The Big Chill 2009
- Thread starter Voley
- Start date
Lazy Llama
Suburban robots that monitor reality
Only just sinking in that it's this week.
Really looking forward to it and crossing all my extremities that the weather behaves.
I'll have to start digging through the camping gear from last years Bestival mudfest tonight.
Really looking forward to it and crossing all my extremities that the weather behaves.
I'll have to start digging through the camping gear from last years Bestival mudfest tonight.
Amadou and Mariam were great at Glastonbury, you'll love em! 
Amadou and Mariam were great at Glastonbury, you'll love em!
I saw them last year at Latitude, really enjoyed them.
Anyway, shall we folk who're going try to meet for a pint, or a cocktail, or summat?
mwgdrwg
Be a Pisces. Jam.
Dr. Furface
One small step for me
Thanks for that
genee_rave
New Member
I've just helped my flatmate pack and lent her some trusty Sporks! REALLY wish I was going now, and have just been offered a free ticket cos someone can't make it, but I've agreed to go for a mate's birthday camping trip 
Lazy Llama
Suburban robots that monitor reality
We're onsite now.
Some bits are a little muddy but only where vehicles have churned up the damp ground and we've had a few showers but it's very warm.
Some bits are a little muddy but only where vehicles have churned up the damp ground and we've had a few showers but it's very warm.
top_biller
a big bowl of wrong
Just about to leave for the train station - woot woot! Chime live here we come!
We're not long back and I'm not even showered yet but I just have to say what a great time we had.
The weather was scorchio which suits me
Friday's favourite band was Noah and the Whale but I came across some other good stuff too on Friday. I'll need to look them up to remind me though
Saturday, nobody grabbed me much until Spiritualized. That was the third time I've seen them and it was by far the best, I loved every minute.
Sunday...........David Byrne, what a performance. He filled the stage and the arena.
The only two things that pissed me off were people who push me out of their way to get to the front of the stages and all the people who leave litter behind. The area's in front of the stages were always full of food and drink containers and other waste. There were plenty of recycling and rubbish bins, I don't understand why people are just so fucking lazy and thoughtless
Didn't stop me having a good time though
The weather was scorchio which suits me
Friday's favourite band was Noah and the Whale but I came across some other good stuff too on Friday. I'll need to look them up to remind me though
Saturday, nobody grabbed me much until Spiritualized. That was the third time I've seen them and it was by far the best, I loved every minute.
Sunday...........David Byrne, what a performance. He filled the stage and the arena.
The only two things that pissed me off were people who push me out of their way to get to the front of the stages and all the people who leave litter behind. The area's in front of the stages were always full of food and drink containers and other waste. There were plenty of recycling and rubbish bins, I don't understand why people are just so fucking lazy and thoughtless
Didn't stop me having a good time though
fen_boy
Exits gracefully.
So we're back, and we had an excellent time. It was our first festival with kids and they loved it. We found it quite difficult to get to anything on time and so we often only caught the end of bands we wanted to see.
The general vibe was really good - much less attitude than when I went about 5 years ago and there were many less utterly fucked people than I remember in the past.
Highlights for me were Orbital, not their best gig, but still great - solid, but no surprises. Emiliana Torrini, Lamb, Kathryn Williams, Calexico, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. The kids absolutely loved Music from the Penguin Cafe. Andrew Bird was good as were Ska Cubano.
The Sailor Jerry Rum bar was always good fun and Craig Charles at the Frisky Bison was also.
I didn't come across any horrific toilets, which is a first at a festival for me... We also had excellent neighbours in the family camping.
Lowlights were, Basement Jaxx - self-indulgent toss apart from a couple of decent tunes.
The fact that you can't bring alcohol from camping onto site is still a bummer. No glass bottles I can understand, but sniffing peoples bottles of water to detect alcohol made it feel a bit like a low rent nite-club.
Emmy the Great wasn't... and The Gist the Ex Feat. Getachew Mekuria were probably the worst band I've ever seen.
I missed most of the comedy I wanted to see.
The vibe was a bit different on the Sunday with all the daytrippers so it was a lot busier. And I missed most of Sunday night after 9 'cos I volunteered to babysit.
The general vibe was really good - much less attitude than when I went about 5 years ago and there were many less utterly fucked people than I remember in the past.
Highlights for me were Orbital, not their best gig, but still great - solid, but no surprises. Emiliana Torrini, Lamb, Kathryn Williams, Calexico, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. The kids absolutely loved Music from the Penguin Cafe. Andrew Bird was good as were Ska Cubano.
The Sailor Jerry Rum bar was always good fun and Craig Charles at the Frisky Bison was also.
I didn't come across any horrific toilets, which is a first at a festival for me... We also had excellent neighbours in the family camping.
Lowlights were, Basement Jaxx - self-indulgent toss apart from a couple of decent tunes.
The fact that you can't bring alcohol from camping onto site is still a bummer. No glass bottles I can understand, but sniffing peoples bottles of water to detect alcohol made it feel a bit like a low rent nite-club.
Emmy the Great wasn't... and The Gist the Ex Feat. Getachew Mekuria were probably the worst band I've ever seen.
I missed most of the comedy I wanted to see.
The vibe was a bit different on the Sunday with all the daytrippers so it was a lot busier. And I missed most of Sunday night after 9 'cos I volunteered to babysit.
Lazy Llama
Suburban robots that monitor reality
Been back for a few hours now.
Had an excellent time with one notable exception. The weather was, as Shirl says, fantastic after the rain stopped on Thurs night/Fri morning.
We didn't rush around much and missed all sorts of stuff that we had wanted to see but it didn't really seem to matter much
We thought Basement Jaxx were the poorest we've seen them, and the sound seemed dodgy at a few points during their set.
John Cooper Clark was as funny as ever, . We spent quite a bit of time relaxing listening to DJs, particularly Mr Scruff, DJ Format and Adrian Sherwood. Greco-Roman Soundsystem ft Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs were pretty good too.
Josie Long wasn't up to much, and I think she knew it, but Andy Askins who preceded her was good.
Chris Cunningham's AV set, what we saw of it, was incredible. From our tent in the Green Camping field, it sounded like hell had arrived on earth and the visuals seemed to bear that out.
Dub Syndicate were great on the Sunday night with Sherwood doing a splendid mix.
Overall, the food seemed slightly cheaper than last year, the crowd seemed significantly different with more younger people and no quite as many middle-class families with off-road baby buggies.
The mess was bad, it did seem to be a thoughtless minority, not a small enough minority though. Same goes for blokes who can't be arsed to lift the toilet seat before liberally pissing all over the toilet cubicle.
Our big downer started at 1am Friday morning when Mrs Llama heard our tent zip and shouted "Oi!" and we found that both her and my muddy jeans had been nicked from the other part of the tent. Stupidly, I'd left my house keys and car keys in the pocket, along with my contact lenses and a pocketful of change. I'd taken my wallet and phone out though.
The steward on duty at the exit to the Green Car Park was sympathetic and sent me over to the Head Steward for the Green Camping (Nikki, I think) who was also kind. She advised me to go up to the site police point up the hill from the main stage. The police there were helpful and polite, despite them suffering a power outage at the time.
As I left the police point at around 02:30, more reports of tent thefts were coming in, including one girl who had her handbag including her passport stolen. On the Big Chill Forum there are a couple of reports of tent thieves being arrested, which is good news.
We were worried that the thieves would use our car keys and remote to nick the car but that didn't happen, thankfully.
We didn't see any significant security patrols round the camping areas, and I'd be interested to see the crime figures this year. Last year there were complaints about security being heavy handed but this year there didn't seem to be much at all where we were camping.
Had an excellent time with one notable exception. The weather was, as Shirl says, fantastic after the rain stopped on Thurs night/Fri morning.
We didn't rush around much and missed all sorts of stuff that we had wanted to see but it didn't really seem to matter much
We thought Basement Jaxx were the poorest we've seen them, and the sound seemed dodgy at a few points during their set.
John Cooper Clark was as funny as ever, . We spent quite a bit of time relaxing listening to DJs, particularly Mr Scruff, DJ Format and Adrian Sherwood. Greco-Roman Soundsystem ft Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs were pretty good too.
Josie Long wasn't up to much, and I think she knew it, but Andy Askins who preceded her was good.
Chris Cunningham's AV set, what we saw of it, was incredible. From our tent in the Green Camping field, it sounded like hell had arrived on earth and the visuals seemed to bear that out.
Dub Syndicate were great on the Sunday night with Sherwood doing a splendid mix.
Overall, the food seemed slightly cheaper than last year, the crowd seemed significantly different with more younger people and no quite as many middle-class families with off-road baby buggies.
The mess was bad, it did seem to be a thoughtless minority, not a small enough minority though. Same goes for blokes who can't be arsed to lift the toilet seat before liberally pissing all over the toilet cubicle.
Our big downer started at 1am Friday morning when Mrs Llama heard our tent zip and shouted "Oi!" and we found that both her and my muddy jeans had been nicked from the other part of the tent. Stupidly, I'd left my house keys and car keys in the pocket, along with my contact lenses and a pocketful of change. I'd taken my wallet and phone out though.
The steward on duty at the exit to the Green Car Park was sympathetic and sent me over to the Head Steward for the Green Camping (Nikki, I think) who was also kind. She advised me to go up to the site police point up the hill from the main stage. The police there were helpful and polite, despite them suffering a power outage at the time.
As I left the police point at around 02:30, more reports of tent thefts were coming in, including one girl who had her handbag including her passport stolen. On the Big Chill Forum there are a couple of reports of tent thieves being arrested, which is good news.
We were worried that the thieves would use our car keys and remote to nick the car but that didn't happen, thankfully.
We didn't see any significant security patrols round the camping areas, and I'd be interested to see the crime figures this year. Last year there were complaints about security being heavy handed but this year there didn't seem to be much at all where we were camping.
fen_boy
Exits gracefully.
Been back for a few hours now.
Had an excellent time with one notable exception. The weather was, as Shirl says, fantastic after the rain stopped on Thurs night/Fri morning.
We didn't rush around much and missed all sorts of stuff that we had wanted to see but it didn't really seem to matter much
We thought Basement Jaxx were the poorest we've seen them, and the sound seemed dodgy at a few points during their set.
John Cooper Clark was as funny as ever, . We spent quite a bit of time relaxing listening to DJs, particularly Mr Scruff, DJ Format and Adrian Sherwood. Greco-Roman Soundsystem ft Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs were pretty good too.
Josie Long wasn't up to much, and I think she knew it, but Andy Askins who preceded her was good.
Chris Cunningham's AV set, what we saw of it, was incredible. From our tent in the Green Camping field, it sounded like hell had arrived on earth and the visuals seemed to bear that out.
Dub Syndicate were great on the Sunday night with Sherwood doing a splendid mix.
Overall, the food seemed slightly cheaper than last year, the crowd seemed significantly different with more younger people and no quite as many middle-class families with off-road baby buggies.
The mess was bad, it did seem to be a thoughtless minority, not a small enough minority though. Same goes for blokes who can't be arsed to lift the toilet seat before liberally pissing all over the toilet cubicle.
Our big downer started at 1am Friday morning when Mrs Llama heard our tent zip and shouted "Oi!" and we found that both her and my muddy jeans had been nicked from the other part of the tent. Stupidly, I'd left my house keys and car keys in the pocket, along with my contact lenses and a pocketful of change. I'd taken my wallet and phone out though.
The steward on duty at the exit to the Green Car Park was sympathetic and sent me over to the Head Steward for the Green Camping (Nikki, I think) who was also kind. She advised me to go up to the site police point up the hill from the main stage. The police there were helpful and polite, despite them suffering a power outage at the time.
As I left the police point at around 02:30, more reports of tent thefts were coming in, including one girl who had her handbag including her passport stolen. On the Big Chill Forum there are a couple of reports of tent thieves being arrested, which is good news.
We were worried that the thieves would use our car keys and remote to nick the car but that didn't happen, thankfully.
We didn't see any significant security patrols round the camping areas, and I'd be interested to see the crime figures this year. Last year there were complaints about security being heavy handed but this year there didn't seem to be much at all where we were camping.
Sorry to hear that, that's a huge shitter. We didn't hear of anything like that in Red Camping.
You've reminded me of another thing though, which I that I missed Chris Cunningham and everyone I was with raved about it.
Lazy Llama, sorry to hear about your trouble with thieves
We were in the live in vehicle field so it's not easy to rob from there and I didn't hear of any problems.
I did notice that security was much less visible than last year, I hardly saw anyone other than on the gates and even then I was able to walk in every day with a plastic bottle of wine.
We were in the live in vehicle field so it's not easy to rob from there and I didn't hear of any problems.
I did notice that security was much less visible than last year, I hardly saw anyone other than on the gates and even then I was able to walk in every day with a plastic bottle of wine.
I'll have more to say about my Big Chill highlights later, but on Chris Cunningham's set - it was definitely one of the standout moments. The visuals had a pretty disturbing edge to them, but combined with the music they made for a totally mesmerising spectacle.
Riklet
procrastinación
Yeah, he had Hitler dancing to breakbeat... what more could you want?? That was an amazing set. Orbital, Bonobo, Pharoah Sanders, Orbital, Amadou & Mariam, Jazzsteppa, Lamb n dj derek were all great, some other names slip my mind.
I had a pretty wicked time working it actually... the vibe was definitely mega chilled to the point of sedated, but I kinda liked that. Didn't feel very "can do" like Secret Garden, but everyone was pleasant enough mostly, and the music was fucking outstanding at times. Stewarding around the roads and camp areas was a bit of a drag at times, but it was still pretty good, had a quality time really.
There were quite a lot of thefts reported, as well as a few robbings, which fucking sucks. Sorry to hear some of you lost stuff... Definitely some thieves were caught, including some from an organised gang. Could see how the thefts really shitted all over some people's festivals; worth checking lost property/welfare online now if that's possible as there was definitely a lot of stuff handed in which had been dumped after they cleared out the valuables.
I had a pretty wicked time working it actually... the vibe was definitely mega chilled to the point of sedated, but I kinda liked that. Didn't feel very "can do" like Secret Garden, but everyone was pleasant enough mostly, and the music was fucking outstanding at times. Stewarding around the roads and camp areas was a bit of a drag at times, but it was still pretty good, had a quality time really.
There were quite a lot of thefts reported, as well as a few robbings, which fucking sucks. Sorry to hear some of you lost stuff...
Definitely some thieves were caught, including some from an organised gang. Could see how the thefts really shitted all over some people's festivals; worth checking lost property/welfare online now if that's possible as there was definitely a lot of stuff handed in which had been dumped after they cleared out the valuables.
Lazy Llama
Suburban robots that monitor reality
Thanks, I've emailed [email protected] with details.
Dr. Furface
One small step for me
What a great weekend - easily my best BC. So many highlights - Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Shackleton and Chris Cunningham on Friday, one after the other, all brilliant and, even better, we didn't even have to move away from the Castle Stage.
Saturday was a day of surprises. In complete contrast to the one time I'd seen them before - when they sucked - Spiritualized were excellent. As was Quantic and his Combo Barbaro, who I knew nothing about - just wished I'd caught all their set. And then on my way back to my tent, stumbled across a blinding dance set by none other than... Annie Nightingale!
But Sunday was THE day. John Cooper Clark, Ursula Rucker, Max Romeo, the brilliant David Byrne, the fantastic Telepathe, Hexstatic and Mixmaster Morris. A better day of music (and poetry, and comedy) I've never had. And a special mention for the funny Hendrix-wannabe one-man-band busker with his strat and foot drums - must've been the hardest working man all weekend.
And hot showers - and no waiting! - and clean bogs, and reasonably priced (for a festie) beer, and best of all, great weather.
And even though I was disappointed not to be able to see Michael Lang - the Woodstock bloke - on Thursday night, I did get to see him... on Friday afternoon shopping in Boots in Ledbury!
Saturday was a day of surprises. In complete contrast to the one time I'd seen them before - when they sucked - Spiritualized were excellent. As was Quantic and his Combo Barbaro, who I knew nothing about - just wished I'd caught all their set. And then on my way back to my tent, stumbled across a blinding dance set by none other than... Annie Nightingale!
But Sunday was THE day. John Cooper Clark, Ursula Rucker, Max Romeo, the brilliant David Byrne, the fantastic Telepathe, Hexstatic and Mixmaster Morris. A better day of music (and poetry, and comedy) I've never had. And a special mention for the funny Hendrix-wannabe one-man-band busker with his strat and foot drums - must've been the hardest working man all weekend.
And hot showers - and no waiting! - and clean bogs, and reasonably priced (for a festie) beer, and best of all, great weather.
And even though I was disappointed not to be able to see Michael Lang - the Woodstock bloke - on Thursday night, I did get to see him... on Friday afternoon shopping in Boots in Ledbury!
mwgdrwg
Be a Pisces. Jam.
I am sooooo tired, family camping up the hill? Silly idea! And there were a lot less toilets this year. So on to the good stuff...
Three days of glorious sunshine, and a great time had by all
Lovely neighbours
Getting zombified on Thursday, and seeing some really convincing zombies...a one armed man with a bloody stump was particularly good. Scared the shit out of my kids.
Friendly Fires were really entertaining, dancers at the end just made me happy.
Emiliana Torrini....isn't she just so cute!
Orbital were fucking amazing, I was worried they were going to be a bit dad-techno, but it sounded amazing still.
Cider from the cider bus, yum yum!
Norman Jay...not as amazing as previous years but still damn good.
Craig Charles getting everyone dancing, and whoever that was on after him was amazing too (white guy with a beard singing soul over tracks).
A great time!
Three days of glorious sunshine, and a great time had by all
Lovely neighbours
Getting zombified on Thursday, and seeing some really convincing zombies...a one armed man with a bloody stump was particularly good. Scared the shit out of my kids.
Friendly Fires were really entertaining, dancers at the end just made me happy.
Emiliana Torrini....isn't she just so cute!
Orbital were fucking amazing, I was worried they were going to be a bit dad-techno, but it sounded amazing still.
Cider from the cider bus, yum yum!
Norman Jay...not as amazing as previous years but still damn good.
Craig Charles getting everyone dancing, and whoever that was on after him was amazing too (white guy with a beard singing soul over tracks).
A great time!
fen_boy
Exits gracefully.
Yeah the hill was hard work. Carrying a lazy 4 year old up it wasn't much fun.
I saw the one-armed zombie man too
The dry cider from the cider bus was pretty grim, I couldn't drink it. I didn't try the medium one though.
The Enchanted Garden bit where the cider bus was annoyed me - it was basically full of rip-off merchants charging a fortune for ridiculous bollocks like 'Gong Baths'.
I saw the one-armed zombie man too
The dry cider from the cider bus was pretty grim, I couldn't drink it. I didn't try the medium one though.
The Enchanted Garden bit where the cider bus was annoyed me - it was basically full of rip-off merchants charging a fortune for ridiculous bollocks like 'Gong Baths'.
Spandex
A crazy bulbous punchbag of sound
I had a great time this year
Highs:
The people I went with.
The people I was camped next to on both sides. No pricks camped anywhere near me.
Orbital - shiny new versions of all their classics. Party like it's 1993!
Octave One - about as good as techno gets.
Lindstrom - all his best stuff, none of his noodly bollocks (though I missed the end of his set to rush off to Orbital).
Metro Area - Italo!
Sunshine all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday
I've now come to terms with the fact that the Big Chill is a different festival to how it was in 2002/03 when I first started going, and totally enjoyed it on it's own terms without any 'not as good as it used to be' moments.
Lows:
Massive hayfever attack + overdoing it Friday & Saturday = total write off on Sunday.
Missing loads of stuff I wanted to see. Saturday night was clash central, with Orbital, Chris Duckenfield and Tim Sweeny/Tim Goldsworthy all playing at the same time. My body's systems failure on Sunday meant I only managed to catch Amadou and Mariam (who were great) and the beginning of David Byrne, before flaking out again.
LJo being too pregnant to come.
Highs:
The people I went with.
The people I was camped next to on both sides. No pricks camped anywhere near me.
Orbital - shiny new versions of all their classics. Party like it's 1993!
Octave One - about as good as techno gets.
Lindstrom - all his best stuff, none of his noodly bollocks (though I missed the end of his set to rush off to Orbital).
Metro Area - Italo!
Sunshine all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday
I've now come to terms with the fact that the Big Chill is a different festival to how it was in 2002/03 when I first started going, and totally enjoyed it on it's own terms without any 'not as good as it used to be' moments.
Lows:
Massive hayfever attack + overdoing it Friday & Saturday = total write off on Sunday.
Missing loads of stuff I wanted to see. Saturday night was clash central, with Orbital, Chris Duckenfield and Tim Sweeny/Tim Goldsworthy all playing at the same time. My body's systems failure on Sunday meant I only managed to catch Amadou and Mariam (who were great) and the beginning of David Byrne, before flaking out again.
LJo being too pregnant to come.
ajk
that's a shame
Glad it wasn't just me! I've always enjoyed the waspy fruits of the Cider Bus, but the dry stuff this year made my teeth sweat.
Had an awesome time this year, Lamb, Chris Cunningham, Orbital, David Byrne, Helios, James Yuell, Hyponotic Brass Ensemble, Penguin Cafe and loads of others I can't remember, all good. Caught a few good comedy spots, saw the capoiera, brilliant weather, loads of zombies, friendly people, tasty food, late night/early morning films Even the drugs were better this year. Topping it all odff with a 50ft tall exploding fucking zombie was a nice touch as well.
Sorry to hear about the thievery troubles, I heard of a couple of similar incidents. Happened to me last year, fortunately just lost my mp3 player and headphones.
Almost as cute as Hafdis Huld - but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Arrived on Thursday to rain and mud, so mentally set myself for a muddy festival - to have three days of glorious sunshine was just fantastic.
Thursday night I went to see "Man of Aran" rescored by British Sea Power - I thought the film was interesting, the music OK and that the two rarely fit together.
Friday
The highlight was without doubt Chris Cunningham's AV set - extremely powerful and fantastically put together.
Also enjoyed Erik Truffaz and Sly Johnson; trumpet and human beatbox not the most obvious of combinations!
Fink and Gablé were also enjoyable.
Saturday
Highlight - Bonobo followed by Quantic. Seeing Katherine DeBoer from Belleruche was a bonus and loved what Quantic is doing with Combo Barboro.
Saturday was the day for cute female singers it seems. Emiliana Torrini I knew about already and she was on the 'must see' list before the festival. Hafdis Huld was first up on the Castle stage - some of her songs may be a little twee, but the banter between the songs meant that you couldn't help but like her.
Notable mentions for To Rococo Rot and Kim Hiorthoy - both very good and both playing very dancey electronic music in the middle of the day - not the most appropriate slot for them.
Clashes meant I had to sacrifice seeing Spiritualized, but you can't avoid that.
Sunday
Highlights - Russell Howard in the comedy tent did a quality routine. David Byrne's set was superb - made by the really tight sound, some fantastic tunes and brilliant choreography that ensured the stage was always alive with action. I think he was a little bemused at having to compete for attention with the burning of the wicker zombie!
Also enjoyed Hexstatic, Dylan Moran and took a perverse pleasure in watching Noel Fielding die - when you resort to dragging some kids up on stage because you've got no material it's time to admit defeat!
Overall, another great Big Chill. Everything seemed pretty well organised, the showers and toilets were both better than last year. Worst thing was probably the litter problem - what's so difficult about hanging onto your rubbish until you walk past one of the plentiful bins I'll never know.
