Summer special! Your ultimate festival companion
With: Leftfield Gang Of Four The Flaming Lips We Are Scientists
WIN TICKETS! Get into the sold out festivals
2010
FESTIVAL GUIDE G L A S T O N B U RY • R E A D I N G • L E E D S • T I N T H E PA R K • B I G C H I L L R O C K N E S S • L AT I T U D E • S O N A R • B E S T I VA L • B E N I C A S S I M + M O R E WWW.CLASHMUSIC.COM
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Welcome to Clash Magazine’s Festival Guide 2010. The seasons rise and the seasons fall. Thank-
editor's letter
fully for our sanity the time when we can shed the skin of the office and go absorb fresh sights and new sounds in unexplored places is upon us. Festivals are the most natural place for us to find our new musical passions without scurrying home worrying about alarm clocks, interviews or cover mock-ups. So we can’t wait to get our flail on. This guide should help pack your summer full of good times - and if you’re not lucky enough to be attending any al fresco occasions, well, there are some interviews and chuckles inside to keep you entertained in the meantime. We hope there’s an event or two in these pages for you and maybe you’ll look past your usual horizons with some of our more off-the-beaten track suggestions. Whatever you get up to this summer keep it safe, purge your soul in musical delirium and make fun whilst that elusive sun shines.
EDITOR Simon Harper (0207) 292 0564 / simon@clashmusic.com DEPUTY EDITOR Matthew Bennett (0207) 292 0565 / matt@clashmusic.com FASHION EDITOR Rose Forde (0207) 734 9351 / rose@clashmusic.com FASHION ASSISTANT Camilla Felici (0207) 734 9351 / camilla@clashmusic.com ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES TO (0207) 734 9351 AD MANAGER Alan Thomas (0207) 292 0561 / alan@clashmusic.com ACCOUNT MANAGER Matt Goodwin (0207) 292 0562 / mattg@clashmusic.com CREATIVE BUSINESS DIRECTOR Brian Murnin (0207) 292 0560 / brian@clashmusic.com MANAGING DIRECTOR Jason Bick (0207) 292 0562 / jason@clashmusic.com PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Jon-Paul Kitching (01382) 808 808 / jp@clashmusic.com
Your Editor.
PUBLISHER John O’Rourke (01382) 808 808 / john@clashmusic.com STAFF WRITERS Miguel Cullen, Ben Homewood, Robin Murray, Karl O’Keeffe, Clare Vooght, April Welsh ART DIRECTOR Corey Jackson (0207) 734 9351 / corey@clashmusic.com
c o n t e n t s 7 FESTIVAL NEWS Facts to aid your party path. 10 THE FLAMING LIPS The finest festival band ever? 12 PERPETUAL PARTIES Our top 10 largest festivals to weave your own legends at. 18 FESTIVAL FASHION Tips for tasty tipi peeps. 20 WIN TICKETS The hottest briefs up for grabs. 22 POLLS APART The best and worst of the festival elements. 24 ROCKNESS Scots go monster raving. 26 GRAB A BANGIN' TAN Our top 10 jaunts to get that healthy rave glow going. 30 ONES TO WATCH The booker's secret gems. 32 LEFTFIELD Dance legend breaks hiatus.
34 FESTIVAL SPOTLIGHTS Benicassim and Open'er. 36 FESTIVAL SPOTLIGHT Standon Calling. 38 BIG CHILL The ultimate chill gears up. 40 IMPRESS YOUR MATES Our top 10 adventures to overhaul your pub patter. 43 LED London goes Electric. 44 GANG OF FOUR Post punk stars get honest. 46 BEST FOR YOUR SOUL Our top 10 tips for sealing your soul with summer vibes. 50 FASHION We Are Scientists stay hip. 54 OFF THE BEATEN TRACK Our top 10 destinations to lose the jostling pack. 56 FESTIVAL GALLERY Field work hung up to dry. 58 FESTIVAL CHECKLIST A vital list to get lost with.
ART EDITOR Paul Sethi (0207) 734 9351 / paul@clashmusic.com Thanks to The Festival Annual for pictures. Clash Magazine Ltd 143c Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4DP / (01382) 808 808 29 D’Arblay Street, London, W1F 8EP / (0207) 734 9351 info@clashmusic.com / www.ClashMusic.com Distributed by COMAG Specialist Tavistock Road, West Drayton, UB7 7QX / (01895) 433800 Printed by Wyndeham Heron Ltd Bentalls Complex, Cochester Road, Heybridge, Maldon, Essex CM9 4NW WINNER
Magazine of the Year - PPA Scotland Magazine Awards 2008 Consumer Magazine of the Year - PPA Scotland Magazine Awards 2008 Consumer Magazine Editor of the Year - PPA Scotland Magazine Awards 2007 Best Magazine Design of the Year - PPA Scotland Magazine Awards 2007 Music Magazine of the Year - Record Of The Day Awards 2005 By sending Clash text entries you are agreeing to receive details of future offers and promotions from Clash Magazine and related third parties. If you do not wish to receive this info please text the word ‘STOP’ at the end of your message. Texts will be charged at 50p plus your standard network rate. Only UK residents aged 16+ may enter. Competition winners will be notified within 28 days of the draw. For more information, please email info@clashmusic.com.
For subscription enquiries, please call (0870) 442 9409, email subs@clashmusic.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without permission from the publishers. The views expressed in Clash are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff. The magazine welcomes new contributors but can assume no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations.
004_ July 2010
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FESTIVALnews Twin Peaks
win sold out tix
The buddy system works. Ask any primary school teacher. Or indeed any scuba diver. Holding hands helps. And festivals are the latest and most unlikely protagonists to subscribe to pairing up. Bestival flash their friendly factor by teaming up with Melt! in Germany. More swapping sees a steamy dome in exchange for a smokey dome as Cornwall's Eden Sessions in June conspires with Iceland's Airwaves in Reykjavik in October. Leicester's Summer Sundae has linked with Bergenfest in Norway where UK fans of Kasabian can instead soak up traditional and modern folk music such as The Chieftans or Arlo Gutherie. Field Day shakes hands with Norway's Oya as the fancy pants of Standon Calling style it up with Calvi on the Rocks in the Med. Just don't mention ANY wars!!!
Skint? Sold Out? Simply need to be at a crucial event? Relax: Clash has all the right tickets for all the best events and YOU can win today. We have three pairs of briefs for (deep breath) Download, RockNess, Isle of Wight, Sonar, Roskilde, Garden Festival, Wireless, T in the Park, Exit, Oxegen, Benicassim, Latitude, Melt!, Lovebox, Hop Farm, L.E.D., Secret Garden, Camp Bestival, Field Day, Underage, Big Chill, Green Man, SW4, Bestival and Iceland Airwaves. Log on to www.ClashMusic.com/festivals to make your summer full of Clash love. www.clashmusic.com
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WIN THE ULTIMATE TRIP TO ICELAND!
Yurts and Squrts
festival guru to help rookies find a better summer. We want your opinions and wisdom. If you fancy yourself as the consummate adventurer then by sharing your experiences on ClashMusic.com we’ll repay you with a supreme adventure of jetting out to Iceland’s Airwaves event in Reykjavik. The prize includes flights for two, hotels, festival passes and unlimited shark fritters. To bag this prize we want your stories, legends, gossip, feats, fears and tall tales. The party person most active on our ClashMusic.com/festivals channel will win a trip for two revellers to Reykjavik from 13th - 17th October 2010.
Mongolia's a pretty chilled out place
and their houses are equally relaxed. Clash has teamed up with the lords of the scene, Yurts and Squrts, so you can forget the nightmare of finding camping space, lugging tents and waking up in the night with your face pressing onto soggy nylon. Decked out with enough fur rugs, pillows, salubrious tables and candles, it's fit and furnished for Cleopatra's own whimsical bumcheeks. Win a weekend in a squrt at Bestival or Rockness: www.ClashMusic.com/festivals to camp it up big style. For more info visit www.yurtsandsqurts.com
icke ts!
Simply post up your advice, your stories, warnings, hilarious predicaments and predictions. You can even upload photos to the page for that festival. Get cracking now - visit www.ClashMusic.com/festivals and get busy, busy, busy! For more info on Iceland Airwaves, visit www.icelandairwaves.is
Tangerine Fields
Help others to help yourself! We are looking for the ultimate
W in T
When fancy camping kicked off five years ago
it was arguably Tangerine Fields who were the daddies. Conceived after a tired and wet tantrum taking down a soggy tent in the dark whilst bickering at The Big Chill, Suzy Myler and Mark Shelley now rent out tents, tipis, yurts and gypsy caravans at around twenty five events and you can snap up a weekend under luxury threads at RockNess, Latitude, Green Man, Reading and Leeds and Bestival. To bag yours go to www.ClashMusic.com/festivals and pick out the relevant event. For more info visit www.tangerinefields.co.uk
008_ July 2010
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rock trumps Yeasayer
essential tour Bus entertainMent
Clash grills anand wilder of new york indie band yeasayer on his summer tourbus entertainment. Book “I’m reading Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, so that’s what I’ll be bringing with me to the festivals. Everyone I show this to has been like, ‘What, you haven’t read that yet?”
Music “We play so much music i don’t really listen to it much on my own. if i do, it depends what mood i’m in. Yesterday i was really bummed out and tired, so i put on roxy Music’s first album ‘roxy Music’. that was really blissful for me.
swings and roundabouts
Movie “We managed to get a nice
ryan Jarman from the Cribs on his most memorable festival moments.
three-pack of Steven Seagal movies with out For Justice and on deadly ground, so we’ve just been watching them on repeat. they’re ridiculous - it’s basically Steven Seagal kicking dudes in the balls. i’ll watch anything. We watched this german film recently called Christiane F. it’s this story of a fourteen-year-old hooked on heroin and she’s obsessed with david Bowie there’s a lot of david Bowie on the soundtrack - there’s very brutal withdrawal scenes. usually we watch fun movies like the Lost Boys.” Clare vooght
My best festival memory “Two years ago at leeds they cut the power during our last song because one of the earlier bands overran, but the crowd sang the rest for us.” Best festival I ever played “You can’t beat the uK festivals, they’re more hedonistic.” My worst festival hangover “at the first one we ever played, we went for it more than we should’ve done the night before
So many bands, such similar names. Here two go head-tohead in the ultimate cardboard-based battle for supremacy
culture clash
Wood
SToRY: a frien dly folkie fes tival that aims to be the greenest in Br itain. 7 Sound: Folk, folk and more folk is the order of the we ekend. 7 STReeT CRed : a cycle-powe red disco is how they mi x green value s with fun. 5 STAYInG PoWe R: Wood sets an example in being ec o-friendly. 7
TOTAL
26
Wychwood
ax in style with all SToRY: Time to rel ommodation. 8 acc ue tiq bou kinds of to k to dub and pop Sound: From fol ood has it all. 8 orchestra. Wychw STReeT CRed: It’s Waitrose? 6
sponsored by
It’s growing and STAYInG PoWeR: stop yet. 8 to set k doesn’t loo
30
TOTAL
The Verdict
Wychwood's diversity will send you barking up the right tree.
our set. I remember waking up in the tent with my guitar twenty minutes before we were due on stage.” My worst festival moment “Once the monitors didn’t work so we couldn’t hear anything. But we used to play in squats where there weren’t any monitors so we just got on with it.” The best piece of festival advice I can give “Don’t leave anything valuable in your tent. There are a lot of scum bags around these days.” The silliest thing I’ve done at a festival “at Reading ’97, my first festival, Sky news interviewed me, Gary and our mates. I was really excited to watch it but it turned out it was actually about teenage drug use, and we were used as proof.” My ideal festival band “I’d have loved to see nirvana play Reading.” Clare Vooght www.clashmusic.com
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There’s a few dead certs to see when entering the sunny season of being seriously silly. Words | MATTHEW BENNETT
M
ud. More mud.
Weather obsessed teenagers. Queues stacked up outside fancy dress shops. And Johnny Borrell in yet another simulated crucifixion pose (one day pal!). And once inside the hallowed festival gates it’s hard to miss Wayne Coyne surfing on the musical love in his space ball. The Flaming Lips are a cult band who love to piss on convention. Take their album ‘Zaireeka’ (four CDs designed to be played in four CD players simultaneously) or Coyne’s desire to be immortalised on Google by dressing up as a
character called ‘Blob in the Bath’ and busking the day Google Maps came taking pictures of his street. They are surrealists who want your summer to be loved. Making a mockery of the notion that taking too much acid will ruin your life, The Flaming Lips now dominate the festival circuit as they surprise, delight and sate thanks to an orgasm of musical and visual reverie with battalions of horny animals, confetti hurricanes, psychedelic weaponry, fire stunts and just about everything else you weren’t expecting. Clash grabs Wayne to talk terrapins and the thrill of feeling alive.
As one of the undisputed kings of the festival circuit, was your ascension to the festival throne an accident or a deliberate specialisation? It’s an interesting question. There’s a point when you start moving away from the smaller tents. It’s the same with any band of any stature, you stand with your guitars and your amps and everyone is virtually the same. But the moment you get thrown onto those main stages - especially at festivals later in the day, even if you’re not headlining but you’re second or third, which we’ve been a lot, and played with Radiohead or R.E.M. - you start to think, ‘Do we want
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an atmosphere by which this music can have its greatest impact. So I think without the audience liking our songs, you know you can throw stuff at them all day but nothing can do the magic that the music can do. If the music is doing its magic then you can really do no wrong. And I think that’s what we discovered.
possible. You don’t want a knackered terrapin, you want a fresh terrapin. If it’s interesting I don’t care. We’ve had all variations of enthusiastic people and sometimes their state of mind when they get in is different from their state of mind when they actually get up there. There was some very strange Russian girl once who midway through the show wanted to pee inside the costume and that is what she came up to do.
“If the music is doing its magic then you really can do no wrong.” to be that big band at the end of the night or do we want to be that weirder band that plays in the tent?’ If you’re not consciously trying to bring giant video screens, inflatable suns and space bubbles, then if you don’t bring them they’re not automatically there. So it’s a calculated effort for sure.
Are your elaborate festival performances the reason you’re so well loved?
You’re part of the furniture at some festivals... I think that there are some elements of how we do our show that you almost come to accept. We get to play this intricate, sometimes complicated, uplifting music. We’re really just setting
Like your animal costumes, of course... What famous people have you had in your animal lineup over the years? When we started out we ended up inviting people that were in other groups. It wouldn’t surprise you that members of the Super Furry Animals or Beck or any of those types of people [dressed up] as they’re there with you and loving the show. Then as we went on, we would try and talk people like Kylie Minogue into it but she would never do it. But we try and shy away from there being big famous people because there are so many of our fans there, that we really want it to be more of our hardcore fans to get the experience.
I suppose you want the most passionate people in there as
That is bizarre. I was thinking about that actually - I wonder if someone gets into their costume on the Saturday and someone has pissed inside it on the Friday...
We check the costumes to make sure there isn’t any actual piss. I wanted there to be an area where the weirdo extrovert is allowed to do weirdo extrovert things. You do have to have a little bit of that kind of force to get up there in the first place but it is a crazy experience. If you can surrender to being cool for an hour, then we really get to do something that is bigger than being cool, there’s the freedom of knowing you’re alive.
The Flaming Lips play Glastonbury, Green Man and Bestival this summer. For interviews and videos with The Lips check www. ClashMusic.com/flaming-lips www.clashmusic.com
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TOP TEN FESTIVALS for a PERPETUAL PARTY
Burning Man
1
WheRe And When? nEvAdA, uSA, 30tH AuguSt - 6tH SEPtEMBEr WhY ShouLd I Go? tHiS WEEk-Long dESErt FESt WiLL BLoW. Your. Mind.
Those that have been to Burning Man speak not of DJs or line-ups, but of the life-changing potential this unrivaled shindig has. Not a festival per se, rather a psychedelic, purposebuilt metropolis, devoted to self-sufficiency and community. Bartering is essential as no cash is permitted. Set in a dried-up lake bed known only as the Playa, only coffee and ice are for sale. Themed camps are the sleeping quarters and the music policy is 'anything goes' - which can be extended to almost any activity. Except retail. Cash is banned!
Line-up: TBC
www.burningman.com
Glastonbury
2
WheRe And When? WortHY FArM, PiLton, 23rd - 27tH JunE WhY ShouLd I Go? tHE dAddY oF uk FEStivALS iS FortY And, iF it’S good EnougH For Bono... This beast is almost indescribable. Taking about ninety minutes to walk from one side to the other no other event has as many main stages, performing artists, acid folk tea tents, surreal sculptures, multi generational stories, lost legends or won as many hearts as these fields of avalon has over its forty years. Don't be put off by the tall tales, just go bag a few yourself.
Line-up: u2, Muse, Stevie Wonder, Foals, The xx, Vampire Weekend, Faithless, holy Fuck, Pet Shop Boys www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk
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RockNess
3
WheRe And When? invErnESS, SCotLAnd, 11tH - 13tH JunE WhY ShouLd I Go? PiCturESQuE BACkdroPS, grEAt tunES And tHE CHAnCE to SEE tHE MonStEr (iF You drink EnougH). Back for its fifth installment, RockNess boasts a line-up dominated by the long awaited return of New York game changers The Strokes, already one of the summer’s most hotly anticipated performances. But if Julian and co. don’t float your boat then worry not, because RockNess has highlights in spades, from returning festival father Fatboy Slim, to back-to-back slots from Manc legend Ian Brown and electronic pioneers Leftfield (their first festival appearance for a decade). To ensure the delectability of this year’s billing, Clash is hosting a stage across all three days, featuring Aphex Twin, 2ManyDJs and Pendulum in amongst an extravagant bundle of festival magic. Don’t forget to check out the smaller tents for an assortment of comedy, DJs, bands and after hours mayhem, RockNess is famed for its hidden delights and you should waste no time in bounding, or stumbling, across the site in their wake.
Sonar
4
WheRe And When? SPAin, 17tH - 19tH JunE WhY ShouLd I Go? Sun, BEAutiFuL PEoPLE And An ASSortMEnt oF tHE BiggESt nAMES in dAnCE, BASS And BEAtS. Describing their annual rave-up as a “pioneer within European culture,” the guys at Sonar are clearly proud of what they do, and rightly so. For the uninitiated, Sonar is three days of organized chaos, cavernous spaces in a glittering city playing host to the music any club head wants to hear. But don’t think bare chests and spilt pints, there’s an air of the connoisseur, of the blog-friendly clubber at Sonar. Which is why the carefully crafted line-up combines the throbbing, bleeding edge of electronic music (joy Orbison, Plastikman) with equally edgy, widely known names (lcD Soundsystem, chemical Brothers). Open your mind to music and atmosphere that know no bounds and give Sonar a try this summer.
Line-up: Chemical Brothers, Roxy Music, Air, LCd Soundsystem, Fuck Buttons, hot Chip, Flying Lotus. www.sonar.es
Line-up: The Strokes, Fatboy Slim, Ian Brown, doves, Blondie, Crystal Castles, The Maccabees. www.rockness.co.uk
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Sziget
7
Airwaves
5
WheRe And When? iCELAnd, 14tH - 18tH oCtoBEr WhY ShouLd I Go? For tHE uP-And-CoMErS, tHE oLd-tiMErS And For tHE BEAutiFuL CitY itSELF. Airwaves might just be the biggest small festival ever. Taking over downtown Reykjavik for three days it's a feast of Viking bands with the cream of US and UK hype in tiny venues. We guarantee that you'll make more friends here than at school, and party harder afterwards too. Seriously.
WheRe And When? BudAPESt, HungArY, 9tH - 16tH AuguSt WhY ShouLd I Go? to CAtCH A truLY divErSE LinE-uP MArAuding ACroSS A Sun-kiSSEd iSLAnd For SEvEn dAYS. Taking place on an island on the Danube, this is Europe's best rival to Glasto. lasting a week, people live in the trees, underground – everywhere. But there's a million of 'em so you need to be creative.
Line-up: The Cribs, Yeasayer, The hives, Iron Maiden, Major Lazer. www.sziget.hu
Line-up: TBC
Secret Garden
9
WheRe And When? Huntingdon, EASt AngLiA, 22nd - 25tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? EvEr WondErEd WHAt A BEAutiFuL FAirYtALE FEStivAL MigHt BE LikE? tHiS iS it. More garden party than festival it's such delightful fun you'll come away wondering why more festivals can't be like this. Treasure hunts! Swimming and boat trips! Cocktails! Occasional bands in trees! Hilariously surreal.
Line-up: Gorillaz Soundsystem, Mercury Rev, The Whip.
www.icelandairwaves.is
www.secretgardenparty.com
LED
8
Bestival
6
WheRe And When? iSLE oF WigHt, 9tH 12tH SEPtEMBEr WhY ShouLd I Go? it'S tHE QuEEn oF FAnCY drESS WitH A LinE-uP tHAt PutS MoSt to SHAME. hands down the most fun festival around, the scale and dedication to the fancy dress theme means a unique experience, exquisite banter and exemplary levels of surreal hedonism. Possibly the most friendly place to lose your mind and your pals.
Line-up: Roxy Music, dizzee Rascal, Flaming Lips, Prodigy, hot Chip, Gil Scott heron. www.bestival.net
WheRe And When? London, 27tH - 28tH AuguSt WhY ShouLd I Go? to CAtCH LEFtFiELd in London AgAin AS tHE PArk goES dAnCE onCE MorE. Do we need another dance festival? Yes if it's gonna be this good! Our capital can boast a party to rival its European peers as east London goes BOOM!. And these residents know how to dance.
Line-up: Leftfield, david Guetta, Goldfrapp, Aphex Twin, Calvin harris, Friendly Fires. www.ledfestival.net
T In The Park
10
WheRe And When? kinroSS-SHirE, SCotLAnd, 9tH - 11tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? CrACking BAndS, BoiStErouS FAnS And A tHouSAnd PintS oF tEnnEnt’S, t iS JuSt MAgiCAL.
The biggest bands in front of baying crowds of music fans, T is a beast and their line-up this year looks set to launch another corker of a decade. Truly one of the biggest bashes around.
Line-up: Muse, eminem, kasabian, Faithless, Vampire Weekend. www.tinthepark.com
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www.clashmusic.com FESTIVAL_GUIDE_MASTER3.indd 15
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FLY53 FESTIVAL FEVER Fashion brand FLY53 gives you their top tips on what to pull on, wear and rock out this festival season. This is your one-stop-shop for FLY53 fans to get the festival fashion ssentials and find out who FlY will be scouting at the European festivals. Stay sharp.
Fair Isle Boxers
Dirt Road IV Polo Shirt
Show your mum where you’re at and stand out from the crowds in this azure blue polo shirt. It will add instant sparkle to your unkempt festival look and it’s lightweight so you can wear it to all of those sweaty 5am tent raves without fear.
These striking Aztec print boxers are the kind of pants you wouldn’t feel embarrassed about leaving behind in someone else’s tent. You will probably come across them again though, strung up in a tree somewhere as a stark reminder of last night’s antics. £15
£30
Victim Denim Shorts
These light denim cropped jeans are perfect for guys who like to keep their pasty pins hidden away but can’t handle the heat of wearing full-length denim. An undisputed festival staple as denim looks better after it’s been worn a few days and, let’s face it, that’s going to happen. £50
FESTIVAL_GUIDE_MASTER3.indd 16
Sophie Dress
Wear this lemon shift dress with wellies for a chic, bohemian feel, which gets right to the heart of the festival aeshetic. Floaty and cool, it can be worn as a sun-dress, or team it with knitted cardigans and parkas for when the weather turns bad.. £50
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Lookin' fly! Check out the bands that Fly53 think will be winning hearts and minds this summer.
Hadouken Konk Trilby Hat
Stop yourself looking like a twat with a sunburnt face and invest in a hat, it’s an indispensable item at a festival, offering necessary protection from the unreliable British weather. We particularly like this little straw and ribbon number.
The Hot Rats
£20
Crookers Already Dead T-Shirt
Indulge in your darker side with this intricate, uber gothic tee and impress fellow rockers at festivals like Download and Reading Team it with your studded biker for extra effect and maximum RAWK. It's certainly a conversation starter... £25
We Have Band
hadouken They may have gone over to the dark side but they’re still guaranteed to get a rave started. They play RockNess, Dour festival in Belgium, Guilfest 2010 and Underage Festival . the hot rats Shaggy duo Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey are sizzlin' right now so it’s hardly a surprise that FLY53 are dying to throw some festival-sized shapes with them at Glasto, Truck, Reading & Leeds, and Bestival. Crookers Italian DJs Crookers are perhaps the most devastating DJs of recent years. See it to believe it at Lovebox, T In The Park and Creamfields. Glitchy Bitchin! we have Band Clash’s current favourite disco-rock troupe will be on hand this summer to provide party goers with endless disco beats. They nail several Europeon festivals including Exit and Pukkelppop and will also be appearing at Glasto, 1234 and Winterwell.
For MorE inFo on FLY53 BAndS oF CHoiCE go to FLY53.CoM And CHECk out tHEir nEW FAnZinE or go into onE oF tHEir StoCkiStS And PiCk uP A CoPY.
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FESTIVAL FASHION THIS SEASONS festival essentials AS SELECTED BY THE CLASH FASHION TEAM.
3 6 2 1
4 18
5 19
17
14 15
16
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mywardrobe.com win festival goodies
8
9
WIn £500 oF neW CLoTheS in association with my.wardrobe com Our friends at my-wardrobe.com are offering you the chance to spend £500 on new clobber! Online retailer my-wardrobe.com is the home of accessible fashion. You can find the best pieces of summer collections from all the luxury and cool brands you want in your wardrobe. So if you are going to brave the mud and madness of Glastonbury or any other festival and want the chance to replace the clothes that get lost, stolen or damaged beyond repair.
10
7
Visit www.ClashMusic.com/win/ my-wardrobe to find out how a £500 gift card could be yours.
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1. Women’s high-tops from ALL SAINTS 2. men’s jeans from LEE 3. umbrella from LONDON UNDERCOVER 4. Rockaholic ‘dirty secret’ dry shampoo and ‘all access’ go anywhere shampoo from TIGI 5. Sun protection from SUN SHOTS 6. mick jagger T-shirt from HOUSE OF GODS
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7. Women’s workwear shirt from LEE 8. men’s denim jacket from FREESOUL 9. Gingham shirt from FREESOOUL 10. Wellies from Keith haring for TOMMY HILFIGER 11. aztec bag from FAT FACE 12. Small leather ‘photo’ bag from JAS M.B
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13. Ian Brown T-shirt from FOOT ASYLUM 14. Gingham shorts from PAUL AND JOE 15. Sunglasses from NUEU 16. Satchel from MULBERRY at my-wardrobe.com 17. T-shirt from NUDIE JEANS at my-wardrobe.com 18. Beaded earrings from FAT FACE 19. 8-hour cream from ELIZABETH ARDEN
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FLY53 AND CLASH FESTIVAL GIVEAWAY.
clash has tickets aplenty to make your summer unforgettable. We’ve teamed up with Fly53 to bring you an avalanche of opportunities.
Win
Ticke ts!
This queen of the scene started serious festival action in 1968 but ended two years later. In 2002 it was revived and this year is headlined by Jay-Z, The Strokes and Paul McCartney. ’Nuff said!
As well as tickets for Bestival, T In The Park, RockNess, Big Chill, LED, Secret Garden and many more, we also have pairs of briefs for these fun little fellas. Win
Ticke ts!
Download 11th - 13th June, Donington Park, Derby
Win
Ticke ts!
Win
Roskilde 1st - 4th July, Roskilde, Denmark
Win
Ticke ts!
Forty years young, this Danish legend keeps growing and is a mainland mainstay. It’s always varied and this year Gorillaz, jack johnson, muse, Prince and The Prodigy keep up the mix.
Win
Ticke ts!
Wireless 2nd-4th July, Hyde Park, London
Win
Oxegen 9th-11th July, Punchestown, Ireland This queen of the scene started This Emerald Isle knees-up is the sister event to T In The Park so expect the biggest bands laying down their law, such as Eminem, muse, arcade Fire, jay-z and The Prodigy.
Field Day 31st July, Victoria Park, London Less is more and Field Day’s intimate size will mean loads of friendly banter in front of cutting edge sounds from Caribou, The Fall, Egyptian Hip Hop, Gold Panda, These New Puritans and Memory Tapes.
Win
Ticke ts!
Underage 1st August, Victoria Park, London Kids have it easy. They’ve got their own festival now, headlined by mIa, caspa, Tinchy Stryder and new Young Pony club. adults are restricted to a viewing balcony, which is great news for causing mayhem.
Hyde Park gets rattled with rock. It’s a well heeled party park and Wireless is bringing the noise to the capital with Pink, LCD Soundsystem, Jay-Z and Lily Allen, meaning the pigeons ain’t getting any peace. Ticke ts!
Lovebox 16th-18th July, Victoria Park, London Groove armada’s lustful event pops back up and we have tickets for you to catch everyone from Dizzee Rascal and Roxy music to mark Ronson, Grace jones and hot chip. Swing by a lovebox afterparty too.
The hardest festival for metal and rock, Download is a beast. AC/DC, Rage Against The Machine, Megadeth and Motorhead all bring their war. Simple but dangerous.
Ticke ts!
Isle Of Wight Festival 11th - 13th June, Isle Of Wight
Win
Ticke ts!
South West Four 28th - 29th August, London Formerly Get Loaded, this metropolitan event puts the fun back into the dance by mixing up underground legends like Herve and M.A.N.D.Y. with daddies such as Fatboy Slim and Sasha. Solid stuff then.
TO WIN SiMPLY Log onto WWW.CLASHMUSIC.COM/FESTIVALS And PiCk Your PLEASurE BEForE EXPLAining WHY You dESErvE tHE tiCkEtS. uSE CLiCkS to gEt tiX! 020_ July 2010
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10
09
The Toilets
harrison Ford actually stole the phrase “Don’t look down!” for his Indiana jones role after a visit to 1983’s Glastonbury ended in party poo disaster. he’s never been able to watch The Poseidon adventure ever since. It’s not nice to negotiate a seat of steaming human detritus, gagging down last night’s party vom before your bowels explode in a rebellion to excessive hog roast, the sharp side of cider and that weird wonky fungus. With no bog roll. hardly a fungi then, eh?
Beer Versus Walk
Potential GcSE question: Donald wants to party and can fit at least eleven cans of lager in his belly in one night. he’ll be attending T In The Park for three days and also hopes to find romance. he doesn’t like walking or heavy things. his favourite lager conventionally comes in packs of eight or twenty-four. how many cases should he take? Queue homer Simpson moment in the car park that sees you piss yourself before you’ve even got through the turnstiles.
08
Nocturnal Erections
There’s nothing more settling than a beautiful sunset over a buzzing festival site alive with the clamour of hedonists. Except when you are wedged in traffic, in the back of a car barely off the m4. aside from perfectly imagining all the fun exploding without you, there’s this deep unease that you haven’t erected your tent up for a year, you’re already half cut and you KnOW there’s no pegs and one of the poles got used as a javelin last year. Bothered?
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Insanely Good Grub
Thank God for multiculturalism, eh? We swear we’ve eaten better scran at certain festivals than we do in the comfy confines of clash’s swish kitchen. Gone are the ebola burgers and dried chips as main fare. Boutique events now offer dishes as rich as Indonesian clam, african ostrich, jamaican goat, to Welsh oggies, cornish pasties and onto Saigon sushi, smoothies, exotic muffins, escapist truffles and organic hash brandy. just remember that bundle of bog roll for later.
04
Ambushed By Romance
Finding romance at a festival can be like chasing shadows that then turn into monsters. Few simple rules: 1. Feel how thick their wrists are: great technique whilst wearing beer goggles. It worked for Ray charles. 2. If you’ve been trudging about a bog for two days in leaking boots deliver the lust with your boots still on. Trench-foot ain’t a recognised scent of love. 3. Don’t give out phone numbers. could get ugly later. literally.
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Posh Dealers
The rave trend of Internet stimulants or Mcat means 2010’s parties will be strewn with very posh teenagers debuting their soft hands at a spot of drug dealing. Swapping the gauntlet of dodgy inner city high-rise estates for the friendly postmen means this year your dealer (if that way inclined) might be called Victor. Or Terence. Either way he’ll be more annoying than his significantly more dangerous gypsy predecessor. Expect normal service to resume in 2011.
Regionalism Rediscovered
European immigration policy, the rise of the Internet, faster trains, budget air travel, Richard and Judy. All these forces have meant the decline of British regionalism. Only at festivals can you once more get delightfully abducted by drunken Geordies, lose it in the dance tent with hilarious Scousers, get seriously serious with some indieobsessed Mancs or surf the tea tents full of jellies with mad Jocks. Rediscover what made this island great again by just opening your ears and following your heart.
Words | MATTHEW BENNET
ascending from ten to one. HERE we look at FESTIVAL FOOLERY.
03
Shaking Up Your Tastes
Life can be linear. Same shit, same route, same shops, same smiles. Festivals are the best place on the planet to SHAKE IT UP. It’s like getting dumped into a different world with few rules and loads of bands playing gigs that you didn’t quite get round to buying tickets for. Revel in the randomness and make hay in the mayhem but remember to open your ears and eyes to all the stuff you’ve been trudging past oblivious. You'll be surprised how deep these burgeoning passions will burn. Yowsers!
02
The Surrealism Of Fancy Dress
Why do you think all the festivals have opted for fancy dress? Because debating the advanced subtleties of glass blowing with a gorgeous Brummie dressed as a book case whilst the sun comes up to a soundtrack of Jimmy Cliff definitely sticks in your mind. Seeing dinosaurs chatting up chickens or hearing a trio of Smurfs planning their French house DJ set over dinner just seems perfectly acceptable. Especially whilst you are trying to blend in as Dr. Crae with Easy Eel as a marine hip-hop rapper from the Wu Tang Clam.
01
The Late, Great British Sunshine
The rarest of festival appearances, our sun, the elusive god of the fields of fun is the main ingredient for any truly legendary festival. Flailing is perhaps the most escapist of summer sports. Fuck yoga, flailing hits that pent up spot at your core. Flailing in mud however is tricky as there’s too much traction. When Apollo gets his freak on our souls shine - and helps with the small matter of tanning the white bellies of the Brits: only ever a good thing. So give it one time for the sunshine!
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monster rock ROCKNESS 10th-13th June
We knew it would happen. RockNess is swelling year on year and in 2010 is one of the clear-cut winners on the circuit.
T
he Strokes are set to play their first live shows on these shores for donkeys years and hook up with original NY queen Blondie. Leftfield are back after a decade and The Aphex Twin, whose sets are as rare as they are surprising, completes a triptych of talent that’d see us buying train tickets alone. RockNess is in its fourth year and the early promise has been replaced with a guaranteed stamp of pleasure. Fatboy Slim’s involvement has meant a solid mix of dance icons and searing bands have satisfied the crowds year on year. The Dores site is possessed by one of the best festival locations in the country as it gently sweeps down to the shores of Loch Ness soaked in mystery and shrouded by mountains. If you are a festival goer that demands more from your experience than a steel ring fence populated with overly drunk idiots stumbling across a wasteland of plastic debris then you’d be impressed with the RockNess layout: dizzy with flags, bunting, environmental artworks, trippy chairs, inflatable churches, whisky
Friday Pendulum Enter Shikari Booka Shade more TBC
bars, the famous Bestival Bollywood tent, organic Scottish farm foods and of course some of the most proud and patriotic music fans in the world raving it up dripping in saltire flags. We are also very proud to be presenting a stage again in 2010. In 2007 the organisers let Daft Punk play in our house. Large scenes of expectation mounted, which the French pair of masked android disco kinds delivered upon. 2010 sees the unique musical vision of Richard James, AKA Aphex Twin, take to the decks for one of his blistering performances, taking in everything from pop to basscore and gabba. Hold on to your lobes.
Saturday Aphex Twin Tinie Tempah Zane LowE Dan le Sac VS Scroobius Pip Aeroplane Killa Kela Burns Sunday Chase And Status Dave Clarke Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77 Hadouken Rob da Bank David E Sugar
You can win a pair of tickets for RockNess to see The Strokes and Leftfield simply by revealing your desires at www.ClashMusic. com/festivals/rockness
NEWARRIVAL After causing many mutations of mayhem on the Isle of Wight, the Dores valley will play witness to the might Afterburner dance area; a dystopian world more home to Mad Max than Highland cows. Here junk yard chic collides with pyrotechnics and a dark and seedy world of hedonists creep out to play. The whole experience will be
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soundtracked by the heavyweight sounds of Sub Club acts such as Optimo, Subculture and Sensu whilst Soma Records bring Green Velvet, Silicone Soul, Fergie, Edit Select and Vector Lovers.
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TOP TEN FESTIVALS to grab a bangin' tan
Exit
1
WheRe And When? novi SAd, SErBiA, 8tH - 11tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? rAvE BESidE riPPEd SLAv titAnS [girLS]. drink BEEr For LESS tHAn A Euro A PoP AS You ACQuirE MorE tHAn JuSt A rAvEr’S tAn (BoYS).
Stop Making Sense
2
This is a thunderflash experience, set within the cauldron of Petrovaradin Fortress on the banks of the sunny Danube. Veering from genre to genre it means your kohl-wearing girlfriend’s brother has something to rawk to while you come down by the river. Exit began in 2000 as a rebellion against Milosevic, and is for ‘he with heart like ox’; those seeking to construct a dream catcher as the temperate British summer breeze bobs the dandelions will instead get crumpled underfoot by a crew of up-for-it ravers. Full on, but definitely worth it.
WheRe And When? PEtrCAnE, CroAtiA, 3rd - 5tH SEPtEMBEr WhY ShouLd I Go? vErY tigHt LinE-uP in tHE EvEr-BEAutiFuL gArdEn CoMPLEX.
Line-up: LCd Soundsystem, Pendulum, Chemical Brothers, Royksopp, Placebo.
Line-up: django django, nathan Fake, íasAguayo, Juan Atkins, Theo Parrish, Friendly Fires, Benji B.
www.exitfest.org
an army of promoters including allez allez, Optimo and Secretsundaze make this party wallop through until 6am every morning, and has its own beach where you can watch the sun rise. Boat parties leave twice a day whilst they also allow you to turn up in your own yacht and moor it by the festival. now that would be a pick-up line.
www.sms-2010.com
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Eurokéennes
3
WheRe And When? BELFort, EAStErn FrAnCE nEAr tHE SWiSS BordEr, 2nd - 4tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? tHiS iS tHE FrEnCH gLAStonBurY. HuMungouS LinE-uP in A BEAut SEtting. Eurockéennes the biggest French festival, set on a 250-acre site, which is basically an island on the Malsaucy peninsula. As seems to be the case with many of these continental festivals, they have a stage on a beach, and boast, somewhat competitively, of a “wide variety of different things to tempt your tastebuds - a far cry from the overpriced standard fare found at some of UK festivals’. Other typically French options include canoe excursions and a professional nature guide from “an entomological, botanical or ornithological” perspective. The 25,000 capacity will be treated to seventy-three shows over the three days with the usual posh camping options on offer; the festival has had twenty years to hone its vibe in the same place so expect big things. Musically there is everything from massive hip-hop (Jay-Z) to hip new indie (The Drums) - Glastonbury had better sharpen up because this festival is every bit as wellendowed.
Calvi On The Rocks
4
WheRe And When? CALvi, CorSiCA, 2nd - 6tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? iMAginE PuntA dEL EStE CroSSEd WitH ForMEntErA And You’rE, LikE, not EvEn CLoSE. Described by an adventurous writer as “Paris style meets hackney-on-Sea”, calvi On The Rocks unashamedly bills itself as corsica, Dolce Vita and rosé. Brushing aside any cynical suspicions that it’ll be all a bunch of headhunters from moor Park acting like they’ve got supporting roles in The Talented mr. Ripley, this should be a relaxing, indulgent affair with some tight bands to match. last year the clientele was mainly French, but this may change as the buzz builds since whether it’s beach parties on Octopussy Plage, where you actually dance in the sea, cocktail in hand, or exploring local ruins and ancient churches, this one’s sweet. The place has some excellent restaurants before night sees the rave explode in a citadel. hello!
Line-up: hot Chip, Carl Craig, íasAguayo, Munk, dJ koze, Revolver, holy Ghost, Brodinski, Tiga. www.calviontherocks.com
Line-up: Julian Casablancas, The xx, Missy elliott, Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Specials, LCd Soundsystem. www.eurockeennes.fr
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Peace And Love
7
Garden
5
WheRe And When? PINIJA HOTEL, PETRCANE, CROATIA, 2ND - 11TH JULY WhY ShouLd I Go? it goES on For ninE WHoLE dAYS And HAS BoAt PArtiES Original and best; this one found and launched this Croatian paradise site where so many now follow. Aside from the lush beaches, boat parties and waterfalls there's the nine hundredyear-old village of Petrcane too. Most civilized.
WheRe And When? BorLAngE, SWEdEn, 28tH JunE - 3rd JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? EXPLorE CEntrAL SWEdEn And tHE rAtHEr toPPing LinE-uP. a good gauge of how hippy a festival is its length. Peace and love goes on for eight days and has the right-on spirit in spades with 25,000 revellers surfing the kharma. jay-z in a kaftan?
Line-up: Jay-Z, Lily Allen, Patti Smith, Julian Casablancas, Alice In Chains, The Cribs. www.peaceandlove.nu
Line-up: norman Jay, Mr Scruff, horsemeat disco, Mayer hawthorne, Greg Wilson. www.thegardenfestival.eu
Open’er
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WheRe And When? gYdniA, PoLAnd, 1St - 4tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? tHiS LinE-uP iS LikE notHing WE’vE EvEr SEEn. SEriouS. 188 acres, with seven stages, 120 acts and 50,000 people. This is why it won Best Major Festival at the European Festival Awards in 2010. Don't bring a high pixel camera - they’re discouraged for some deranged reason.
Line-up: Massive Attack, Ben harper, Gorillaz, damien Marley. www.opener.pl
Dour
8
WheRe And When? dour, HAinAut, BELgiuM, 15tH - 18tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? Big BAd nAMES A HoP FroM BLigHtY.
Off
6
WheRe And When? kAtoWiCE, PoLAnd, 5tH - 8tH AuguSt WhY ShouLd I Go? it’S got A roCk SoLid indiE ProgrAMME WitH CHoPin on tHE FourtH dAY. duH! This is the imaginative little brother to Poland's massive Open'er. Off has a belting alternative roster with a history of odd festival dedications: this year the fourth day will feature tracks inspired by chopin. The Fall's perfect backing track!
Line-up: The Flaming Lips, The horrors, The Fall, Matmos, Tindersticks, Atlas Sound, The Cribs www.2010.off-festival.pl
Belgium's suffered from a few problems recently. It's also flat and a bit dull. Great house music scene, hardly Williamsburg though for indie bands. Dour redresses this in droves and forces the party hand of many a Brit.
Line-up: Los Campesinos!, eiffel, The Raveonettes, dum dum Girls, das Pop, Moderat, Skream. www.dourfestival.be
Boom
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WheRe And When? LAkE oF idAnHAA-novA, PortugAL, 18tH 26tH AuguSt WhY ShouLd I Go? go WALnut BroWn And gEt tHAt inEvitABLE rAvEr’S tAn.
Set on the baking hot shores of a Portuguese lake its not far removed from the way Goan beaches would operate back in the day. aside from perpetual trance you can lap up dubstep, breakbeat and techno.
Line-up: Ankur, Man With no name, Psychopod, James Monro, Frantic noise vs Megalopsy. www.boomfestival.org
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ones to watch
We’ve quizzed the top bookers on their secret weapons this summer, and which bands are definitely going to turn heads, bend ears and unwind your behind.
ROB DA BANK Bestival
Visions Of Trees “If like me you grew up listening to the Cocteau Twins and the 4AD back catalogue you’re gonna love this slo mo psychedelic head music.”
Beth Jeans Houghton “Beth wears a cracking bird’s nest wig that makes me recommend her on its own... add in the entrancing folk, lo fi and pop tuneage she writes and I’m sold!”
Unicorn Kid “Nineteen-years-old, ridiculously tall and jam-packed full of amazing high energy electro rave tunes, which combine chip music and trance - the right cocktail!”
Think About Life “Mental lead singer comes over like an amphetamine-fuelled Al Green with too many infectious hooky old school R&B meets indie anthems.”
Silver Columns “Adem and Johnny “Pictish Trail” have made one of the albums of the year. Hot Chip, Bronski Beat and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy rolled into a fat joint of techy folk.”
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Emily EAVIS
Glastonbury
MELVIN BENN
Latitude
Ellen And The Escapades
Here We Go Magic
“Emerging Talent Competition (ETC) winners from Leeds. For the first time, a unanimous winner. Everyone was bowled over by Ellen’s beautiful voice.”
“Rolling Stone said a: “collection of songs that even the most jaded anti-folk hipster could catch himself humming on the street”. Psychedelic, hazy indie.”
Staff Benda Bilili
Villagers
“A group of paraplegic musicians who live in the grounds of a zoo in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa have undoubtedly made an impact like few others this year.
“Villagers are a Dublin quartet whose gentile, yet robust strummed musings bring to mind Devendra Banhart and the hugely successful Mumford And Sons.”
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
Joe Worricker
“Two metalhead guitarists from Mexico making some of the most extraordinary music anywhere. They must be seen live to be believed!”
“He coasts upon sparse yet blossoming arrangements with a voice being compared to a male Amy Winehouse. His soulful pop has a spice for sure.”
The xx
The Strange Boys
“One of the best albums of the year and a great Glastonbury band because they could play pretty much any stage and would go down a storm.”
“This Texan four-piece wield a fantastic blend of early days Rolling Stones with a modern twist. Back to basics scuzzy rock ‘n’ roll with primal blues rock riffs.”
Empire Of The Sun
Jesca Hoop
“Their first ever UK live appearance for the Australian band and judging by their home shows this year it is sure to be an almighty spectacle to round things off on Sunday.”
“From being the nanny for Tom Waits’ kids to moulding her own odd-folk stylings, Jesca Hoop has had an interesting start to her career.”
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Words | ROBIN MURRAY
R
eturning for their first shows in a decade, the dance giants have a reputation to keep up. Recruiting a new collective around producer Neil Barnes, Leftfield are determined to take no prisoners. Over the course of just two albums Leftfield translated dance music into an album genre.
Fierce and unrelenting, they boasted some stellar guest appearances from John Lydon, Roots Manuva and more. With such glorious company, re-creating the material onstage is posing a problem. As a result, Neil Barnes has locked the new collective away for intensive rehearsals. “It’s an enormous tapestry which has to be sewn together,” the producer claims. “It’s not a normal band in that sense. I can’t just get someone up here, learn the songs and it will sound like Leftfield. The sound is just so particular.”
“We try to get it as loud as we can. And we will be, believe me.” Mixing techno, dub, rock and more, ‘Leftism’ and ‘Rhythm And Stealth’ remain close to the high water mark of British dance music.
The absence of fellow songwriter (and live drummer) Paul Daley has been noted by fans, but it seems that it is merely solo projects, and not creative tension, which keeps him out of Leftfield. “There were plans to get Paul on board but the time has never been right for either of us. It had never worked out.” Determined to stay close to their legacy, the intimidating reputation of Leftfield’s live show is what lingers close to the collective consciousness of their fans. “There’s all these new restrictions which have come in place all over Europe which limit how loud you can go,” explains Neil Barnes. “We try and bend the rules, to get it as loud as we can. And we will be, believe me. I can’t say any more than that or I’ll end up in prison.”
Leftfield headline RockNess, Inverness, on Saturday 12th June and LED, London, on 28th August. To win tickets log on now www. ClashMusic.com/festivals
032_ July 2010
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festival
FIB Heineken 15th - 18th July
Benicassim, Spain
s p ot l igh t With a lot of Euro festivals now doing the rounds, you may burst a blood vessel tirelessly scanning the web for that perfect destination. Do you opt for the more gritty Serbian experience or head to Iceland to see nature at its most sublime? Well, Benicassim has it all: sun, sea and stonking great sounds. It’s like a Spanish holiday without the rowdy British families and dodgy paella, where you can work up a clammy rave sweat before jumping in the Med to cool off. You may be surprised to learn that FIB Heineken has been going since 1995. A well-kept secret at first, it wasn’t long before people started to catch on and since then this festival has seen some of the biggest names in music take to the stage, Morrissey, Radiohead, Kraftwerk, Blur and Lou Reed to name a few. And this year is already shaping up to be just as monumental with the Prodigy, Kasabian, Vampire Weekend, Leftfield and Dizzee Rascal already confirmed for the bash. Benicassim is truly a force to be reckoned with: it has battled earth, wind and fire to bring us the boogie. Nothing, not even ridiculously turbulent weather conditions, can stop us Brits from having a good time. For full line-up check www.tickets.fiberfib.com
festival
s p o t l i gh t
Open'er 1st - 4th July
Gdynia, Poland
Head to Eastern Europe for a totally unique festival experience and leave feeling culturally enriched and suitably entertained. Since 2002, thousands of fun seekers have flocked to the Baltic seaport of Gdynia for the annual Heineken Open’er Festival, which just this year received the ultimate festival honour when it was granted the title of Best Major Festival at the European Festival Awards. So, what’s all the fuss about? This festival has a lot to offer. Not only is it a great opportunity for foreigners to sample Slavic delights and hear some great Polish bands but the line-up sees stellar acts Grace Jones, Pavement, Yeasayer, Kasabian, Regina Spektor and stadium-sized rock gods Kasabian perform to the masses. Beginning life as the Open Air festival, the location of this event moved in 2006 from Warsaw to the comically named Babie Doly area of Poland on the North East Coast. One of the more obscure Euro festival spots, Gdynia is Poland’s answer to Barcelona: a Polish city with a beach, so you can top up your tan, have a dip in the ocean and give your ears a good workout, all in the name of fun.
For full line-up check www.opener.pl/en 034_ July 2010
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festival
Standon Calling 6th - 8th August
Standon, Hertfordshire
s p ot l igh t It’s funny how things work out. Standon Calling was only meant to be an intimate birthday barbeque but it somehow turned into one of the UK’s most celebrated boutique festivals. Now in its tenth year, the Hertfordshire event has seen an array of musical stars pass through its gates, including the Super Furries, Florence And The Machine and Friendly Fires. This is a themed boutique festival, which means lashings and lashings of off-kilter indie kookiness and otherworldly cultural happenings. 2008 saw revellers interpret the Japanese theme in a multitude of weird and wonderful ways, as wasabi peas and geisha girls were spotted bopping around to a progressive indie soundtrack. Get the picture? The discerning festival-goer often requires more than just aural stimulation so expect a multi-arts affair. Lovers of literature can gather in the Book Club area, which will this year focus on crime fiction, while the Heritage Arts company is on hand for interactive theatre and installations. Band wise they've lined up Pantha Du Prince, Gold Panda, Egyptian Hip Hop, Esben And The Witch, The Ruby Suns, and Liars. Set your imagination free, I can hear it calling...
For full line-up check www.standon-calling.com
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and relax!
big chill 5th-8th August
Enjoying a facelift, a renewed energy and an ever-expanding vision in programming, it’s turning heads all around the festival circuit.
W
ith appearances from artists as diverse as Theo Parrish, Hope Sandoval, Lily Allen, M.I.A, Explosions In The Sky, Magnetic Man, Paloma Faith, Norman Jay, Massive Attack and Thom Yorke all complemented by way of theatrical performances, and literary readings, it’s shaping up to be quite the shindig. But when you’ve got Festival Republic on board, you know it’s going to be good. The gargantuan event organisers can teach us a thing or two about putting on a good do, that’s for sure. The Big Chill were making their festival site a surreal explosion of experiences whilst Rob da Bank was still making tea at the BBC. Over a decade of lovely dressing sees this year hit full psychedelic velocity. Expect hillside light installations, Spencer Tunick orchestrating one of his mass nudity art collections, Demolition Drive-in presenting a dystopian cinema experience or Tatty Devine encouraging us to make our own jewellery. Another huge boast is the Big Chill’s Ziggurat of Flavour - a pyramid of vaporised fruit
that leads the visitor through a huge structure to an invigorating surprise. Then there’s the Big Burn, where a massive sculpture will be sacrificed to the sky, the usual fancy dress mayhem and a Lazyland hidden amongst the woods. Go find it if you can! But the real clincher is the location. Set in the picturesque surroundings of the luscious English countryside, the Big Chill site also boasts four lakes, one of which will feature the floating Clash stage designed by Pete Fowler. Oh, and did I mention there’s a castle too? No wonder we’re over the moon about being given our very own stage with some very special performers... Chill, Winston.
For more info, tickets and the ever-expanding line-up check www.bigchill.net/festivals
Friday Massive Attack Thom Yorke Explosions In The Sky Kruder And Dorfmiester Magnetic Man Tinariwen Saturday M.I.A. Roots Manuva Chrome Hoof Mr. Scruff Andrew Weatherall Sunday Lily Allen Morcheeba Bebel Gilberto The Bug Bonobo
theclashstage The Clash floating lake stage is coming together with Caribou and Bonobo confirmed as Saturday and Sunday headliners respectively - we can’t wait. Lily Allen comes out of retirement to dazzle on the main stage that helped propel her so far, whilst Radiohead’s Thom Yorke has been unveiled as a rare booking, playing songs from his ‘Eraser’
solo project on the piano from his own living room. Other additions include: Tinariwen, Hope Sandoval And The Warm Inventions, Metronomy, Natty, Maurice Fulton, as well as Fat 45 and Bristol Hi-Fi featuring Daddy G.
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WWW.VIAGOGO.COM
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TOP TEN FESTIVALS to impress your friends
Worldwide
1
WheRe And When? SoutH oF FrAnCE, 8tH - 11tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? SiXtEEn Hour BEACH PArtY? CHECk. LinE-uP CurAtEd BY WorLd MuSiC godFAtHEr? CHECk tWo. Okay, so people stake their sanity and a few hundred quid on the musical nous of the mystery man who dreams up the festival programme, but what do we really know about them? Gilles Peterson, however has cast-iron impeccable references, and he’s decided to put on his own party. Its location is Sète's village heart and boasts parties on the town’s best private beach with a lip-smackingly gourmet line-up led by Gil Scott-Heron. Enough alone! The festival is set in the heart of the harbour and also has shows in the seen-to-be-believed Théâtre De La Mer.
Line-up: Gil Scott-heron, The Gaslamp killer, norman Jay, Floating Points, Quantic, dynamite MC, Joy orbison. www.worldwidefestival.com
Træna
2
WheRe And When? tHE iSLAndS oF HuSØY And SAnnA LoCAtEd oFF tHE CoASt oF norWAY, 8tH - 10tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? PArtY in A SPookiLY unuSuAL SEtting in PErPEtuAL SunLigHt ALongSidE Hot norWEgiAnS. Fancy raving in a cave like a cathedral alongside two thousand lucky souls as eagles hover overhead and exotic sounds bounce off the stalactites? Get your ass to this norwegian archipelago. Spanning reggae, folk, rock, rap and electronica around seven venues, including the main stage on a football pitch and odd churches where large model ships dangle precariously from rafters, it's almost essential.
Line-up: howl, dum dum Boys, Stefam Sundstrom, hjalmar, Ingrid olava, Lars Vaular, FM Belfast. www.trena.net
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Guca Trumpet
3
WheRe And When? guCA, WEStErn SErBiA, 13tH - 22nd AuguSt WhY ShouLd I Go? 600,000 PEoPLE, onE SErBiAn viLLAgE, tHouSAndS oF truMPEtErS - AuguSt WiLL nEvEr BE tHE SAME AgAin! Miles Davis, on visiting the Guca Trumpet Festival, was dumbfounded, only managing: “I didn’t know you could play trumpet that way”. The 2000 population town of Guca in western Serbia receives a whopping 600,000 visitors each year and it's the festival’s fiftieth jubilee, set to be opened by Serbian president, President Obama and Vladimir Putin have been summoned as well for ten days of serious parping, honking and burping. Trumpets were historically used to march blood-hungry Serbs into battle - now it’s their favourite festive instrument. You may bump into Johnny Depp, a previous visitor, or just look like a tit and join in local dances like kolo and oro al fresco as main man Goran Bregovic lays down the law of brass. For the last few days the entire town is awakened at 7am with a blood-curdling trumpet call - this sounds like the Serbian answer to Pamplona or the Palio - get there before we all do.
Vintage At Goodwood
4
WheRe And When? goodWood EStAtE, SuSSEX, 13tH - 15tH AuguSt WhY ShouLd I Go? rELEASE Your innEr Mod / nEW roMAntiC / grEASEr. This festival will be a trip. It sounds like a mod rally, the last scene from Grease and a ladbroke Grove ska shebeen all rolled into one glorious three-day parade of trilbys, zoots suits and Ossie clark dresses. There is a host of other music going from the 1940s to the 1980s whilst extended fashion workshops will give you the chance to sew up a ‘50s circle skirt, and have your hair back-combed and sprayed, plus vintage catwalk shows three times a day. Whether you’re an incurable sentimentalist or just want to wear more than a coat of mud and a pair of swimming trunks to a festival, this one will be a classic.
Line-up: don Letts, Andrew Weatherall, Colin Curtis, don Letts, The Wailers, horsemeat disco, Jazzie B, The Mike Flower Pops, heaven 17. www.vintageatgoodwood.com
Line-up: TBA www.saborguca.com
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Outlook
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WheRe And When? Fort Punto CHriSto, PuLA, CroAtiA, 2nd 5tH SEPtEMBEr WhY ShouLd I Go? iF You LikE Your WoBBLY BASS, on A Fort in tHE BLAZing Sun, EnQuirE WitHin.
Sacrum Profanum
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WheRe And When? krAkoW, PoLAnd, 12tH - 18tH SEPtEMBEr WhY ShouLd I Go? iS APHEX tWin CLASSiCAL? iS StoCkHAuSEn ELECtroniCA? How similar are the realms of modern classical music to IDM? Last year saw Aphex Twin, Chris Cunningham and Cinematic Orchestra weld their names to a roster of classical heads. Utterly unique fusions.
Out-skank the slip-sliding waves which surround this mediterranean fort as reggae heavy weights spar under a slick torrent of the finest dubbed out mcs like Tenor Fly, Ragga Twins and Sgt Pokes. Sunshine vibrations.
Line-up: Roots Manuva, Skream, Mad Professor, Iration Steppas, Taskforce, The Bug. www.outlookfestival.com
Line-up: Jónsi, múm, London Sinfionetta, ensemble Intercontemporain. www.sacrumprofanum.pl
Mafia Dance
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WheRe And When? oFF tHE CoASt oF tAnZAniA in tHE indiAn oCEAn, 1St - 15tH AuguSt. WhY ShouLd I Go? it'S on An iSLAnd oFF tHE CoASt oF tAnZAniA. 822 square kilometres of Marine Park are home to a colony of pygmy hippos AND this trippy electronica festival spread over two weeks and set in a coconut forest with activities as wide as fishing, scuba diving, sailing and, er, safari-ing.
Line-up: Prometheus, Aphid Moon, eat Static, Frozen Ghost www.mafiadancefestival.com
Nowhere
8
The Rainforest
6
WheRe And When? BornEo, MALAYSiA, 9tH - 11tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? LiStEn AS WorLd MuSiC FiLtErS tHrougH tHE vinES And orAngutAn CALLS. a heady chlorophyll-full world music orgy attended by 21,000 people in the malaysian jungle. Day jam sessions, ethno-musical lectures and mini concerts give way to the biggest jungle rave since Tarzan moved in with Goldie.
Line-up: Monster Ceilidh Band, Minuit Guibolles www.rainforestmusic-borneo.com
WheRe And When? ArAgon, SPAin, 7tH 11tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? it’S EuroPE’S Burning MAn! This festival operates under the same principles as Burning Man - everything must be traded. Be prepared. Workshops teach anything from lock-picking to ashtanga as you camp in a themed barrios replete with your own sound system. Get Nowhere now.
Line-up: TBA www.goingnowhere.org
Lake of Stars
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WheRe And When? tHE SHorES oF LAkE MALAWi in MALAWi, 15tH - 17tH oCtoBEr WhY ShouLd I Go? SHoW ME AnotHEr AFriCAn FEStivAL on A LAkE! Europe meets africa and its doesn't get more colourful. a sweet festival made all the sweeter when the cooling waters of the lake's beach are inviting you to scuba dive and water-ski. Oh, and scamper about safari on horseback.
Line-up: TBA www.lakeofstars.org
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electric dream LED 27th - 28th August Victoria Park
Cities don’t come much bigger than London, and acts don’t get much bigger than Aphex Twin or Leftfield. Welcome to London Electronic Dance Festival.
C
lash has teamed up with LED to help bring the next generation of dance event to Britain’s capital: a massive weekend with even bigger talents. Victoria Park is already a well-heeled party stomping ground and with the experience of the promoters, but on the August Bank Holiday weekend will be bouncing to the sounds of David Guetta, Soulwax and Calvin Harris whilst Audio Bullys and Tiga both host their own arenas inviting their favourite artists to dazzle. Regardless on your underground dance stance there’s no disputing David Guetta’s consummate dominance of the UK charts with two Number Ones: one with Black Eyed Peas and on the global megahit ‘Sexy Bitch’ with Akon. Hurl in his Grammy for his smash hit ‘When Love Takes Over’ with Kelly Rowland and you have a full house of glitzy clubbers. The Saturday shows little sign of relenting in quality or pace as Leftfield return after a ten-year hiatus to reinforce their own Leftism as a vital chapter in dance music’s development. Neil Barnes has confirmed that veteran vocalists Djum Djum, Earl 16 and Cheshire Cat will all return to display their crucial roles on the songs from both LPs ‘‘Leftism’ and ‘Rhythm And Stealth’. Neil Barnes revealed: “The opportunity to perform the songs to a whole new audience with the original sound system and vocalists is an opportunity that I sim-
ply couldn’t turn down. I simply can’t wait to blow everybody away, Literally.” For younger readers their tunes should be heeded since most main stage dance artists that followed would never have been able to tread such a sure path. Chemical Brothers, Underworld and Prodigy tip thou hats! For fans of more recent bands there’ll be Saturday sets from glam electrolovers Goldfrapp and the constantly impressing Friendly Fires, who’ll be deploying their expanding set of festival dance hits. Urban and 2-step lovers might want to head straight over to Annie Mac’s arena on Saturday where she’ll be doling out the expectant low frequency wonk with her pals. Cutting-edge sounds to shake East London to its passionate heart and light up the soles of its dancing heads.
Friday Pendulum Enter Shikari Booka Shade more TBC Saturday Aphex Twin Tinie Tempah Zane LowE Dan le Sac VS Scroobius Pip Aeroplane Killa Kela Burns Sunday Chase And Status Dave Clarke Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77 Hadouken Rob da Bank David E Sugar
Clash has 3 pairs of tickets to give away - simply log on to www. ClashMusic.com/festivals/LED and tell us why you deserve them
turbocharged Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better than this, those folks at LED have recently unveiled the bill for their Planet Turbo Arena. Victoria Park will this August host the glitterati of the electronic community, when renowned DJ Tiga and maverick master of the bleeps, Boy 8-Bit, descend upon humble East London soil with
the Bloody Beetroots on hand for anarchic shenanigans. We know as well Germans do it best, so you can see why LED just had to pick Florian Senfter (Zombie Nation) to play the Turbo Stage too. Lasers at the ready... www.clashmusic.com
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gang of Four have long been upheld as arguably the greatest band of the post-punk movement that emerged from the late Seventies. Words | HANNAH lANfEAr
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T
hey became renowned for
their huge beats, angular guitars and urgent llyrics yrics that expressed the realities of a nation in economic and political strife, going on to deeply influence generations of bands and in doing so leaving an indelible legacy. With the completion of new record ‘Content’, the band are going back on the road to show the whippersnappers how it’s done. In jubilant anticipation of their forthcoming festival appearances we met up with guitarist Andy Gill and singer Jon King to discuss the glorious age of the Great British festival, but, as the band tell us, it hasn’t always been this way. “When we first started out we couldn’t get a gig.” Jon admits, “the universities and polytechnics wouldn’t play us, the only way we could play was if we hired a venue and promoted ourselves. Because the Seventies were such a financial disaster with such massive unemployment, promoters couldn’t afford to put on festivals, they were going bust.”
Asked what their motivation is in their return to both studio and stage Jon is earnest in reply: “I think most musicians, whether they do or don’t have success, are just trying to make music as good as they can. We’re not motivated by money, I think you’re just always trying to do as good a job as you can do with your ideas. That’s the motivation, to do something that has a relevance to it.” “For myself, it’s just what I do,” Andy asserts. “I get an enormous satisfaction from writing these things and getting them to sound complete.” “What we’re trying to do with our festival performances is get as close to the fans as we can,” Jon says, “to give them what they really value, to deliver maximum value from the experience, it’s for no-one else but them.” So what will they be playing? “We play our best music, so you’ll get a mix of brilliant new tunes and brilliant old tunes,” Jon reveals. “When you’re doing festivals you need to find songs that connect with a larger audience from a bigger stage, you need to minimise the distractions and play big.” For festival goers, this is welcome news indeed.
“When we first started out we couldn’t get a gig.” “There weren’t really any festivals, maybe the occasional Isle Of Wight,” Andy concurs. “Back then Glastonbury was seen as a hippy festival. The kids didn’t want to be associated with the hippy gatherings of the late Sixties and Seventies, and festivals just dropped out of fashion. These days it’s different; a lot of people below a certain age don’t bother with collections of physical format music, or even digital, but they do love going to shows. Maybe because recorded music is more disposable whereas a live performance is authentic.”
Gang of Four play Sunday at Glastonbury on the John Peel stage. For some monster tunes, seek within. www.clashmusic.com
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TOP TEN FESTIVALS good for your soul
The Big Chill
1
WheRe And When? 5tH - 8tH AuguSt EAStnor CAStLE dEEr PArk, HErEFordSHirE WhY ShouLd I Go? ArguABLY tHE BESt drESSEd SitE WitH A LinE-uP to MAtCH AnY PEEr in itS FiELd. The Big Chill has changed. No longer just a meandering hub of musical meditations, it's line-up has been getting tougher over the last two years and 2010 sees a roster that easily rivals the top of our Perpetual Party chart. Amongst all the live art, sculpture, performance, environmental installations, dystopian cinemas, world record attempts, renowned cultural orchestrators and visual shakers there's one of the best programmes of the summer with MIA's shimmering style paving the way for indie, dub, folk stylin' with a ton of fresh bass drenched beats to boot.
Line-up: MIA, Massive Attack, Magnetic Man, Plan B, Roots Manuva, Candi Staton www.bigchill.net/festival
Green Man
2
WheRe And When? FridAY 20tH – SundAY 22nd AuguSt gLAnuSk PArk, uSk vALLEY, PoWYS, WALES WhY ShouLd I Go? dEEP doWn WE ALL WAnt to LivE out our FAntASY oF BEing FoLk Loving PSYCH-HEAdS, At LEASt For onE WEEkEnd. nestling in one of the most picturesque locations of Britain; this a million miles away from the straining, commercialised festival scene. Set up in 2003 for 300 people, its now the most critically acclaimed yet still marvellously intimate uK festival. With locally sourced food and drink plus environmentally conscious outlook it may be the place to let your inner hippy run free.
Line-up: doves, Flaming Lips, Joanna newsom, Beirut, Mumford & Sons, Fuck Buttons, Laura Marling, www.greenman.net
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Camp Bestival
3
WheRe And When? 30tH JuLY - 1St AuguSt, LuLWortH CAStLE, dorSEt WhY ShouLd I Go? do You rEALLY nEEd An EXCuSE to dig tHrougH tHE drESSinguP BoX MArkEd ‘FAirY tALES’? Parents are people too. Hell, some people even consider children to be people as well. Still, it doesn’t mean that festivals are necessarily family friendly events, which in itself is a source of great relief to many young folk. However, Camp Bestival is the logical conclusion of the childish sense of awe that makes Bestival on the Isle of Wight so special. If you have or know any small people, then Dorset has to be your destination of choice. As well as a line-up that puts many grown-up events to shame, Camp Bestival has everything the half-pint festival goer could desire, including workshops, circuses and more. Perhaps of greater importance is the babysitting service announced for this year that will allow fully grown Camp Bestivalites some full grown evening fun. It may just be time for my fiveyear-old nephew to graduate from day-passes to Lovebox onto something a bit bigger.
Line-up: Friendly Fires, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Calvin harris, Chipmunk, dJ Yoda, Joy orbison, hurts. www.campbestival.co.uk
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Latitude
4
WheRe And When? 15tH - 18tH JuLY, HEnHAM PArk EStAtE, BECCLES, SuFFoLk. WhY ShouLd I Go? You dESErvE BEttEr. rAtHEr tHAn SPEnding A WEEkEnd BAttEring Your BrAin into SuBMiSSion, WHY not EXPAnd it A LittLE Bit? Godfather of the British music festival scene melvin Benn set this festival up in 2006, combining the elements of music festivals he had been enjoying as an attendee and promoter with the more literary aspects of events such as the hay on Wye Book Festival. as a result, latitude is one of the most popular and varied festivals you could ever hope to find yourself at, complete with comedy, theatre, poetry, cabaret, politics, literature and dance areas. Put this alongside a musical line-up that every year delivers some of the most cracking sounds around and it’s easy to see why this really is a multi-dimensional festival for multi-dimensional people. This thinking spreads to the use of the site itself, with a plethora of areas to explore and catch performances, including a lake and woodlands. all in all it ensures a grand weekend for adults and children alike.
Line-up: Florence And The Machine, empire of The Sun, The Maccabees, Vampire Weekend, Charlotte Gainsbourg, The xx, Grizzly Bear. www.latitudefestival.co.uk
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Africa Oye
7
Wychwood
5
WheRe And When? 4tH-6tH JunE, PrEStBurY PArk, gLouCEStErSHirE WhY ShouLd I Go? BECAuSE it'S onE oF tHE FriEndLiESt FEStivALS Around. The Wychwood Festival is like a breath of fresh, wholesome air in the frenzied festival ether. Lovingly created by individuals with a passion for arts, crafts and music the line-up sees legendary acts go head to head with current favourites.
WheRe And When? 19tH - 20tH JunE, SEFton PArk, LivErPooL WhY ShouLd I Go? iF You CAn tELL uS WHErE ELSE You’LL BE ABLE to SEE MiCHAEL roSE For FrEE tHiS SuMMEr, LEt uS knoW. Perhaps Britain’s best free festival. aside from the afro-funk splashing colour in your ears there’ll be traditional food and crafts so do the right thing and head north this june. You’ll need just a train fare.
Line-up: Michael Rose, habib koite, Carlou d, To’Mezclao. www.africaoye.com
Two Moors
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WheRe And When? 30tH SEPtEMBEr - 9tH oCtoBEr At 11 SitES on EXMoor And dArtMoor. WhY ShouLd I Go? tHErE’S MorE to tHE MoorS tHAn WErEWoLvES Y’knoW. A classical music festival that is as eye-opening as it is inclusive. Offering a variety of recitals, opera performances and jazz gigs in strange and unusual venues there’s also a host of workshops for the young and eager.
Line-up: established global performers. www.thetwomoorsfestival.com
Line-up: Seth Lakeman, happy Mondays, The Lighting Seeds. www.wychwoodfestival.com
WOMAD
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One Love
6
WheRe And When? 6tH - 8tH AuguSt, HAinAuLt ForESt, London WhY ShouLd I Go? WE ALL HAvE A dEEP AFFinitY For rEggAE dEEP in our SouL. Drawing inspiration from Bob marley’s famous 1978 One love concert, this is a predominantly British line-up so get yourself to hainault to feel some spiritual vibrations. They’re always in the last place you expect them!
Line-up: Trojan Soundsystem, Tippa Irie, hot dub Bikini Party. www.onelovefestival.co.uk
WheRe And When? 23rd - 25tH JuLY, CHArLton PArk, WiLtSHirE. WhY ShouLd I Go? diSCovEr tHE CuLturES oF tHE WorLd tHrougH MuSiC. or At LEASt tHE JoYS oF A WEEkEnd in WiLtSHirE. World music has gone through a renaissance of late and its influence can be seen far and wide. Come hang with Jeff Buckley fans checking out their idol’s favourite performer, Alim Qasimov and leave rock’s preconceptions at the door.
Line-up: horace Andy, Gil Scottheron, don Letts. www.womad.org
Truck
10
WheRe And When? FridAY 23rd – SundAY 25tH JuLY HiLL FArM, oXFordSHirE WhY ShouLd I Go? At £80 For An AduLt WEEkEnd tiCkEt, WHY not?
Spurning daft sponsors for sustainability and the right crew of folk is a recipe for longevity and a great atmosphere. Fire in legends from metal through breakbeat, indie, drum and bass and beyond and we're clearly trucking.
Line-up: over 500 classical and folk performers. www.thisistruck.com
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clashfashion PHOTOGRAPHY | Ben Cook @ Bedhead Studio WORDS | April Welsh STYLING | Jo Gilmour GROOMING | Kieran Webb
Expect new material and geek chic from We Are Scientists as they hit Reading and Leeds this year..
T
he honorary Brooklynites are pretty excited about joining the billing for the fifth time: “We love Reading because it is one of the only festivals that has really stayed true to itself and remained a rock festival,” says bassist Chris. “Reading and Leeds are also particularly significant for us because we can look at the shows we played there and chart our progress as a band.” If their previous festival performances are anything to go by, expect highly energetic live shows with impromptu stage appearances from random guests. The boys will also be testing out new material from latest album ‘Barbara’. So, how do our festivals compare to the ones in the States? Unsurprisingly, it all comes down to the weather: “British festivals are definitely more full-on because of the weather conditions people have to endure,” says Chris. “We’ve played what feels like hundreds of UK festivals now and I’d say we’ve had sun for about 25% of them!” Chris has his own unique way of dealing with the inevitable festival downpours: Magnum condoms. “Wear them underneath your socks and your feet will stay dry. But just remember that you can’t recycle them afterwards!” he advises. Could this become the latest craze in festival fashion? Could it take over from the ubiquitous Hunter welly? We’ll soon find out...
for the TIGI creative team Special thanks to | Anthony and Pat Mascolo at TIGI.
www.ClashMusic.com/we-arescientists
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Opening page: Keith wears glasses by Linda Farrow, top by American Apparel, trousers by Farah, shoes by TIMBERLAND Opposite page: Chris wears top by Farah, jacket by APC, glasses - Chris's own Keith wears scarf by Rokit, T-shirt by Filippa K This page clockwise from top left: Chris wears top by Iliionaire, jeans by Chronicles of Never Keith wears glasses by Linda Farrow, top by American Apparel Keith wears Keith wears scarf by Rokit, T-shirt by Filippa K, trousers by Farah, shoes by TIMBERLAND Chris wears top by Farah, glasses by Rayban
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TOP TEN FESTIVALS OFF THE BEATEN TRACK Umbria Jazz Festival
1
The Viljandi Folk Festival WheRe And When? iLJAndi, EStoniA, 22nd - 25tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? LiStEn to WHiSPErEd tWAngingS CLiMB Around tHE drEAMing SPirES oF An EStoniAn Fort toWn.
The nation's largest folk festival, this is as lovely as it is sleepy. Come strum your guitar on the grassy hummocks and discover the legend of the Boatman of Viljandi; a lost soul rowing the lake eternally looking for his lover.
Line-up: habana Son Club, Ale Möller Band, Tsuumi Sound System. www.folk.ee
Rototom
Beatherder
WheRe And When? SPAin, 21St - 28tH AuguSt WhY ShouLd I Go? tHiS iS tHE BiggESt CoLLECtion oF duB You’LL Find in EuroPE.
WheRe And When? CLitHEroE, LAnCASHirE, 2nd - 4tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? iF You LikE A FrEE PArtY EtHoS, WitH rEggAE viBES tHEn Look no FurtHEr.
2
4
WheRe And When? itALY, 9tH - 18tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? Sit BACk And LEt JAZZ tEACH WHY it’S tHE nuCLEuS. Miles Davis, Burt Bacharach and Herbie Hancock are all previous alumni and its street party ethos is irresistible. Sit back and pretend you’re in a Fellini film as the free notes scatter over the teeming streets.
Line-up: Mark knopfler, Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea. www.umbriajazz.com
Hop Farm
3
5
Stonking reggae and dub fest set on the mediterranean soaking up hot rays and roasting vibrations. With puppet shows, juggling and creative workshops all provided for the younger lions - its also one for the skanking families.
northern values with northern charms, this is an older rave gone legit. Beer here is £1.50 a can, and there is also an ale-vending working man’s club! Everyone is mega friendly and they’ve kitted it out to resemble a medieval fair.
Dylan’s on the flyer, there is a nobrands policy, and real ale on the bar slate. Spun as it being ‘about the punter and the music’, this jolly boasts a fun fair and a celebrity football match. Result!
Line-up: Bob Andy, Alpha Blondy, Aswad, Big Youth. www.rototomsunsplash.com
Line-up: utah Saints, dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip. www.beatherder.co.uk
WheRe And When? kEnt, 2nd - 3rd JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? A WHoLESoME no-BrAnd FEStivAL WitH BoB dYLAn HEAdLining - PrEttY SoLid FArE WE FEEL.
Line-up: Bob dylan, Ray davies, Mumford And Sons, Seasick Steve, Peter doherty. www.hopfarmfestival.com
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Standon Calling
6
WheRe And When? HErtFordSHirE, 6tH 8tH AuguSt WhY ShouLd I Go? it’S got A SWiMMing PooL And A CoW SHEd diSCo. It's as boutique as boutique gets, but in the intimate sense. The organisers pride themselves in booking unsigned talent, or at least unhyped stars plus this year has Buena Vista Social club: a must see for true fans of vintage.
Line-up: Buena Vista Social Club, Liars, Gilles Peterson, esben And The Witch, delorean. www.standon-calling.com
Larmer Tree
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WheRe And When? dorSEt, 14tH - 18tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? it HAS A MAgniFiCEnt MonkEY PuZZLE ForESt WitHin SoME LuSH SurroundingS Twenty years young this 4,000 capacity party goes on for five days and is host to eighty artists plus kid's shows to keep the nippers from asking you why you look so pie-eyed. lush compromise.
Line-up: Toots And The Maytals, Jools holland, Martha Wainwright, Toumani. www.larmertreefestival.co.uk
Dragonfly
8
WheRe And When? FALkoPing, onE Hour FroM gotHEnBurg, SWEdEn, 20tH - 22nd AuguSt WhY ShouLd I Go? roWing in LEAF-StrEWn LAkES SoundS PrEttY SWEEt to CLASH! Tucked into the Swedish woodland, shelter is provided by the thatched barns of what was once a Bronze Age village. Paddle onto a ghost lake passing through the trees, absorb exhibitions or chill by the campfires. Peace.
Line-up: José Gonzalez, Little dragon, kultiration. www.dragonflyfestival.org
Montreux Jazz
10
9
Y Not WheRe And When? dErBYSHirE, 30tH JuLY - 1St AuguSt WhY ShouLd I Go? WAtCH uP-And-CoMing tALEnt riSE in tHE CEntrE oF BritAin.
Beginning life in a quarry as college kids went entrepreneurial it now boasts a cutting-edge line-up to get the A&R vultures frothing up into a lather over their wax green Barbours. Cosy but with over fifty acts.
Line-up: Futureheads, The Subways, Rox, Turin Brakes, Los Campesinos! www.ynotfestivals.co.uk
WheRe And When? SWitZErLAnd, 2nd - 17tH JuLY WhY ShouLd I Go? EvEn iF You ArEn’t JAZZY You WiLL MoSt dEFinitELY dig tHE LinE-uP HErE.
not limiting itself to its nominal genre, this year sees shows from nas and Damian marley so they’re taking the ‘jazz is the root of all music’ approach - and it sure does make for an exciting line-up.
Line-up: underworld, CocoRosie, norah Jones. www.montreuxjazz.com
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SNAPSHOTS all ThESE PIcS. WERE lOVInGlY GaThERED BY ThE PEOPlE aT tHE FEStivAL AnnuAL, ROVInG FIElDS FOR ThE SuRREal anD SuBlImE. VERY SuccESSFullY. You can win copies of The Festival annual '09 and '10, plus limited edition prints from one of this summer's best festivals. They have 10 to give away, so get moving. FOR YOuR chancE TO WIn, GO TO WWW.FeSTIVALAnnuAL.CoM/WIn
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FESTIVAL
Thick socks
CHECKLIST
Your greatest ally’s best pal.
Sun cream
Do you prefer your kitchen to climbing peaks like K2? If so then make sure you memorise Clash’s geeky list. It’ll save you when Noah comes knocking.
You never know when that big yellow guy's gonna pop out. Tent and pegs
Stealing neighbours’ pegs wont be a good start. Sleeping bag
Ticket
Elementary, my dear Watson.
Seems obvious, yeah? Let’s see how many forget theirs...
Contraceptives Painkillers
Let’s face it, your chat will be on fire.
Bin bags
Leave no trace (and great in floods).
Too much booze or too much sun, one more likely than the other. Boots
Mobile phone
Your greatest ally against rising mud.
Hat
It’s a festival after all.
Pretty essential these days. Turn off your email though.
Torch and batteries Ear plugs
Guaranteed to cut down on couples bickering.
Waterproofs
Not cool, but fucking great in the rain.
Ground mat
Essential in a freeze. Great for sun bathing too..
Ideal for front row AND noisy neighbours.
Baby wipes
Especially when you are dribbling and vomiting like a toddler.
Toilet roll
’Nuff said.
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