.

My GOD, this was the best festival I've ever attended...phenomenal music, tremendous atmosphere, accomodation, polite and civilised crowd (twice I managed to change a roll of film while standing at the front row, and when my friend lost her wallet someone had handed it in to security straight away), tons of stuff to do when there's no live music going on.

Unfortunately I missed the first few acts because my flights were delayed, and we ended up running seven and a half hours behind schedule, but we didn't seem to miss anyone too special.

Highlights for me: Boris were mindblowing, Chrome Hoof were one of the tightest live bands I've ever seen, Aphex Twin is the ONLY man that can make music simultaneously punishing and emminently danceable, SunnO))) absolutely raped my soul and I'll never be the same, meeting Damo Suzuki was like a dream come true and he was great live too, Seasick Steve is the finest troubadour in all the land, John Cooper Clarke's "My doctor told me I'd have to stop masturbating, I said 'why?', he said 'because I'm trying to conduct a medical examination!'...anyway, he said 'I'm sorry to say you have chronic bronchitis and alzheimer's', I said 'well, at least I don't have chronic bronchitis.".

Only bad bands I saw were Crippled Black Phoenix who were just dull, and Blood Island Raiders who were the most generic of METAL~!, which might have been fun if I wasn't on the comedown of all comedowns at that point.

Edited December 11, 2007 by Whale Biologist

[tristy]

I saw the videos for the three new Portishead songs on YouTube. Wow. Fucking heavy shit for a "trip-hop" band.

[Skummy]

Apparently the THING singing with SunnO))) was Attila Csihar of Mayhem, which makes the whole situation even more surreal.

And, yes, new Portishead is heavy, droney and fantastic.

A couple of photos;

Black Mountain

SunnO)))

Damo Suzuki

I got a load more than that, but I'm waiting for them to be developed, these are just my crappy digital shots.

Edited December 11, 2007 by Whale Biologist