Oh Big Chill how you’ve grown. It doesn’t seem like 10/15 years since I was lounging on a mattress in the Union Chapel surrounded by people in tie dye and the whiff of wacky backy at the early Big Chill club nights. Now there are bars, like the very swish Big Chill House in Kings Cross, and at the very moment this gig takes place a few thousand people are listening to three days worth of the musical descendants of trip hop at the hugely successful Big Chill Festival in the Malvern Hills.
Not only that but a visit to The Big Chill House is educational too. Tonight alone I learnt.
1. 30% of women find it difficult to master the technique involved in peeing standing up.
2. The world would be a better place if I owned more 1950’s records consisting entirely of single entendres comparing how much the singers lady likes his 10″…..record.
3. “Puddle City Racing Lights” by Windmill is one of the best LP’s I’ve heard this year.
I’ll return to some of that later, but this UK launch of “La Route Du Rock” (a French music festival) offers a chance to catch a low key solo performance by Matthew Dillon’s Windmill. His debut album “Puddle City Racing Lights” would be a shoe-in for the Mercury Music prize if the judges had any sense, but arriving at the Big Chill house things don’t look too promising. The bars almost empty, there’s a keyboard in the corner, but otherwise no sign or posters or anything that might suggest a band is on. Certainly no sign that its the UK launch of “La Route Du Rock“. The bar staff were equally non plussed… “I’m not sure, there was a band on earlier, and there might be a couple later. No idea what they’re called though sorry“!
Fortunately I vaguely recognised Dillon arriving with a few friends to boost the numbers present to almost double figures. What’s wrong with London when one of the most promising acts to come from these shores in years plays a free gig on a Sunday evening and the crowd consists of me, a few of his friends, the next act, and the two people running the raffle!
Having missed the full band Windmill experience last month due to a slightly manic drive back from a Spanish music festival I was eager to find out how the songs would sound stripped down from the HUGE recorded sound to their bare bones. Members of The Earlies helped to produce the Windmill album, and in doing so repeated the breathtaking job they did on Micah P Hinson’s debut (which remains one of my all time favourites). If you’re a up and coming singer songwriter wanting to create a debut people will treasure for life, my advice is to beg, bribe or if necessary kidnap The Earlies.
Dillons high pitched American sounding wail is often given as the reason people don’t “get” Windmill, but my advice would be to listen to the record at least twice, before filing it away in the “like nails on a blackboard” bin. It’ll reward the effort ten fold.
With only Cellist Sara Rees as accompaniment tonight, those distinctive vocals stand out even more, especially as he speaks “normally” in between the songs. This comes as a shock comparable to hearing Pam St Clement’s talk for real, away from her Pat Butcher “I Luv you Frannnkk” character, and sounding the spit of the queens long lost sister.
Without their pomp, songs that were less obvious on record come to the fore. “Asthmatic“, blessed as it is with a keyboard riff pilfered from Meat Loaf while his back was turned is particularly fine. “Newsflash” “Tokyo Moon” and current single “Fit” are as good as you’d expect, while the broken hearted album closer “Replace Me” sounds closest to its recorded version, and is as affecting as ever. According to interviews Dillon has 2000 songs stored in his attic, and one such demo stood out as much as any of the released material. “Restaurant Tiles” is a bleak but beautiful song featuring Matthew’s vocals cracking as he pleads:
“Don’t put it past me to understand,
I fucking understand that it’s, Coming to an end” - Restaurant Tiles lyrics
Cheery stuff, but if there are more songs this good to come, the second Windmill LP could surpass even the debut. This pared down performance equally bodes well for the full Windmill show, especially with a bigger band capable of recreating the amazing sound of the album.
It was only once Windmill had left the stage that the “La Route Du Rock” organisers sprung into action, with posters, and a raffle (most of them had been watching Windmill). Meanwhile the DJ got my attention with some fabulous double entendre based Rhythm & Blues. “Big Ten Inch Record” is essentially a one joke record, based on Bull Moose Jackson proclaiming how much his woman likes his big ten inch (… cue comic pause…) record playing on the stereo. Its daft smut, but guaranteed to put a smile on the face, and with the horn section in full effect get people on the dance floor too.
Although I didn’t stop for the raffle I did get a free DVD with my ticket. “The Future for less” a film which it says here is a “idiosyncratic mythological parable where the rhetoric’s of subversion and homogeneity are equated as a cultic-reveloutionary B-movie farce based around Ikea and flat pack construction“. With a tag line like that I understandably rushed home immediately, pausing only to grab a free magazine for perusal on the tube.
I’m not sure if AMP minizine (Tagline “It’s The Tits”) is a feminist or lesbian magazine, but it kept me entertained with a odd feature on why women should pee standing up, and how best to do it. Apparently its all about strong kegal muscles! It may not have been entirely serious (although a paper funnel is available should you wish to have a go. Perfect for women in the military it claims :s).
Anyway returning swiftly to the music, Windmill, best new band of 2007, album of the year, and as I turn the pages ipod in ears, as good a soundtrack as any for reading about ladies pissing standing up.
Without questioning Glastonbury’s status as THE festival, people do get a little carried away talking about the bad weather as if they actually enjoyed waking up with their tent submerged in a mixture of lager, mud, and the contents of half a dozen portaloos. Add to this the fact that you have to dedicate several days of your life, and 15 forms of ID to actually stand any chance of getting a ticket, and many are understandably looking at alternatives. Over the past three years Spain’s Benicassim festival has been invaded by the British charmed by the no brainer combination of cheap flights, brilliant sunshine, no hassle ticket buying, and round the clock partying. Ok so the line-up may not quite be as good - with B-52’s, Dinosaur Jnr and The Human League as prominent headliners you could occasionally question what century this was - but on the other hand Glastonbury rolled out Shirley Bassey this year. Either way 150,000 people descended on Benicassim, and about a third of those were Brits!
Aside from my shoulders and hands going orange due to an unfortunate self tanning lotion accident, and the kind security who upon finding an Evian bottle of whiskey strapped to my gut didn’t throw me or it out, my abiding memory of the festival is the difference a great front-man or woman can make to a live show. The veteran showman Iggy Pop kicks off the event on Thursday night with one of his customary mass stage invasions, but there were plenty of others who have that little extra to elevate a decent show to something special.
I’ve wanted to see The Hives ever since they burst onto the UK scene courtesy of Alan McGee’s genius best of compilation “Your New Favourite Band“, and even though they’ve so far failed to build on that success lead singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist isn’t one to suffer from a lack of confidence. They’re first up on the main stage but its impossible to take your eyes off Almqvist as he struts around the stage, declares how impossible it will be for other bands to follow such an amazing show as The Hives, and tries out all the Spanish he can muster on the bemused but amused Spanish contingent.
“You better be nice to me and obey me or ill be forced to send my rock and roll out to destroy you… now scream!!!… shhhhhh!!!”
Of the new songs only “Tick Tick Boom” immediately grabbed, but as a one off performer its fantastic to have Pelle back in the spotlight. He repeatedly clambered up the stage rigging, and at one point swung precariously from the side of the stage on a rope ladder. They have enough tricks to join the magic circle, but best of all is the freeze frame. Midway through “Diabolic Scheme” all 4 Hives stop in mid flow for what seems like minutes as the crowd roar approval (see YouTube clip above). The drummer is motionless with his arm raised about to hit the next beat, before Pelle signals the return with darting eyes and a grin and they kick straight back where they left off. Its a phenomenally effective little stunt As Nick “The deadly pick” Arson declared with typical Hives modesty on their website “the night was nothing short of magic“.
Elsewhere CCS’s Lovefoxxx displayed a similarly transfixing sense of stage craft as she changed outfits three times, rolled around on the floor, and after a power cut caused a 15 minute interruption to their set, led the crowd in chants of “Fuck this shit“.
Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip continued their rise with another storming performance, despite Scroobius jokingly thanking everyone for coming with “Devo are on at the same time as us, you should be watching them!“. Unfortunately a muddy (not in the glasto sense) soundsystem made the lyrics hard to hear, but this was compensated for by the fact that half the crowd already knew them, and since Le Sac has come on board the beats are now so bloody good you can live with a lost rhyme or two. Someone on their Myspace summed it up well spluttering that they were “fuffin bliddy blimey amazing“.
The two main headliners more than lived up to their billings. The Arctic Monkeys brought half of Yorkshire with them producing frenzied bouts of singalong and moshing that left the area strewn with lost flip flops by the time they triumphantly departed. Muse may not a band who feature much in my record collection but you’d need to be made of stone not to succumb to the sheer spectacle of their performance, confetti and giant plastic balls and all. Matt Bellamy switched between beautiful classical piano, sliding across the stage on his knees mid solo, and 15 second techno guitar wanks on his flash built in chaos pad. It was pretty much a sensory overload, that totally won me over. I may even re-try a CD or two.
In contrast the Kings of Leon were hugely disappointing, not because the music wasn’t good, it was. In fact the music was an almost perfect recreation of their records, but unlike some of the previously mentioned acts The Leons have the stage presence of a lump of wood. If you closed your eyes you could be on your couch at home listening to the CD, if you opened your eyes… well it didn’t make much of a difference to the experience. That said the crowd loved it and the NME claimed it was one of their longest and best sets ever.
Benicassim cant be recommended highly enough. The atmosphere is chilled out with not a hint of lager lout or trouble. Its open round the clock so you can be enjoying The Arctic Monkeys at 2.30 in the morning or dancing till sunrise in the constantly heaving DJ tent. Relax on the beach by day, great music all night, and large clean communal showers to wake you up in the morning. These Spaniards have no idea what a festivals supposed to be like!.. and that fact alone will keep the Brits coming in even greater numbers next year.
As Nick “The deadly pick” Arson declared with typical Hives modesty 