Bloc weekend and being generally old
for some inexplicable reason, I've reached that point where the idea of camping in a muddy field with a load of pissed up teenagers shouting the word bollocks to each other has begun to lose its appeal. that's where festies like ATP and Bloc come in. Take over a Pontins or Butlins for the weekend, see loads of bands with cheap beer, decent soundsystem and big indoor arenas. lovely. So I jumped at the chance to go for free as a couple of mates were playing for the last two years. We must be getting old though because both festivals have followed the same pattern. Rock up at the venue on Friday to see lots of people already passed out in the car park, go to our chalet and drop off our stuff. Start drinking (this year we had free champagne in our place - classy!). Drink more. See about three bands. Throw up in a bin. Pass out. See more bandsa and drink more on Saturday. Watch Come Dine With Me on the TV instead of seeing Modeselektor. Wander out of Aphex Twin and Hecker because it's a bit of a racket.

At some point during this year's event each of us in our cabin had a nice relaxing bubblebath. By the time it came to the Sunday night closing set by Carl Craig, only two of us were left standing. The others had decided to get an early night. Bless.

Still, better than Luke Vibert's effort. he was in the chalet next door and as far as I can tell, only left once - to play his set.

Rock and Roll indeed.
(Alphabet Soap boshboshboshbosh, Fri 5 Jun 2009, 11:30, 2 replies)

aphex and hecker
Did make a load of bloody noise. I walked out too. Good move though as we got into Jak Bloc really early without all the queues.
(phe, Fri 5 Jun 2009, 12:03, closed)

Beardyman
Skipped most of Aphex's set in favour of Beardyman. Never seen him before and he turned out to be a highlight of the weekend. Especially when he did a beatbox cover of come to daddy, followed by a load of jittering feedback and then said 'yeah i can do tuneless noise too.'
(Alphabet Soap boshboshboshbosh, Fri 5 Jun 2009, 12:14, closed)