wee review:
we arrived to find we'd been upgraded to a gold apartment from the silver aparment we'd booked for no extra charge, flat was actually pretty decent, we were on ground floor, had 8 people from london above us but never heard anything from them, they were alright, kinda same age as us, the majority of folk were a bit younger, 18-25 crowd i'd say, mostly london/brighton, very few accents different from that so i suppose we kinda stuck out a wee bit, but was totally fine.
was quite hard to find flat in the first place, was getting a bit dark by time we got there, map they gave us was a bit crap, so kinda stumbled about for a wee while until we got the right place, was two seperate flats, just had the doors open so everyone could move between the 2.
was 4 main clubs/bars where the music was, the biggest was called reds, where the main people like inner city/2manydjs played, was quite a big space...maybe barras size/crowd capacity, second space was place called Jaks, probably held 500 i'd say, the other 2 venues a bit smaller...i was mostly just in Reds & Jaks DUE TO THE MUSIC I WANTED TO SEE, ONLY WENT IN A COUPLE TIMES OVER THE WEEKEND TO THE OTHER PLACES, WAS MOSTLY dRUM N BASS IN ONE OF THE ROOMS RUN BY THE LONDON CLUB NIGHT uNION, THE OTHER WAS LIKE A DISCO older crowd run by a london club called dalston superstore (named after the new york club kids scene)...was a bit sceney/ketamine crowd...music was alright but so much was going on between reds & jaks was no point wasting time in the other two venues really.
friday night, had a walk abut, got the flat setup, we'd bought loads of food/drink etc from tescos in bognor and brought it in with us, weren't sure if we'd be allowed but was next to no security (had no hassle off the site security the whole weekend bar the monday when they were trying to close down the flat parties people were having, trying to get people back to their own rooms), couple of mates were on later flight from edinburgh so didnt get in til after 11, we'd been around the areas, had a watch at Joy Orbison (very good), then got the late arrivals and guided them back to the flat, then headed back in...our flat was really handy (us being gold standard obviously
lol) was only 5min walk to get to the main are where one of the bars was/the burger king/ten pin bowling/amusements etc, the clubs Reds & jaks were about another few minutes walk...everything was so close (there wasn't any cloakrooms in the clubs though.. but since we were so close, just had a hoodie on most of the time for the short walk there and back. was quite warm in the clubs themselves
found out that one of the acts i wanted to see had cancelled (sbtrkt) so just went an watched fake blood...who i have to say was pretty decent, then it was diplo, everyone else seemed to think diplo was pretty crap, he was alright i though, i went back to Jaks to catch julio bashmore...to find out i'd missed him as he'd came on early to cover for sbtrk cancelling!!..so was bit p1$$ed i missed him,(was only him and laura jones i never seen any of over the weekend that i wanted too, so i did quite well really)...watched a bit of the guy Martyn in jaks...was decent bass/techno mix...then went back to reds to see the 2 bears...who were excellent, the sound in reds was really good most of the time (bar during erol alkan for some reason, but he didnt help matters playing a pretty dull set on the saturday night...visuals they had going was ok as well)...so 2 bears really played well, simian mobile disco came on to finish, plyed from 4:30-6...watched a good bit of them, seen about 30mins of james holden in Jaks...probably should've tried to see a bit of Knife party, but couldn't be botherd moving
...simian finished at back of 6 (was only one of them djing...was techno he was playing, didnt play many simian mobile disco tracks from what i could make out....was only me & 3 out 7 of us still going cxome ther finish , we were in the skyline place, just kinda milling about, then the 2 bears turned up, so were talking to them for ages, eventually get back to the flat and sat up for ages, think was about 9 before went to bed.
saturday:
woke up about 12, for some reason decided to go to the beach, it looked quite mild...turned out to be freezing, now since the plan was we were going to the afternoon pool party i had shorts on as aswell, so the 3 of us looked very weird wandering along the beach..
..got to the pool party, hardly anyone had turned up...too many casualties from night before (and in truth the 3 days the numbers they had in maybe only half full i'd say, bugged out probably made a loss on the evnt, suppose depending on the rent they paid butlins for the hire of the park)..but atmosphere didnt suffer and just meant could easily move about the venues and see everything no probs, so bonus for us really, if we go back and its mobbed we'll probably be moaning its too busy
anyway, pool party music was ok, but again was run by the Dlaston superstore crowd...ws too laid back really for the young crowd for anything to really hapen atmospher wise...they need to make it a lot more big tunes/house/techno to get the mood going/get the people back into it after the night before, was only a few people dancing about in the viewing gallery (in end up none of us even went into the water/flumes etc, couldn't be bothered...we went to play musical bingo...evryone in the place was totally out their nut, was quite funny to watch really, we never won anythign, but then we did come in half way through, so had no chane!!....so dinner @ the papa john's pizza place on site, then back to flat then prepare for the saturday night.
started off with riton, actually pretty good, wasn't much of a crowd when he came on though, but it built up as people came in for erol alkan...sound was pretty quiet for alkan, and his song choices were doing it for me, so i went to see Ben UFO in jaks...now he was excellent, sound was a lot on better in the Jaks venue on the saturday & sunday..bass was really feeling it through the floor, for about 40mins he was amazing to watch, really good/rechnical dj, good tunes, i called in to see a bit of shy fx in the drum n bass area...was ok, but nothign stratling...back to see end of alkan, then inner city came on...full live show, i thought it was great, although the reworked versions of the big tunes weren't as good as the classics (rob da bank was playing good life at one point...and it just sounded so much better than the remix inner city played the night before!!)...2manydjs came on after inner city, and again they , just like fake blood, played a lot better than i expected, good sized venue to see them in, some good song choices and mixes, very good...then green velvet came on...he just blasted out the big tunes, percolator, la la land, flash...very good, ran over for jackmaster in Jaks...was loads of people on stage for jackmaster from his record label, his pals, he had an mc, was total party city, place was bouncing, have to see he was excellent, one of the sets of the weekend..then came back to see kevin saunderson finish the night...he was playing some really heavy techno...was excellent...again just ended up milling about, back to the flat, i should've went to a party in a flat down the street but just left it, and sat up talking/dancing about the flat.
sunday....late start....a few of them got up to go watch the football, man u / arsenal but i wasn't fussed, i just had a wee nose about the butlins estate in the daylight for the first time, called in to see a few of the early acts, justin robertson, then went to see waifs & srays, promising, although never played their big tune which i didnt understand (song called body shiver)...eats everything came on...now he was excellent as well, played some excellent tune including his Entrance Song track which i love...very impressed by him, would go see again if he played solo, went back to flat, everyone was getting tanked up, finishing the huge carryout we'd brought on the friday plus finishing off the supplies i'd arranged through this guy i'd got talking too.......things then went a bit messy from here on
lol...a lot of fancy dress out fits/hats/props were bought in the wee shop, and then we ran into rob da bank...hilarious...my mate was in a bad state, couldn't speak, was wearing flashing bunny rabbit hears and the flat dishcloth like some arab sheik, rob da bank politely walked away very quikly
...we then (after watchign a bit of claude von stroke...again, good set, wish i'd had time to see more of him) arrived into Jaks to see rob da bank...rob da bank wearing the same flashing rabbit ears...he then started playing some classic old tunes, so from then on, was just full on party mood...sunday night really was a great end for our crowd, was night when we were all most together just dancing about, so ran back over to see a bit of maya jane coles...who was excellent and i fancy seeing at pressure next month, before coming back for weatherall & smagghe...weatherall is turning into a bit of a binding musical glue between the 7 of us after seeing him in glasgow just before xmas ss well as at rockness (going to see him in glasgow on 1st of march making it my birthday night out)..so we bascially stayed for the length of his set (sadly meant missing laura jones, but we were all just so into what weatherall/smagghe was playing and having a great laugh really...was supposed to finsih at 3 but they played til nearly 4...just some amazing tunes, everyone was really into it/on it
lol...he was playing joey belgtram energy fllah...and the big ecstacy chorus...just the full place was singing it...funny moment......so came out and this young guy dressed as a monkey (yeah a lot of the young ones were in fancy dress...a lot of bear costumes for the 2 bears...which i think people just wore the 3 days
) invited everyone back to his flat after weatherall...so we all go back, to find his mate has wrecked the place, so were standing in the remnants of this flat, tunes are going...5mins later the camp security turn up and we all get evicted
..the young monkey boy is shouting he's cancelled his credit card anyway so he's not paying for anything...funny, spent ages wandering about trying to find another after party, but the camp security just kept shutting it down...called it a night and went back to our flat, just stayed up with the music on, eventually went to bed...then got woke up by housekeeping lady banging on the door at 10am and then letting herself into our flat...i gt up and tell her she early and to come back later (she was there an hour earlier than expected.so we pulled ourselves together and eventually managed to get moving back of 12, 3 people had train booked so off they went, me & the other 3 just hung about bognor, had a wee look about...they wre still rough from night before and we had a brilliant scene in this old coffee shop of mate dancing about with this Pom Pom shouting ecstacy ecstacy....pure tumbleweed moment in the coffee shop...we quickly ate up and made for the train....got the rest at the airport and then flights home...
really was a brilliant weekend, would definitely recommend it to anyone and most likely would go next year if bugged out do one again (thats if they didnt lose too much money this year)
